Machen Quiz #1

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

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Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes, as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, ministry.

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Sorry, Steve, that it's been such a long time since I've had you on, but I know you've had a lot of things going on behind the scenes, but formally, welcome back to No Compromise Radio.

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Thank you very much. Yeah, I was on a 30 -day suspension, so. Oh, well, you know what?

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Compared to the 60 -day suspension that you had, this is much better. You know, repentance is quicker.

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Thank you. That shows growth. Yeah, well, when Facebook fact -checkers went after me and, you know, they suspended me from NOCO, I didn't know that could happen, but somehow.

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Well, now that you're back, loco for NOCO, we're up and ready to go.

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All things unseen. All things mature. I thought you were going to have another rhyme there.

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It's like Abendroth turned into a rapper while I was gone. Well, since you've been gone,

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I did the Paul Washer podcast. And I'd say most people said that I was kind and fair and right.

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And some people said, well, we like both of you guys and such and such. I did receive one lengthy email from a listener, and she wasn't very happy, and she said

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I should be going to Virginia to talk to Paul personally versus going on a podcast or something. I wouldn't know where to go.

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I just sent my GPS, like type it in, Paul Washer, Virginia, and it would take me there. I don't want to break any

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COVID rules and have to quarantine and stuff once I went over the border. Well, it's kind of like, you know, this sort of Southern Baptist rule.

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You're not supposed to say anything. If you're a Southern Baptist, you can't say anything about Southern Baptists. And so if you're in conservative evangelicalism, and you know, you're kind of a, you're on the list of celebrities, you can't say anything un -nice about all the other celebrities.

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What if you're not a celebrity, me, and you can say something about a celebrity? You're kind of like an E -list celebrity.

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I always say I'm a Z -list. You're higher than that, you know. Yes, but the honorariums are not commensurate with the pay grade.

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They never are. No, I know. Some of these guys are getting five, 10 grand, and if that's A -list, then

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E -list should be what? At least a few. Like 25 bucks and free parking. Steve, of course, we have similar backgrounds, and you know, when people say we're not in it for the money, then okay, we're in it for the money.

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But you remember the day when you first were allowed to preach the Bible someplace at a funeral, a wedding,

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Sunday school, FOF. I really thought to myself, I would pay to do this.

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I mean, it really was true, right? I would pay somebody to let me do this. I mean, essentially, in a lot of ways,

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I was paying somebody to let me do it, right? I mean, not only, and I don't mean like, you know, just giving to the local church or whatever, but it's my time, you know, and preparation and everything else, and what am

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I getting in return? Nothing, except for the benefit of, I mean, my own soul and my own study and all that, but also just watching other people respond to the word, right?

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And that's what I'm after anyway, so. So then I came out here, and then

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I went and did a wedding down in Grafton, and the people didn't speak English.

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I remember them, I think they handed me a $20 bill or something like that when

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I left. They did seem to seal the covenant with a kiss, so I just drove off after that.

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20 bucks. I know. All right. Here's a little gas money for you, kid. I know.

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So funny. So you have been meeting with the men on Saturdays. Tell us just in an overview, what's that about, and why did you do it?

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Well, we're going through Mason's book. It's called Things Unseen. I was going to say,

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I'm going to say Unseen Things, and I'm like, I know that's not right. Things Unseen, and there are a series of radio addresses that he gave,

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I think in 1934 and 35, somewhere in there, maybe 33, 34, 35, 36, anyway, middle 30s, in Philadelphia.

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And basically, he had the opportunity to just get on the public airways and preach.

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And so what he does in a very nice, very kind, but also clever way, because he's preaching basically the fundamentals of the faith, the truths of the

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Bible, and he's doing it in such a way where you listen and you go, okay, for an unbeliever, that's great.

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And for me as a believer, I can see the layers beneath what he's saying. And it's often like, so you just go, how does he do that?

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I mean, he turns the phrase so well, and you just think to yourself, how can one man say such profound things?

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Well, Steve, what I like about your comment is that I experienced, with air quotes, the same thing, where we know he was so smart, right?

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When I read his book on the virgin birth, I just think, like when I read Richard Mueller, it's another episode of I Am Dumb, right?

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It's a Netflix series, I Am Dumb. Part 73. I know. And so he was so smart, yet he knew how to talk to the regular person.

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And I think that's also helpful to me as a preacher, and I'm sure to you as well. When I see the

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Beckwith kids sitting there and the Kranz kids and the Kennards and others, I think, I want to make sure, of course,

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I'll use big words and abstract concepts, but trying to explain them to make sure that they understand.

