The Christian and Obedience (Part 3)

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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, a ministry.

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I think I have time for one more show. Today I have on my list of things to do, I wanted to review my message.

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Hebrews chapter 9, I know I haven't got to Hebrews 9 yet here in the last Facebook show, but I'm taking some boric acid with some mold stuff in it, anti -mold stuff, and spraying some of the framed part of the addition to the house.

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And so that's what I'm doing today. I think my grandma used to clean her laundry with maybe borax,

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I wonder if it's the same stuff. I have no idea. Anyway, Mike Abendroth here, October 11th and 12th, our

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Scott Clark will be here, that's Friday night, 7 and 8 o 'clock sessions, Saturday morning, 9, 10, and 11 o 'clock sessions.

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Scott, between Sinclair Ferguson and Scott Clark, those two men have, on the human perspective, helped me more in the last five years than anyone else when it comes to thinking about law, gospel, faith, faithfulness, legal standing, fruit, and evidence.

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What about confessions? What about biblicism? What about justification? Is there a second justification, having been justified, how to think through things properly?

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So if you are in town, great, there'll be no live stream. You're either here or you're not.

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I did wear this Giants baseball shirt today. I don't know, looking for a clean shirt, found this.

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I don't know what the Giants' standings are. Are they any good this year? I don't know. I'm not really a baseball fan.

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I grew up in Nebraska and during the summertime when everybody played Little League, we went up to the lake and we just canoed and kayaked and shot fish with a bow and arrow.

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Are fish, do fish have souls? Was that a wrong thing to do? Did you see the Union Seminary, a deal they had online the other day, and they were like bowing down, apologizing to plants?

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My wife always says, you know, next it'll be the plants because they're living creatures too. I have some, what's that leaf that's, it's a basil.

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Is there a basil plant? I think there's a basil plant and I just take off a leaf once in a while and it's sitting right there by the window.

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And I just take off a leaf and maybe have some mozzarella cheese or something with this new diet. Speaking of diet,

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I've got this dumb clear protein stuff. I just thought I'd give it a shot.

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Clear protein drink, premier protein, orange mango. I have a different kind of protein powder

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I like that I got at the health food store, but this here, it's got some kind of funky flavor to it.

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And I think it's because it's expired. It says best if used by June, 2019.

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Maybe that's the problem. They say you're never supposed to drink and drive.

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That's true. You're never supposed to drink on the air because people find it offensive. Wow. That's hard to swallow.

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In no compromise radio world, here's what we're after. I'm after you to focus on the

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Lord Jesus because he never compromised. And the more you think about that, the more amazing that is.

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Therefore, that is a funky flavor. That's weird. Orange mango. Secondly, at the cross, no attributes of God were compromised, right?

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You could see his love there, Calvary. You could see his justice, his holiness, et cetera. And then lastly,

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I don't want to compromise. So I mean, I know I do, but I rest in the one who never compromised. In the old days, it was,

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I'm never going to compromise. There's a bunch of compromisers everywhere, but it's a little different. You can follow me at Twitter, at NoCoRadio, or what else do

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I want to say, 2021 Israel. And we're going to go to Israel, Omaha Bible Church, Pat Ebendroth.

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By the way, if you like no compromise radio, go to omahabiblechurch .com or org,

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I can't remember which one, and pull up some of Pat Ebendroth's sermons, Patrick James. His son's

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Jay Gresham Ebendroth, Jonathan Gresham Ebendroth. It's pretty impressive. But my son's name's

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Luke. When I first named Luke, I only have one son, and I named

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Luke, Luke, and somebody said, is that after Luke Skywalker? I just thought, oh,

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Luke. No, it was not after Luke Skywalker, it was regarding the

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Gentile, Luke, the physician, the doctor. Okay? Can we make that clear? I'm self -righteous.

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You're not. You're a pagan. What we're talking about is obedience, and I think for some people, maybe that's all they talk about.

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Law, law, law, law, law. And they get up and preach, and they just whack you with more law, and you walk out just thinking, oh, brother.

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And you walk out really, with two options, if people just preach law to Christians.

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Option one, you'll sit there and go, well, how can I obey these things? At least externally, and you'll become more self -righteous.

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Or, another option is, a popular option, is you'll just become full of despair.

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Why? Because you're honest, and you realize this is what God requires, and I know deep down I don't do it.

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My propensity is the first one. I trick myself into thinking that I can really obey

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God. I'm not really that probably honest with myself if I look at my life. I mean, part of it comes from I want to please the

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Lord, but it's just all jacked up. It's all wrong. We have to think about this differently, and we have to think about God when

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He's the judge, and He requires perfection, and He will not let anything less than perfect be in His presence.

