Jesus Meet Mr Self Righteous (Part 4)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mike Abendroth. The dog's in the studio again. Hey, Judy, sit.

Speak. Louder. Good girl. Can you go louder?

Louder. Bark. Nice. Hey. She's the official mascot.

Steve's out. Tuesday guy's out. Parson Jack Russell Terrier.

And what does she like to do? Oh, she likes to bite. Bite. She doesn't know.

She hasn't been in the studio for a while. And so she just wanders around in here, smelling things, and eventually she'll probably lay down at my feet.

In the old days, she would chase every rabbit, every squirrel, every chipmunk, every cat, every dog.

And then now she's entering into the twilight era time of her life, like her master and owner.

Sometimes it's just hard to get along. It's hard to giddy up. You can write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com.

We should. Later on this year, no comedia books, sexual fidelity, no compromise.

So that's the new book. The interesting thing about this book, I was writing small, short chapters to make like 30 chapters.

So once a day, you could just read a thousand words to try to get your mind right about this topic that's just bombarding us in society and media.

We just cannot go anywhere without seeing images. And when

I wrote it, I was in the middle of training my son how to grow up and how to think biblically about sex and sexual fidelity.

And so I began to write a bunch about it. And so it just sat there in the documents, the

Word document. And so we're going to put it out. A 30, pretty short chapters, one chapter a week talks about, oh, it discusses pornography.

It discusses husbands and wives. It discusses how to talk to your kids about sex. It talks about forgiveness of sexual sins.

And I think it will be used to the Lord. And you're going to have to order it through the No Compromise website.

And we're going to give that a shot compared to the Zondervan's of the World and Harvest House and Day One, which

I've been thankful for for the other books. And there's another one in the works that if this one seems to go well, we'll send that out as well.

And that's it. That's enough about me. Let's talk about you. No, let's talk about the Lord. John chapter three, we've been going through some counterintuitive truths in John chapter three, one of the most famous passages as a chapter and probably the most famous passage as a verse,

John 3 .16. And we've talked about how the gospel is accomplished by God and his own sovereign good pleasure.

You have to have faith and it's not works in terms of response to the gospel. And it is a counterintuitive truth.

I mean, we swim in the world of works and of self and then to have God intervene.

It's more than counterintuitive. It's supernatural. And so today I want to say it's number seven, counterintuitive truth, something like that.

And if you want a different number, you can just pick a different number because these shows stand on themselves. They stand on their own merit.

See, everything's merit. Everything is merit -based. Matter of fact, I did not have this plan, but I'm going to do it right now.

I have the message in front of me, small B Bible. And I'm just going to go to John 3 .16

because this is fascinating. Maybe even John 3 to give us a little review. This message moment.

All right. Now, sometimes, you know, Peterson does a good job. Other times, of course, it's awful. And so the awful usually outweighs or it does outweigh.

So you don't want to have this as your main Bible. If somebody gave you this as a gift, thank them for the gift. Ask them if they have the receipt.

There was a man of the Pharisee sect, Nicodemus, a prominent leader among the

Jews. Late one night, he visited Jesus and said, "'Rabbi, we all know you're a teacher straight from God.'"

That's a contraction there. "'You're a...' No one could do all the God -pointing,

God -revealing acts you do if God weren't in on it." What? What?

What? What? That is lame. What is going on? Why am I doing this? Why are we fighting?

What are you saying? As once was said at the Altamont Speedway, Jesus said, "'You're absolutely right.

Take it from me. Unless a person is born from above, it's not possible to see what I'm pointing to, to God's kingdom.'"

Hmm. I know. Can, how can anyone, said Nicodemus, be born who has already been born and grown up?

You can't re -enter your mother's womb and be born again. What are you saying with this born again, from a born from above talk?

What's the matter you? Jesus said, "'You're not listening. Let me say it again.

Unless a person submits to this original creation, the wind hovering over the water creation.'"

What? "'A baptism into a new life, it's not possible to enter

God's kingdom.'" You know, it's interesting, this whole wind hovering over the water creation, that's what you've got to do?

Submit to? I got to submit now? Now we got some law into the gospel,

I guess, is what we have. But that's, you know, seems to make sense. I guess. Now let's see.

I've been to Master's Seminary. Graduated there. I did take a class at Talbot. So that counts,

Dr. Soce. I've been to Southern Seminary. Got a degree there.

The D -Min. D -Min. And been to Ligonier Ministries D -Min program.

Just taking a couple classes with Sinclair Ferguson and D .A. Carson, but no. How do you like that name drop? But didn't graduate.

I teach at Southern Seminary. And I'm on faculty at the European Biblical Training Seminary.

Hmm. I've never heard this. Now that doesn't mean

I can't be taught. Oh, maybe

I should have been to a seminary in, you know, Germany that's in, you know,

Tübingen or something. More liberal. Maybe that all makes sense then. When you look at a baby, this is supposedly

Jesus still talking in John 3 through the Message Bible. It's just that a body you can look at and touch, but the person takes shape within.

It's formed by something you can't see and touch, the spirit, and becomes a living spirit. I have no idea what he's talking about.

