How To Be Commended By God

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, always biblical, always provocative, always in that order, at least that is my desire, our desire.

Pastor Steve has been taking care of his wife, Janet, who had some cancer in her lung, and so he has not been on Tuesday for a little while, but I have not formally kicked him off the show, so he will be back.

And if you remember, pray for Janet. So far, the results have been good, and recovery has been going well, too. Secondly, I always like to say that No Compromise Radio really stems from my desire not to compromise, and I see so much compromise out in the world.

But I realized over time that I compromise, too, even though I don�t want to. So we�ve kind of switched a little bit, and that is, we�ve switched it to Jesus never compromised. At the cross, none of the attributes of God were compromised, and therefore, in light of that, I don�t want to compromise.

So there you have it. You can write us, info at nocompromiseradio .com, or if you want to email me, mike at nocompromiseradio .com. I�ve been not doing too many shows these days, not traveling a whole lot.

I do Stand Up for Truth out of Wisconsin once a month, and besides that, that is about it. I think I�ll do an expository preaching seminar in New England for a couple days in January of 2020. And did somebody tell me that 2020 vision is just average vision?

It�s just average, so 2020. And then, I don�t know, I think I speak at the Shepherds Conference in Germany later in 2020, but that�s about all the travel plans that I have. John Tucker maybe as well. Anyway, when I used to say that I was speaking at the German Shepherds Conference, people thought it was a dog show.

It was a canine show, German Shepherds. Before we get into the meat of the show today, the bulk of the show, did you get a flyer in the mail lately? Have you received a flyer in the mail in the last few years?

You know those odd-shaped, a little more poster kind of material, and they�re advertising a church, a new church, a hip church, cool church, not too many old-style churches. Anyway, I got one the other day, and it was talking about a new kind of church, new kind of deal, and I thought it was fascinating.

It says this on the back. It says, �No matter who you are, what you�ve done, or what you believe in, you�re welcome here. Okay, so that�s the first line. So far, nothing new, right? Because when it comes to Bethlehem Bible Church, our other Bible-teaching churches, even OPC and PCA churches, �No matter who you are, what you�ve done, or what you believe in, you�re welcome here.

That�s true, right? I�m going to tell you what I believe when you�re here, what the Bible teaches, what we believe as a church, 1689 London Baptist Confession. But you�re welcome to come. You�re welcome to attend.

I mean, if you stand up and shout me down a sermon, that�s another thing. But then it says, �This particular church is a loving, relevant, and life-giving environment where we believe that it�s okay to not be okay.

Loving, that�s good. I appreciate loving environments. I appreciate relevant environments, and of course, if you teach the Bible, it is relevant. Last time I checked, God�s relevant, sin�s relevant, forgiveness is relevant, the Holy Spirit is relevant.

And life-giving, if that means God supernaturally makes people alive by causing them to be born again. There�s �make alive� in Colossians 2, �make alive� in Ephesians 2, �cause to be born again 1 Peter 1, so far so good.

And where we believe, it doesn�t matter what you believe, but what we believe, that it�s okay to not be okay. What if I believe, because of that first sentence, are what you believe in. What if I believe in it�s not okay to not be okay?

Actually, we didn�t get this sent to the church, it was sent to my home. That�d be funny to get one of these sent to the church. Next line, �We�re not perfect, and we don�t expect you to be either. Okay, I get that, except Matthew 5, 48, God expects you to be.

On that day when you stand before Him, you better be perfect. �You won�t find a group of judgmental typo, judgmental, remember there�s no �e� in judgment or judgmental, there�s not two �e�s in judgmental, just the one.

Hypocritical, there�s a bunch of hypocrites here, I know I�m a hypocrite, I hate my hypocrisy and I try to slay it and crucify it, but we are all hypocritical, are we not? Unwelcoming people. I like churches that welcome people, so I give them kudos for that.