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No matter how sincere you are, you're not sincere enough as an unbeliever trying to obey. And even as a

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Christian, if you want to keep your salvation by your obedience, it's either going to be self -righteousness or despair anyway, because those are your two options.

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You either trick yourself, you lie to yourself, or you're honest with yourself. And therefore, the book of Hebrews in this show constantly, constantly, constantly talks about faith in Jesus, and you can't unsave yourself, and no one can snatch you out of the

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Father's hand, and there's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, and you in fact will be glorified, and that not even your own sin affects your standing before God or your eternal salvation.

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Now, when I talk like that, I know people begin to say, well, you know what, therefore

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I can live the way I want. No, no, no, no, no. That's Romans 6, verse 1. Free grace should be preached in such a way that you might ask a question, but you shouldn't in terms of your actions.

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Should we sin, the grace might abound. May it never be. No, no, no, no, no.

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Obedience is important, but it has to be seen in light of who you are in Christ Jesus.

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It's no longer, do this and live, because you live, now do this.

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Does that make sense? And therefore, at this show, in this church, over and over and over, since I think

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I was such a law preacher for so long, and the tincture, as Thomas Boston would talk about, of the ministry was law,

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I want to make sure we talk about grace, but I want you to know that I'm not swinging too far the other way into antinomian, hey, you do what you want.

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Obedience is important in light of your position. Therefore, the book of Hebrews, think about it, over and over and over,

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Christ died for you, Christ lives for you. He's better than Aaron. He's better than the old covenant. He's better than Moses.

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He's better than Joshua. He's better than angels. He's better than the prophets. He's better, better, better, better, better.

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And so therefore, don't go back to the old system. Don't go back to the old covenant. Don't go back to that temple there that's still standing, most likely there in the book of Hebrews.

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Don't go back. Here's who this Jesus is, rest in him, trust in him, rely on him, believe him, and don't go back.

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And therefore this great lawgiver, the Lord Jesus, has these laws for you now that he's not giving you because you need to do these to stay in.

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You need to do these because you're in. That's where we mess up when it comes to obedience.

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It's Galatians. It's Galatians 3. You get saved by grace, but you keep yourself in by works.

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And you know, this whole thing, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. That's true. But I think there's a reason why there's a justification category in the confessions, a sanctification category, and of good works category.

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And these good works show your thankfulness. These good works show that you adorn the profession of the gospel. They show that they are good for other believers.

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They edify. They show gratitude to God. These are what's best for the Christian to do. And they're good for you.

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They're good for society. They're the right way to honor God in light of your legal standing that's firm.

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These are fruits. These are evidences. Never the twain shall meet between legal standing and fruits and evidences.

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So over and over and over and over and over, I keep trying to drive home into works righteousness people like me and like you, where we default back to works, thinking our legal standing is based on works.

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And if my son Luke did that with me, defaulting always to works righteousness, doing works to stay my son,

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I don't want that. I don't like that. It's wrong. But if he shows it because he's my son,

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Dad, I want to honor you and live in light of who I am and walk in a manner worthy, then that's fine.

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That's wonderful. That's good. So what we're doing is we're fast forwarding to Hebrews chapter 13 to show you some of the ethical commands because of who you are.

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Christians should obey, but not because they need to keep their legal standing. Because if you really think that way, you're tricking yourself self -righteously.

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Are you really in despair and you're depressed because you realize how far you fall short? Regularly, I have to talk to Christians and they say something like this to me.

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Here's a big one. I'm not sure if I'm saved. Okay.

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Why? Maybe you're not. Right? I don't know. Well, I think

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I'm sinning more now as a Christian than I was when

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I was an unbeliever. What would you say? Well, like what? I mean, if it's, you know,

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I was faithful to my wife as an, I'm an unbeliever. And then now I go to the brothel. Okay. Well, that's a different conversation.

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That's a 1 Corinthians 6, 9, 10, and 11 conversation. That's how you used to be.

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You're no longer this anymore because it's WSJ. Whenever you see Wall Street Journal, WSJ, you think of washed, sanctified, justified.

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That's 1 Corinthians 6, verse 11. But if, but if it's, you know,

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I'm just, I'm just struggling with sin now. Well, one of the things is now, now you're really convicted by the law and you're seeing who

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God is and you're seeing what sin really does. And you think, well, people always told me if you're a

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Christian, you don't, you're not sinless. You just sin less and less. I think that's generally true, but there are times in the

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Christian life where you sin a lot and it's not always just progression up, up, up, up, up.