None. So don't be so surprised when

I tell you that you have to be born from above. Out of this world, so to speak. You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that, and you hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it's headed next.

I mean, that's legit. That's the way it is with everyone born from above by the wind of God, the spirit of God.

This sounds like some Pocahontas movie. Nicodemus asked, what do you mean by this?

How does that happen? Jesus said, you're a respected teacher of Israel and you don't know these basics.

That's pretty legit. That hits a meaning at least. Listen carefully. I'm speaking sober truth to you.

I speak only of what I know by experience. I give witness only to what I've seen with my own eyes.

And that's what Jesus said? Huh. There's nothing secondhand here. No hearsay.

Well, there's some hearsay here in the message, but that's par for the course.

Yet instead of facing the evidence and accepting it, you procrastinate with questions. Is that what he was doing?

If I tell you these things plain as a hand before your face and you don't believe me, what use is there in telling you the things you can't see the things of God?

No one has ever gone up into the presence of God except the one who came down from that presence, capital P, the son of man, in the same way that Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert so people could have something to see and then believe.

Oh, see, I did not know that you've got to see something first. You know,

I forget that 11, 11, one Hebrews, so chapter 11, verse one verse, you know, things not seen.

And everyone who looks up to him, trusting an expectant will gain a real life eternally.

That's great gain. Why would he say gain? All right, now we come to our verse on No Compromise Radio.

That was a long intro, wasn't it? It was a painfully long intro. This is how much

God loved the world. He gave his son, his one and only son. And this is why, so that no one needed to be destroyed by believing in him.

Anyone can have a whole and lasting life. To use the two -syllable polysyllabic word,

Puh -lease. So let's just stick to the original.

Let's stick to the new American standard. Let's stick to the ESV, or you can even read the

King James would be fine by me. That's how I memorized the verse. The dog's finally laying down.

She's comfortable now in the studio. I think the message Bible put her to sleep. Sleep is a blessing.

Count your many blessings. Name them one by one. Counterintuitive truth, number seven,

I believe. God loves sinners. Now, we automatically say, oh, we know that.

But Christian, God loves you. Now, of course, there are a variety of different kinds of love.

You can get the difficult doctrine of the love of God by Carson, and that would help you, I'm certain. I think he maybe has four or five different kinds of God's love.

And it shouldn't make us surprised at all. I love you, the listeners, especially the ones that send the coffee, maple syrup, t -shirts, hats,

DVDs. But I can say to someone at church,

I love you, a congregant. And then I look at my wife and say,

I love you. I look at my children, I say, I love you. There's three different kinds of love there. That's not surprising.

Hearts shouldn't be surprising to us. But all of a sudden, when we think about the Lord, we only think there's one kind of love.

Now, there's the love of common grace, where God gives taste buds and pleasure and wonderful things to even unbelievers.

But there's a special love that God has for his people, for the bride.

And so when you think of Christ having a bride, of course, there's a special love for the bride. Now, let me read

John 3 .16. I think this is ESV. For God so loved the world, best way to translate that is, for God loved the world in this way, in this manner.

It's not emphasizing the intensity of his love, although his love is intense. This verse is trying to tell us the particularities of how he loves.

That he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

Those believing in him would never perish, but have eternal life.

Now, it's counterintuitive for what reason? Why is it counterintuitive that God loves us?

Because we're sinful. How does a holy God love sinful people?

You know, this is the word problem. I mean, if it's God just, in his justice, judges sinners, there doesn't seem to be much problem with that.

There's no plan that needs to be devised. It just needs execution carried out.

Now, it doesn't take God any longer to figure out the problem of how to reconcile sinners. But from our perspective, it seems like there's a lot of ingenuity in that, where you have to have an arbitrator, who's man and God, who's

God and man, if you want to be more specific. That was Job's wish, wasn't it? Job chapter nine.

I know you love me, God, if you would have an arbitrator between me.

I know you'd care for me, if that would be the case. And as we learned from Abner Chow, Job being a prequel to the

Bible in one sense, that's a great question to ask, because it's answered later. There is a mediator, of course,

Christ Jesus. So God loves Christians in spite of their sin.

That's an amazing thing. Can you imagine God loves you? And sometimes we forget that because we even sin as Christians, don't we?

I'm not the Bob George type, or those that Wesleyan perfection, perfectionists.

We, we're not on either of those extremes. And we go through trials, and then we wonder, does

God love us? Maybe you're in a trial right now. Does God really care for me? Look at the wicked people, look at the evil people, look at how much success they have.

Physically, they're doing fine. They have financial success. So they've got the cat, they got the world by the tail, they got the cat by the tail.

Try that. That's an experiment you only have to try once to know the effect.

But interestingly, Roman chapter five, and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the

Holy Spirit who has been given to us. I mean, here's the Holy Spirit convincing us,

God loves us, because I think if we're left to ourselves, we're going to wonder, reminding the

Holy Spirit does that He, the Father loves us.

How great is that? God loves people. Now, when you first look at John 3 .16, just don't default to a couple of the obvious mistakes that people have.

The focus is on God's loving people. And he's talking to Nicodemus, and Nicodemus has myopic vision.