�But you will find a loving community of broken people who have all experienced the transformational love and hope of Jesus. Hey, I give them kudos for that. I won�t nitpick with that, I�m glad when people talk about love of Jesus and hope of Jesus.

That�s probably best line in the whole thing. �You�ll also experience� I don�t know if that word is picked on purpose or not �experience culturally relevant music and creative elements. I don�t really, that�d probably be the thing that I wouldn�t like the most.

We Christians are underneath the Word of God and God prescribes worship and we are not to be creative. There is a strange fire, Leviticus 10. We have very simple, ordinary means of grace, right? Simple things like paper, that is the Bible, water, baptism, bread, and wine, or grape juice, depending on how you can look at it.

I don�t need anything new. By the way, culturally relevant music will be irrelevant soon enough. �As well as hear a life-giving, uplifting message that will speak to you wherever you are in life. Now, I�m not against uplifting messages, but they�re not going to be there every week.

A couple weeks ago I preached on hell because Hebrews 10, 26 and following actually talks about that. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God and instead of uplifting, it pretty much just sucks the air out of the room.

For your kids, we offer age-appropriate environments where your kids can learn about Jesus, good, amen, instead of morals or anything like that, in a safe and engaging space. Excellent. We want to make sure we are all quarry-checked, taken care of, and watch the kids.

Whether you�ve never stepped foot inside a church or it�s been a while, this is a place you can call home. Join us for our grand opening, new location, this coming week. I don�t know if you get those flyers or not.

I don�t know how much those flyers are. To me, though, the whole idea of new, when it comes to we have lots of ways to describe church, and I would submit to you, dear listener, that new is never good.

If it�s a new song that somebody wrote, sing to the Lord a new song, this generation has experienced the goodness and kindness of the Lord, let�s write another song. That part I get. Anyway, what I�ve been doing lately here on No Compromise Radio is I�ve been kind of working through the book of Hebrews with you.

I haven�t been doing it verse by verse, but I�ll talk about these culturally relevant things. Oh, don�t forget 2021, Israel, February 18th through 29th, something like that, and a few days extra for Rome.

I don�t know if we�ll be able to get the Rome thing going on. Probably be about another $1 ,000 for Rome, I guess is about $3 ,300 for the Israel trip from Boston, and then Rome would make it more expensive, but we will see.

Oh, tomorrow I�m reading Genesis 24, and if you want to see drama, if you want to experience trauma, you want to go to Genesis 24, Isaac�s wife. Will they find the wife for Isaac? And how do they find the wife for Isaac?

And the repeated word, �Behold. What else is in the news? Kanye West and Joe Osteen are thinking about doing some Sunday services together, and there are big gigs planned. I don�t think Kanye�s taking the advice of Adam Tyson, because I�m sure Adam would say don�t do that.

Kanye does the music, Joe gives the message. What a complete fiasco. There are qualifications for pastors and teachers, and pastors better talk a lot about what the Bible talks about, and that is sin and the Savior from sin.

And when you�re not going to get up and talk about sin, you�re not going to give the law to point to the Savior. I mean, by the way, Joe Osteen, in my opinion, most of the time, it�s all law anyway. Do this to feel better.

It�s just gospel-less, right? You might say the word �Jesus� here or there, but anyway, so that was disappointing, but that doesn�t make Kanye an unbeliever. That just makes me think, �Oh, bummer. Hebrews chapter 11, now, last time we looked, did we look at it last time?

I think we did, that it�s kind of the hall of faith, and people begin right away to make all kinds of assumptions in Hebrews chapter 11. I don�t know why I�m so tired. It is Saturday, probably 4 -18, December 14th, my kids get to town next week, so that�s going to be fun.

I go to New York soon for a doctor�s appointment. Then that�s for the prostate, cancer follow-up, and then I�ve got to get my knee, ACL, replaced. Ouch. So, who knows how many shows I�ll do then. I need to move all this stuff home, and I could just start doing this in my home instead of driving here to the church, but that�s another story.

