Repentance (Part 4)

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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 apostle

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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 NoCompromiseRadio .com. What do we have on tap today?

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Well, we have Diet Coke with Splenda. No, wish I had some. Don't really drink

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Diet Coke much. Remember back in the days when you're in college and to wake up you drink Coke, Mountain Dew?

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Crazy. Does anybody drink Mountain Dew anymore? Kind of the blue or purple or red

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Mountain Dews? I don't drink Mountain Dew, but if somebody handed me a Mountain Dew that was the old fashioned kind with real sugar, shows that guy there fishing with a straw hat, somebody

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Mississippi or something. I think I drink it only after a long bike ride where I burned off 2000 calories.

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It's hard to count calories in New England when there's a foot of snow and it's 10 below out without wind chill.

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It's crazy, or as my daughter would say, cray cray. So what do you do? You just plump up for the winter.

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That's all you do. Hey, that's why I'm sick. Crazy. People sometimes ask what websites do

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I like to go to? Oh, weather .com. Oh no, theological websites?

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Oh, you have to be more specific. Which ones do I go to? Well, I do read

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Justin Taylor because then I can figure out what's going on in evangelicalism and some of his things that he has there are super good.

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Little summaries of what John Owen taught on mortification in the outline form. I mean, it is awesome.

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Sometimes it's a little more middle of the road or he's pro -Driscoll or pro -something that I would not be, but a lot of kudos for Justin Taylor's website.

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I appreciate it a lot. Appreciate him a lot. Let's see, what else do

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I read? I'll read Justin Taylor daily. Give him props.

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Top of the list, Justin Taylor. Even though he rejects my manuscripts.

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I really like the guy. I also read

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Reformation 21, but probably only every couple of days because they don't post that many articles.

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So just like once a week, see if Truman's written something. And so if he's written something, then

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I can figure it out. All right, so what else do I read? I read My Friends Do Not Be Surprised regularly.

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Erin Binziger, she writes excellent stuff. And so I've actually got a cup here, don't I? DoNotBeSurprised .com.

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See how easily you can buy your way into No Compromise Radio. And her This and That on Fridays are excellent.

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And so you can get a whole potpourri of what's going on in evangelicalism.

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If you don't feel like searching the internet, you can always do that just by looking at her Friday columns.

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And I'm thankful she posts NoCo 90s as well, at least the one she likes. So I read

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Do Not Be Surprised probably twice a week because she doesn't post every day either. If she posts every day,

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I'd probably read it every day. I used to read Team Pyro, Pyromaniacs every day, but then

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Phil Johnson left. And so now it's probably once a week, I'll go to Team Pyro and read.

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And I mainly wanna see what they're writing, what Frank and Dan write about, but I'll pretty much go to the

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Twitter feed to see if Phil Johnson has tweeted anything. So I need to get

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Phil Johnson back on here. James White is lined up, Joel Beeky's lined up, Carl Truman's lined up,

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Justin Peters is lined up. So actually we need to work on NoCo 90,

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NoCo ever, part three. It's in the can, but it's gotta get out of the can. So we're talking a little bit about websites that can benefit you.

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If I'd like to do research, those are blogs that I would read regularly.

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I'm trying to think if there's any other blog that I read. There's a new one through Reformation 21,

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Stand or something, some David Wells name of a book. We Shall Stand, Standing Alone.

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I don't really read Challies, maybe once a week, I'll look at Challies and scan through. I liked him,

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I just want him to be tougher sometimes on his deals there. What else?

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What else? If I had to do research, I love Bible .org's

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NetBible, and it is excellent because you can run your cursor over a Greek or Hebrew word, and in the bottom right -hand corner, it'll show you

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Strong's. It'll also give you other ways to get to some lexical information. And since I have

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BibleWorks, but I use a Mac, and I don't like using the whole

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MWare fusion, whatever it is that doesn't work, I sometimes need some help there and don't wanna go to my

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IBM and work on that. So anyway,

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I use that, the NetBible. I think that's excellent. I also like to use Monergism because Monergism is an awesome site, probably my favorite site for theological resources.

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I don't go to it every day because I don't always need resources, but I really love that site. And what else do

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I peruse? I think that's probably about it. I mean, I end up clicking over to some other things.

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These days, I'll see something and run over to this, that, or the other and check out what people are writing and blogging.