God loves the Jews. God does love the Jews, but here it's magnified.

God loves the world, not just the Jews, but Gentiles as well. That is a wonderful love.

And he gives his son, not as the mediator who's both God and Jew, but God and man.

And as a Gentile, I'm very thankful for that. And don't put the focus on and whosoever believes, like this is against God's sovereignty.

No, believing ones don't perish. So it's tied into verses 14 and 15.

Look to the serpent that's lifted up, you'll live. Look to the Lord Jesus lifted up and you'll live.

And what's the motivation for this? God loves you. I mean, isn't this fantastic when you think love of God for sinners is the reason for the incarnation.

It's the reason for Christ's perfect life. It's the reason for his substitutionary death. It's the reason for the resurrection.

Love, this kind of love gives for God so loved the world, he gives.

It's the giving nature of God. Sacrificing self, Jesus did for other people at an incalculable cost.

I mean, you have the other option of perishing in your own sins via justice.

And yet God gives those on spiritual death row, including Nicodemus, including you, salvation by taking him at his word.

Verse 17, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only son of God.

The focus here is on the love of God. And your only response is, well, you don't earn anything.

You don't merit it. You don't keep it. You don't say, well, now wait a second. There has to be, you know, it's like giving a gift.

Someone gives you a gift. You feel like you got to give one back. That's just so wrong. That's just built into our warp and woof.

Did the dog look over at me? Now she's laying down sleeping. Now that's a dog for no compromise radio.

Prodigal son, prodigal sons. You have the father and you have the sons.

And of course, the Pharisees and the leaders did not like it that God was generous to sinners. And I could put the emphasis this way.

What's more absurd than a son squandering his father's inheritance with loose living, probably prostitutes and gambling and everything else that goes with it?

Well, what's more absurd is the father girding up the loins of his garment and running after his son when he sees his son coming home.

I mean, this is not a parenting illustration of how to parent kids.

This is an illustration of the extravagant love of God. Christian, God loves you. And you know, probably what's happened to me over the years, there was such an overemphasis on the love of God in non -lordship sections, in unlimited atonement sections of Christianity, easy believism, pagans, you know,

God is love. You know, he has one attribute that I almost probably recoiled against it.

But hey, there's a lot of other attributes that God has. But to think of the motivation of salvation because of his great love with which he loved us,

Ephesians 2, this is pretty amazing. God loves me all because of the work of Christ.

If you're a Christian, God has a special love for you. And can you imagine that love was poured out on you?

That love was demonstrated. It says, even when we were dead in trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ by grace you've been saved.

But the verse before that in Ephesians chapter two, verse four, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us.

I mean, to know that you're loved, that can take me a long way to say, you know, my wife loves me and she knows, she doesn't know all my problems because I hide some.

Some are too shameful to ever surface, but she loves me in spite of who

I am. That's a good picture of how God loves, except God's love is greater because he knew everything.

And he had a son die for us. I mean, he was pierced for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our wellbeing fell upon him and by his scourging, we are healed.

I mean, it's the love of God that saves people. First Corinthians 1 .30, by his doing, you are in Christ.

Who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

That's amazing. God did it all because of him. He's the efficient cause.

By the exercise of his will, he brought us forth by the word of truth. That's James 1 .18.

John 1 .12, but as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in his name, who are born, not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.

Because he loves sinners. Can you imagine? He loves sinners.

And you know, going back to Job, Job just, you know, he knew God was sovereign. He just didn't know that God cared for him.

And I know God, you'd care for me if you would forgive sins. I know you would care for me if you would forgive sins through a mediator.

That's chapter seven, then chapter nine. And I know you would be a kind God if you would forgive sins through a mediator via the resurrection,

Job 14. I know you'd care then. I mean, and here's the gospel in Job. There's forgiveness of sins through a mediator who's been raised from the dead.

His name's Jesus. He makes the unclean clean. And the question of why he does it, of course, it's for God's glory.

It's the glory of God. I understand that. I get that. It's all for God's glory. That's what Jesus does.

He's sent for that purpose. But manwardly speaking, humankindly speaking, can you imagine?

He loves us. So you say, I'm going through a hard time. Does God love me?

Christian, remember what happened at Calvary. Read the gospels. So often,

I think we want to read the epistles and we forget to read the gospels. Of course, the epistles are wonderful. I would never say that they're not.

But why don't you make sure you watch through reading with the eyes of faith, the personal work of Christ.

He loves sinners. He loves tax collectors. He loves lepers. He loved demon -possessed people.

He loved the mute demon -oppressed people. He loved Peter's mother -in -law.

He loved the woman who was bleeding. He loved Jairus. He loved

Jairus' daughter. He loved Mary. He loved Martha. He loved Lazarus. And he loved them to the end.

That's amazing. Because once God loves you, he'll love you forever. The immutability of God's love, he never changes.

And he set his love on you in eternity past, Ephesians 1. In love, he predestined you.

Pretty amazing. In spite of our sins, God loves us. That's counterintuitive, and we need to read our Bibles to be reminded of that every single day.

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

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

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

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

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.