You NEED a Savior because you CANNOT save yourself

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. I'm your host, Mike Abendroth, and sometimes I'm known as Pastor Mike.

I think some people call me Reverend once in a while, but I don't like that, because as Arthur Pink said, there's only one person in this world, one person to be revered, and his name is

Jesus Christ. I don't think you'll ever see a person in the New Testament, someone who is to be revered with reverence.

That's just a side note. Don't call me Father unless your names are Haley, Luke, Gracie, or Maddie.

You could call me High Holy Archbishop. I kind of would like that. I think if you're a kid, you should call me

Pastor Abendroth, Pastor Mike maybe. If you're not a kid, you can call me

Mike. You can call me Pastor. I think Pastor is a wonderful description of someone who is a shepherd, but probably my favorite is preacher, because I'm a preacher.

That's what I do. I preach to people. Now, I don't want to preach to people and not try to live it out myself, but I am a preacher, and I've been called to, yes, pastor and shepherd, and I'm also called to preach.

Preacher Mike today. Come on, preach it, brother. I remember I preached once at a church in Los Angeles, and the guy sitting kind of at the front every time

I'd say something practically was, preach it, chief. Preach it, chief. I've been called chief. I think of chief,

I think of Chief Sitting Bull. I also think of chief, since I live close to Boston, Robert Parrish was called chief and he was the center for the

Celtics for a long time. Well, but I'm a Lakers fan, so there we go. All right, today on No Compromise Radio Ministry, always biblical, always provocative, always in that order, we are going to talk about the need people have for Christ Jesus.

Of course, if you are a Christian, you need the gospel as a

Christian. You need to be reminded of the gospel regularly. Jerry Bridges is right when he says you should preach the gospel to yourself as a

Christian regularly, and as pastors, we are to preach the gospel regularly.

I heard D .A. Carson a while ago up at Gordon -Conwell doing a pastor's conference, and he talked about, he said he realized after 40 years that many of his students at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School did not remember everything he taught them, and everybody laughed, and he said, but you know what they did remember?

Things that I was enthusiastic about and things that I regularly taught them, repetition, going over and over and over things, and he said, pastors, it's the same for you.

Do you realize people at your church don't remember everything you teach them, but you remember things that are taught with enthusiasm and with consistency and regularity, and I thought, you know, that's interesting.

He went on to say, if you don't begin to preach the gospel to your people, they will forget it.

The next generation will forget it. You know, we got all that God stuff and sin and salvation and the yucky blood stuff.

We got that all done. Now I need five ways to be a better husband, 14 ways to manage my money better, seven ways to have an extreme makeover in my house and life and garage, etc.,

and so those churches lose the gospel. That's exactly what they do because people forget. You could do yourself a favor and read through the pastoral epistles, read through the general epistles, read through the

Pauline epistles, and ask yourself this question. How many times does the word remember, remind, bring to mind, stir up in your memory kind of language, and you will find that we are forgetful people.

The slogan goes, it's a nice slogan, I like it, we as Christians are prone to forget what we should know, and we are also prone to remember what we should forget, that is our sins, etc.

I wonder what that Snap was, Snap, Crackle, and Pop. I have no idea. We maybe have a demon of Marantz digital recorders,

I'm not sure, or maybe, what are these other brands here, I have no idea. We have a need for the gospel as Christians because we aren't moralist, we aren't legalist, we see what

Christ has done for us, and we say, you know, He was so kind and generous and sacrificial and gracious to us, then let's respond by loving our wives like we ought to.

Let's respond by submitting to our husbands. Let's respond by corporate worship. Let's respond by all kinds of things, so you need that.

It's just not raise your family well, it's look at how God has done all these great things for you, specifically in Christ Jesus, and then respond with raising up your kids because you have been granted these children by God as a stewardship.

So Christians need the gospel. Christians also need the gospel because that's the gospel that they preach to unbelievers.

So you need the gospel for yourself, and you need to know what the gospel is to preach to unbelievers. By the way, all

Christians know the gospel because if you don't know the gospel, you're not a Christian. You can know the gospel and not be a Christian, but you can't be a

Christian and don't know the gospel because intellectually, you have to have enough facts to have an object of your faith.

You have to know something about Jesus Christ. You have to know something about sin, substitution, resurrection, those kind of things.

So there are more, but that's not the show today. Mike Ebendroth, info at NoCompromiseRadio .com.

I got an email from Venezuela last night, from China today, Saudi Arabia last week, so it's kind of exciting to see

NoCompromise taking over the airwaves, kind of like Joey Ramon said, we want the airwaves, baby.

So what about for the unbeliever? The unbeliever needs the gospel, doesn't he, doesn't she?

