Rest-ology (Part 5)

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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

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Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, here with a New Zealand coffee, New Zedland.

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I don�t know why I drink a cup of coffee during the show. You�d think I drink one after or before.

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Want that workout better? You can write us, info at nocompromiseradio .com,

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or you can just go to PayPal.

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As I�ve said for many years, we have been resolved not to ask for money on the show, and we have had our listeners be resolved not to give.

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Although that�s not technically true because if you go to Patreon, there are, I think, 13 givers, so we�re thankful for that.

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Thank you if you�re one of the givers. All right. What are we talking about today? We�re talking about rest to cause someone to gain relief from toil, as one lexicon calls it.

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This is probably our last show on rest. I guess not. Oh, before I get into that, this is interesting.

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I have here in front of me, April 24th, 1999.

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This isn�t the letter

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I was looking for. Bummer. Okay. Sorry. Sorry about that.

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Back to rest. A state of cessation of work or activity. Rest cessationist.

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The ultimate cessationist. Rest in Christ Jesus. Matthew chapter 11 talks about, �Come unto me ,�

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Jesus said, �all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.� In the last few shows, we�ve been looking at the context of Matthew 11.

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Remember the context? Jesus has tied His ministry to John the Baptist. John the

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Baptist, they wouldn�t listen to him. He was too austere, locust and honey, out in the middle of nowhere.

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They didn�t want to follow Jesus because He ate with tax collectors and sinners. They wouldn�t believe in Him.

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They should have believed in Him because Jesus did enough miracles in Capernaum, and there were believers that came out of Bethsaida, and you get that kind of ministry in Capernaum and those other cities.

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And still turn your back on Jesus, there�s going to be doom for you, Tyre, Sidon, Sodom.

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It�d be better to be in those cities, Jesus said. How does anybody ever believe? Well, there�s the prayer there in verses 25, 26, and 27 where God conceals and He reveals.

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It reminds me of the parables in Matthew 13. To the unbelievers, they�re given, the parables are given to hide and the parables are given to believers to reveal.

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And then after we see the revelation from God about His Son, so people would have any inkling to believe, any desire to believe, there has to be an initiation by God, the trying of God first, then there�s the call, the call to salvation, �Come unto

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Me.� He could say, �Believe in Me ,� but of course the context is a bunch of Pharisees, extra rules, heavy burden, and the context is also these cities,

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Capernaum and Bethsaida, Chorazin, they didn�t feel the burden of their sin, so why have a

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Savior? Those that do feel the burden of their sin come to Christ for rest, for relief, for forgiveness.

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Matthew stresses Jesus� gentleness, chapter 18, chapter 19.

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This is Messianic servant language from Isaiah chapter 42. Additionally, when it comes to the

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Old Testament, when you�re thinking about this passage, think of Jeremiah 6 .16,

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�Thus says Yahweh, �Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.�

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But they said, �We will not walk in it.� That�s exactly what�s happening here in Matthew chapter 11.

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Here�s the ancient path, and whether it�s believe in God as Moses proclaimed, or Elisha, or Elijah, or Isaiah, all the prophets of God, Zechariah, no, we don�t want to.

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That�s the leaders here. So everything about this is developed in the

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Old Testament, and here the exclamation point is just placed. You get rest now from working for salvation, and you get rest in future, in heaven.

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That�s what you get. And it can�t be our works to get to heaven, because then there would never be rest, right?

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So what does Jesus say? He says, �Come.� What if Jesus said, �Do.�

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Right? He said that before to the rich young ruler, �Do this and live. Love God.

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Keep the commandments.� There�d be no rest. There�d be no rest, no peace for the wicked, no rest for the wicked.

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He says simply, �Come.� Right? Come follow me.

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No, here he says, �Come.� He didn�t say, �Go to a certain religion. Go do these baptisms and circumcisions and consecrations.�

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No, he didn�t say, �Go to a priest. Go to a clergyman. Come to me.�

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J. C. Rowell exhorts us, �Beloved brethren, see that you refuse not him who speaks this to you today.

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If a letter came to you from the ruler of this country, you would not despise it. If you were sick, the advice came from a wise physician, you would not reject it.

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If you were in danger and counsel came from your best and truest friend, you would not make light of it.

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Then hear the words that Jesus sends to you this day. Listen to the King of kings. Then body and soul shall be his.�

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Jesus doesn�t say, �Go to Moses.� He doesn�t say, �Go to the law.�

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I mean, �Go to the covenant of works.� That�s not going to work.

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We�re tainted by Adam�s sin. Remember, Adam�s sin imputed to our account, and consequently we become sinners.

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So, there�s no way around it. He says, �Come to me.� This is a personal issue.

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This is trust. This is belief. He doesn�t say, �Go to the sacraments first, right ?�

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There�s nothing wrong with those. Go to the ordinances. Nothing wrong with those. He says, �Go to the

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Savior.� By the way, if you�re evangelizing, evangelism, come to church.

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Is that what you tell people? Come to church.

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Now, hopefully the pastor is going to talk about Jesus, and that would be fine, I guess. But I was always taught, never invite someone to church that you haven�t evangelized.

