Preaching the Law

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. I will be 66 in a few weeks.

And I can really tell because I went on a long bicycle ride three days ago, two days ago.

And this is show number five. So I'm like, I'm tired.

Mario's tired and he made me tired. I'm like, whoa. Just a few house cleaning things and just random thoughts as they come to my mind.

Well, not so random. Mario and I were talking a little bit about the necessity for Christ -centered preaching.

And of course on this show, we focus on that a lot, right? Christ for pardon, justification, that is

Christ for us. Christ for power, sanctification, spirit of God dwelling in us, Christ in us.

Not forsaking sin in order to come to Christ, but you come to Christ and then you forsake sin because you're united with Christ.

And now it's important to talk about Jesus in sermons. Dad's around the dinner table, vacation

Bible school, Sunday school. Jesus, Colossians 1, 28,

Him we proclaim. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2, two, I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

That is to say, I'm gonna show up and preach. I already know what I'm gonna talk about,

Jesus. And so that's really important. And Mario and I were talking about a guy named

Graham Goldsworthy. And he was in, I think he's still in Australia, but retired from gospel ministry now in terms of formal teaching at a university.

And he said, churches, evangelical churches, they have Jesus theoretically.

That is to say, they have Jesus in the statement of faith, in their doctrinal statement. This is what we believe, we subscribe to this, abstract principles, 1689,

Westminster confession and standards. If you're a URC, three forms of unity,

He's there, Jesus is theoretically. That is statement of faith wise, creeds, confessions.

This is what we believe. But he, Graham Goldsworthy said, Jesus is not in the church operationally.

That is to say in sermons specifically, is Jesus the one who we talk about when we're giving people the law, right?

So you're going through the Bible verse by verse and you're dealing with what the text says and means and you're trying to explain it in context, immediate context, near context, far context.

What's this word mean? What's the syntax? What's the lexical definition? And sometimes we forget the forest from the trees, the trees from the forest.

And so we have to remember that if we're going to give the law, which the law is good and right and reflects who

God is, it's from the hand of Christ. So even when we're preaching law, we're telling them to be motivated to obey the law because they can, they have the spirit of God, that they obey the law out of gratitude, gills great, gills great, gills.

Gilt, grace and gratitude. And then we're still talking about Jesus because he's the one handing us that law, the law from the hand of Christ.

And so we want to just be careful that we are not simply a church that has

Jesus in our statement of faith, but he never shows up on the dinner table when you're trying to tell your children about how to live in this world, when you're teaching your

Sunday school class about Daniel, but we forget about Jesus. So just be reminded that Jesus is more than just in your statement of faith.

We're supposed to have him involved in our lives and he will never leave us nor forsake us.

And so that's really important. Today, I'd like to talk a little bit about Jesus. Oh, this sounds good.

Specifically his resurrection, even more specifically Mark's ending that talks about the resurrection.

Now, if I were to say to you, Mark's ending, Mark 16, I know what's going to go through your mind.

There are different endings. Now in God's mind, there's one ending to Mark 16, but we have a variety of manuscripts, some manuscripts going back to the 600, some manuscripts around the 1200s and everything in between.

And we have manuscripts and some manuscripts are shorter than longer. Some manuscripts end in Mark 16, eight, some manuscripts

I've got through chapter 16, verse 20. And then there's another verse on there and they promptly reported all these instructions to Peter and his companions.

And after that, Jesus himself sent out through them from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.

So what's the right ending? Is the right ending verse eight of chapter 16. They went out, fled from the tomb.

This is the resurrection has happened. Trembling and astonishment had gripped them. And they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid.

The end. People bristle with that ending. How can after the resurrection, they're just, they went out, trembling, astonishment.

They're afraid, they don't talk to anybody. The end. Is that the ending? Now, if we look at manuscript evidence for any book, whether that's

Socrates, Homer or anyone else, shorter is always more original.

You say, well, there's an exception here or there. Okay, fine. But people might at the bottom of a scroll say something.

I don't know if you've ever written anything in your Bible margin. Well, you've probably written something in your

Bible margin, but you probably haven't taken the scissors and cut something out of the Bible. You just write things in.

And so if you've got a scroll, parchment, vellum, animal skin, and something's written on there, that could easily be added.