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That's part of my responsibility to do. Well, and sometimes I find myself, if I'm tempted to use a big word, and then

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I think, well, come on, we know an easier word, why don't I just use that? Because if it's not essential to whatever

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I'm talking about, then why would I do that? I think everyone, if you get the book

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Things Unseen, published by Westminster Seminary Press last year, you would be encouraged. If you're a mature

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Christian, you'd like to know how to evangelize better, you're a new believer, it would be helpful.

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So we've got, what, 20 guys showing up on every Saturday at O Dark 30? Yeah, it's been crazy.

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It's 7 .30 in the morning, and we go till 9, and there's usually a donor or two for everybody to eat.

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And I would say this too, that if you go on Amazon and you see this book, you'll see it's like 50 or 53 bucks or something like that.

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You go to Reformation Heritage Books, it's much cheaper. And I'll tell you what,

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I mean like half price, they have the best shipping I've ever seen. I mean,

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I commented on Facebook because I've been ordering a lot of stuff from them lately. Everything comes like double bubble wrapped and everything else.

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And I'm like, huh, these guys are the best. Because I ship, I get a lot of stuff sent to my house, whether it's from Amazon or whomever.

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And I would say these guys, it's not even close, they are the best

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I've ever seen. It's interesting because from the top down, Joel Beeky, you know he values books and therefore if they're going to ship books, they must be shipped as valuable commodities.

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Oh man, they ship them like gold. They are my favorite book publisher these days. You know,

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Banner of Truth has a lot of good stuff and there's others, but they're the best by far. So today,

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Steve, what we're going to do is this. You are going through chapter by chapter, and there's a couple chapters on the deity of Christ, that Jesus is

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God, he's the God -man. And so you give the guys a quiz. And quizzes are interesting because it gets people thinking.

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And if you don't like the first question, well maybe you like the fourth. And there are many advantages to quiz theology teaching.

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Why you give me that look? Well, because I'm like, I'm trying to get more, I'm trying to get more structured in this study because what

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I did on this one was I sort of, I had the quiz questions and I asked them, but I didn't ask,

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I didn't give them a copy of it because I just embedded them in my notes. So I would get to a certain point in the notes and I'd go, okay, quiz question number one.

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And I'm just like, because... Oh, okay, that's good. Yeah. Well, when I taught from your notes a month or two ago, my only hard time was you had a quote, but I didn't have the page number for the quote.

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And I couldn't, I'm like, and so if you did listen to my class that I taught for you, a lot of times

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I just going off on things because I thought, I looked down, I go, I can't find that quote. I mean, I read the chapters, I read your notes.

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And so that you have this embedded, that's a good way to teach. So here's the quiz. True or false,

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Pastor Steve? Machen says the Bible is muddy on the deity of Christ. False.

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Now, did he actually say the word muddy? No, I just came up with it. Okay, good. Like this is muddied. I mean, he comes up with,

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I mean, his current word that he, I mean, he just seems to be riffing on all the time is stupendous.

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It's like, I go, how many times did he say stupendous in this chapter? And I think somebody guessed eight.

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And I'm like, I can't really say that's wrong. And at least we know what stupendous means. Yes. I'm reading

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John Owen's works these days. And usually one word will appear every 10 pages that I have no idea what it means.

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So see, he's writing to the person that would be in Philadelphia. He turns on the radio and he's addressing that person.

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Like stupendous must have been the buzzword of the day or something, you know, so. But is the

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Bible muddy on the deity of Christ? Absolutely not. And here's what he would say. He'd say, you know, the Old Testament gives us glimpses of it.

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And if you look at, for example, Isaiah 9 verse 6 and 7, where it talks about there'll be no end to his kingdom and he's called mighty

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God. But it's both God and man there in Isaiah 9, 6, and 7.

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The titles, a child will be born to us, right? I mean, we don't think of a child as deity.

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So, you know, humanity, humanity, humanity. And then the titles of deity come in and you just go, okay, this is not a child like any other child, right?

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This is different. That is so good because we rarely hear Isaiah 9, 6, and 7 talked about in that way.

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We might use it as, oh, this is the deity of Christ, but we're forgetting the deity of, this is the

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God man himself. Yeah, right. And so then he, there are a few other

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Old Testament examples he gives. But what's interesting is the way he talks about the New Testament. I mean, the

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Old Testament is interesting too, but he says the New Testament writers never really tried to explain that Jesus is

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God. They just say it. Yeah. Yeah, they just assume it. What you said reminds me of B .B.

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Warfield's comment about the Trinity, right? We see the Trinity much more developed later on in the

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New Testament compared to the Old Testament. But I think it was B .B. Warfield that said, you know, there's a dark room that has furniture in it.

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And it's like the Old Testament, it's darker. You can't really see what the furniture is.

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And in the New Testament, you know, the light goes on. There's no more furniture, but we now can understand it more because we have the words of the

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New Testament progressively given us to understand that. And similar, I think, to the deity of Christ, right?

