Richard Sibbes and Jesus Christ

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.

My name is Mike Abendroth. You can always write me, info at nocompromiseradio .com. And if you wanna bypass Spencer, you know, Spencer, he seems nice in person. Sometimes, you know, over email. Just kidding, no faithful servant.

We have so many people here at the radio station. Is this a station? Looks more like my office at the church that I study. But seriously, for the ministry of No Compromise Radio, Josh, Ben, Jonathan, Spencer, Jim, Aaron, Jill.

There's so many people who have helped. I'm trying to think of some other ones who have helped. You know, of course, Steve, Harry, a lot of the videos. I don't know if you know behind the scenes, but we've got Sam and Mario who help with the videos.

Ray, who else? I think that's about all I'm gonna mention right now. Too many people. I'm gonna fire some of these staff people. Cost too much. Cost too much. If you like to read, but don't have enough time, you can listen to No Compromise Radio, and I just will summarize things for you.

This is like books at a glance thing. Isn't there a new thing, books at a glance? Is that Fred Zaspel's deal, books at a glance? I think they did S. Lewis Johnson's Romans commentary, book at a glance.

I was happy for that. I know Fred was friends with S. Lewis Johnson. Speaking of which, S. Lewis Johnson would go to a church in Portland, I believe Trinity Bible Church by the airport, and he would speak there regularly, and Pastor Custis was there.

Well, I'm gonna go speak for a related Pastor Custis at Trinity Bible Church in mid-April. I don't know when the show's gonna play, so you can either pull up the messages that I already did. What'd you think of those messages I already did?

Or that I will do, depending on when the show airs. If I could get some help around here, it might air sooner. And five messages, Sunday through Wednesday, and I'm happy for lots of reasons. Number one, if I ever get to go somewhere to talk to people about who Jesus is, that makes me happy, especially knowing what I deserve and what my background is, and yet the Lord still would use me.

And then I'm also happy because they loved S. Lewis Johnson, would have him regularly come, and because of the Romans commentary, they decided to have me come out. So thank you for that opportunity, Lord, in light of that.

I didn't know what would happen with the S. Lewis Johnson Romans commentary. It probably doesn't sell very much, but that's just the way it goes. Not, I think I did get a royalty check for a different book.

I think the best royalty check, I think I've told you the audience was about a one pound, 70 pence. One pound, 70. That was good, I cashed it. I think that was like, you know, it's like three bucks after the fees, after the finder fees.

Reading the Bible and Reading Good Books

There's a book by Richard Sibbes, an old Puritan preacher, writer, and he wrote a book called The Bruised Read, 1630, The Bruised Read. My recommendation to you, the listeners, would be this. When it comes to reading, make time to read the Bible.

When you wake up, if you're like me, I saunter over to the special Japanese water heater thing we have to keep the water at 208 degrees at all times. Can't remember what it's called, but hard to live without.

And it just keeps it encapsulated, the water, and hot at the same temperature the whole time. And my wife is usually up before I am, so she plugs it in, we're off and ready to go. Then I grind some coffee, some Pete's coffee.

I have the Big Bang Coffee, it's called right now, the 50th year celebration, anniversary, commemoration. And pour it in the French press after it's ground, wait four minutes, usually, I don't know, gargle, brush my teeth or something, make some steel cut oats, and then the coffee's done.

Get to grab the coffee and grab my Bible, sit down and begin to read the Bible. So you should be Bible readers. Make time to read the Bible. I'm a visual learner, some say. That's true when it comes to natural revelation, but when it comes to special revelation, God teaches you through a book, and so you need to be a book learner.

I wanna start singing a song by Annie Get Your Gun. Books and learning. My favorite version of that was with, who was the lady, Bernadette Peters. That's my favorite one. Call me old fashioned, I know, old fashioned.

So you should read the Bible, but also you should read other books. Remember Ephesians chapter four, God equips the church, and part of the equipping of the church would be pastor teachers, not only your own pastor teacher, but others as well, who have been gifted by the Spirit of God, and then you can read books that help you learn about the Bible, to help you learn more about the Lord Jesus and His work for the Father's glory on your behalf.

Well, Richard Sibbes is one of those books that you should read regularly, making sure your diet is not just new books. New books are fine, I think they are fine. Sexual fidelity, things that go bump in the church.

