Errors Regarding Repentance (Part 2)

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Welcome, welcome, welcome. Mike Gabendroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry.

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Duplex Gratia Radio, DGR. No Duplex Gratia Radio Compromise.

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Welcome. You can email me, mike at nocompromiseradio .com if you would like.

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I think in the old days, I got the emails. Most popular emails were, how can

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I find a good church in my area? Now the most popular email is, how can I find a Christ -centered church in my area?

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With a close second, how can I find a church that promotes assurance of salvation?

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Kind of crazy, huh? Crazy. Thanks for praying for me. I feel tired, but working.

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So, that's it, that's it. Thanks for praying. Did I mention bone biopsies hurt? I was gonna say golly, but I think that's a substitute for God, so I won't say that.

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Can't say gosh, golly, gee willikers. That's not short for Jesus, gee willikers.

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What's that short for? I have no idea. Today, part two. The doctrine of repentance.

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Common errors to avoid when it comes to repentance. Last time, we looked at two of those.

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The first error we looked at was people ignore repentance. They don't say much about it, even though you hear it from the lips of Jesus, Paul, Peter, Old Testament equivalents in words like circumcise your hearts, break up fallow ground, even if it doesn't say repent with that actual word, metanoia, change mind.

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It's there listed in figurative language. What else?

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We talked about how people, secondly, make the error of turning repentance into a work.

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And we looked at things from two perspectives. Chronologically, you can't have an unpenitent faith and you can't have a repentant unbelief.

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And so chronologically, with that grammatical word we learned from Sinclair Ferguson, a synecdoche is when you say the one, you mean the both.

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And if I say through the words of Paul in Acts 17, repent, and it says in some believed.

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So if you say the one, say the both, they're tied together. Chronologically, probably simultaneous.

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Theologically, in the right order logically, similar to repentance, excuse me, regeneration must precede faith.

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We understand that repentance is the fruit of faith.

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And we make sure we talk about it in ways so that it is an evangelical repentance from the fruit of faith, not a legal repentance, somehow implying that people have to stop sinning in order to come to Christ.

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That's the Merrill controversy, Octor Artor Creed. And do you have to forsake sin in order to come to Christ?

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And the answer is no, but when you come by faith, it will be a repentant fruit that follows.

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So that's that, so far so good. I guess we just call it a day.

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You want answers? I think I'm entitled. You want answers. I want the truth. Whoa, good scene.

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I want answers. Answer number three. What's the third, what's the question you say?

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What's the third common error about repentance that we need to avoid? Number three is exchange religious activity or religious heritage for repentance.

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In other words, we're not really gonna repent. We don't really say anything about repentance.

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We're just going to get baptized instead. Luke 3, seven, he said, therefore the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, you brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come.

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Bear fruits in keeping with repentance and do not begin to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father.

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For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.

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John the Baptist is saying that, not just to the Pharisees and scribes, as he did in Matthew, but there's the crowd there that he is talking to.

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He said to the crowds. Now maybe those crowds were influenced by the Pharisees and the Sadducees, but he was saying that to the crowds.

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Essentially he was saying, and the ESV study Bible gets it right. Who has told you to flee the coming wrath by merely submitting to a rite of baptism?

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And along those lines, who has told you that having Abraham as your father is enough?

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Exchanging religiosity, religiosity, easy for me to say, for repentance.

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Who's warned you to flee from the wrath of God that's coming by simply getting baptized as a religious empty ritual?

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The answer is I, John the Baptist, haven't taught that. And I, Mike Abendroth, haven't taught that.

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I've taught a lot of dumb things probably in my life, probably said a lot of dumb things in my life, but I'm not teaching that now.

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One of the things you want to do, by the way, with your theologians of choice, ask yourself the question, especially if you hear like a

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Friday show here, the rerun shows, throwbacks. You think, well, Mike's saying something different there than he is on these other shows.

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Well, those are throwbacks, and I hope my theology has matured some over the years.

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I think probably you have, right? Because otherwise, what we do, we're going to go back for things that we don't really want to talk about.

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I declare you are blessed. You are prosperous. You are redeemed, forgiven, talented, creative, disciplined, focused, confident, secure, prepared, qualified, motivated.

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Valuable, determined, equipped, empowered, anointed, accepted, and approved.

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Not average, not mediocre. You are a child of the most high God, a victor and never a victim.

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I guess a lot of those are in theory what

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I would aspire to be, but who could actually say those words and believe them and that that's actually what people think they are?

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I'm going to warn you, Joel, from the wrath to come. Isn't it interesting that John said that people were fakes and they were like a brood of vipers?

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And if you're going to start a fire, there's going to be a bunch of vipers coming out of there. I think that was what happened to Paul.

