The Beza Briefing - Law and Gospel Continued

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This is T Beza at his best!  Hope Mike doesn’t mess it up. 

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Ebendroth and we had the music on for like a minute and we realized that was too long so now
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I have the music on for about 10 to 12, 13 seconds and then we kind of fade out with our new intro.
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Some people say they like it, I don't know, but this isn't really a democracy but I kind of like that little spot right there.
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You can reach me, Mike, at NoCompromiseRadio .com. You can also write Spencer, info at NoCompromiseRadio .com.
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Before we get into the subject at hand today, I just want to express my thanks again to Westminster Seminary Escondido for giving us a room to do our quad cast.
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There you go, he made a new word up, the quad cast. Pat Ebenroth at the
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Pactam, he always talks about the Pactam verse. I think a member of our church, Josh Bertrand, I think he's the one that came up with the word of Pactam verse.
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So now I got the quad cast. We had four podcasts on January 13th get together, pretty much led by Pat Ebenroth.
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Well, it was led by Pat with the Pactam and his friend and co -host Mike Grimes. Who else was there?
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Scott Clark with the Heidel cast, John and Justin from Theo cast and myself,
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No Compromise Radio. Anyway, we got together and Pat wisely gave us questions that we could answer.
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So it just wasn't kind of a round robin and who was going to take over. Kind of interesting chemistry to listen to all the guys.
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And I sat next to Clark on one table, then Pat and Mike were in another and then
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John and Justin were at the final table. And people showed up. My son brought a bunch of folks.
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Somebody said they counted, one person said they counted 40, another said they counted 62.
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And I said, well, that's a big discrepancy. And they said, well, the person counting 62 is a math major.
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I said, okay. I think we're going to have to go with that.
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Anyway, we discussed things like law gospel, covenant theology, assurance.
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They all kind of blend together in one sense, don't they? So Lafitte, that type of stuff.
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So we played that last week here. I believe Heidel cast played it, Pactam played it, and Theo cast played it.
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And we'll see what happens. Maybe next year we try to do something similar. Who knows? I don't know what subjects we would talk about.
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Should you read Thomas Aquinas or not? I have no idea. Don't forget, dear listeners, that you can find the two gospel assurance books on Amazon.
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Gospel Assurance, A 31 -Day Guide is the 200 -page book that first came out.
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It's on Kindle and soon to be Audible. And that's written by a bunch of Puritans.
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And some days are easy to read, some days are harder. So I came up with a new version of Gospel Assurance, A 31 -Day
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Devotion. So every day is only one page. The adjacent page is four notes and with one quote.
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Much easier to read, less expensive. Maybe that would be the intro version to this. And hopefully
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Kindle one day. So that's Gospel Assurance. I have a few other ideas for the devotionals and guides that should maybe come out this year.
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But right now I'm focused on S. Lewis Johnson, Colossians commentary, and try to pull the trigger sometime in the next six months.
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Anyway, that's what we have there. Today, we're back to Beza briefings.
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Theodore Beza. Obviously, if you've been listening to No Compromise Radio, you know that he wrote several things.
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I think there's some new things coming out. Not that he wrote new, but we've translated and published. Not we, but just, you know, the universe, we.
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The Christian Faith by Theodore Beza. A little tiny systematic theology book. Difficult to get. I did see them at Westminster Seminary Escondido's bookstore and tried to encourage people to get those.
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This was first published in Geneva in 1558. I think the first time I went to Geneva was with Patrick James Abendroth of the
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Pactam, Pactamverse. And we went to St. Peter's there. I don't know, is it
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Pierre's? You know, there's the French speaking Geneva, obviously right there on the border.
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And, you know, Calvin's from France. Noyon, is that it? I think so. Anyway, we went there and stood in the pulpit,
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Calvin's pulpit, and walked around. Saw the little lecture hall where Calvin lectured. Clean streets.
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Lake Geneva shoreline. Who sings that? Who sings that?
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Smoke on the water by Deep Purple. There you go. I can't believe I almost forgot. Calvin leaves and he,
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Beza, takes over for Calvin. Calvin left by dying.
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He dies in 1564. Beza takes over. And what we do at the Beza briefing is
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I'm just working through the book and I'm reading it, making comments, and the largest section is on the Holy Spirit.
