Reading James rightly (Part 2)

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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, a ministry, had to say it two times, it kind of came out with a flub there.

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We don't want to do that. My name is Mike Abendroth. My first name has no

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A in it, technically, M -I -C -H -E -L. So I was at the hospital the other day, and they were running a bunch of tests, and every time

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I had to go in, and it was, you know, the person who'd come out, Michelle, Michelle Afro -Worf.

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So I guess you can call me Michelle if you'd like. I also, I guess I can never do things like this on radio, but I'm on Facebook Live now too.

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I, they're trying to boost my immune system a little bit, and so I got a shingles vaccination and a pneumonia, pneumovax, whatever it's called, vaccination, and I got it on my arm.

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Look at that, and that is hot and red and like, weird, it hurts so bad, oh, like I had the flu.

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Well, what we're doing here on the radio show is talking about vaccinations and shingles. I said, is there a chip in there, some kind of, you know,

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COVID chip or something? And the lady said, not to my knowledge, not to my knowledge.

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Next Friday, I think Ben Mercedes is going to be here in the studio, and we might try to do some live streaming.

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I don't know if that'll all work out, depends on Patreon giving. Also, if you order

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Sexual Fidelity, you get a free Things That Go Bump in the Church. So if you order

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Sexual Fidelity, you get that. Somebody told me the other day that he and his son sat down for 30 days in a row, because there's 30 chapters.

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They read the chapter and then just had father -son talks, and I thought, you know what? If my content was nothing in the book, and a father and a son sat down and talked about life, including sex and other things, that'd be worth it.

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I could have saved a lot of time. It just could have been like blank pages, you know, the 30 -day deal, right, 40 days of purpose or something.

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So I was encouraged by that. I probably would have probably made it a little more gospel -centered,

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Christ -centered if I'd had to do it over again, but that's the story of my entire life. Thankful for progressive sanctification.

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I'm reading a lot of John Owen these days, and there's about 24 volumes of Owen that I have.

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The 16 -volume Green Banner of Truth, the 7 -volume Red Banner of Truth on Hebrews.

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The other were basic writings, then Hebrews, and then one on biblical theology, then

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I think with Soledad Gloria. But I've ordered a bunch of books about Owen, and all that to say—oh, yeah.

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As people write about him, they'll say, make sure you read him chronologically, because some of his earlier points are not quite as fleshed out as well, or he would change his mind, that kind of stuff.

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So I thought, hey, if the venerable, dandy theologian, who had a lot of hardship, matter of fact, his 11 children, 10 he buried, and many of them didn't make it very long.

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There's hope for Owen. There's hope for me. We're talking about the book of James, and I'm starting something here at the local church on Sunday mornings, and you can do the

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YouTube live or pull it up later if you'd like. I just have taught Psalm 90 and 91 and Luke 18, finished the book of Hebrews, and I'm going to do something called

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Big Picture Theology. So 129 sermons in the book of Hebrews.

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It should have probably been around 100. I think I went over a little bit, especially early on, some more systematic theology type of sermons.

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Be that as it may, I'm not going to say irregardless, but regardless, I'd like to go a little faster.

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I'd like people to have kind of a sweeping view of a lot of books, and at the moment

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I'm going to do James, Colossians, Philippians, 1st Peter, 2nd

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Peter, Jude, one sermon, one chapter.

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I did that in the book of Romans several years ago, 16 chapters of Romans, 16 sermons.

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No exceptions. And so people at the church were like, ah, you never can do it. And already I'm feeling it in the book of James, chapter 1.

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There's a lot to be said in James 1, and if you missed last show, here's what I essentially have said about James, the last show.

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It has half as many imperatives as there are verses in the book itself.

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So it's like a command every other verse. And not anything about Jesus in terms of death, burial, resurrection, substitutionary atonement.

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It mentions Jesus, of course, but not in the strict sense of the gospel. So how do we see this book and make sure it's not a legalistic, moralistic kind of book?

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And so basically, what am I doing here?

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Okay. Basically, you have the imperatives are given when the book was written around 44

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AD, 45 AD, and just 12 years after the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus, how do we live?