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Come to Jesus. And if you�d like to know more about Jesus, then you can come to church.

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I get it. I understand. But this is, after all, no Compromise Radio, isn�t it? Time for another swig of this new

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Zedlin tea. You need to look to the

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Lord Jesus Christ now. Don�t wait to go to church. This is a command.

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Remember, He has the authority. Lord of heaven and earth has given

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Him this authority. The Father has given Him this authority by trusting, believing in the

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Lord Jesus Christ. You�re burdened by sin, and the guilt of sin, and the effects of sin, and the consequences of sin.

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You don�t want to go to hell, you�d rather go to heaven, you�d rather be forgiven than condemned.

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�Sirs, what must I do to be saved ?� The jailer at Philippi will do some stuff.

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�Keep these rules, go make amends, come unto me.�

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One writer said, �Grown, being burdened with the guilt of sin on their consciences, pressed down with the unsupportable yoke of the law and the load of their trespasses, and have been laboring till they are weary in order to obtain peace of conscience and rest for their soul by the observance of these things, but in vain.

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These are encouraged to come to Him, lay down their burdens at His feet, and look to Him, and lay hold by faith on His person, blood, and righteousness.�

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Are you laboring? Are you heavy -laden? Then come to Jesus. The yoke of the law, ceremonial law, come to Jesus.

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But when He came to His senses, Luke 15, He said, �How many of My Father�s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here ?�

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Whether you�re the Philippian jailer or the Son, go to the Father through the

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Son. Isaiah 50 verse 4, �The Lord God has given

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Me the tongue of disciples, that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. He awakens

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Me morning by morning. He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.� The kindness of God to give to weary and burdened people.

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The prodigal had had it with his life amongst the pigs.

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And so, Jesus invites, �Come to Me. Come to Me.�

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I mean, when you realize your own righteousness isn�t going to do it, when you realize that your sin is a burden and you�re heavy, laden, pushed down, can you imagine the

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Jews? The burdensome things that they put on the people, these leaders that put on people, and tithing, things that they didn�t have to, and extra fast days and all these things?

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The word weary comes from labor or fatigue, kapiao. In the old secular

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Greek, it was used for beating. You�ve been so tired because you just got beat, you got beat up.

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It reminds me of the saying, �The beatings will continue until the morale improves.� Right? Effort, exertion, to the point of sweat and exhaustion.

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You are worn out. Present tense. People talk about throwing in the towel.

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I try to please God and I fall short. I can�t get there on my own.

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The world tells me what to do to be right. I can�t do it. It doesn�t work. Satan drives me certain ways, and here it says, �heavy laden.�

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It means to bring or to carry some load, and it means to cause someone to be burdened with something.

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Like if you put so much freight on a ship, think Acts 27, 10, �the burden of keeping the law.�

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Luke 11, 46, �But he said, �Woe to you lawyers as well. You weigh men down ,� that�s the verb, �with burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers.�

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Heavy laden, weary. Works righteousness is tiring, isn�t it?

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Laden with care. What does Jesus say? �I will give you rest.�

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I like Thomas Brooks when he said, �I will not show you rest nor barely tell you of rest, but I will give you rest.�

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That�s amazing. And since God cannot lie, He�s going to give you rest through faith.

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You want rest? It�s not purchased with your works, it�s purchased by the blood of Christ, and you receive it through faith.

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Now, speaking of rest and burdens, remember John Bunyan, not

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Paul Bunyan and his ox babe, but John Bunyan, the writer of Pilgrim�s Progress.

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Remember him? Have you read Pilgrim�s Progress? Pilgrim the star, no,

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I shouldn�t say star, the main character, that�s better, the main character weighed down with the burden of his sin.

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You know, the law will quicken your mind, will make you think, you know what,

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I have sin now because I see the law and I see where I�ve fallen short.

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John Bunyan says this in Pilgrim�s Progress, �As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place where was a den, and I laid me down in that place to sleep.

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And as I slept, I dreamed a dream. I dreamed and behold a man clothed with rags, standing in a certain place, with his face from his own house, a book in his hand, and a great burden on his back.

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I looked and saw him open the book and read therein. And as he read, he wept and trembled, and not being able longer to contain, he break out with a lamentable cry, saying, �What shall

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I do ?� What shall I do? That�s amazing.

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Isn�t that the story of this man burdened by the weight of sin?

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His conscience is now thinking about the law of God. What do

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I do ?� John Bunyan goes on, �He ran thus till he came to a place somewhat ascending, and upon that place stood a cross and a little below in the bottom a sepulcher.

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So I saw in my dream that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosened from off his shoulders and fell from off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do so until it came to the end of the mouth of the sepulcher, where it fell in and saw it, and I saw it no more.

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Come to me.� The text goes on, �Then was Christian glad and lifesome, and said with a merry heart, �He hath given me� are you ready for it �rest by his sorrow and life by his death.

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Then he stood still a while to look and wonder, for it was very surprising to him that the side of the cross should thus ease him of his burden.

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He looked therefore and looked again, even till the springs that were in his head sent the waters down his cheeks.