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You've got the Trinity section, the Father section, the Son section, and the Holy Spirit section, and talks about the application of the
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Son's work who was sent by the Father in great detail. And we're in the law gospel section.
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I mean, could that be better? I mean, what could be better? Law gospel section. I have been asked to do some more law gospel stuff for American television,
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American gospel television, American broadcasting company. I'll be on ABC soon enough.
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He gets us. I think he gets us is paying money to be on ABC, but No Compromise Radio probably won't do that anytime soon.
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Of course, in the old days, No Compromise Radio was maybe more of a discernment ministry, and now we're talking about Jesus who never compromised.
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But there's a lot of low -hanging fruit in evangelicalism, always, sadly. And we could talk about the
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Chosen, He Gets Us, a bunch of that stuff.
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But not today. Today is law gospel found in Theodore Beza's The Holy Spirit and the
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Christian faith. Thus, the fourth difference between the law and gospel is that the law by itself can only show us and make us see our evil more exceedingly and aggravate our condemnation, not through any fault of its own, for it is good and holy.
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And of course, when you listen to Beza, Beza knows that God's law is holy and good and righteous because it's a reflection of who
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God is, because God is holy, righteous, and just. And therefore, when
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God gives the law, what does the law do? Interesting that he talks about aggravating our condemnation, makes us see our evil more exceedingly.
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Beza says, but because our corrupt nature burns for sin, the more it is reproved and threatened, as St.
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Paul has declared through his own example, Romans 7. But the gospel not only shows us the remedy against the curse of the law, but it is at the same time accompanied by the power of the
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Holy Spirit, who regenerates us and changes us, for he creates in us the instrument and soul means of applying to us this remedy,
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Acts 26. Beza is talking about law, do, and gospel, done.
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Strictly speaking, the law, not generally speaking the law.
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Generally speaking, the law would be Torah, divine instruction, etc. We're talking about a strict definition of the law.
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Think, first use of the law to condemn, second use of the law to curb sin in society, third use to guide
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Christian. First use to unbelievers, second use to both, believer and unbeliever, third use to believer, to guide or to direct or to steer.
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Beza writes, in order to speak even more clearly, let us expound these words, letter and spirit, which some have taken in the wrong sense.
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I say, therefore, that the gospel is not letter, that is to say, only a dead doctrine, which sets before us in the bareness and simplicity, in parentheses,
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I do not say those things which it is fitting for us to do, for that is the office of the law. The things, close parentheses, the things which it is necessary for us to believe, that salvation is promised freely in Jesus Christ to those who believe, but it is spirit, that is to say, a powerful means full of efficacy from the
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Holy Spirit, and he uses it to create in us the power to believe the things which he teaches us, that is to say, to embrace free salvation in Jesus Christ.
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It is thus that the law itself, which kills us and damns us in ourselves, justifies us and saves us in Jesus Christ, taken hold of by faith,
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Romans 3, 31. This is the reason why I have said that the law and the gospel are not contrary in that which concerns the essence of righteousness with which we must be clothed in order to be accepted before God and to participate in eternal life, but they are contrary with regard to the means of having this righteousness, for the law justly seeks in us this righteousness.
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It has no regard to what we can do, but what we ought to do, Galatians 3. Man, indeed, by his own fault alone, has made himself unable to pay.
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Nevertheless, he does not cease to be a debtor, even if he is unable to pay. Now, that's interesting.
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And I read that, I thought, I've read that before. Did I read that on the last show? If I did, I've forgotten, you've forgotten too.
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We're unable to pay, but that doesn't mean our debts go away. And consequently, the law does us no wrong in demanding from us which we owe, although we cannot pay it.
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But the gospel, softening this righteous rigor as with the honey of God's mercy, teaches us to pay by him who has made himself our surety, who has put himself,
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I say, in our place and paid our debt as principal debtor and to the last farthing, Colossians 2.
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So that the rigor of the law, which made us tremble in ourselves and struck us down completely, now confirms us and accepts us in Jesus Christ.
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Now that's important. So that the rigor of the law, I repeat, which made us tremble in ourselves and struck us down completely, now conforms or confirms rather us in Christ Jesus and accepts us.
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So, see what's there? The law that we couldn't do ends up being fulfilled by Jesus, right?
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And he could do that. And therefore, Jesus merits the righteousness for us that we couldn't merit for ourselves.