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I do like the Cripplegate. Those guys write well, and pretty much from my slant, probably don't see eye -to -eye with them on the covenant of redemption grace and works, but excellent stuff, good guys.

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Friend Clint's over there and Jesse. So I do like to read that. What else do

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I read? I think that's it. I'm just looking outside and I see Pastor Steve. He drove up, dropped something off, made some noise, and now he's driving away.

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All right, so, so much for the blogs. And for podcasts, I think I've told you I listen to S.

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Lewis Johnson. I listen to White Horse Sin, Crisis Center. I listen to most of those, although lately with the

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John Frame deal and a lot of women, I don't know. I'm gonna have to talk to Waddington. What's going on over there with these guys?

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I think the same thing, though, is going on with, I don't know, somebody else is promoting a lot of ladies.

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I don't know. I'm gonna have Kim Aventroth on NOCO. That's coming up here. I should say

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Joel Beakey, James White, Carl Truman, but at the top of the list, Mr. A's wife,

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Mrs. A. All right, today we're talking, I think maybe one of our last parts on repentance. I said last time it was four, but it was probably three.

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So this is four, but it might be listed as five. So it's just, this is the next one in No Compromise Radio's discussion of repentance.

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A certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worshiped

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God, heard us, whose heart did the Lord opened that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.

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So think about this. Think about her free will that allowed God to open up her heart.

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Free will furnishing the power to open up her own heart. No, if you're gonna have your heart open, somebody's gonna have to open up your heart.

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For years, I worked in the operating room, selling operating room lasers and other things, then custom packs.

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And one thing I noticed, I didn't see any patients try to open up their own sternum.

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There are certain machines, i .e. saws, that open up sternums.

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And then they can use some bone wax, at least this was 20 years ago, so probably things have changed. But they use bone wax to stop the oozing of the cut sternum.

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But I sold a machine that would kind of bovie it. It would coagulate it.

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And it was an argon beam coagulator is what it was. And so they could use that if they'd like.

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Most went back to the old fashioned way of bone wax. They thought it was cheaper and probably more effective. Some of the wax may be sloughed off, et cetera, but that's all right, in my opinion.

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And then there was a large clamp, a metal clamp, and you would wind it as a circle, clockwise, counterclockwise, and it would open up the ribcage to allow access into the cavity, into the heart, into other organs there for different kinds of surgery.

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And that was done to the person. They never did it themselves. Although one time they didn't put the patient under a proper amount of anesthesia, and the patient felt something.

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It was an abdominal surgery. I don't know if it was a whipple or what it was, but their hands started drifting towards the sterile field.

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Because the anesthesiologist or the anesthetist, I don't know which one it was, didn't fully anesthetize the patient.

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Talk about some physicians, some surgeons who were mad. Yikes, trying to move their hand over there.

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It's like, oh yeah, my stomach hurts. There's something in my stomach, and you start moving your hand there. Your eyes are all taped shut, and you're trying to put your hand in the sterile field into your own bowels.

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Wow. But anyway, you don't do heart surgery on yourself. You don't crack open your own sternum.

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It's done to you. That's the literal opening up someone's sternum to get to their heart to perform surgery.

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It's done to you. Here, Lydia, the

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Lord opened her heart. Now, she did attend. She did receive.

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She did turn. She did, as the text says here, attended unto the things which are spoken of Paul.

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I think that's King James there. Must be if it's attended unto. What did

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God do? God opened her heart. God is the one.

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Now, this had to be through the preaching of the gospel. Of course, we've got some theological shorthand here.

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And what were the things spoken of Paul? She attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. I'm sure it was 1

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Corinthians 2, 2 stuff. I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. The gospel of Jesus, the

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God -man, the intermediary, the mediator between man and God, the man Christ Jesus, the risen

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Savior, the substitutionary Savior, the representative

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Savior. God brings the message to Lydia. God opens up her heart.

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God has to open up her heart so that she can believe. Whose heart the

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Lord opened that she attended to the things that were spoken of Paul. The cause of her salvation.

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Was her opening her heart? Her repentance, if you will? No. Who opened

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Lydia's heart? Cause. Effect. She attended to the things that Paul taught.

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Regeneration, in other words, is a total work of the Holy Spirit. Born again by an act of God.

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God, the author and perfecter of faith, Hebrews 12, 2. By the grace of God, I am what

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I am. Now, if you've been listening to the whole series, you know that we've been talking about repentance is a responsibility of the unbeliever.