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It's there in the Old Testament, but we see it in brilliant illumination in the New. Exactly.

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How about things like practical when it comes to the deity of Christ that's obvious in the

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New Testament? I think people sometimes want Jesus to say, I am

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God incarnate and am deity. Or so they're looking for some exact quote, right?

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I know people here, even at the church when I got here 25 years ago, well, Jesus never said he was God. What do you do with something like that?

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What would Machen do? WWMD. I don't know what

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Machen would do, but I had somebody ask me that exact same question. And I went to John, I mean, this was years ago.

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I had a trustee, I mean, a man who was well respected by a lot of the other inmates, and he was a

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Muslim. And so he sees me studying the Bible, it's the middle of the night, and he says,

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Jesus never said that he was God. And I said, well, that's interesting, because in John 8, 58, he says,

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Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am, meaning referring back to Exodus 3, 14, saying that he was ever -existent, the self -existent one.

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And he goes, well, he doesn't say that he was God. And I'm like, well, look at the original audience's response, verse 59.

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So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hit himself and went out of the temple. And he says, well, you know, he's not convinced by that.

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So then I went to John chapter 10, because I'm like, okay, you're not satisfied with that one. How about this one?

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Let me guess something. He wasn't satisfied with this either. Oh, actually, he was. And I'll just skip over some of this.

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But John chapter 10, verse 27, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

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I give them eternal life. I mean, who would talk this way other than God? And they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

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My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the

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Father's hand. And then he says, I and the Father are one. And again, he looks at me and he goes, well, he doesn't say that he's

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God. I'm like, okay, hang on. Verse 31, the Jews picked up stones again to stone him.

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Jesus answered them, I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?

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The Jews answered him saying, it is not for good works that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself

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God. They understood perfectly what he was saying, and it outraged them.

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And so to just kind of close the loop on that story, I saw the guy a few weeks later, just kind of in passing, because I didn't typically work in that building.

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And he said, you know, I'm going to Bible study. Because he was somebody who was allegedly a

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Christian, was there in jail, I think in part because he was black, came under the influence of some other guys who were

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Muslims and converted. And, you know, then when he started hearing the truths of Christ again, he was like, wait a minute,

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I might have this wrong. Well, if somebody comes to your door and, you know, wants to talk about Jesus isn't

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God, the one that I always think about, and this is off script, was that I think it was Bowman wrote a book, and he did that HANDS acronym about the deity of Christ.

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H is he receives honor as only God would. I didn't say get up, don't worship me like the angels did.

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The attributes of God, you know, his wisdom and his grace and his kindness and power, the names of God, Alpha, Omega, First, Last, and then the deeds of God.

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Only God can walk on water. Only God can forgive sins, etc. All right, good.

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So, so far, so good. With the covenant of works here today, you are 100 % right so far. Woo -hoo!

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Number two, you know, whenever I think of covenant of works, I think of the perfect, exact, entire, perpetual, obedience,

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P -E -E -P, like peeps, those marshmallow things. Did you know they have a peepsa event where they make pizza with peeps, and they have two peeps put in the microwave and they joust, which everyone's the tallest at the end of the 30 -second microwave wins?

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And there was a peep eating contest. One guy in five minutes ate 255 peeps. So it's just every time you think of peep,

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I just want you to think covenant of works. That is not right. Eating that many peeps is not right.

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I'd rather try to figure out how many hot dogs I did eat. That people don't choke and die.

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I think some do. From the hot dogs? Yeah, just the hot dog eating contests. It's crazy. So what we've got today on No Compromise Radio, we're using

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Machen and his book, Things Unseen. True or false, question number two.

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The Davidic covenant helps us understand the Messiah. I think I could even get that one right.

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I think you could. That was like one of these slow motion pitch underhands. Look, when

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I go through these things, I'm just like, okay, what's a question? I don't sit around going, I really have to make every single one of them

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Trixie. I'm not going to dishonor anybody by talking about the dead, but there are profs we may have had who seem to delight in tripping you up, but...

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Yeah, but the problem then is every time you see one of these things in the light of trick questions, now we double think this, right?

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We triple think it. We are like, this is a trick question. What is he after? Yeah, this is too easy. So the answer, of course, is true.

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It does help you. And in 2 Samuel chapter 7, talking to David and the promises of the

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Lord to David, when your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, when you croak,

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I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I think we could take that to be

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Solomon, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, which he did, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom.

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And here's the trick part, forever. Because when you start thinking about Solomon, you start thinking about the

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Davidic throne, and you ask yourself, well, what happened after Solomon died? It didn't go so well.

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So what about this forever kingdom? Was God wrong when he said, I'm going to establish that kingdom forever?