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We couldn't merit into it either. I looked up and saw the snow and I said, merit instead of merit.
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For since eternal life is due to those who have obeyed the law perfectly and Jesus Christ has fulfilled all righteousness in the name of those who should believe in him and take hold of him by faith, 1
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Corinthians 1, Philippians 3, it follows that even according to the rigor of the law, salvation cannot fail those who by faith have become united and incorporated with Jesus Christ.
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Didn't I just say that? But not as well, obviously. Beza got that right.
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What else is going on here? A no -compromise radio. You know, I have this little board here and I can say things like this in case people teach bad things.
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And that, of course, is from Planet of the Apes. It's a mad house. Chapter 4, 24.
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For what ends the Holy Spirit uses the preaching of the law? What are the ends? To what end does the
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Holy Spirit use the preaching of the law? See, I think I said that better than actually Beza did. Maybe as translators.
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Having carefully understood this distinction of the two parts of the word of God, the law and the gospel, see, this is not just a
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Lutheran doctrine. It is a Lutheran doctrine. It's certainly not a Roman Catholic doctrine, law, gospel distinction, law, gospel, hermeneutic.
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But here, the two words, law and gospel, you want to understand the Bible, think the two parts of the word of God, law and gospel.
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It is easy to understand how and to what end the Holy Spirit uses the preaching of the one and the other in the church.
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There's no doubt that he employs them for the purpose for which they have been established. In other words, you have the law for law reasons, the gospel for gospel reasons, and they're utilized in the local church by the
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Lord of the church, Jesus himself, and by the Holy Spirit. We are then also blind whilst our corruption reigns in us that we are ignorant even of our ignorance,
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John 9. Isn't that so true? The unbeliever is ignorant of his ignorance.
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The unbeliever, she's ignorant of her ignorance. That is so true until the Spirit of God opens eyes, right?
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Opens hearts. People are blinded by sin. They're enslaved to Satan. It's bad.
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We don't even know how bad it is. And Beza said, and not ceasing to smother the little light of the knowledge which has been left to us so as to render ourselves inexcusable,
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Romans 1. We are pleased about that which ought to displease us most. And of course, that little flicker, image barriers, right?
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Conscience. That we even want to smother out, right? Who wants the conscience?
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Who wants image bearing? Who wants to realize Romans 1 truths that there is a
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God? What does Beza go on to say? It is necessary before all things that God, all good and full of pity, makes us know clearly the cursed pit in which we are in.
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He could do it no better than by informing us by the declaration of his law that we ought necessarily to be what we ought necessarily to be.
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Thus, blackness can never be better known than in being placed beside white, Romans 3 and Romans 7.
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This is why God begins with the preaching of the law. In it alone, we can see what we ought to be.
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And yet we cannot fulfill a single point of it. In it alone, we can see how near we are to our damnation unless there comes to us some very strong and sure remedy.
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That's good. Seeing our sin and misery from the law and then recognizing not inside of us, not in nature, we hear the gospel from a messenger, a proclaimer of good news, a proclamation that God loves sinners and sent in love the
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Son. We start with the preaching of the law. We need to know that we need a savior, right?
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You're preaching the law to unbelievers. And indeed, the stupidity which has reigned in the world at all times and reigns now more than ever shows clearly how necessary it is that God begins at this point in order to draw us to himself by making us know what great and certain danger those are in who think least of it.
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The fact is, the law was not given to justify us. For if this were so, Jesus Christ would have died in vain, as Paul says in Galatians 2.
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But on the contrary, the law was given to condemn us and to show us the hell which is open wide to swallow us, to annihilate and totally abase our pride in making the multitude of our sins pass before our eyes and showing us the wrath of God, which is revealed from heaven against us.
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Romans 1, Romans 4, Galatians 3. However, for a long time, men have been blind and senseless.
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Not only do they seek their salvation in that which condemns them wholly or in part, that is to say in their works instead of running to Jesus by faith, the only remedy against all that they can be justly accused of before God, but what is more, they do not cease to add law upon law to their conscience, that is to say condemnation upon condemnation, as if the law of God did not condemn them enough.
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Galatians 4, second chapter of Colossians. It is like a prisoner to whom the prison door would be open, but who turning away from a freedom which he does not understand, goes away and voluntarily locks himself in a prison which is even more secure.