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I mean, there are some major dips, right? I could say it this way. David wrote quite a few

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Psalms before Bathsheba. I just won the argument.

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So what you have to do is you have to say, listen, let's talk, let's walk through this and let's talk about the

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Lord Jesus and what he really did, what his life was, was intended for. And, and you probably begin to think, dear

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Christian struggling with assurance. This example of Jesus's life. It's hard to live up to. Yes.

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That's why you need him for more than example. You need him as a sin bear, right? So, so lots of times new believers will come and they're just real, really struggle with sin.

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And, and I just tell them, I think that's a good sign. Now you struggle before you didn't. Now you see tiny things that transgress

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God's law as big things because you're, you're offending God and who he is.

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So it's, it's not just a little thing. It's a big thing. Even little things that are sinful are, are major in God's eyes because it's the one to whom you're sinning against.

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So we have to walk through this and we have to say, listen, it's not the, is there fruit in your life?

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Is there evidence in your life that you're a Christian? And I could use the paradigm of Hebrews chapter 13, all the talk about Jesus, the high priest and his death and his greatness.

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Now let's talk about some of the fruit and evidence in your life to see if God's working in your life.

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Do you love other Christians in a brotherly way? Oh yeah. And yes, but not perfectly.

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And I struggled. Okay, good. How about sexual purity?

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That's chapter 13 verse four. How about contentment with money and anxiety with all that?

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And if we're really, I mean, verse four is fairly easy for me to obey in the sense that God has kept me and my wife together, right?

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For 30 years. The next one though, I mean, it slays me in verses five and six, be content with what you have and God's never going to leave you for, nor forsake you.

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That's a hard one. And if I just looked at myself long enough, I could say, how could

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Mike Abendroth, a Christian for 30 years have these sins of, of worry and anxiety and contentment.

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But I see the struggle and, and I see Paul in Romans seven and I see no condemnation.

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And therefore, instead of freezing up, instead of saying, you know what,

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I'm paralyzed. What can I do? That's why the language of Hebrews four is good rest. When it comes to your legal standing rest,

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Jesus did it all. And therefore now I'm not going to be an inert

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Christian. I'm going to serve the Lord Jesus, but not to keep my salvation because then you'd never rest.

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Think about it. If you have to obey to keep your salvation, you'd never rest. So Paul, the writer of Hebrews, if it is

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Paul, great. If it isn't somebody else, the Holy Spirit wants you to know that the way you live your life as a

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Christian matters, but it doesn't matter in terms of your legal standing before God.

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I'm just going to harp on this until the day I die, which could be sooner than later yesterday on the bike.

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I'm on the phone with my wife. I've got my headphones on and a little microphone here. I don't have to do anything.

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When she calls, I can just click like that. And I'm on the phone. I'm riding the bicycle. I'm about 11 miles from home.

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I'm up near, near the jail and a car pulls out. And I thought for sure, this person sees me,

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I've got all my, my gear on for sure. They see me and they don't.

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And she's coming. She's coming. She's coming. And I'm on the phone with my wife and I just scream out and I know what I'll probably do be when

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I'm dying. If it's an accident, I just screamed as loud as I could because A, brace for impact,

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B, I'm trying to yell loud enough that this person would hear me and she just keeps getting closer and closer and closer.

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I have nowhere to, I'm either off in the ditch or just get hit. And for me,

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I thought, well, maybe I can just manage it. And so now my wife's on the phone, I'm going, ah, it's like the last word she'll ever hear in my life, in her life and mine.

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And then I just yelled, Hey, and my wife goes, okay.

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Talk to you later. Goodbye. And she hung up. We're having a normal conversation and I just start yelling.

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So then I thought afterwards, Richard, you're, you're, you're more than a welcome to remind you of guilt, grace, gratitude, paradigm.

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You can either read Romans. You'll see that lots of other books, the Bible, Heidelberg catechism, by the way, Richard, if you're a skier and you ever watch the super G, right?

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There's three super G's, guilt, grace, and gratitude. All right. There you go. That one's for free. Super G. Anyway, what was

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I saying? Oh, Oh, the funny part of the story to, to finish the story, I thought, do

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I call my wife back and apologize? Do I tell her the lady was about ready to get me? What do

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I need to do? And I thought, I better, I better not call her back. I better wait till later.

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She probably knows what's going on. She knew I wasn't yelling at her. I mean, it wasn't in reaction to something she said, or we weren't in an argument or anything like that.