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And here's the first book. So make sure you read it in terms of the Christian canon,

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James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Isn't it interesting that James didn't say, James, a leader of the church in Jerusalem?

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He could have. James, I'm the half brother of Jesus. James, I'm a pillar of the church.

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Isn't that interesting? Paul said in Galatians 2, 9, James, Peter, and John, those reputed to be pillars.

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The one that really is the wildest to me is he didn't say I'm Jesus's brother. I mean, I was in the same womb, not at the same time, but the same womb.

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He is thinking about himself properly. Of course, the Holy Spirit is guiding him, comes across very humble, and of course, as his brother had that attitude, the

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Lord Jesus had the attitude of not considering equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness.

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That's exactly the attitude of the Lord Jesus. I'm sure he learned that from technically his half brother.

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Jesus could have asserted his rights, correct, and he being the only one who could have asserted his rights, now we fascinatingly think, you know what, and he didn't.

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He could have, but he didn't. From the very get -go, James says that Jesus Christ is

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Lord. You have terms of deity, Christ and Lord. You have terms of humanity, Jesus, the

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Master, the Lord Jesus, the risen Savior. He is the one that I'm serving as I give you this book.

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So, we come to the book of James. I don't want you to primarily think, oh, this is a book of Proverbs. I don't want you to think this is a right straw epistle and it's just all law.

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I want you to think there's a good father who wants to instruct his children on how they should live their lives so they can live them pleasing to the

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Father and it would give them a whole life and a good life and a right life in the eyes of the

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Lord and the people. That's kind of what this is. If you look at James, count it all joy.

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Let him ask God for wisdom. You say, you know what, I need to do those things or I'm not a Christian. I think you've blown it.

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That's not the way to do it. It is, you know what, you're a Christian. You can never lose your salvation.

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You never earned your salvation. You're trusting in the one of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the Lord Jesus, in his person, his work, his promises, his faithfulness.

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You receive those by faith and by faith alone, and you don't trust in yourself. You're trusting in him.

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Faith is essentially I have nothing to trust in and I'm all in, as it were, with the promises of the

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Lord Jesus. And therefore, now he teaches us how to live. That's how you need to look at the book of James.

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Don't have it a bunch of tests of faith, oh, you're never counting it all joy. Well, no, he wants you to count it all joy, and if you don't count it all joy, you should be sad, you should be repentant, you should ask for forgiveness.

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But if you disobey your father, you don't get kicked out of the family. Now if you say to yourself,

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I don't want to do this, I don't care about it, I don't need more law, then I ask you the question, how can you call yourself a

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Christian? Can that faith save you? That's chapter two. That's legit. But what's not legit is essentially misunderstanding law.

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Now let's talk about that for a second here on No Compromise Radio. I think you'll be encouraged, the one person watching. Here's why you'll be encouraged.

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Since this book is all law, or mostly law, 54 imperatives, how do we work through this?

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And I think if you go back to the Reformations, three uses of the law, you'll figure it out.

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And so if you see this law, or any laws in Scripture, and you think, which use is this?

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It will help you, and by the way, it'll help your assurance, because if you conflate the first and the third use, you're going to be at your wit's end.

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You're going to be depressed and or self -righteous. It's not going to work out well for you. So I want to relieve that burden, and the

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Reformers were right, because law is a big topic. Law is good.

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Law reflects the holy nature of God. That's all true. But there's a way that God intends the law to be seen and used, and we're going to talk about the three uses of the law.

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You could also call it the three functions of the law. And of course, Calvin put it pretty much in the form we have now, the three uses of our functions of the law.

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Here's the first use that James is not using, but it's good for you to know. The first use is, think about if you were going to evangelize using the law.

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The law is a mirror of the perfect holiness and righteousness and justice of God, and that law says, do this and live.

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If you'd like to get to heaven, and please God, perfectly obey. Augustine said the law bids us as we try to fulfill its requirements and become wearied in our weaknesses under it, to know how to ask the help of grace.

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So you have law, and this first use of the law is, so you'll see your sin, so you'll look for a savior, so that you'll know your sin, sinning, that you'll have knowledge of sin, that you'll know about damnation for sinners.