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The answer, of course, is no. Yes, but it doesn't say covenant there. The word covenant is not used in your classic covenant theology definition of a covenant.

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Well, can I keep reading? I want to read verse 14. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.

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And then when he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him.

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And so really, the interesting part there, of course, is that Jesus never sinned.

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So how could that part be about him? And I don't think it is. I think it's about Solomon. So it's really like things are unclear there.

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Again, to use that word, they're a little bit muddy. Well, why? Because it's both talking about Solomon and talking about Jesus.

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And so we have to sort these things out. And we have to know that Solomon's throne isn't really forever, but Jesus' throne is.

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Steve, lots of people say, well, since it doesn't say covenant, it's not a covenant.

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I mean, if it looks like a covenant, acts like a covenant, walks like a covenant, right? But 2

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Chronicles 21, yet the Lord was not willing to destroy the house of David because of the covenant that he made with David.

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And since he had promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons forever. I mean, when

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God says, I will do thus and such, unless there are a lot of asterisks or something afterwards,

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I think you can pretty much say, okay, I want to think of it as a covenant, but in the suzerain vassal sense where there's a greater and a lesser.

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If God says, God, the greater, right? Greater than me, says he's going to do something.

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I have to pretty much expect that he's going to do that. And I'll take that as a covenant. Steve, can we have a little deviation here at the end?

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Yes, you may. Can we appeal to our friends who of course would believe in the

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Trinity and use the word Trinity, even though the word Trinity isn't in the Bible, yet they will somehow say that we can't covenant of works because it's not called a covenant.

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Let's just say Hosea 6, 7 isn't in the Bible. But they don't want to call it a covenant of works, but it acts like a covenant, talks like a covenant, looks like a covenant.

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But they'll say, I can't use the word because it's not in there. So if you're going to do that, please at least be like Richard Baxter, who didn't want to use the word

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Trinity because the word Trinity wasn't in the Bible. Yeah, that's really an unfortunate decision.

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I know. Can we do the next one? Sure. Number three, which of the following was not mentioned by Machen as an

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Old Testament image of the Messiah? Which one was not mentioned? Now this is kind of tough.

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A, is a king. B, a rescuer of his people. C, a heavenly being.

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Or D, a trick question. He mentioned all three. Okay, so if I just went generally,

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Old Testament image of the Messiah. King, okay. Rescuer, okay. Heavenly being, hmm.

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That one might make me go, okay, but then he's going to do Theophany, Christophany. So I think

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I might say trick question. He mentioned all three. Sorry.

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I didn't read the chapter. I actually have read through 11, I think. Well, and this was one, this was a question.

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This was really kind of an uncool question because you really had to be paying attention.

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It was one of those questions, I will confess, because I'm not grading. This is my class class.

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But this is, it was one of those questions where I just thought, well, let's see who was really paying attention to their reading, you know, because the answer was

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B. He did not mention the Messiah being a rescuer of his people. And here's why.

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Because like in Isaiah, what he was setting up was, he was like, okay, there are a couple of different images that the

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Old Testament gives us. One is of the king, the Davidic king, and another one is of a heavenly being, this

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Messiah being a heavenly being. And those were the two ideas that were floating around in Judaism, right?

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The predominant ideas. But certainly, he is portrayed in the Old Testament as a rescuer, a shepherd, all these kind of things.

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So that's why I use that image because I thought, well, he is portrayed this way in the Old Testament. So it's just that Machen didn't mention that image.

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So that, it was really an unfair question. To read Machen and appreciate him, do I have to believe in total subscription to everything

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Machen said? Yes. Machen still is on my screen.

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He is my wallpaper. He's not a bad choice. I mean, for a guy, you know, I'm sure if Machen were here right now, he'd say

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I was as fallible as anybody else, right? Right. I can't put a bad picture of Jesus up there.

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No, you can't. That would be bad. You could, but that would be very bad. The Chosen. Shots fired.

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Have we talked about the Chosen? No, we have not. Okay. I've never seen it, so I'm not... All right. People say there's all kinds of insight, but I can't watch a

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Jesus that doesn't look like Jesus. Whatever that guy looks like, I know Jesus doesn't look like that.

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And therefore, I just keep thinking, hmm, you know, the robe, you can't see Jesus' face. That would be my all -time movie about it portrays

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Jesus. I think that's the way to portray him. Yeah. All right. Well, today on No Compromise Radio, we're happy to have

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Pastor Steve back. We got three questions down, and I think the next two Tuesdays, we're also going to go continue on with this quiz because we get to talk about our favorite person, that is the

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Lord Jesus Christ, and one of our favorite theologians that studied Jesus, and that is J .G. Machen. Machen.

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All right, good. Mike Ebenroth, No Compromise Radio. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebenroth 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.