Discovering Romans. But older books are a good supplement. So I like to read newer books and older books. And by the way, a bad book is a good thief, so be careful if you're reading a book and it's not teaching you anything, and you're not required to read it, then you can skim or whatever.

I was reading one the other day, and I've got that guilt, the I didn't finish the book guilt, I didn't read every word guilt, and I'm slowly getting rid of that guilt. It's the demon of I didn't finish a book guilt, to use the last show that we recorded before the people were loud outside.

Richard Sibbes in The Brew's Read, 1630, is one of those books that you should read as your little insert for the oldies but goodies, whether it's Thomas Watson, whether it's John Calvin, whether it's Hermann Bavink, whether it's Francis Turretin, whether it's then newer books, and Robert Raymond's Systematic Theology or Burkoff's Systematic Theology.

If you want to read a newer book, what's a newer book that I've read? I read Todd Friel's Judge Not, that's over there in my desk. Yeah, Todd had a lot of good things to say there. I was happy to read it, or I was reading George Whitefield's biography by Thomas S. Kidd.

It was an excellent book. Some of these newer books, you could learn a lot from these books, but then you wanna sprinkle in a few older books. That's helpful. Sprinkle in some books on hermeneutics. Sprinkle in some books on Christology.

Pick an ology this year, Christology, and study a bunch of books about who Jesus is. Then the next year, pick pneumatology, the Holy Spirit. Those would all be wise and smart things to do. Well, the Richard Sibbes Bruise Read, 1630, I wanna read to you a few things from that so you might be motivated to read older books and maybe even read this book.

Christ as Priest, Sacrifice, and King

Number, well, before I get to number one, I have a few points here, but this is the intro. Christ is our sanctifier as well as our savior, our savior as well by the effectual power of his spirit from the power of sin as by the merit of his death from the guilt thereof, provided these things are remembered.

Now, that's a little rougher English. It's a little more, I wouldn't say convoluted, but it's more complex, isn't it? And these things we should remember. Okay, what do we remember? I like it when someone says, now you should remember these things.

There's a few things that you should remember that that sounds like that's probably how some of the writers of the biblical epistolatory genre would write. That's kind of fun. Now, the point in what we are saying is this, Hebrews 8, one, we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven.

Here's the point, in other words, remember this. Richard Sibbes, Bruce Reed, number one, the first and chief ground of our comfort, I need to know that, I need comfort, is that Christ as a priest offered himself as a sacrifice to his father for us.

The guilty soul flies first to Christ crucified, made a curse for us. Thence, it is that Christ has right to govern us. Thence, it is that he gives us his spirit as our guide to lead us home. Here's what you remember about Christ, the savior and the sanctifier.

Your comfort that you have, believer, is that Christ is a priest and he offers himself as a sacrifice for us because he loves us, because the father loves us. The high priest and the sacrifice were different back in the old covenant, in the Old Testament.

Jesus now is both. He is the priest, the high priest. That is what is being said in Hebrews one to seven, but he's also the sacrifice. He is the one. So then we have one who has become a curse for us.

And if anybody has done that for you on your behalf to rescue you from the slave pit of sin, who redeems by becoming the ransom price, his death is the ransom price. And then he gives you his spirit, not one of a different kind, but one of the same kind as he, one with the same essence and nature.

Does that not mean then, since he will give you the spirit to guide you home, that he should be honored and worshiped and thanked and adored and believed on? Of course, this thing must be remembered. Christian, when's the last time you remembered Christ is the high priest and sacrifice who became a curse for all those who would believe?

Yes, including you. And because he's done that, then what Sibbes says is he has a right to govern us. Okay, because of what he's done, now he's the governor. I think Sibbes was English. The governor. Thanks, governor.

Only time people ever say that is when I gave him a tip in the cab. A tip in the cab. That's gonna be a lot more than the pound 70 pence that I got from the book royalties over in England. He has the right to govern us.

He is the high priest and he is not only a priest, not only a prophet, but he's also what? King. So he is to govern us. Point number one in the bruised read back in 1630. See, aren't you glad you know this so you wanna go get a book like that?

I think banner of truth should give me a little stipend. One pound 70. In the course of our life, number two, this is what you need to remember about Christ the Savior and sanctifier. In the course of our life, after we are in a state of grace, if we are overtaken with any sin, we must remember to have recourse first to Christ's mercy to pardon us and then to the promise of his spirit to govern us.