And so later is more. Earlier is less.

So if I pick up any manuscript from the Bible or not, and it's shorter, it will be closer to the original.

So this is the shorter one. It ends with them being afraid, astonishment, grip them, and they're not talking to anyone.

So how can that be the ending? What explains it? Well, since I think people didn't like that ending, they gave a longer ending.

Now, after he had risen, verse nine of other manuscripts, first day of the week, he appears to Mary Magdalene, cast out demons.

She had been the one that had cast out demons. Appears in different forms.

He reproached them for their unbelief. He says, go into the world and preach the gospel. But then other things happen.

Verse 16, he who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved. Baptismal regeneration.

These signs will accompany in the longer ending. Pick up serpents, drink any deadly poison.

It won't hurt them. What in the world's going on there? No place in the

Bible does it ever say we're supposed to tempt God and presume on things like drink deadly poison.

Certainly when Paul got bit by an adder in Acts 27, 28, you know, he shrugged it off and God's powerful over even these poison snakes.

That's true. But why is this here? So today on No Compromise Radio, I want to solve the problem in your mind.

Why 16 .8 is the real ending? Not because of manuscript evidence, not because of what's at the end of some of these other manuscripts, not because of the

King James Version, but because this is on purpose from Mark. And here it is.

There's the punchline ahead of time. Marks in several areas, several passages, will show something that's happened supernaturally.

And the response will be fear. God's here, fear and reverence. God's here, fear and reverence.

Supernatural, fear and reverence. And so then at the very end, when there's the resurrection supernaturally happened, you'll go, the response is fear and reverence.

And then you just mic drop. I usually, when I preach, will finish my sermon.

Mario knows this. He's heard hundreds of them, maybe thousands. And what do I do at the very end after I finish my summary statement?

Mario, what do I do before I walk off the platform? I pray, and then

I walk off. Well, when I was preaching Mark 16, I talked about all of this.

And then I read the passage. And they went out and fled from the tomb for trembling and astonishment had gripped them.

And they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid. I didn't bow my head. I didn't pray.

I just walked over and sat down. It's supposed to be blunt.

It's supposed to be just, wait, wait a second. What did we just see? For them, they saw the resurrected

Jesus. And then now it's like, whoa, mic drop. That's all you need. Walk off the stage. It's the resurrection. So in Mark, you see a lot of supernatural things followed by fear and amazement.

Supernatural fear. And by the way, if you saw an angel, the same thing would happen. How many times, even with John in the book of Revelation, he sees an angel, he falls down to worship the angel.

And he's like, I'm a created being too, get up. But if you saw an angel, you'd be on your face.

You shouldn't be, but you would be. So would I. And if something supernatural happens, the Red Sea opens up and is a half mile wide to get all of Israel through.

You'd be going, whoa. You'd be singing a song with Moses about the deliverance from God.

If you saw Jesus touch a leper and that leper would be healed, whoa.

Jesus walks on water, feeds 20 ,000 people. Whatever it is, if you saw that, you would be in awe.

So let me give you some illustrations in Mark so that when you get to Mark 16, you go,

I see the pattern. Mark wants a pattern. Supernatural fear, supernatural fear, supernatural fear.

These people are afraid at the end, why? Because something supernatural has happened. Jesus has been raised from the dead.

Mark chapter four, verse 35. On that day, when evening had come, He said to them, let us go across to the other side.

Leaving the crowd, they took Him in the boat just as He was. And the other boats were with Him.

And a great windstorm arose and the waves were breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling. But He was in the stern, asleep on the cushion.

And they woke Him and said to Him, Jesus, our teacher, do you not care that we're perishing? And He awoke and rebuked the wind and the sea.

Be still, peace. The wind ceased and there was a great calm. He said to them, what do you think the response was?

He rebukes the ocean. Well, take the ocean, the sea, the

Sea of Galilee. And there's a calm. I'm sure it just goes flat, right?

If the wind dies, it slowly, the waves decrease, right? From four foot to three foot to two foot. But now

I think it's just flat. And what did they do when the supernatural God of the universe says, be still, peace, be muzzled, shut your mouth.

So what He said to a demon too. They were afraid because something supernatural has happened.