The Commendation of God in Hebrews 11

Maybe I could start off this way. I could ask you if you�ve ever gotten an award. What was the last award you got? What was the last commendation that you received, or maybe trophy, a medal? When I was a kid, I didn�t get too many, but I got a few.

Remember the old punt, pass, and kick championship where you punt, pass, and kick? Isn�t that amazing? I actually won that. I think I was probably 11 years old in 1971. Omaha, Nebraska, I probably got a couple little trophies from National Honor Society slash science fairs, and not too many after that.

I�ll never have been one of those. I�m always at the top of the class or anything like that. Remember the people back in high school that they were the star of the football team, star of the basketball team.

They played baseball, et cetera. Well, anyway, I�m just a Marine. They just sent me to the front lines and say, �Okay, guard. Hold the line. That�s one of the great things about not being too smart is I�m not smart enough to invent any new doctrines.

I just have to teach you the same old stuff, but there�s something worse than not getting awards, and that�s getting bad awards. I found a few bad awards. One is called the Lantern Rouge, the Lantern Red, and that is the red lantern is given away in Tour de France and other bicycle races when you�re the last person.

There�s a Belgian cyclist named Wim, and he won it three times in a row in the 2000s. There is a Stella Award, and it�s the most ridiculous lawsuit award. One guy in 2005, he received that award because he, Christopher Roller, claimed he was God and that the illusionists, David Blaine and David Copperfield, stole his supernatural powers to perform magic tricks.

Now, that is no-go worthy. Darwin Awards, you wouldn�t want to get one of those. Remember, you get it after you�re dead, posthumously, right? Guy was trying to test his 24th floor windows to show you how strong they were by running into them full speed.

He did get the answer to his question, but it�s not the one I don�t think he wanted. What else? Ig Nobel Prize, right? You have the Nobel Peace Prize. This is the Ig Nobel, and I�m just reading what it says, okay?

So, I�m going to just read this one here. The 2007 Ig Nobel Prize went to the Air Force, and they were awarded the prize for their theoretical gay bomb, which was designed to scatter female pheromones over enemy soldiers, causing them to become sexually attracted to each other.

All right, that�s an award I don�t think you want to get. But there is a commendation, there is an award, or a medal, if you will, that you really want to get. It�s the all-time, top of the list, most important commendation, and that is to be commended by God.

I commend you. Well done, good and faithful servant. Can you imagine to be commended by God? And that�s what the book of Hebrews is talking about. In Hebrews chapter 11, verses 2 and following. Commendation from God.

Now that�s harder than what it sounds when we think about this theologically. Why? Because to be commended by God, we�re not just going to be able to say to ourselves, �Well, you know, God is just, you know, love, and there�s nothing to really deal with when it comes to character, righteousness, judgment.

Commendation by God. It is possible for you to be commended by God. That should encourage you. These recipients needed to be encouraged. These people who received the sermon letter from the writer of Hebrews, from the preacher of Hebrews, Paul or whoever it is.

They needed to be encouraged, right? They needed to be prodded onto at the end of chapter 10 to endure. They needed at the beginning of chapter 12 to fix their eyes on Jesus. And it says in verse 2, and of course we�ve already discussed, why do I have two Bibles open right here?

That�s interesting. I�ve got one on my right side that is the NAS, and one on my left side that is the ESV. That�s probably why there�s two Bibles open. As a matter of fact, I guess that�s a sign. So I�m going to read from both.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. And then the other Bible here, it�s got, well, there�s Obadiah, there�s Acts, what do we have, 2 John. The first one I read was from the ESV.

Now I�m going to go to the NAS and see if it�s a little bit different. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, for the conviction of things not seen. That sounds exactly the same, right? Assurance and conviction, assurance and conviction.

Some Bibles might say substance, right? And he�s giving a, it�s not a detailed definition of faith, if even a definition. It could be describing faith. But anyway, then he says, �For by it, by faith, the men of old gained approval.