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Repent and believe. But it's a gift because men and women, because of the fall, cannot.

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So that's what we've been working on. And since men and women cannot repent in and of themselves, they have to be granted this gift.

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First regenerated, then they respond with the effect of regeneration, belief, repentance.

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Here's where the rub comes. I know that last time you understood the one that gives the most glory to God is the

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Pauline view, the Augustinian view, the Calvinistic view. God did it all. He's the actor and we're the receiver.

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He causes and the fruit of regeneration is repentance. But here's where the rub happens and this is where people begin to get very nervous.

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This is where the shallow breathing comes in. This is where the uh -oh.

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This is where people start getting hiccups. Maybe that'd be a good book, Evangelical Hiccups. I'm working on one called

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Evangelical White Lies. Maybe I'll change it to Evangelical Hiccups.

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Actually, I'm not working on much of anything these days except the S. Louis Johnson Romans book because there's a lot of work to do.

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I'm just tired. So here's the rub with regeneration as something that's sovereignly given.

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Why is one saved and another lost? See, if you believe in free will, then at the end of the day, you can always blame the person for not believing.

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But if God grants regeneration, sovereignly, distinguishingly, not universally, he only saves

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Israel out of Egypt. He doesn't save anybody else who's enslaved to Egypt. He only chooses

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Israel as a nation. No other nation is the apple of God's eye.

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Then what about all those he passes over? What about all those he doesn't choose?

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If he actively chooses one, at least in a systematic theology fashion, maybe not exegetical all the way, but at least systematically, then he purposely didn't choose the others.

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God's the one that makes a difference in salvation. So it's not man. So what does this tell us about God choosing some and not others?

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Yikes. But see, God is God. And God is a sovereign God. And no one deserves salvation.

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And actually, if God doesn't save someone, the people get exactly what they want. They don't want

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Jesus. They don't want to worship Jesus. They don't want holiness. They don't want hell.

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They're not masochistic, at least most people. But they don't want the object of heaven, Christ Jesus.

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So when we're preaching the gospel, we should be doing two things. Preaching the gospel, calling for a response.

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That's all one. Secondly, praying that God would grant them repentance. That's what we have to do.

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Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner, asking. Actually, we should tell people. I even had a conversation with someone today in the church.

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They've got a loved one who wants to get saved. It'd be so much easier to be an Arminian, semi -Pelagian.

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Pelagian or Lutheran. You just say, you know, pray the prayer. Accept Jesus in your heart.

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Sign him up. Walk the aisle. You're a Christian, I am. Yeah, that'd be way easier.

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So I told this person, I said, my response is to them, I'm glad they know they're sinful.

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Have them read Luke 18. And with that, tax collector, say, Lord, have mercy upon me, what, the sinner.

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See, this helps in evangelism. This helps when we have loved ones who aren't saved. Instead of saying, you know, yeah, but what if God didn't pick them?

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How about if God wasn't sovereign, nobody would pick God. That's the better way to think of it.

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If God wasn't the sovereign king, regenerating and enabling people to believe no one would.

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Dr. Warfield, B .B. Warfield, sinful man stands in need, not of inducements or assistance to save himself, but precisely of saving.

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And Jesus Christ has come not to advise or urge or woo or help him to save himself, but to save him.

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So we either ascribe salvation to men and God, to man alone, or to God alone.

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So you can always write me at NoCoRadio, NoCompromisedRadio .com

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is our website. So info, and I want you to know that I read every email that comes into info at NoCompromisedRadio .com.

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I don't read the Tuesday guy ones. You can send those straight in. And then when I read them, I either say, thank you,

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Lord, for that encouragement. Got some encouraging emails from Australia and New Zealand recently.

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That's kind of fun. Europe, sometimes I get them. I, maybe I like to get these emails from the exotic places.

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You know, when I get them from Somalia, it's not that exciting. No, it would be exciting. I just have not received one email from Somalia.

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Not sure I ever will. But I did see Captain Phillips. I want to know how much of it is true.

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John chapter six, John chapter six, a chapter that some wish weren't in the

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Bible because it messes up their theology. So the Jews grumbled about him, verse 41, because he said,

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I am the bread that came down from heaven. They said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?

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How does he now say, I've come down from heaven? Jesus answered them, do not grumble among yourselves.

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No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day.