Verse 41, they were filled with great fear and said to one another, who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey

Him? Supernatural fear, supernatural reverence, supernatural, wow,

I can't believe this is happening. You see where this is going. By the way, my brother -in -law,

Steve Duncan, he memorized that verse when he was a kid and he would always say it this way.

Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him? I just always thought of that.

Mark five, Mark is setting you up for the resurrection because people just don't braise themselves from the dead.

I've seen lots of dead bodies in my life and nobody just goes, I think I'll wake up. Can you imagine every cell in your body, dead, cold, hard.

Mark five, here, Jesus is supernatural over demons.

And once the demon is gone, how do you think these people will respond? I mean, they're on the sea of Galilee and they think they're in trouble.

Jesus rebukes the sea, peace be still. They should be happy now. They should be calm.

They should be serene. They should be no longer in trouble. And they're afraid, why? Because supernatural work has been done.

Here in Mark chapter five, it's the same thing. These demon possessed men living in the tombs, they're cutting themselves.

The text says they're crying out. They run up to Jesus and say, what do you have to do with me,

Jesus, son of the most high, focused in on one of the men. I adjure you by God, do not torment me.

Jesus asked him his name and his name's Legion, right? Maybe 6 ,000 demons is in this guy.

And he just crazy running around. There was a herd of pigs and these demons wanted to go in the pigs.

But we wanna be inhabited, but if we can't take a man, we'll take the pigs. So Jesus gives them permission.

And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs and the herd numbering about 2 ,000 rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.

Just imagine the sounds, choking pigs on top of each other, one after another, after another.

These demon possessed pigs. One guy called this deviled ham. Like, okay.

Always gets a laugh. Now we can finally just be calm, right?

Now, don't have this crazy naked couple of guys running around.

Billy Goat Gruff, you know, and the troll, don't go across my bridge. What do you think the response is? If the pattern is supernatural and fear, supernatural and fear,

I wonder. Herdsmen fled, told it in the city and in the country, and the people came to see what had happened.

And they came to Jesus and saw the demon possessed man, the one who had the legion sitting there, clothed in his right mind.

And they were afraid. Why be afraid?

He's calm, he's clothed, he's in his right mind. He's sitting there.

He's not hurting, he's not aggressive, he's not doing all that. They were afraid because the supernatural, when it happens, the response is fear and awe and reverence.

And God is in our midst. That's what Mark is trying to tell you. Well, it goes on in Mark chapter five, verse 25.

When Jesus heals disease and sickness, something supernatural has happened. And what do you think the response is going to be?

The response is going to be fear. Now there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years, and who had suffered much under many physicians and spent all she had and was no better, but rather grew worse.

And so, can you imagine? We know what this is, some kind of gynecological issue. And you just think, how do you stop the blood?

I won't get into all the wild ways people would try to stop that kind of bleeding. But she is tired, she's sick, she's ill.

And she's thinking, you know what? If I just touch his garment, I know he's the healer.

And so she sneaks up and she touches him. And it says that immediately the blood flow is dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of disease.

Now, Jesus knows what's going on. He's gonna call her out, who touched my garments. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, said, wow, finally,

I'm at peace. This is wonderful, I'm not bleeding anymore. I already feel more energetic.

I've never felt so good. Praise be to the God of the universe. Jesus, you're so wonderful.

If the response to the supernatural is fear, how do you think she responded? But the woman knowing what had happened to her came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.

And he said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease. Supernatural fear, supernatural reverence, supernatural afraid, supernatural trembling.

And you would too. I wonder what goes on in Mark chapter six.

I bet you it's the same thing. He's setting us up. We do not have to add a longer ending to Mark to make it make sense because it's the mic drop.

Mark six, immediately when he made his disciples get in the boat, go before him to the other side.

After he had taken leave of them, he went to the mountain to pray. Now the boys are in the boat.

They're making way painfully. Wind was against them.

And Jesus walks on the sea and he meant to pass by them. So you're in a boat to pass by.

No, no, no. Think Old Testament. Moses in the cleft of the rock and God passes by Moses showing that in fact, he is

God. He's gracious. He's merciful, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness. That's who God is.

And he showed that to Moses. You want me to show you boys that I'm God? I'm gonna pass by just like God, just like I passed by Moses passing in front of them.