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This is how people are driven to Christ. People call it the pedagogical use of the law, and this first use applies to unbelievers.

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This is for unbelievers. Love God, love your neighbor, and if you do that, you're in, right?

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Now of course it's only theoretical because of Adam's fall and imputation of Adam's sin, and now we're born sinful and all that because of original sin.

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But the point is, for unbelievers, they need to understand who God is and what He expects, and that's called the first use of the law.

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And this is discussing God's holiness, as some say,

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His relentless righteousness, and if you disobey one time, it's over.

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The day you eat of it, you'll surely die. So that's the first use of the law. Some people make

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James that, so I don't want you to do that. So Calvin would have another use of the law. Reformers would have another use or function of the law.

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So the first is pedagogical. I did pedal some today.

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I did go on a bicycle ride, but no, like a pedagogue, a teacher, a schoolmaster, you know, driving us, kind of like with a rod or something, and that's the idea here.

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So first use, unbelievers do this and live, perfectly obey, the doers of the law will be justified.

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Of course, it's all impossible. It's a theoretical, it's made so that we might say, have mercy on me.

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What must I do to be saved? There's a second use. We won't talk about that much now. It's called the civil use.

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It restrains evil and keep civil order.

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And then the third use of the law, that's what I want to talk about today, because this is what James has.

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This is the use that James employs is simple, um, how would

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I like to describe it? I'm kind of looking, looking at my notes here, but I want to put it in Abendrothian terms, uh, think guide, think direction, think

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I'd like to honor God for what he's done. Think believer.

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So the first use unbeliever, the third use believer, uh, we would like to honor

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God out of gratitude and thanksgiving because he's the great creator who now is my savior.

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I want to make sure, uh, that I honor him. So you could call this the directing use of the law.

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You could call this the moral use of the law. You could call this the norming use of the law or normative use of the law where we are normed by God's character shown through his law.

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These are laws for Christians, not because if you keep them, you're in, but because you're in, because you're saved.

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How do we live? Right? And so for many times, I've said on this radio show that the first use of the law is the sinner standing before God as judge.

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What did you do? What did you not do? Uh, the third use of the law is the sinner who's been saved by grace standing before the father.

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The law is the same. The law doesn't change because God doesn't change. So the law still says, love

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God and love your neighbor. But I didn't do it perfectly. Uh, I didn't do it wholeheartedly.

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I didn't do it without hypocrisy. I didn't do it sincerely. My, my, my growth and sanctification is low and slow.

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Um, but I'm trusting in the one who, when he was under the first use of the law,

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Jesus covenant of works, he perfectly obeyed. He did love

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God. He did love his neighbor. Uh, the two great commandments, or we could think about the 10 commandments, the moral use of law, et cetera, the moral law, et cetera.

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If you say, you know what, I don't believe the third use of the law as God directing his children, that's, that's, that's antinomianism.

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That's, that's what that is that you're against the law, uh, that you don't care that you can do whatever you want to do.

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We don't believe that no compromise radio while I am a stickler and I am on people who talk about a justification that's a first and second final justification, initial justification, all this kind of crazy stuff.

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I'm on them because it deviates from the word of God and it makes, uh, uh,

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Christ work less than perfect. And I want to make sure we're saved by grace alone, but that doesn't mean

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I don't believe in the third use of the law I do, but not just to save yourself, but because guilt, grace and gratitude, because you are saved.

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Um, yes, Jesus fulfilled the law in our place, um, but we're now bond abound by gratitude, uh, not by covenant of works.

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Okay. Let's see what else I want to say about this. All right, so you want to understand

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James, understand three uses of the law and understand where it falls in the

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Canon and it falls chronologically after Matthew, Mark, Luke, John's events.

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You can look up when John was written, Matthew, Mark, Luke, when it was written. So the events has occurred, have occurred.

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I think I better stop for a second and, uh, um, have a word from our sponsors. We don't have sponsors anymore because if it did, it would show like polar water.

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We have to take those off because otherwise we have to pay, um, product placement, right?

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What has occurred? So if you're a Christian, you go, I'd like to read the book of James because it's, it's going to really whack me around.