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No one, no man, that's all inclusive. Nobody, not no one, not no how. Why, the carnal mind is enmity against God, Romans chapter eight, verse seven.

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Why, man is sinful and enslaved, dead in trespasses and sins. Why, man is spiritually impotent. Brakel asks the question, does man have some internal disposition, propensity, ability, or power to believe in Christ and to truly repent upon external presentation of the gospel, however powerfully this may be declared?

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I mean, really great preaching, powerful preaching. Answer by Brakel.

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The Arminians and others answer in the affirmative. We, however, answer negatively and prove this as follows.

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First, man is totally blind as far as spiritual things are concerned. Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through ignorance,

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Ephesians four. Men love darkness rather than light for everyone that doeth evil hate the light,

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John three. Haters of God, Romans 1 .30. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me,

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John 15. Brakel says, wherever this is such a disposition, it is impossible to be willing to repent.

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See, that's where we have to have God come in. That's Ephesians 2 .4, but God. See, God is not running around trying to convert everybody with most of the world showing that he would be a complete failure.

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I mean, do you think if we just go 50 -50, let's go simple majority. Most of the people in the world born again or not?

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Okay, let's say not. Good. So since they're not, he's got a failure with at least half the people in the world he's trying as hard as he can to get people saved, running hither and thither, pell -mell, converting people, at least trying, but he's not saving most of them.

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Most of them are going to hell. So what does that do to a God who's trying to save people and he doesn't get the job done?

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I don't think that gives, like Bettner said, much glory to the divine majesty, do you? Top lady, a doctrine which represents omnipotence itself as wishing and trying and striving, and I would add hand -wringing, to no purpose.

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According to this tenant, God in endeavoring, for it seems that it is only an endeavor, to convert sinners, may by sinners be foiled, defeated, and disappointed.

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He may lay close and long siege to the soul, and that soul can, from the citadel of impregnable free will, hang out a flag of defiance to God himself, and by a continued obstinacy of defense, and a few vigorous sallies of free will, compel him to raise the siege.

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Boy, those are long sentences. In a word, the Holy Spirit, after having for years, perhaps, danced attendance on the free will of man, may at length, like a discomfited general, or an unsuccessful politician, be either put to ignominious flight, or contemptuously dismissed, re -infecta, without accomplishing the end for which he was sent.

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Top lady, Selah. What does

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Jesus say in John chapter six? John chapter six, no one can come to me unless the

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Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. And if the Father does do that work, you're coming.

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You are going to go there. It is written in the prophets, and they will all be taught of God.

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Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me, John 6, 45.

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When God sovereignly draws, sovereignly teaches, you are going to follow. Edwards, the apostasy of man summarily consist in departing from the true

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God, to idols, forsaking his creator, and setting up other things in his room. The gods which a natural man worships, instead of the

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God that made him, are himself and the world. When we say that natural men are not willing to come to Christ, it is not meant that they are not willing to be delivered from hell, for without doubt, no natural man is willing to go to hell.

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Nor is it meant that they are not willing that Christ should keep them from going to hell. Without doubt, natural men under awakenings often desire this.

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But this does not argue that they are willing to come to Christ. For notwithstanding their desire to be delivered from hell, their hearts do not close with Christ, but are adverse to him.

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They are not willing to take Christ as he is. They would fain divide him. There are some things in him that they like, others that they greatly dislike.

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But consider him as he is, and he is offered to them in the gospel, and they are not willing to accept Christ. For in so doing, they must of necessity depart with all their sins.

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They must sell the world and part with their own righteousness. But they had rather for the present run the venture of going to hell than do that.

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He is a savior appointed of God. He anointed him and sent him into the world. And in performing the work of redemption, he wrought the works of God, speaking of Christ, always did those things that pleased him.

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And all that he does as savior is to the glory of him. And one great thing he aimed at in redemption was to deliver them from their idols and bring them to God, Jonathan Edwards.

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So we're talking about repentance today on No Compromise Radio. If you've got some questions, you can type in repentance at monergism .com,

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listen to Repentance at S. Lewis Johnson Institute, or write me at info at nocompromiseradio .com.

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You can also go to NOCO Radio, NOCO90 .com for our No Compromise 90 second videos, or our website for some of the

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NOCO ever shows with Truman White and Phil Johnson. My name is Mike Abendroth, this is No Compromise.

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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 six. 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.

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The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE its staff or management.