And they saw him. They thought it was a ghost and they're terrified. And Jesus said, walking on water, take heart it is

I do not be afraid. And he got into the boat with him. The wind ceased. Any guesses what's gonna happen?

They were utterly astonished for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.

Wow. Take courage it is

I do not be afraid. You're afraid because something supernatural has happened.

That's the way it goes. Mark chapter nine, it keeps going.

Transfiguration. Jesus' clothes become radiant, intensely white. There with him,

Elijah and Moses. By the way, did Moses ever make it to the promised land, Mario? Right here he did, standing on the mountain.

Moses is in Israel. He thinks, Mario thinks this is a test.

When you're tired and at show five, you're just holding on. I'm white knuckling it. Let's just get me through 30 minutes.

We got 10 to go. Peter said to Jesus in the Mount of Transfiguration, Rabbi, it's good we are here.

Let us make three tents. One for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah. Supernatural thing. Jesus is showing on the outside, what he's like on the inside.

The eternal glory, Shekinah glory, blazing glory. This metamorphosis, this transfiguration.

And Peter, after the supernatural display, any guesses on how

Peter responds? How would you respond? For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified.

Supernatural fear, supernatural terrified, supernatural astonishment. So would you, so would

I. This is just what happens. And the cloud then overshadows them. Voice came out of the cloud. This is my beloved son.

Listen to him. Now, if you read Thomas Jefferson, he's going to say

Jesus wasn't raised from the dead. Nothing supernatural can happen. But when you read

Mark 16, what does the text say? Early in the morning, the very of that week, they came to the tomb, the sun had risen.

Hey, who will roll away the stone for us? Looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, although it is extremely large.

They entered the tomb, a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe, and they were amazed. Do not be amazed.

You are looking for Jesus, the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen.

He is not here. Behold, here is the place which they laid him.

Go, tell the disciples and Peter, he's going to head of you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.

Supernatural fear. What do you think is going to happen in the next verse? They went out, fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had gripped them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

Goodbye. It's over.

I don't need verses added about believe and be baptized. I don't need verses about picking up poison and it's not going to hurt me.

I don't need to have verses about lay hands on the sick and they'll recover. I don't need to have promptly reported these instructions to Peter and his companions and proclamation of eternal salvation.

No, no. Supernatural, Jesus, just as he said,

Mark 8, I'm going to die and be raised. Mark 9, I'm going to die and be raised.

Mark 10, I'm going to die and be raised. How do you raise yourself from the dead? Luke, John chapter 10.

Jesus said, you know what? I'm in control of my life. I lay it down and I pick it up. No one takes it from me. I'm going to raise myself from the dead.

How do you do that? They were afraid. Dear friend, this is the greatness of the resurrection.

Astonishment, bewilderment. But the response is easy to see.

The response is predictable. The response is right up the alley. They're stunned by the resurrection.

Jesus is God. Everything he said is true. Sinclair Ferguson said, the closing verses of Mark's gospel leave us with some fundamental questions about Jesus and our relationship to him.

That is exactly what the gospel was intended to do. Okay, do you see what he's doing here?

Man, this is too good. Several times we've looked at,

Jesus did something supernaturally and the response was fear. The response was awe. The response was reverence.

The response was being afraid. You've read all of Mark. You've seen Jesus do all these things and you get to the end and you think they were afraid.

They were in awe. They had fear because they saw the supernatural resurrection of Jesus. What about you, reader?

What about you, listener? What about you, YouTube viewer? You've seen the evidence.

What's your response? Take it or leave it. Jesus is just a good moral teacher. No big deal because the

Bible is written by men. I've got plenty of time to deal with this because I'm young and I wanna sow my wild oats first.

I mean, think of all the different answers. The answer should be, I've seen this too with my eyes and the eyes of faith and I realized

Jesus is God. He raised himself from the dead and I'm in awe of that. That's amazing to me.

He has to be the one. Who else can defeat death and Satan and sin and be raised from the dead?

By the way, my response is, I'm all in when it comes to trusting Jesus.

Here's what I mean by that. Sometimes I wonder, is this all true? I have to,

I don't, it's not by sight, right? It's by faith and I'm thinking, you know what? Eternity is long. I'm gonna die one day and then what?

