Gimme Sympathy (Part 3)

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, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. I had some kind of weird buzzing sound, and it seems to have gone away. I just began to hit things and move things. I don�t know what it is.

There�s the microphone right there. Messing around with that. Anyway, you can always write me, info at nocompromiseradio .com. I�m privileged to be the pastor here at Bethlehem Bible Church, bbcchurch .org.

By the way, if you go to bbcchurch .org and pull up the sermons, or from the Bible Institute, we have a Bible Institute. You can take hermeneutics classes, probably Greek classes, Hebrew classes, systematic theology classes, historic theology classes, hysterical theology classes, et cetera.

There's a lot of sermons on there. Is this sound coming back? Where does that sound coming back? It's like a buzz or something. I was talking the other day about strange magic, and you know, I just need more marketing skills, and I was thinking about that ELO song.

Is that the buzzing sound? When was the last time you heard strange magic by Jeff Lynne's ELO? Probably quite some time. And it's not pumped in directly. This is just through iPhone 7 Plus. I forgot about that earlier intro.

Well, you can always write us, info at nocompromiseradio .com. And if you order some of the books, Sexual Fidelity, two of those, we will send you the free things that go bump in the church. You don't have to say anything.

You just order two or more, and we'll send you the free book. Almost sounds like Peter Frampton, or maybe one of the Andy Gibb. Maybe that's Andy Gibb. Strange magic. This is going to be the new slogan, hashtag strange magic, when people kind of do weird Benny Hinn.

Yeah, that's just, you know, it's the Michael Brown, Benny Hinn connection, it's strange magic. All right, I think that's it. This album, let's see, something about the US single Edit can be found on the remastered Face the Music release.

There you have it. Isn't that fascinating? No wonder our listenership is declining at a rapid pace. We've been talking about Sympathy, and it started off with a Hallmark .com Sympathy card. I thought they actually did a really good job.

Sympathy has to do with help, compassion to the point of help, and when it comes to the great high priest Jesus in Hebrews 4, he is compassionate enough to help. It's one thing to say, I know how you feel.

It's another thing to say, well, I don't know exactly how you feel, circumstances are different between all of us and among all of us and between all of us, but I'd like to do something to help. And you see the tie-in with verse 15 and 16 in Hebrews chapter 4.

So we've been talking about that, and we've been talking about how Jesus is a great high priest, and he's a high priest that's passed through the heavens, and he's a high priest that's both God and man, Jesus the Son of God.

And those are three reasons, three out of the five, that the writer gives to hold on to the confession about Jesus, the Christological confession about Jesus. Hold on. Don't abandon who Jesus is. That's what's going on here.

So that's what we're going to keep working on today because I'm preaching on the subject tomorrow, and as I sit here on No Compromise Radio and I talk about this, it actually helps me with my sermons because I hear myself, and then I say, oh, you know what, that seemed to really work well in terms of my explanation, or it didn't work so well and kind of redo it.

I'm just saying as good as I could get it, right? And then you think, okay, maybe do I add this into the sermon tomorrow? It could be fill-in-the-blank sermon outlines, that'd be strange magic. It could be PowerPoint as extra cool fonts, that'd be strange magic.

It could be blue lighting, that'd be, it could be strobe lights, that would be, it could be, and you can't stop it either, can you? Come on, Broseph. Come on. Hebrews 4 verse 15, there's another reason, a fourth reason to hold on to your confession in difficult times is you have a high priest who can sympathize with your weaknesses.

The way the text is read, the way the text reads is we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. It's the negative. But positively, we have a high priest who is able to sympathize, right?

So here's the argument. If Jesus is way up into the heavens, passed through the heavens earlier in the verse, then how can He be close? How can He be close? You know what? If He's way up there on a good day, maybe once in a while, if I had something going on here and I wanted to find a priest, I could run over to that temple there in Jerusalem on that mount right there, Mount Moriah, and I could find one.

He could help me. But if Jesus is passed into the heavens, how am I ever going to get there, right? How is He going to help me? And the writer is trying to say He's not distant. He's not unable to help.

He's far away, you think, and therefore He can't help? Well, one of the reasons why He's so great is He is transcendent, but He's also eminent. He's the perfect Son of God who's God and man. Now when you think of the words transcendent and eminent with an A, what are we talking about?

Transcendent is God is different. He's above us. He's in a class by Himself. He's not like us. He's not like people. He's God. He's divine. He's deity, and He's sovereign, and He's infinite and pure and good and holy.

His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His ways aren't our ways, and we're something else. We're not like Him. Who is like the Lord our God, the one who sits enthroned on high and stoops to look down on the heavens and the earth?

That Psalm 113 is talking about transcendence. John 8, you are from below, and I am from above. You are from this world. I am not of this world. Jesus talks like that, and I think you can begin to think, okay, there's a difference between God and man.