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I remember there was some stick or something he was going to use for the fire in Acts 28, and here these vipers want to get out of the fire, but they don't want to have their snaky nature changed into anything.

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They want to still be offspring of Satan, the ultimate viper, and they don't care.

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They just want out of wrath. They don't want to have anything done to them. Let's see,

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Paul is at Malta. Is that where he had this whole... Can't even seem to find it in my mind.

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I know it's in Acts 27. He sails for Rome.

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There's a storm. There's a shipwreck, and he's on Malta. Oh yeah, there it is. I knew it.

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I used to like malts better than I liked shakes. I drove past the building the other day.

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It's called Goodrich Dairy, and you could go there and get some malts. I could just put some malt powder in, and it was like a shake, but you got malt powder.

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So I always liked malts better than shakes. How about you? Remember those malted milk balls?

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No. Remember those malts that were frozen that you had the wooden spoon, and you could dig those malts out, and the more it melted, the better it was?

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Malts. I'll take a malt right now. When I had my tonsils out, then my mother had a couple of eggs, put in the malts, and then

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I would have a little protein. I miss my mom. Paul, Malta, Acts 28. Native people showed us unusual kindness, for they kindled a fire and welcomed us all, because it had begun to rain and was cold.

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When Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened onto his hand.

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When the native people saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, "'No doubt this man is a murderer.'"

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See, he's gonna get what he's gonna get. He deserves it. Though he had escaped from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live.

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He, however, shook off the creature in the fire and suffered no harm. They were waiting for him to swell up or suddenly fall down dead.

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But when they had waited a long time for him to swell up or suddenly fall down dead, they saw no misfortune come to him.

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They changed their minds and said that he was a god. Reminds me of this.

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Here's the fire. Here comes the fire of God's wrath and these snakes are slithering, these offspring of Satan, and they don't care about how they live.

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They just wanna get out of trouble, right? They just wanna check out of hell without any other issues.

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Vipers destroying respiratory systems and red blood cells. And this is what he calls the crowds.

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I mean, kind of a powerful preacher, I'd say. He did not back down and he told the truth.

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J .C. Ryle said, he, John the Baptist, saw the rottenness and hypocrisy of the profession that the crowd around him were making and used his language descriptive of their case.

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His head was not turned by popularity. He cared not who was offended by his words. The spiritual disease of those before him was desperate and of longstanding.

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And he knew that desperate diseases need strong remedies.

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Ryle goes on to say, uncharitable language is no doubt always to be deprecated, but there is no charity in flattering unconverted people by abstaining from any mention of their vices or in applying smooth epithets to damnable sins.

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You're a bunch of slithering snakes and you're just like your father. The devil, first serpent,

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Satan, right? That great dragon, it's thrown down, ancient serpent. It's called devil and Satan, Revelation chapter 12.

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Remember, similar to John the Baptist's scathing rebuke, Jesus said in John eight, you are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father.

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He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there's no truth in him.

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Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature for he is a liar and the father of lies.

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People sometimes exchange repentance for religiosity.

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In our day, it wasn't the baptism of John. It's not the baptism of John, that unique baptism.

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But in our day, it could be, well, I think I'm a Christian because I'm a church member and then my nature hasn't changed.

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I just am a church member. I feel good about that. That seems to be on the decline these days, especially after COVID took care of a lot of false professors.

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They realized they could live in their minds without any kind of church membership and attendance.

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And maybe they just watch TV, right? I watched some Christian TV. I watched Joe Osteen, the

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Joe Osteen Cube. That thing is, you can charge it.

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USB charging, but I've had it for five years and haven't had to charge it yet.

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It could be you give some money to the church, sinner's prayer, baptism, altar call.

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You have some mystical experience. I don't want to have any listener here on No Compromise Radio.

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It's like a brood of vipers, right? There's real repentance and real faith.

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The risen savior is the one that you believe. And the fruit of your faith is repentance.

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The fruit of your faith is a sorrow for sin and is a desire to turn.

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And the fruit of faith is turning from your sin as well. We have

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Abraham as our father. You know, it's not just religious deeds, but kind of a background. Maybe you come from a family where the pastor is your father, or maybe you're

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Jewish and you think, you know what, I've been circumcised and therefore I've got father Abraham. I'm born into a

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Christian family. John the Baptist said, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.

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I mean, is there any value to have a repentance that's not repentance and just say, well, it's my religious descent?

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There's no value there. Well, are there any more errors that we need to think about?

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While I'm thinking about errors, I should probably think about other things that are on my board here that I need to start adding things.

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And I had one at home that I added, but I can't remember where it is. And so today, no more additions.

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Mike Ebenroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry. I think I'm still on KAGV, 110

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AM in Alaska and KFGR, Bryan Onstead, Ministry of Trinity Bible Church in Powell, Wyoming.