Is there even an eternity and is it with God and how strong is my faith and everything else?

So I regularly tell people when they struggle with assurance or when I struggle with assurance, I say to myself,

I'm willing to go to hell forever if Jesus isn't the

Messiah who conquered death and sin and hell and raised himself from the dead. I'm all in, right?

You go to the blackjack table, you go to the poker table, roulette table and you're like eternity because I don't, who else would

I trust? Somebody that just talks, somebody that died is not raised from the dead, somebody that's got sin in his own life.

All right, I've got a book up here called The Intellectuals. Where is it? I don't know, right there. A book called

The Intellectuals. All these intellectuals, Rousseau and everyone else. Matter of fact, I stood up in this show, I'm gonna stand up again in this show.

Paul Johnson, I think he's a Roman Catholic and in this book, The Intellectuals, am I gonna trust any of these guys?

Shelley, Marx, Tolstoy, Hemingway, Bertrand Russell, Sartre, Lillian Hellman, all these people.

No, because when I read this, this book, you know what it shows? The intellectuals were corrupt.

They were ungodly. They'd try to get rid of their children. They wanted to have the mistresses.

They didn't wanna have just one wife. The list goes on and on and on. The fool has said in his heart, there's no

God. They're not dumb, they're intellectual, but they're morally stupid. I'm not gonna be trusting in them.

I'm all in, it's either Jesus or nothing. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

And if Jesus was sinful, if Jesus is not true, if Jesus is not the eternal son of God, then

I guess I'm going to hell. But if he is a son of God, and he is, because he proved it by the resurrection, my response is fear and trust and wonder and thankfulness and all that.

So when people come to my door and they're like, hi, we're here, you know, we're elders on a mission and we're here to tell you that Jesus isn't

God, I get mad. I try to restrain myself from not just blasting them with verbal bazookas, but you're here to try to damn me and try to tell me that Jesus isn't the eternal son or you're a

Jehovah's Witness and you're here to tell me that I just need to be good to get to heaven. No, no, I'm not good enough.

I've said to Jehovah's Witness at the door before, do you know what? I'd like to go to heaven. How do

I get to heaven? Well, you just have to be good. And I said, you know what? You don't know me, but I've committed adultery and murder.

Can I still go to heaven? And they're like, well, you just have to be good. But I'm not, how do

I get rid of the sins of adultery and murder by just being good from here on out? Like in real life, yeah,

I've committed mass murder, but from here on out, judge, I'll be really good. I've got a past. So then

I tell them, by the way, I've got good news for you. And then I preach the gospel to them. And then I tell them,

I'm not debating. If you wanna debate, you can get off my property because this is private property.

Hey, you don't have to be so crazy about it. Hey, back off. And I said to you, this is what the

Bible says. You're selling me spiritual strychnine. I'm trying to give you the good news of the gospel.

So don't say anything else. And if you wanna keep talking, you can just keep going. Or I guess I call 911.

Hey. Once I said to a grandma, in front of a grandma, to the daughter, they were

Jehovah's witnesses. This is called filling airtime. Mark 16 is done.

This is called, I got a minute 40 to go. I know how this works. A slave master Mario. Columbians.

I think I insulted him, but I called him Puerto Rican or something. Oh, you're half and half?

All right. Gotta hire these DEI guys. Mic drop.

Anyway, I said, it doesn't even matter what I said. Why are you even watching? But I did say to the daughter, the granddaughter in front of the grandma,

I said, sweetheart, your grandma is trying to tell you things that are gonna send your soul to hell because Jesus is the eternal son.

And he took on flesh and dwelt among us. And he's the only way of salvation. And he's not a lesser

God. Only the father's God, that's a lie. And we have one

God, father, son, and spirit. And here is what's happening. You could see the grandma got so mad at me, but I thought, you know what?

I got one shot at this. They're at my house, at my door, so that I'm gonna tell them the good news. We have good news.

The resurrection has happened. And your response is fear and wonder and trust and love and think, you know what?

I'm so glad that Jesus was raised from the dead because I have the hope of heaven. My name's Mike Cabendrop, No Compromise Radio, marioescobar at noco .com.