We believe that because we believe in evangelism. We believe in missions. We believe that the gospel is a declaration, an announcement, a herald to give some good news, and that good news is look at what

Jesus the King has done for his creation, for the people he's created.

He has died for his bride, and so the unbeliever needs the gospel too, but I want to flesh things out today so you really realize the need that unbelievers have, and this need is so great that you must realize as a

Christian only the gospel can help, not finagling, not man -centered strategies, not seeker -sensitive church services.

There's no way to penetrate through the spiritual callousness of their hearts, the unbeliever's hearts.

The gospel has to do it. The Word of God alone is the two -edged surgeon's scalpel, and it can separate things that really are indivisible, things like soul and spirit.

And so today I'm going to give you 12 things a lost person can't do so you realize

I can't do any shenanigan kind of faith, any kind of shillelagh kind of faith, any kind of shamrock faith.

I need the gospel to get this person needs the gospel. I have to give the gospel because otherwise they're not going to get saved.

And so I lifted this in one sense from Curtis Pugh, P -U -G -H, and I want to say

I got this 20 years ago. And I don't know if I amended it a little bit, but I'll give him full credit. He came up with all 12, maybe he had 13,

I don't know. Maybe some of these verses he had, maybe I added some others,

I'm not sure, but I'll just give total credit for these 12 to Curtis. And so we'll keep above board on that, 12 things a lost person can't do.

Now this should help you as a Christian to realize, wow, I couldn't do that and God saved me. Hallelujah.

Increases praise. You should say to yourself, I've got a friend, I've got a husband, I've got a wife, I've got someone else and the kids and they need to get saved.

And I've been trying to man -center it. I've been trying to manipulate, I've been trying to persuade as good.

So I don't want to knock that, but I've just been going about it a way that has forgotten just how bad they are.

Because if somebody is really that blind, that bad, that unable, then they need the gospel.

They need to hear a declaration of what God can do for people who can't do things. So for the rest of the show, 16 minutes or so on No Compromise Radio, we're going to look at Curtis Pugh's 12 things a lost person can't do.

I probably wouldn't even have to give him credit because these are all things straight from the Bible, but he's the one that kind of formulated it in my mind.

And so we want to be above board. Number one, if you're listening as a believer, know this about your neighbor who's an unbeliever or the kid living in your house who's an unbeliever, or if you're just a listener today and you are not a

Christian, number one, you can't think as God does. You can't think the way

God does. There's no way short of the Bible that you can figure out the mind of God and what he requires.

You can't understand as a finite person who's also fallen the great mind of an infinite, holy, sinless

God. You can't think the way he does. As a matter of fact, if you could, natural revelation would be enough to save you.

The sun and the moon and the stars would be enough to convict you and confront you. But because of the fall, you need something more.

You need the word of God. And so how do you think that like God does? You can't say, well,

I think God does this. I think God's like this. My God is such and such. No. There is a transcendent thinking that God has that you can't understand.

You can't understand even with the Bible completely, but you can understand some things in the

Bible. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts,

Isaiah 55. Now the context here is how even though we can't think like God, he still saves people like us.

That's an unbelievable thought that he would. My point to the unbeliever is you need to know what the Bible says because you cannot comprehend

God through your own bosom, through your own stomach, through your own thoughts, because you're tainted and you can't think like God does and you need to.

You need to think like God does. What are the requirements for heaven? What pacifies the wrath of God?

How can I be sure to go to heaven? All those things are found in your Bible. Number two, you cannot properly understand

God. Oh, I know God, we're buddies, big man upstairs, man upstairs, Romans 3 .11.

There is none who understands. Unbelievers don't understand God. Intellectually they can grasp on things, of course.

Intellectually they could memorize the Bible, but they don't fully understand God. Psalm 50 verse 21, you thought that I was altogether such a one as thyself.

You thought I was just like you and that's really what men and women try to do as unbelievers.

God's just like me. I kind of make God in my image and that's a problem. You need to understand

God if you're an unbeliever. You need God's wisdom and you can't search to find out

God. You can't find out about the Almighty under perfection. You can't go there.

You can't get there. That's all Job 11. Number three, today we're talking about your need of Christ Jesus because you can't save yourself.

Number three, you can't even see spiritual things. Can you imagine? Jesus answered and said to him, here's the teacher of the

Jews, a very high ranking teacher Nicodemus. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the

King of God. Can't even grasp it. You can't even get your mental arms around it.

You can't even see it. You need to be born again. You have a need. That's one of the biggest problems today in evangelicalism is showing the unbeliever their absolute need of a

Savior. Because if you think you're good enough to get into heaven, fine. You think you've kept the law of God and love

God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and your neighbor as yourself, you think you're fine. Number four, you cannot even know your own heart.