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And so I finished the ride a couple of hours later, I got home. She didn't say anything, which is unlike her.

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I didn't say anything. We'll probably be talking this week and it'll just come up.

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What was going on with the yelling? Who are you yelling at? You know, you should be nicer to people. Well, I know, but I couldn't help it.

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I was ready to die. We've been sad. My new bike too. Come on. The Christian life.

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It's to be lived in light of who you are in Christ Jesus union with Christ. You Christian cannot and must not based your legal standing courtroom, standing eternal standing based on what you've done.

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By the way, you could go to revelation chapter 20 and you would find out that unbelievers are based by what they're judged eternally on what they have done.

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And you know what you're judged by your names in the book. That's that's wild.

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Your names in the book. If it's written in the book of life, you're in, why doesn't have anything about the deeds?

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Because it's all the deeds of Christ that he's done positively active obedience of Jesus.

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And all your deeds that the unbelievers have to be judged for were judged on Jesus as he was a sin offering bearing our sins.

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The books of life have names. The other books have deeds.

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And because of that, because you get to go to heaven. I get to go to heaven. If that car would hit me and I would have gotten killed yesterday,

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I would have been in heaven. Why? Because I have a good prayer life. I read my Bible every day.

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I've done over 2000 radio shows. I preached thousands of times. What else did

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I do? What else have I done? My kids turned out pretty good.

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That was humanly speaking. That was Mrs. A. Divinely speaking. That's all the Lord. But if I die and when

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I die, it's based on what?

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How sincere do I have to do things sincerely to get in? That's why it pushes you back to who

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Jesus is. And that's why the book of Hebrews does that chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, even because it's not by faithfulness of Abraham, by faith,

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Abraham, by faith in the Messiah who would come, the promises of God, that's shorthand, by faith.

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Longhand is what I just described. Chapter 12, fix your eyes on Jesus, right? And then in 13, because of all these things are true, to adorn the gospel, to be thankful, to show gratitude, to shut the mouths of adversaries, to all these other things.

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It's just now I live in light of. I don't live because I'm going to keep my salvation.

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I live because I've been saved and now I'm free to go do other things for other people. And that's the book of Hebrews, especially in chapter 13.

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Is obedience important for the Christian? I think you have to answer, totally. It's important, yes.

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The reason why I'm harping about all this other stuff is because the Christian, and maybe it's just me.

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I know it's not, but just for the sake of argument. I know what I'm prone to do. And I think that since I'm on time, and by the way, usually

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I am, that I read my Bible every morning and almost always

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I do, I mean, basically that's what I do all day is read the

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Bible. I just like to have my job. What's your job?

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Reading the Bible. All these things

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I do, therefore God must be pleased unto salvation. I mean, really, come on.

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But since we are free, as Wendy just typed, we can do things for other people. God doesn't need your good works,

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Luther said, other people do. And then you're free to do it because your legal standing, rest, accomplished, finished.

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It is finished, Jesus said. The father, and now, you know,

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Wendy, you seem like a nice lady, but that's the funniest thing you've said. A Calvinist is always on time. Like you fall down the steps and the

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Arminian says, man, that was a horrible accident. What's a Calvinist say? I'm glad I got that over.

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Speaking of which, I have to go. I think Stephen is finally online.

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I've got a minute to go and it's, you know, a day late, a dollar short. By the way, if you're on and you're looking, scrolling through Stephen, he has helped me design a bunch of books, book titles, no book content, no book covers.

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He is great at that. So anyway, you should hire him to design stuff because he'll give you that,

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I don't know, that Oklahoma flair, boomer, sooner. Okay, I got to wrap this,

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I got to land this plane. Dear Christian, if you remember the guilt, grace, gratitude, you'll be fine.

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If you don't remember that, just think of Romans. If you don't remember that, think of the book of Hebrews.

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Obedience is important because it flows from your union with Christ.

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It's spirit wrought, Holy Spirit wrought. It doesn't keep your salvation, it doesn't earn your salvation, but what you do,

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Calvin is to Scott, what you do is you say, yes, Hebrews 13 is true, and I ought to love other people, and I ought to be content with what

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I have, and I ought to be sexually pure, and I ought to remember the prisoners, and I ought to be content with money, did

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I already say that? Yes. I ought to do all these other things as fruit and evidence, as thankfulness, as thankfulness unto the

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Lord Jesus, not to keep my standing. But we, you, me, we all struggle with that. That's why we keep legal standing and fruit and evidences separate, so that we realize we are free to just go serve the

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Lord today. 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.