Christian, when you're overtaken by sin, what do you do? In light of last show, cast demons out, ignore, rename sin to syndromes and diseases and dysfunctions. In our life, as we are Christians, we are in Christ and we have union with Christ.

He's our high priest, he's our prophet, he's our king, and we sin, overtaken with sin. This is language pretty much like Galatians chapter six. What do you need to remember? We have recourse first to Christ's mercy to pardon us.

See, it's back to who Jesus is. Jesus is not simply the Savior for when we're first needing salvation, that is initial salvation, but even when it comes to ongoing salvation, i .e. sanctification, what we would call progressive sanctification.

I think when David said in Psalm 51, have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

Wash me over and over and over. Wash me thoroughly. Wash me, scrubbing my sin-soaked soul with some elbow grease as you try to get the dirt out of the jeans of your child. And he appeals to God's mercy according to his steadfast love.

How else does David, what other leg does he have to stand on, as we would say? What else does he have to appeal to? His goodness? David's goodness, that is? His, David's own righteous character? No, he's sinned.

He's sinned in multiple ways and he's done evil in God's sight. So he appeals to God's mercy. So Christian, if you are overtaken with sin, your recourse, according to Sibbes, is to mercy, mercy, mercy, that is Christ's mercy to pardon us.

And he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, isn't he? Number three, Richard Sibbes, as we discussed this on No Compromise Radio, the bruised read 1630. I'm doing this for two reasons. Well, more than that.

Number one, that just happens to be what's on my desk, on my little no-co thing here. I just put things here and then I sit down, we just go for it. Secondly, it's a good book to read and it would be nice if you would get it and I think you'd be encouraged as you try to find older books to read.

Number three, and most importantly, it talks about Jesus. It gives me an opportunity to talk about the Bible and who Jesus is. Number three, and when we feel ourselves, this is bruised read Richard Sibbes, Jesus is savior and sanctifier.

Here's what you'd need to remember. Number three, when we feel ourselves cold in affection and duty, the best way is to warm ourselves at this fire of his love and mercy in giving himself for us. Christian, when you become lax, when you become cold, when you are having the dimmer switch light slowly fade out in your love to the Lord as a response for what he's done, then go back to what he's done again so your response can increase.

How much did he love me and how much mercy did he give me as he gave himself for me? This is Philippians two language. Here Jesus, he didn't grasp God's eternal glory seated at the right hand of the father, communion with the father.

He set aside those privileges and he condescended by adding humanity to his nature. And then he comes and lives this life among us and dies on our behalf and is raised from the dead. He gave himself. When my grandfather and grandmother years ago got in a car accident and grandpa realized it was a tight situation and other cars were coming and he needed to get grandma out of the car.

Henry needed to get Erna out of the car. He got out to himself and came along grandma's side and yanked the door open and pulled grandma out to safety. He looked down and his foot is essentially cut off.

He was still dangling by some tendons. And I always wondered when I was a kid, why did grandpa walk with a limp? And somehow back in the forties, they sewed that thing back on again. His foot always looked a little blue.

His foot always looked a little gray. There was a huge crease there, but at his own peril, risking his own life, he risking his own health, he rescues grandma. And I just thought what a picture of at my own expense.

He could have said, I've got my, you know, you're fine. You're just shaken up. My foot is essentially almost cut off. And what a picture, what a flicker of what Jesus did when he rescues. And you think, okay, you know what?

I'm kind of feeling cold and lax and life is difficult. And then you think, but I have a savior. I have a rescuer. I have someone who did that for me. If the knights of the round table were spurred on by the goodness and nobility and courage and thoughtfulness of King Arthur, and they wanted to rally around to serve him, we have such a great King.

Of course, we'd want to serve after who he is and what he's done. As you begin to reflect on who Jesus is, and particularly Cibsus talks about his mercy and his love. Remember, the father doesn't start loving us because Jesus died for us.

The father and the son in eternity past and in the pact of peace make the decision because they love people, because they love one another, because they are love, because God is love expressed even in the Trinitarian love for one another.

They have love that they're going to bestow on people as well. And it is because, and because of God's love, he rescues you. I went for many years of my life thinking, I don't know if anybody loves me besides my mom and dad and maybe brother and sister.