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It's got a lot of law, man. It's so convicting. Okay. Well, I kind of get that, but here's what I want you to do first.

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Remember what was in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John before you read James. That's what you should do.

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You should go back and think, you know what? Dear Jesus, the ultimate judge of the universe.

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He suffers under Pontius Pilate, the temporal judge, the human judge.

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That Jesus is crucified, dies, takes my curse upon himself, and he then becomes accursed of God on Calvary.

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And he actually died. We have a real death.

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Satisfaction for sin has been made. The way to eternal life has been accomplished.

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I receive the benefits of Jesus's sacrifice and death on the cross.

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I have an old man and it was slain with Jesus and buried.

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The lust that I have, the evil that I have, the pride that I have, the self -righteousness that I have has all been taken care of.

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Jesus with his physical anguish and death and then the eternal wrath of God poured out on Jesus that no film could ever portray was done for me.

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Jesus did it for the love of the Father, but he also loved me, that I can trust his promises because he's been raised from the dead, he's overcome death,

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I can become a partaker of righteousness because of this great death and now the power that has raised him up in new life, that I trust that when the apostles, the disciples watched him go up into heaven, that he's in heaven now, and as Hebrews says, he's interceding for me, that he is my great high priest.

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I have access to the throne of grace because of him. There is the

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God -man standing as if slain in the center of heaven and I receive all the benefits in the spiritual places, in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

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Jesus has ascended to heaven and now is seated at the right hand of the Father, a place of power and authority and goodness and that he is my advocate before the

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Father, that he is my intercessor, that he is the head of the church and that he governs everything perfectly and that he is glorified and that I have the promise of eternal life.

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So count it all joy, ask God for wisdom, be a doer of the word, don't be partial in the way you look, watch out for your tongue, make sure your faith has works, be careful about the wisdom that you have.

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What about poor people? See how that works? That's amazing. Now I get it.

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In light of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, who I am in Christ, now I want to obey because I want to honor the

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Father. Father, you freely now, without threat of damnation, can live a godly life.

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I don't want you to fail, but you're free to fail. I don't go as far as Luther did, but I was seeing where,

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I saw where he was going when he says, you know, if you're going to sin, sin boldly. Of course, just you have to know how

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Luther talked and what he was after. But if you say, you know what, I want to go evangelize, but I'm going to fail in some of this.

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Then go fail boldly. It's not going to change your position in Christ. It's your desire in evangelism to honor the

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Lord in obedience and to see these other people trust in Jesus. If that's the motive, those are two great motives.

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So go fall on your face, go get called names, go, you know, say something dumb.

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Well, not too dumb. You are assured,

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Christian, that you're reconciled. You're assured that you're forgiven. You're assured that what you do doesn't change your position in Christ.

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So don't you dare read the book of James and say to yourself, I just don't measure up to any of these.

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If you do say that, that's wrong thinking, unless you say after that,

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I don't measure up. I wish I did. I want to try to get better in these things. I want to honor the father, but I'm sure glad Jesus counted it all joy.

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I'm sure glad he was a doer of the word. I'm sure glad he wasn't partial. I'm sure glad his faith worked, et cetera.

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When you go to the book of James and say, these are tests of saving faith. And how are you doing in this?

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Are you counting it all joy? Sometimes.

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How about when I got prostate cancer and it took me a long time to count it all joy?

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Praise the Lord, eventually, a year or two later,

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I could actually say and honestly say, Lord, thank you for the prostate cancer.

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I mean, the radiation, the anxiety, do

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I have to wear a diaper? You know, all these other kinds of things. It's just like, oh brother. So would you have come to me and said,

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Mike, I don't think you're counting it all joy, my brother. This is a test of saving faith.

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How are you doing? Again, I would have said I'm not doing too well in the privacy of my own study at home at night.

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I mean, I'm saying the right things in front of my kids and trying to be a good role model at church and trying to be strong for my wife, but I'm just hurting.

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You would have the gall to come up to me and say, I don't know if you're a Christian or not, because you're not handling this trial right.

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But that's what we have now in evangelicalism. It's crazy. Oh, the show's already over. My name is

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Mike Abendroth. God bless you. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.

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You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.