Bavinck and Law Gospel Preaching

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry, Mike Abendroth here, and I�m in the studio alone today. Steve�s not here. Pat�s not here. Luke�s not here. Kim�s not here.

I almost got Kim here a couple days ago, but not quite, so we�re working on that. I know you don�t have the Gospel Assurance book out yet. I had to make a few last changes to the file, then it takes a few more days for them to okay it, and so it�s going to be out soon.

I thought late August, it�s probably going to be mid-September now. Hopefully about in one week after you hear this, the book will be out. Gospel Assurance 31-Day Guide, I just reread the whole thing.

Some chapters simple, some chapters a little harder, but 31 chapters designed to help you focus on the Lord Jesus Christ and then think about assurance rightly. I�ve been preaching through Psalm 139, as you know, here on the show, and then, of course, on Sunday morning, I have the message in front of me, and I was wondering what it was going to say at the end.

I mean, everybody loves the beginning, �God, you�re so awesome and wonderful, and you know all about me, you�re everywhere, and you made me. And then what about the end? And you go, �Whoa, where did this come from

And actually, you know what? He didn�t back off, so I was glad for that. �Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you, and please, God, do away with wickedness for good. I�m thinking, �Oh, he�s not talking about the wicked people there, but just wickedness in general.

�And you murderers, out of here. I don�t like that. �All the men and women who belittle you, God, infatuated with cheap God imitations, see how I hate those who hate you, God. See how I loathe all this godless arrogance.

I hate it with pure, unadulterated hatred. Your enemies are my enemies. Well, there you have it. Not bad. I have to give credit to where credit�s due. Investigate my life, oh God. Find out everything about me.

Cross-examine and test me. Get a clear picture of what I�m about. See for yourself whether I�ve done anything wrong. Then guide me on the road to eternal. Psalm 140, I just glanced down at it. �God, get me out of here.

I guess ESV says, �Deliver me, oh Lord, from evil men. So it�s got Yahweh in the original, and here we�ve got God or Elohim. �God, get me out of here. So there you have it on No Compromise Radio.

�God, get me out of here. I was saying that when I was in the hospital for 16 days. Yikes, �get me out of here. My prayer was more help. So I�m coming up on one year out of the hospital. That�s pretty amazing.

Praise the Lord I�m alive. Let�s hope I don�t get COVID again. If I do, I�ll have to get a different strategy tacked than I did last time. Hopefully, it�s not as bad as the last variance. Well, if I survey my life in ministry and somebody said, �Well, you know, let�s just say when I die people are like, �What was his ministry all about

I hope people will say, �He wanted to teach all the Bible. He didn�t get through Jeremiah or Isaiah or Ezekiel. I can�t believe I haven�t taught through a major prophet. I did teach through Daniel. Seventy weeks took me.

I think that�s actually true. That�s too long. I taught the Bible to the church that God let him pastor. He was faithful to his wife and children, had a good relationship with his wife and his children.

Maybe there are some nice things he�ll say, of course, all by the grace of God. But in particular, in terms of ministry, what was his focus? In the old days, maybe it was no-compromise radio, calling out people that taught the bad things and taught wrong things.

Not just bad things, but the bad things. And hopefully, you�ve seen the show progress. As a matter of fact, one of you emailed me and said, �I tuned in to NOCO because you would go after these false teachers, and then I kept listening, and then now I�ve been on the path with you of progress to more of a Christ-centered ministry.

And now that�s what I like, and so I keep listening. If I�m known for, or this is what I mean, this would be amazing, Christ-centered preaching, duplex gratia, law gospel, of course that relates, three uses of the law, that�s tucked under law gospel.

So, there�s the law to condemn, the law that curbs sin in society, and then the law that guides the Christian, not condemns the Christian, but guides, so that he or she knows how to live a holy life, but motivated by who Jesus is, thankful that the unbegotten Father sins and the Spirit attends and applies.

And he talked a lot about sanctification, because that relates to duplex gratia as well, Christ for us, Christ in us, right? Christ for pardon, Christ for power. I�d be very happy. I mean, Christ-centered preaching, law gospel, duplex gratia, sanctification, and assurance.

If that�s what I�m known for, great. And of course, if you talk about those things enough, then I�m sure you�re going to get your detractors, and maybe people aren�t going to hear it properly, and then they�re going to say, �Well, you know, he doesn�t talk about holy living enough.

I don�t know how that could be, if you listen to the sanctification series, a whole episode on American Gospel Television on that very thing, pursuing holiness, but anyway, I only have to live with myself anyway and my wife, so she knows the focus of the ministry, and so do I.