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He ends this section, Basa does, by saying, there then is the first use of the law of preaching.
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First use of the law to make known our innumerable faults so that in ourselves we begin to be miserable and greatly humble ourselves.
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Okay, does that not sound familiar to you? First use of the law. I don't care if in church history, first, second, third use sometimes have been switched around.
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I just want you to know the difference. God's law is holy, just, and right.
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It reflects who God is. The key is the relationship you have to the law giver, and unbelievers have a relationship that would have
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God be their judge because they're sinful. Before we were saved, we were sinful, and therefore the law then shows us what we can't do, what we must do, but we can't do, and therefore we need a savior.
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It realizes, we realize in light of the law what's going to happen to us if in fact we die having to pay for our sins.
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The first use of the preaching of the law to make known our innumerable faults so that in ourselves we begin to be miserable and greatly humble ourselves.
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In short, to be get in us the first degree of repentance which is called contrition of heart.
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This produces a full and open confession toward the Lord for he who does not know that he is sick will never come to the physician.
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There are none more unfit to receive the light of salvation than those who think they see clearly by themselves.
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Through lack of understanding, how thick is the darkness in which they're born, so great that they must come out of it.
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On the contrary, they have always made it thicker from then on and have not ceased to rush on willingly in it,
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John 9. When I watch people evangelize,
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I want to know if they're preaching the law to the unbeliever. I want to preach the law to the unbeliever. Do you preach the law to the unbeliever?
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I have some quibbles about how it's actually fleshed out with some particulars there, although I admire their courage and that old saying,
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I like what I'm doing not so well versus what you're not doing at all. In this case, it applies to me. Nathan's finger applies to my sternum.
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But when I watch the way of the master folks and they're asking about keeping the law, have you ever told a lie?
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Have you ever lusted for a woman in your heart?
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That kind of thing, that's the first use of the law. Lots of those folks,
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I don't even have to really convince of the law's different uses because while they might not understand first, second, third, they understand that you give the law to the unbeliever so that they see their sin.
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I think that's what most people do, even with maybe dispensational backgrounds or unthinking somehow that law gospel distinction is
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Lutheran. I think most people realize without any kind of system or anything, just logically, intuitively, that people need to know that they're sinners, that the mirror needs to go up to their face and not to other people's faces, not a comparison with other folks, not grading on a scale, but what does
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God require? Who is God? And in light of that, what do we do?
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And we constantly fall short, right? The wages of sin is death, of course, in Romans 6 and in Romans 3, we have all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
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Some even think with Romans chapter 3, all have sinned, that's that first sin, and then continually, present tense, fall short of the glory of God.
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That definitely could be the case. What's true for certain, even if the first part is not about Adam, we have sinned and we fall short continually.
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That's just what we do. And we need to be shown that so we see our sin and misery and realize there's nothing we can do about it, except throw ourselves on the mercy of God.
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Mike Ebenroth here. This is the Beza briefing on the law and gospel specifically today, the first use of the law.
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And now we move in this last little segment on No Compromise Radio to the gospel.
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Let's have some good news. I could have ended the show there at 21 minutes, but no, let's have some good news. Theodore Beza, the
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Christian faith. If you can't find it, it's printed over in England. You can go to Westminster Escondido's website, call the library.
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Sorry. Sorry. Call the bookstore. You could order one. I'm sure there. The other part of the word of God called gospel.
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It's authority. Why, how, and for what end was it written? Okay. See, it first did the law for that kind of section 424.
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Now 425, after the law comes the gospel, the use and necessity of which cannot be better understood than by noticing the following points.
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You'd like to better understand this. Then we need to understand these points. Let's see how many we get through today.
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Firstly, even as there is only one savior, Matthew 1, Acts 4, 1
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Timothy 2, there is also only one of salvation, which is called gospel.
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That is to say good news. Romans one, it was fully announced and declared to the world by Jesus Christ, John 15 and the apostles,
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John 17, second Corinthians five, and faithfully recorded by the evangelists. Ephesians two, first Peter one.
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So as to prevent the wiles and craftiness of Satan without this would have more easily put forward to men, his dreams under the name of the gospel.
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However, he has not entirely failed to do so by the just vengeance of God who has been provoked to anger against men who in their accustomed manner have always preferred darkness to light.