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So we've got from Alaska to Wyoming. I just learned something the other day. My friends, the

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Smiths, they went to North Dakota and it was their final state that they visited.

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And I also need North Dakota. I need Alaska, North Dakota, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

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I think those are the four that I need. So I've been to 46 states. They had been to something like 43.

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So they thought they would drive and finish those trips up. This was just a couple of weeks ago. They actually went to Nebraska.

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I don't think they'd ever been to Nebraska. They saw Chimney Rock, et cetera. Well, they went to North Dakota as the 50th state.

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And I don't know if you go to Bismarck or where it might be, but if North Dakota is the 50th state that you visit, it can't be 49th.

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It can't be, well, I visited everything continental, but I have not been to Alaska, nor have

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I been to Hawaii. That doesn't work. It has to be the 50th state. If you go there and it's the 50th state, you get some special pin or shirt or something.

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I can't remember. They showed me a picture of it, but it's some special deal. I guess we save North Dakota for the last one.

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In the old days, I wanted to make sure I hit them all. I guess it'd be nice, but not that big a deal to me anymore.

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And even overseas stuff. Where do I want to go that I haven't gone? Well, maybe some of the places are so great,

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I just don't know about it. And if I knew about it, I'd want to go. I used to go to Germany regularly.

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I've been there for years. I used to go to like Czech Republic, Poland, India, Africa, but haven't been doing that.

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I haven't been to Canada for some while. My wife and I, I think we're going to drive up to the

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Royal Mountain, Mont -Royal sometime. She's got global entry and I don't. I applied for it a one week after she did, and I'm still waiting for mine eight months later.

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My wife has it, three of my children have it. I don't have global entry. I know somebody who works for the security, international flights.

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So if he's working, I get shushed in. Is that possible? I get to the front of the line,

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I get something. I don't know what I get. A whole lot of nothing is what

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I get. Anyway, third error when it comes to repentance.

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First one was ignore it. Second one was turn it into a work. Third one is exchange religious activities.

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Number four, misunderstand true repentance. That's kind of tied to the last one, but hey, you have to have an outline here on No Compromise Radio, don't you?

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I mean, Pat, Uncle Pat packed him. He's got it all worked out. That's why his show's so highly rated.

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He's got everything, all the questions. He's got all the stuff printed out. He's studied, he's worked hard, he stayed up late.

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Wants to make a good show. He's learned from his brother. Just don't do ADD radio.

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Sometimes I think I have OCD too. I don't have really either, but I'm easily distracted.

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And I think that makes good radio, just jumping all around, keeping your attention.

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And also I have to make sure things are shut off. It started off, I think, when I was a kid and it was a locker. I'd never been to a school that had lockers before because I think in elementary school we didn't have lockers.

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I mean, not that you had to lock. I think you could just put your stuff there and you just assume everybody was going to be honest because how many thieves are there when you're in third grade?

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Maybe a lot, I don't know, but not in Nebraska at the time. And so then I went to junior high and we had lockers and you had,

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I think you had like a locker buddy. You had to share a locker and you had a code, right? It was a combination lock and it was spin to the right to the number three, go past your number once and then find the 13 and then go to the right one more time to the number 37 or whatever, lockers.

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And sometimes I would think I'd shut my locker but I didn't really do it.

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Or in gym class, we'd have to put our lock on there and then did I really lock it or not? And therefore

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I'd have to go back and check and it was always locked. Just like now, oh, did

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I turn the cook top off, propane? Did I turn the propane off? I made a couple of eggs, did

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I turn it off? Well, yes, I turned it off because the first thing I do when I take the eggs off the pan is to turn it off.

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But now I don't have to worry about turning it off because my cholesterol is high. I'm only having eggs once a week.

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Now I'm trying to be better because I went and saw the cardiologist the other day. I'm trying to be better about my food.

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And so it's oatmeal in the morning, some almonds and some blueberries and a lot of cinnamon.

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And then I have to do the omegas, omega oils. And then I got that Yucca app, that Y -U -K -A app.

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I haven't talked about this on the radio yet, but that's the most amazing app I think on my phone. Next to creeds and confessions.

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You scan the barcode and it'll tell you, well, the obvious ones that you could read, calories and does it have saturated fats?

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And what about sugar and salt and all that other stuff? That you can find on the label, but what you can't find on the label a lot of times, at least right away are the additives that taken in large amounts are poisonous.

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And so it'll have this red dot there and it'll say poor and or avoid or whatever it says.

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But it is amazing. People think I work for Instacart now walking around the grocery store with this app.

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I mean, I'm a proselytizer for the app. They should pay me money. See right even now, you're gonna download it, the

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Yucca, Y -U -K -A, and you just scan the barcode. And so I had got some plain label olive oil the other day from the grocery store.