Can you imagine that? You can't even know how bad your own heart is. That's Jeremiah 17 .9.

The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Verse 10 goes on to say, only

God can know those things. You need a new heart. I think of Jeremiah 32, and they shall be my people and I will be their

God and I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me always for their own good and for the good of their children after them.

You can't know your heart. Matter of fact, you need a new heart. Number five, you cannot properly direct your own paths.

You can't even run your life. You think you're running your life. You think you're the captain of your own ship. You think manifest destiny.

You think self -fulfilling prophecy. You think whatever you want to think. But that's part of the deception. That's part of you're doing

Satan's will. Second Timothy chapter two verses 24 and following. Oh, I have free will. Free from what?

Satan's influences? Because the Bible says you're a pawn for Satan. You're doing exactly what he wills.

Oh Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in a man that walketh to direct his steps.

I think that is number five. You cannot even direct your own paths. And you know what you do if you direct your own paths, unbelievers?

There's a way which seems right into a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Proverbs chapter 14.

That's why you need Jesus Christ, the great shepherd in John 10 and Psalm 23 to guide you in the paths of righteousness.

Number six, you cannot free yourself from the curse of God's law. You cannot free yourself from the curse of God's law.

Break one law one time, whether you're three years old or whether you're 55 years old, one time is enough to send you to hell and you will be cursed.

Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

That's why you need Jesus Christ to keep the law for you. Jesus Christ did perfectly fulfill the law of God, the righteousness of God.

And this righteousness of God was manifest, verse 21 of Romans three, witnessed by the law and prophets.

Even the righteousness of God through faith in Christ Jesus for all who believe. So you need to have a

God who can bear the curse for you. That's Galatians chapter three, that he can become a curse for you because you're cursed.

Can you imagine the language curse? We don't use that language much. Curse is kind of a curse word, you say a four -letter word or something, but can you imagine to be a curse?

And the Jews knew it in Deuteronomy. I think it's 21, might be 22, where you're going to curse someone, you put them up on a tree, you hang them on a tree.

What's that sound like to you? What's that sound like to you? That sounds like to me, Jesus, outside the city where all the trash people are, where all the varmint kind of people, those miscreants outside the city, let's crucify them.

That's a curse. He was cursed for us. That's exactly Galatians three. And if you're an unbeliever, you're under the curse of God and you need the righteousness of Christ credited to your account.

You need to have God's wrath propitiated, and it was propitiated for those who will believe in a public manner, through a public matter for that regard as well, execution outside the city.

Number seven, if you're an unbeliever, you cannot hear, slash receive and understand

God's words. You can't even know what he's talking about. You've got an AM receiver, God's sending out his message in the

Bible on FM, and your AM receiver is also broken off, you know, the car antenna is just broken off.

So here comes the word, Jesus is your only hope, and you've got a broken receiver and it's all, you can't get it.

I mean, intellectually, yes, you can sound out words and you get diction, you get syntax, you get lexical things, you've got all that, but it's not a real understanding.

And John eight, Jesus basically said to the people he was talking to there, you don't understand God because you're not of God.

You hear them not because you're not of God. How about first Corinthians chapter two, the natural, the unsaved man receives not the things of the spirit of God for their foolishness to him.

So number one, I don't receive them. Number two, because they're foolishness, neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned.

You can't get it. I remember for me, I was reading the Bible before I was saved and I'm thinking, this is a book that I don't understand.

I can't figure it out. I'm reading, yes, for God so loved the world that he gave,

I can understand what those words are, but I don't get it. He died for me. I wasn't that bad.

I was baptized when I was a kid. I went on a missions trip. I was in a Lutheran church. I think I'm pretty good. So unless the spirit of God by his own good pleasure and his own good free will opens our eyes, we can't understand it.

Number eight, you cannot cause yourself to be born in the family of God. That's John chapter one.

You can't cause yourself to be born in the family of God. That's why if you say, I'll get religion when I get, I'll become a Christian later in life.

Well, you're going to become a Christian later in life and then hope God saves you then because you can't make yourself a Christian later.

Well, you know, on my deathbed, I'll, I'll make myself believe no salvation is done to you.

God's not waiting for you. God's the King and God is very, uh, gracious.

And when you call on him, like the tax gather, Lord have mercy upon me, a sinner. He often hears that prayer.

And if you do call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved. That's exactly what the text says. So you can't wait because you can't cause yourself to be born again.

People who are born not of blood nor the will of the flesh nor the will of man, but of God. It's God's will that causes somebody to be born.

Chapter one, verse 13 of John, how about Romans nine, I'll have mercy on whom

I will have mercy and I'll have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that wills nor him that runs, but on God that shows mercy.