Flying to Los Angeles, there would be 6 million people, 10 million people, nay, 20 million people. No, that's an exaggeration, 12 million, depending on how far you go. I mean, now from Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo down to the border, you know, border of Mexico is basically one city, but there's a lot of In-N-Out burgers in all those cities.

I was loved, yes, by my mom and dad, but then when I found Kim or she found me, she's stalking me for years. I went to the gym the other day, the local gym, and they had a new lady at the front. You know, you swipe your little key card pass and it shows that you've paid up to date and all that.

And I think Kim and I took different cars to go to the gym because I was going to work out shorter or longer. And so was she, and she needed to leave earlier at a different time or something. See, I'm going to tell you that I was going to work out longer, but then that would be some braggadocio stuff.

Anyway, Kim and I, we got there different times. I saw Kim pull up and I was already inside. So I said to the new lady, hi, how are you? My name is Mike. And I kind of leaned over with a look of, I don't know, just kind of like I was a little worried, a little tepid, a little timid.

And I said, you know, I don't know, but there's this lady. She just keeps stalking me. If you would just kind of watch my back a little bit, she's coming in in about 30 seconds. Everywhere I go, she goes.

And I really much, I can't shake her. So would you just kind of watch out for me a little bit in case something happens? It was Kim. Now, I know you don't think that's that funny, but I thought I was getting the lady to kind of go along with it.

Anyway, then, you know, we were over in the corner kissing or something. She probably thought I liked the stalker. Oh, man. Anyway, my name is Mike Avendroth, this is No Compromise Radio. What are we talking about?

We're talking about Jesus, Richard Sibbes, Bruce Reed, 1630, Banner of Truth. When you feel cold in affection, don't forget about the eternal love of God. And now number four, I think four and finally for today, Richard Sibbes, Bruce Reed, what do you need to remember?

Again, number four, remember this, that Christ rules us by a spirit of love from a sense of his love, whereby his commandments are easy to us. He leads us by his free spirit, a spirit, capital S, of liberty.

His subjects are voluntaries. The constraint that he lays upon his subjects is that of love. He draws us sweetly with the cords of love, yet remember also that he draws us strongly by a spirit of power.

For it is not sufficient that we have motives and encouragements to love and obey Christ from that love of his, whereby he gave himself for us to justify us. Boy, that's a hard sentence. But Christ's spirit must likewise subdue our hearts and sanctify them to love him, without which all motives would be ineffectual.

You say, I have no idea what you said. I don't know what I said either, but I pronounced every word correctly. Our disposition must be changed. We must be made new creatures. They seek for heaven in hell that seek for spiritual love in an unchanged heart.

Wow. When a child obeys his father, it is from reasons persuading him as likewise from a child-like nature which gives strength to these reasons. It is a child, excuse me, it is natural for a child of God to love Christ so far as he is renewed, not only from inducement of reason so to do, but likewise from an inward principle and work of grace, whence those reasons have their chief force.

First, we are made partakers of the divine nature, and then we are easily induced and led by Christ's spirit to spiritual duties. Page 80 to 82. Isn't that good? Doesn't it make you want to learn more about your savior, Jesus Christ, who's also your sanctifier, knowing your chief comfort is found in Jesus as the priest who became a sacrifice for us?

Aren't you encouraged to know that if you're ever overtaken in sin, you can go back to the mercy of Jesus, the same mercy that would save you, would also forgive you as a child? Aren't you glad to know that Jesus, the savior and sanctifier, when you are cold in your affection and duty toward him, you can warm yourself at the fire of his love and mercy as he gave himself for you?

And aren't you glad that Jesus rules us by a spirit of love, from a sense of love, so that what he asks of us and from us is easy? Doesn't that remind you of Matthew chapter 11 and his yoke and his life?

I think it does me very, very easy. Mike Ebenroth, No Compromise Radio. If you want to write us info at No Compromise Radio, don't forget if you want seven, eight, 10, 20 copies of Sexual Fidelity, don't go to the website to order them.

Email me, mike at nocompromiseradio .com and we'll work it up so you can get some free shipping and we'll help you with even the price if you want to order a bunch of copies. Perfect for a men's group, Sexual Fidelity, No Compromise, 30 chapters on thinking properly about sexual fidelity.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebenroth 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.