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I thought it was gonna be bad. It said good. I scanned the peanut butter cups because we gave out peanut butter cups to the trick -or -treaters.

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I think we had 15 kids, something like that. And I scanned it and it was zero. No, no, maybe four.

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The Keebler cookies were zero. Somebody, we had a fellowship thing at our house and okay, bring some snacks over and somebody brought

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Keebler cookies and it tells you how swanky we are around here. They were zero and something else.

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So now I just scan the stuff and you know, you could scan your Doritos or you could scan certain protein bars. Literally, I'm not joking about this.

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In my study, in my office, I have a desk, so far so good. And in the desk,

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I have a bunch of protein bars in case somehow I get feeling weird on Sunday, had too much caffeine, didn't think

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I ate enough oatmeal or something. And so I have protein bars. I scanned six different protein bars that I have here.

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You know, I'd pick them up at Trader Joe's or wherever, Whole Foods. And out of the six, only one was rated good.

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See, because you go to Whole Foods, you go to Trader Joe's and you think everything they sell must be good. And then you find out maybe it's not so good.

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It's quite a bummer. But anyway, I'm trying to do that. I'm trying to have more veggies and I'm trying to drink the

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Omega fish oil that you can buy because I can't swallow those huge pills. I mean, those are huge.

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I guess I could just chew them up, but they have this flavored stuff at the nutrition store and you just can take a swig and you're set.

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So I told the doctor, I don't wanna be on any statins. I'm gonna show you in the next six months, I'm gonna be a good boy.

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Okay. Well, if I can only have a burger right now. Misunderstanding true repentance.

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Real repentance bears fruit. Well, let's think about faith for a second.

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You're saved by faith alone, but that faith is not alone. If there's no root, then there's no fruit.

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And if there's no fruit, there's no root. Does that make sense? John the

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Baptist said, bear fruits in keeping with repentance. Faith produces sanctification that starts with repentance, reckoning with the law and gradual mortification of the old man and making the life of the new man, vivification.

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Sanctification is the fruit of our new life in Christ, the fruit of our justification and an essential part of the gracious salvation from wrath and sin,

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R. Scott Clark. It's interesting that the fruit of repentance is elaborated by John the

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Baptist with three groups down in chapter three of Luke verses 10 and following.

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And those three groups are the crowd, tax collectors and soldiers. And they say to John the

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Baptist, what shall we do? All three of them say that. The crowd say that. He says, whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none.

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Whoever has food is to do likewise. Essentially, love your neighbor, right? If we want to distill everything down, love

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God, love your neighbor is the law. Here, love your neighbor. And if you've got extra, share.

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Tax collectors came to be baptized and said, teacher, what shall we do? He said, collect no more than you are authorized to do.

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He didn't say stop the profession. He just basically said, don't extort people. Love your neighbor, right?

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It, repentance has fruit. God doesn't need your good works, but your neighbor does.

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And so treat your neighbors rightly. Stop defrauding people, stop exhorting people.

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Soldiers also asked him, what shall we do? And he said to them, do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation and be content with your wages.

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Here's how I want you to respond. Stop doing what you can do sinfully and wrongly. He doesn't say stop being a soldier.

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He doesn't say stop being a tax collector, but he says, love your neighbor. And you're tempted to flex a little bit to get more money from people, but I want you to show love.

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Real repentance has fruits. Faith without works is dead. Repentance without fruit is dead.

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And that's, I think, the show. I want to say more from James too, but we're not going to have enough time.

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New Hampshire Confession. It's kind of an easier summarized version of the 1689, this in the 1800s.

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And I'm close to New Hampshire. I could actually ride my bike to New Hampshire. We believe that repentance and faith are sacred duties and also inseparable graces, wrought in our souls by the regenerating spirit of God, whereby being deeply convinced of our guilt, danger and helplessness, and of the way of salvation of Christ, we turn to God with unfeigned contrition, confession and supplication for mercy.

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At the same time, hardly receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as our prophet, priest and king, and relying on him alone as the only and all sufficient savior.

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I probably would phrase it just a little bit differently to include not just the chronology, which they get right, but also the order of theology where repentance is the fruit of faith.

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Well, anyway, my name is Mike Ebenroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. And you can write me, mike at nocompromiseradio .com.

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We have the book, Gospel Assurance, the 31 -day guide that you can get, a few hundred pages, 200 pages.

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You can get the little devotional, about 80, 90 pages. And the new commentary, Discovering Colossians by S.

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Lewis Johnson is out now on Amazon. And you can order it through Amazon or you can get any of those books discounted.

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If you wanna buy a bunch of them, just get ahold of me, Mike Ebenroth, NOCCO Radio.