If you'd like to get to heaven, you can't get there on your own. It has to be the sovereign distinguishing grace of God almighty, a grace that reigns through righteousness.

Because Jesus righteously fulfilled the law, Jesus righteously was punished for the law that you broke.

And so we have a grace that doesn't just say, Oh, come on in. Grace that says, on the other hand, no grace, you can, grace says you come in because Jesus paid the penalty and now

I give you Jesus's full righteousness. Number nine, you have to admit, by the way, you know, compromise listeners, you didn't think

I could get all through these, all through these, uh, done with all of these, did you? I can't talk today and I don't feel that great, but we just carry on.

You don't call in sick, you crawl in sick. Number nine, you cannot produce repentance and faith in Christ.

Second Timothy 2 .25, God, if peradventure, would give them repentance.

It's a gift. You're saved by, for by grace you're saved through faith and faith is not of yourself.

It's the gift of God. This whole process, the grace that saves and the faith, it's all a gift of God. Philippians 1 .29,

uh, we'll see that in just a minute. Let's keep this one. You cannot produce repentance. Number 10, you cannot come to Christ.

No man can come to me except the father, which has sent me, draw him. Therefore I say to you that no man can come to me except it were given unto him of my father,

John 64 and 60, 40, John 6, 44 and 60, uh, 6, 65, man, it's easy for me to say.

All right, we got to wrap this up, obviously. Number 11, you cannot believe on Christ. For unto you it is given to believe on him.

Philippians 1 .29, John 10, but she believed not because you are not of my sheep as I said unto you.

So faith is a gift. Repentance is a gift. Coming to Christ is a gift. Seeing things spiritually is a gift.

Understanding God is a gift. This is all the goodness of God. Number 12, you cannot please

God. Can you imagine that? The best that you do, soup kitchens, helping the poor, doing all these things, it can't please

God because it all starts with believing that Jesus is God. Without faith is it impossible to please him.

For he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.

You ought to read that in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6 and in Romans chapter 8 it says,

For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the

Spirit, the things of the Spirit. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, but in the

Spirit. If so, be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the

Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. You need salvation. Those 12 things you can't do.

If you're a Christian, you couldn't do those 12 things before God saved you. God did it to you. God was the cause of salvation and then you responded.

God granted you repentance. Your repentance didn't cause salvation. The cause of salvation,

Ephesians 2 .4, but God, he's got a great love. He's got a great mercy. That's the cause.

That's the motivation. That's the initiator. The response of salvation, faith, trust, hope, following, appreciation, honor, thanksgiving.

Yes, of course, all those things. If you are an unbeliever, you can't save yourself.

And so you need to think differently. And so what do we call the thought of, I need to think differently.

I need to approach life in a different way. See things properly. You know what we call that? Repentance. To change your mind.

You need to repent and change your mind. That is why in Acts 17, the Bible says, God now commands all men everywhere to repent.

You need to say, you know what, Lord, I kind of think you're real, but I'm not too sure. And I'm halfway there, but I still don't believe certain things.

Maybe a good prayer for you would be from Mark 9, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Maybe it'd be

Psalm 85, turn us, oh God, of our salvation. Turn to me,

Jeremiah 31. You need to recognize that salvation is of the

Lord. And the best that you can do is like an unclean rag. But we are all as an unclean thing and all our unrighteousness are as filthy, what?

Rags. That's Isaiah 64. Can you imagine? The good stuff is like that. I wonder what the bad stuff would be. I wonder what the sin would be.

You need Christ Jesus. You can't save yourself. If you could, why would Jesus have to come and be a sin bearer?

As an example of love, that would be child abuse. If it was only an example of love and you could save yourself,

I think it was an example of love, but it was a substitutionary death. The Passover lamb slain.

God says, I must judge sin. The wages of sin is death. Someone had to die. Jesus didn't sin.

He didn't die for his own sin. He died for the sins of other people. And so then he was raised from the dead because he's

God, the eternal God. You need to understand that if God the

Son was killed by God the Father, but you could save yourself, I think that's pretty atrocious.

That is an atrocity. That is not just torture. That is an inhumane torture, an ungodly torture.

That is God acting ungodly. That is the righteous God acting unrighteously. But of course, may it never be.

That's not what happened. The only way you could get saved is by the work of another.

Someone taking your punishment. Someone giving you his righteousness. And that was done by our captain and his name is

Jesus Christ who does all things well. You need Jesus Christ. You cannot save yourself.

You cannot get to heaven. Getting to heaven on your own is like Fields said, crawling to the moon on a ladder made of sand.

Can't do it. So your only hope is, Lord Jesus, save me.

Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner. God grant me saving faith. God give me repentance. God help me to believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, the life, and no one comes to you except through him.

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 6. 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.