And if that was what I was known for, I�d be very, very happy. I wonder if you said, �Hey, tune in to No Compromise Radio, you�ll hear about�, and then you don�t know. I mean, Fridays, you know, we just celebrated our 3500th show, our 3500th.

It�s harder to talk than you think. Some of those old ones, I don�t know. Maybe there�s some scolding and some other stuff going on. Who knows? You got to be careful. But the thrust these days. So in light of that, I wanted to talk about Hermann Bavink, B-A-V-I-N-C-K.

And you can get his theology, I don�t know, is it called dogmatic theology? Four-volume set, I don�t even know, I think it�s Banner of Truth, it might be Reformation Heritage, I�m not even sure. Hmm, that�s a good question.

I�ve only read one and a half of the volumes, maybe only one, I think the Sin Savior one or something. I can�t really remember. But I like Bavink, and you should too. He�s saying it in English now, so that�s wonderful.

And I pulled up Law, Gospel, Distinction in Preaching. And this was an article you can get on Monergism. Law, Gospel, Distinction in Preaching. Now, maybe you think, you know, this Law, Gospel stuff, it�s new, oh, it�s Lutheran, that�s what a lot of people say.

It�s imposed on the text, bad hermeneutics, and by the way, we�re not Lutheran. Well, this is a Reformation doctrine, and here you have even in the 1700s, I don�t really remember when he was alive, 1800s I bet, he�s still thinking about Law, Gospel, Preaching.

And of course, that�s one of the things I like to talk about, because it seems to me, anecdotally, just in general observation, that people that run in my circles, most of the time, while they�ll say, oh yes, of course we believe in who Jesus is, and people get saved by hearing about Jesus and what he�s done, and what a great sin bearer he is, and man of sorrows, Isaiah 53, and the substitutionary language is a literal resurrection.

But then what happens is once people are in, it seems like many people, many pastors, and people in the congregation, either give their people or the people want, or both, I just need more Law, I need more tell me what to do, I need to cooperate maybe with grace, I need to be motivated by Law or fear, right, making the Law first use, and I think maybe last time I looked, Perfect Love cast out, well, that�s another show.

The fear of the Lord we have now is the fear of a son who has a great father, filial fear, not a servile, slavish fear. And my point here today is, Herman Bovink, he talked about Law, Gospel, Preaching, and it�s not just give Christians now the Law.

Of course give Christians Law, just read Colossians 3, 5 and following, Ephesians 4, 1 and following, Romans 12, 1 and following, Hebrews 13, 1 and following. You see where I�m coming from? Of course.

We are not lawless people. People that believe in the third use of the Law are not lawless. But here we have Bovink. This is not Luther. This is not Beza. We need to get the Beza briefing back here soon enough.

This is not Calvin. This is Herman Bovink talking about Law, Gospel, Distinctions in Preaching. And he is pretty sharp when it comes to this topic. Now, it says here, again, Law, Gospel, Distinction in Preaching, Herman Bovink, �But the Reformers while on one hand maintaining against the Anabaptists the unity of the covenant of grace in both of its administrations, on the other hand kept in view the very sharp contrast between law and gospel and thereby restore the unique character of a Christian religion as a religion of grace.

Although law and gospel can still be employed in a broader sense for the old and new dispensations of the covenant of grace, in their proper meaning they refer nonetheless to two revelations of God�s will that differ essentially from one another.

So what he is saying when we say law, gospel, what does that mean? Well, sometimes in the writings of the Reformation, for instance Calvin, you would think law was the Old Testament and gospel was the new.

Sometimes they talk that way. Gospel broadly speaking could be, oh, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, the gospels, general good news, Mark 1, 1, the beginning of the gospel of God. Law could be just general teaching, Torah.

This is just general instruction from God. Therefore, he is basically saying there is a strict definition of law is due and gospel is done. I think he will say that right here. The law too is God�s will, holy and wise and good, spiritual, giving life to whomever keeps it, Romans 2 .13.

But through sin it has become impotent and does not justify, but through sin the law stimulates desire, increases the trespass, affects wrath, kills, curses, and damns, Romans 3, Galatians 3. There he is talking about the first use of the law.

It was a means of life if you kept it, but of course we know Adam's sin has a federal head and immediate results of that. So we can't. But if somebody could obey God, why would he ever send him to hell?