That is amazing to me, to be commended by God. Now ESV says, �For by it the people of old received their commendation. So there�s where I get the word to commend, the commendation. And it says in verse 4, which he was commended as righteous, God commending him.

So we�ve got this passive verb, receiving their commendation. So God is the commender. By the way, of course, it�s nice probably and fun when the world commends us, maybe civil things or some type of award for sports or something.

But that�s not the one that really matters. The commendation that really matters on that day, on Judgment Day, is going to be the commendation from God, by God. That�s the one that really counts the most.

And when you look at this chapter, chapter 11, if you see everything driving toward Hebrews 11 .39, you�re going to be in good shape. The key to interpret Hebrews chapter 11, of course, context, 10 and 12, sandwich it, as it were.

It�s also important to remember that we�re talking about faith and not faithfulness. This is faith in the object. It�s also important to see the very end of the chapter, and that�s 11 .39. So, if I had one hint to tell you to help you understand Hebrews 11, it�d be 11 .39.

And all these, he�s talking about all these people, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised. All these people had this forward-looking faith, and they were commended, but they didn�t get everything yet.

So they were looking to the promises of God, and for us, it could be the hope of heaven, glorified bodies, eternal state, seeing Jesus by sight, praising Him in heaven, the exalted Son. But they�re all commended, why?

Because of their faith. You can be commended. Can you imagine, God says to you, Christian, I commend you. The only way that commendation can take place is by faith, because faith is trusting in the work of another for your commendation, another�s obedience, another�s law-keeping, another�s sin-bearing.

That is how to be commended by God. You can�t be faithful enough to have God commend you. You can�t be perfect enough on your own, because you�re fallen, and you�ve got Adam�s sin credited to you, consequently have sin nature, and therefore it�s impossible to be commended by God by yourself.

You need righteous robes. You need the obedience of another. I mean, can you imagine, knowing what you�ve done, knowing what I�ve done, I mean, you don�t know necessarily, and I don�t know what you�ve done, you don�t know what I�ve done, but we generally know, when we think about God�s laws, about loving Him and loving neighbor, I commend you.

To look at our lives and have God commend, I mean, to ask a question, what does God commend? Who does God commend? We would slip into the word that�s close to it, if we weren�t careful, and that is �condemn.

Talk about commendation, it�s condemning, right, if he�s not going to see perfection, because he is perfect, and his law requires perfection. That�s why you must be commended by a different way than works.

There�s two ways to be commended. One is by works, and that�ll never work. That�s the legal method, because of sin, Adam�s sin, consequently, our sins. It requires perfect obedience to the law of God.

The doers of the law will be justified, and we know no one observes all the law of God, and we know that apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, Romans 321.

You can�t get there that way. That�s the legal method, because the standards are just too high, and our works are tainted by sin, and therefore, if we could get to heaven by our own good works, if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died needlessly, Galatians 221.

So there�s a different way, and that different way is through faith. It�s called the gospel method. The legal method is perfectly obey, can�t be done, only the Lord Jesus did that. The gospel message is the righteousness of God comes through faith in Jesus for all who believe, Romans 322.

That is how you receive commendation, is through faith, apart from merit, apart from personal obedience, because God is the one, the Father, who sends His Son, and His Son actually fulfills the covenant of works.

We could not fulfill the covenant of life or covenant of works with personal, perfect, perpetual obedience. We could not do that, but Jesus could, right? He�s the one. The distance of God and creature is so great, we could never do that.

That�s more language of Westminster Confession of Faith. God had to redeem us because we were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons. Therefore, if you�d like to be commended by God, there�s only one way.

All these people in Hebrews 11 were not commended by God because of their works, because of what they did well. Now, they responded, because of faith, with obedience, right? They�re saved through faith, and because of that faith, they responded with obedience.

That is true, whether it is Abel or Noah or Enoch or Abraham. There was a response of obedience, but it was because of faith. So, are you commended by God? The only way you�re commended by God is trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, the risen Savior, the perfect law keeper for sinners like you and for me.

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.