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Now as he stood looking and weeping, behold, three shining ones came to him and saluted him with, �Peace be to thee ,� so that the first said to him, �Thy sins be forgiven thee.�

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The second stripped him of his rags and clothed him with a change of raiment, and the third set a mark on his forehead and gave him a roll with a seal upon it, which he bade him look on as he ran, and that he should give it in at the celestial gate.

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So they went on their way. Then Christian gave three leaps for joy and went on singing.� Here was this song, �Thus far did

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I come laden with my sin, nor could aught ease the grief that I was in, till I came hither.

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What a place is this! Must here be the beginning of my bliss! Must here the burden fall off my back!

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Must here the strings that bound it me to crack! Blessed cross, blessed sepulcher, blessed rather be the man that there was put to shame for me.�

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What a great picture in the Pilgrim�s Progress, the burden. How did that big burden on the back of Bunyan come about?

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Well, if you go to Bedford, England, you can see the anvil that Bunyan used to carry as a tinker before he became a pastor.

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He was an itinerant tinker. He mended pots and pans, and you can find that anvil in the museum in Bedford, and inscribed that 60 -pound anvil, �J.

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Bunyan, Hellstone, 1647.� Isn�t that amazing?

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That�s amazing. Carrying that anvil in the bag of tools around the villages, fixing pots and pans.

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By the time you took it off, oh, that�d be such a relief to get that off my back. Come unto me.

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Isn�t that amazing? Come and have you by faith, weary, burdened, realizing you�re not self -sufficient any longer?

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James 4 says, �He gives a greater grace.� Therefore, it says, �God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

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Submit therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

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Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double -minded. Be miserable, and mourn, and weep.

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Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the

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Lord, and he will exalt you.� That�s amazing. Matthew 23, �Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.�

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When you�re trying to get to heaven by works, Barnhouse said, �It�s like a canoe.

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It�s good for a lake, but not for the ocean.� Good works are good for the earth, but they�re not good to get you to heaven.

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That is, they help other people, but they don�t get your soul saved. Think about who�s the one who says, �Come unto me.�

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Does he have the power to save? Is his cross good enough to save? Did he die a substitutionary death to save?

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The focus is on the object of faith. It�s not how worthy we are. It�s not how good we are, how educated we are.

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It has none of that. So many theologians talk about this invitation as an invitation coming from someone who has grace and mercy, and doesn�t that remind you of Isaiah, �Come now and let us reason together, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow.�

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Doesn�t it remind you all is ready? Come unto the marriage,

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Matthew 22. What does the Bible say in Revelation 22, 16 and 17, �I,

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Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.

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The Spirit and the bride say, �Come.� Let the one who hears say, �Come.�

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Let the one who is thirsty, �Come.� Let the one who desires take the water of life. Wait, stop, hurry, that�s an invitation.

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And so if you say no, then the invitation becomes a condemnation, in effect, because when you turn your back on the one who gives you the invite, then you don�t want to escape the wrath to come.

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You don�t want to escape judgment. You want to pay for your own sins. Why would you do that?

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Why wouldn�t you just come? Come to Christ. Come unto me. And by the way, it�s the life of faith, isn�t it?

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We believe initially the first time, and we keep believing. We come the first time, and we can keep on coming.

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You have a trial or a trouble, you can go to Jesus. You�ve got grief, you can go to Jesus.

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You have difficulties, you can go to Jesus. You have praises, you can go to Jesus.

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I�m pretty much sick of myself, aren�t you? Sometimes I�m sick of others, sadly to my shame.

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I�m sick of the world. So then you go to Jesus. You won�t be sick of Him, I guarantee you that.

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This is amazing. Rest. Where can real rest be found? Our own merit?

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Our own goodness? Jesus is the only answer. Stead wrote, yes, �To sweet to trust in Jesus, just from sin and self to cease, just from Jesus simply taking life and rest and joy and peace.�

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Isn�t that amazing? That is amazing. So, if you�re listening today, and you say to yourself, �I�m a

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Christian, and I�ve come to Christ.� Well, friends, why don�t you cast your burdens on the

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Lord, even the ones that aren�t the sin burdens, right? Jesus has already paid for those, but just your troubles and your trials, right?

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It matters to God about you. That�s 1 Peter, right? Casting all your burdens on Him because it matters to Him about you.

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That�s a good way to translate it. It�s amazing. And you can see

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Jesus even calling to the Father and wanting to do

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God�s will and desiring to obey God. And that�s the one we know has the ear of the

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Father because He does the Father�s will because of the triune God. And this Jesus says, �Come to me.�

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And you want to get to the Father, it�s through the Son. Well, my name is Mike Avendroth. This is No Compromise Radio.

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You can always write us, info at nocompromiseradio .com. Hopefully there�ll be a couple new books out this year, 2018 that year.

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Colossians with S. Lewis Johnson, and I�m working on another book. I just need to be motivated to do that.

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My kids will be in town for the next three weeks. I�ll try to get Luke Abendroth here on the radio show again.

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This will be his third winter home to be on the radio. And last time

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I think we talked about the whole crisis with Sinclair Ferguson. Maybe we�ll talk about something else this next time.

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We just sit down and talk and see what happens. Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio. 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.