You disobeyed me. You sinned against me. No, no. You just obey and you live. That's Romans chapter 2. Still thinking, strictly speaking, Bavinck goes on to say, and over against the law stands the gospel of Christ, the euangelion, containing nothing less than the fulfillment of the Old Testament, coming to us from God, Romans 1, 2 Corinthians 11, having Christ as its content, Romans 1, Ephesians 3, and bringing nothing else than grace, Acts 20, reconciliation, 2 Corinthians 5, forgiveness, Romans 4, righteousness, Romans 3, peace, Ephesians 6, freedom, Galatians 5, life, Romans 1, period.

Like demand and gift, like command and promise, like sin and grace, like sickness and healing, like death and life, so here, too, law and gospel stand over against one another. Although they overlap to the extent that they both have God as author, both speak of one and the same perfect righteousness, both are directed to man to bring him eternal life, yet they differ in that the law proceeds from God's holiness, the gospel from his grace.

The law known from nature, right, you can get law from nature, right, and conscience. The gospel only by special revelation. Years ago, there was a book, maybe D. James Kennedy fell for it and then talked about it, and maybe Bullinger, the old author, and you can get the gospel in the stars, because what's basically happening is, what are we gonna do with people in Sri Lanka in the 600s, and there's no gospel.

I don't know when Sri Lanka got the gospel, but that means everybody before then perished. Let's just use that as an example, it's probably not true, but if in 650, the gospel went to Sri Lanka, and it never got there before 650.

Everybody who was born and lived in Sri Lanka, short of a parchment, floated up on the sea, everybody was damned, because they were sinful, and grace is not deserved, and grace is freely given, and it's freely given through a proclamation of the gospel, and Romans 10, we need to preach, we need to preach good news, and that's why we have to be sent, and so the gospel's only by special revelation.

Bhavink goes on, the law demands perfect righteousness, the gospel bestows it. That's good. One demands, the other gives. No demands in the gospel, only a great giving, only a great, I mean, it's good news, that's why it's called gospel.

The law leads to eternal life through works, Bhavink said, the gospel makes works proceed from eternal life bestowed through faith. Of course, with Luther, Bhavink isn't against good works, and neither is no compromised radio ministry, don't let anybody tell you anything differently.

We're not against good works, we just are against works when they're in the wrong category, right? The category for works, in terms of justification, it has to be Christ's works alone, because there better be, as you know here, peep, perfect, entire, exact, perpetual obedience.

The gospel makes works proceed from eternal life bestowed through faith. That's Ephesians chapter 2, 10 language, is it not? Or the idea, at least. The law currently condemns man, the gospel acquits him.

The law is directed to all men, the gospel only to those who live under it. Well, what I like here with Bhavink, is he's really fleshing out, okay, when we talk about law gospel, sometimes I think there's such a bifurcation, one's due and the other's done, that we don't see how they relate to one another.

And we don't see, for instance here, did you not think that this was interesting, regarding the overlap, the overlap of the law and gospel? That doesn't mean we're getting into gospel, that means what kind of overlap?

I mean, we're not overlapping categories, due and done, if you overlap those, everything's due, right, you're conflating, you have just one covenant of grace, that means you've got law slash works in gospel slash grace, it's monocovenantalism, and then you're federal vision, theonomist, et cetera, et cetera.

Karl Barth and others, probably New Covenant theologians, well, here we have categories that are different, but there's overlap in terms of this, remember, I just read it, both have God as author, I mean, the law comes from God's nature, right, and who's the one that brings the good news, who's the one that invented the good news, what about the Trinitarian covenant, intra-Trinitarian, the pactum salutis, God as author, they both have, they both talk about perfect righteousness, isn't that good, right, by keeping it, or Jesus keeping it, one's law, one's gospel, both directed to man, it's not like law is directed to us and gospel's directed to angels, or vice versa, to bring him into eternal life, right, that was the point, we've got a God who so loves sinners, he sends his son who so loves sinners, and the spirit who so loves sinners is there to watch the agreement and be involved, because there's only one God and one will, and eternity passed, all three together, right, and we think, oh, what's the point, eternal life, those are some wonderful overlaps, and so that doesn't make us go to law, gospel, lawspool, that just tells us, oh, okay, this is how we should think about it, the right way.

Law, gospel differ not so much in that the law always meets us in the form of command and the gospel in the form of promise. Well, what is Bavinck saying? Bavinck is saying what we're saying, that we have the law and we have the gospel, and now let's make it as practical as possible.

When you evangelize, you should be preaching law and gospel. This is what God demands, this is what God offers, right, they're shut up in their sins when they hear the law, Romans 3 at 19, and then you give them the good news, and the good news doesn't accuse, it gives, right, it proclaims.