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And when we say that the apostles and evangelists have faithfully recorded all the doctrine of the gospel, we understand three points.
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One, they have truly added nothing of their own as far as the substance of the doctrine is concerned.
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Colossians one, second Timothy three, but they have obeyed with precision and simplicity. What the
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Lord has said to them, go preach all that I've commanded you. Matthew 28. Don't you love that?
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These apostles with precision and simplicity preached exactly what the Lord told them to go preach.
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Of course, this is a precise religion and we want to make sure it's a simple religion.
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I don't mean simplistic, but simple in terms of really anyone can understand it.
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If they have a mind that's working, even younger people can, even those who have deficits mentally can understand this message.
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He says, and also what St. Paul in the writing to the Corinthians confesses that he does so.
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First Corinthians 11, they've obeyed these things. Paul has done it exactly the way the Lord Jesus wanted.
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Two, they have admitted nothing of that, which is necessary to salvation. In other words, they didn't add, they didn't subtract.
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For otherwise they would have been disloyal to their commission, which is not possible. And we see also
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St. Paul in Acts 20 in Galatians one and St. Peter in first Peter chapter one, testify how conscientious they have been and how particular in this area,
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John 15 and 16. This is why St. Jerome writing on the subject says, chatter and babbling must not be believed without the authority of Holy Scripture.
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And that applies to a lot of things, right? Not just here, but charismatic issues. You want to read Scott Clark's book on confessions, and he talks about the quest for illegitimate religious experience, a choir,
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Q I R E. I think, I think choirs may be a better way to pronounce it than queer, but it's
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Q I R E. Where's the U in that, Scott? Come on. And St.
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Augustine says even more clearly, it is true that the Lord Jesus did many things, which has not been written down.
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For the evangelist himself testifies that Jesus Christ said and did much that has not been written down. But God has chosen to have written down those things, which are sufficient for the salvation of those who believe
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John 20. Therefore they don't add and they don't subtract. That's point one and point two, when it comes to the section with Theodore Beza.
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Number three, they have, what they have written is written in such a way that the most uncultured and most ignorant in the world, if it is only held out to them, can learn there what is necessary for salvation.
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1 Corinthians 1. For otherwise, why would the gospel have been written, put in written form in a language, which everyone was then able to understand?
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1 Corinthians 14. And even in the most familiar and popular manner of speaking, which it had been possible to choose, 1
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Corinthians 2. And amazing how God brought Alexander the Great in to the Middle East and to the land there where Jerusalem was.
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And all of a sudden now the language is very common. We even call this type of Greek language that the
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New Testament was written in koine or common koinonia. It's a common, it's fellowship, it's simple.
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It's not a technical language. This is something that people could understand.
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And I'm glad I'm thinking like basic, because I was talking about people that had mental deficits and they're still able to understand some of these things.
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Of course, some people are vegetables and they can't think through, but others, they are not able to think like the average person.
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They have a lower IQ, but they can understand sin and the Savior. That even the most uncultured and most ignorant in the world can learn what's necessary.
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And that's what he's saying. And whether it's to people on islands, to people in cities and everything in between, they can understand.
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That is why St. Paul said that if the gospel was hidden, it was hidden to those who were perishing and whose mind the
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God of this world has blinded. That is to say the unbelievers, 2 Corinthians 4. And indeed the experience of all times has shown that God has not called the most wise and most learned, but on the contrary, mostly the most ignorant of the world.
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Isaiah 29, Luke 10, 1 Corinthians 1 and 1 Corinthians 3. So far from it, excuse me, so far from the truth is it that he wished to hide or cover his doctrine so that it should be understood by no one.
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Far from that. See, he makes it very conspicuous. We draw then two conclusions from this discourse, which are very useful to what we're discussing.
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And then he talks about necessary to reckon the gospel. We have nothing added and more.
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My name is Mike Gabendroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. And what we do here is we talk about the
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Lord Jesus. Today, we particularly talked about Theodore Beza and the
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Christian faith. We want to make sure that you can get a copy of this. And so you can just call
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Westminster Seminary, the Christian faith, Theodore Beza found in their bookstore.
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Don't forget the gospel assurance books are out and hopefully more guides coming soon. You can email me, easy for me to say,
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Mike at No Compromise Radio, and maybe we're going to tell your friends, give us ratings, do all that kind of stuff, right?