The law accuses, and then we have no demands in the gospel, but just free offers. Therefore, when you evangelize your children, you talk about the law and show them they're sinners, and then you give them the good news and you exhort them to believe.

When you're evangelizing your friends, it's the same thing. When you talk to Christians and you want to motivate them, somebody calls you in the middle of the night and says, I'm having a hard time being content, and I can't sleep, or they call you and say, I'm anxious and I'm counting the sheep, but it doesn't work, excuse me, and I have a very, very difficult time with worry and depression, what do you tell them?

This is really the punchline of the whole show. Most every time, you'll probably give them some law. Now, if you stop there, I don't think you've done a Christian thing. If you start there, perfect. Did you know the Bible says, this is what you say to your friend, thank you for calling me, I struggle with sin too, and I know that you know, the Bible says, rejoice always again, I say rejoice, Philippians 4.

And it goes on to talk about anxiousness and how the Lord is near, and how you ought to be praying, and how the peace that surpasses all knowledge can guard and keep your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.

I think that's all good. You can tell them, do not be anxious. Did Jesus say that in Matthew 6 in the Sermon on the Mount? Of course, tell them, don't be anxious. Recognize it as sin. It's a sin for Christians to be anxious.

It's a sin for Christians not to be content. It's a sin for Christians to complain. It's a sin for Christians to look at pornography, whatever. It's a sin not to love your wife. It's a sin not to submit to your husband, whatever that might be.

And you call sin a sin when it comes to other Christians. I think that's important. That's what we need to do, because we're telling them, here's what God's law requires, because it reflects His nature, and His essence, and His good character, His righteous character.

But is that all you say? So the point with law gospel preaching is, it's not just law. For the unbeliever, it's law gospel, and for the believer, this is what No Compromise Radio is going to keep harping on over and over and over and over, is we also tell the Christian things about the Lord Jesus, things about the Father and the Spirit.

I mean, if I say Jesus, you can just assume I'm talking Trinitarianly, because it's the Father who sent Him, and the Spirit who applies His work, right? If I talk about the Spirit, He's the one that's sent by the Father and the Son.

If I talk about the Father, He's the unbegotten Father, who's the sender of the Son. I mean, it just keeps going and going, but for the sake of just not having to do a theological zip file, we just say the Son.

And the Son, when we talk about Him, He is so motivating, because He's so good, and generous, and compassionate, and so self-sacrificial, that we, when we think about complaining and what we deserve, and Lamentations 3, should anybody sin and lie to...should anybody complain and lie to their sins?

I mean, you know, no possible way. Therefore, when we talk to other Christians, we give them both law and gospel. I mean, if you're a parent, I mean, I say this over and over again, if you're a parent, you have any decency at all, and you discipline your children, verbally or other ways, after the discipline, after the correction, after the law, after the chastisement, what do you do?

Tell them to beat it? No. You say, you know, they say to you, I love, I mean, I forgive, you know, please forgive me. And we say, of course I forgive you. I love you. What's that? That's gospel. That's not any conditional.

That's not transactional. That's not anything else. That's I love you. I loved you before. I loved you during. I loved you after. You're the best. I prayed for you. I can't believe the Lord gave me someone like you.

I can't wait to do something fun with you. That's all statements of fact, triumphant indicatives, as Machen would call them. Therefore, dear listener, when you hear law gospel stuff, yes, there are theological categories.

Yes, there's nuances of, oh, there's three kinds of law. There's moral, civil, ceremonial, and then there's three uses of the law, right? To an unbeliever, to society, and for the believer. Oh, then there's gospel.

There's strict sense, what Jesus did in Christ, what God did in Christ Jesus, and then general sense, good news for gospels, and then even more general sense, the New Testament. Yeah, there are all these theological categories.

That's true. But what we need to be reminded of is, all right, now, how do we use this? We use it by saying, when somebody struggles, and when the pastor's up there preaching, the Sunday school teacher's teaching, the home group leader's teaching, here's what you should do, yes.

Who gave you these rules? Well, the Father did, and you have them from the hand of Christ. Therefore, it's for your own good, and you want to obey out of gratitude and thanksgiving, because everything is guilt, grace, and what?

Gratitude. That's why this is so important, because it's where the rubber meets the road, it's where the boots hit the ground. Law gospel to the unbeliever, and law gospel to the believer. Mike Abendroth, NoCompromiseRadio .com.

No Compromise Radio, with Pastor Mike Abendroth, is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church, firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015, and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org, or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.