Now eminent, not imminent like He's going to return soon, but eminent is that He's present, and He is wholly present, and He is near, right? That's what we're talking about when God is eminent. I think probably with other theologians, God by nature is transcendent, and by volition He is eminent, right?

This is what He's decided to do. The person, the second person, the Son, has added human nature. Incarnation is the best example, the most wonderful example of God's eminency. He is like us, right? And Athanasius writes about that.

And how close is God, how near is God, even though He's transcendent? Well, you go to the garden, and He's walking in the garden. I would imagine that was the second person of the Trinity. John chapter 1, the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.

Philippians 2, Christ, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men.

So, God is both transcendent, different, and eminent, close. Maybe my all-time favorite verse that would describe God as both of these in a single solitary verse is Isaiah 57, verse 15. For this is what the high and lofty One says, He who lives forever, whose name is holy.

What's He talking about there, transcendence or eminency? Transcendent. I live in a high and holy place. Transcendence. But also with Him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.

That's both. He's both. If you said, our Father who art in heaven, parse that out with transcendence and eminence. Our Father, He's close, He's eminent. Who art in heaven, He's transcendent. Since God is transcendent and eminent, He can be a great high priest.

We're talking about the Son here, right? The great high priest is human. He's not too far, too far away. He's not too remote. Jesus, in fact, like the song says, knows about all your troubles. The ability of the high priest to have sympathy and who is not remote increases our confidence and we should keep believing.

Casting all your anxiety upon Him because He cares for you, 1 Peter 5, verse 7. Is in fact Jesus still incarnate in heaven? The answer is yes. And the word sympathize means to share someone's experience?

No. It means to have compassion to the point of help. Compassion to the point of helping. That's the idea. Hebrews 10 says, For you had compassion on those in prison and joyfully accepted the plundering of your property since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.

One writer said the verb rendered sympathize was used of a bond similar to a mother's feeling for her children or one's brother's feeling for another. This empathy, however, extends beyond the sharing of feelings and includes the element of active help toward those who suffer.

That's what's going on. He's just not compassionate, but He helps. And what does He help? What's the text say? He helps our weaknesses. What are our weaknesses? A lot of them. We're physically weak, are we not?

We're emotionally weak. We're spiritually weak. These people, I'm sure, if they've gone through troubles, imprisonment of their friends, there's weakness. The context, though, is this, moral weakness.

Hebrews 5 .2, He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward since He Himself is beset with weakness. Talking about the human priest. Hebrews 7 .28, For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath which came later than the law appoints a son who has been made perfect forever.

The idea is moral weakness. We can easily sin, in other words. Now what's going on here? Obviously, Jesus is tempted but never sinned, but the point is Jesus knows about your weaknesses and about what temptation is like.

I know anybody who wants to study what word faith people teach, you cannot say you're weak. Here, we know we are, but we have weakness, and God knows our infirmities. He knows what's going on, and He helps.

Sympathy is what? Feelings of compassion? No. Feelings that will then show pity and mercy and help, right? That's what we've been saying this entire time, and that pushes you on to keep believing and don't move backwards.

The one who's heir of all things, the one who made the world, He sympathizes with your weakness. That's kind of surprising, isn't it? Yes. He is able to sympathize with your weakness. And then number five, the fifth reason to hold on, you have a high priest who has been in every respect tempted as we are, yet without sin.

That's what the text says, verse 15, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Hey, I've got problems. Jesus is in heaven. Why go to him when I can go to some human priest?

Why go to the throne when you can go to the phone? That would be the wrong way to go about it, wouldn't it? That would be very what? I actually saw ELO in concert, and they had kind of a big spaceship, you know, that looked like the record.

And then it took off. Well, at least it went up a little bit, 20 feet in the air. Should we call today's show ELO? Jesus is in heaven, but does that mean he can't be sympathetic? Can he sympathize with our weaknesses?

When Jesus was on earth, was he tempted? Was he an ordinary man? Was he a real man? Was he tempted like you're tempted? Remember, it's not a sin to be tempted. It's a sin to give in to the temptation.

But when Jesus took on human nature at the incarnation, he became temptable. And some people think this is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, 1 John 2 .16. Maybe we'll talk about that in a moment.

But one thing's for certain, he's without sin. He did no sin, 1 Peter 2 .22. In him there's no sin, 1 John 3 .5. Jesus says to his detractors, which one of you convinces me of sin or can convicts me of sin?

8 .46. I mean, just think about it for a second. Don't go too fast. How easy is it to sin? Just how easy is it to sin? What I did is I just, thinking about sin, lurking and hiding and crouching around every corner and opportunity, I just read through James.

And James talking about count it all joy, be doers of the word, right? Love your neighbor as yourself, the tongues of fire, bitter jealousy, selfish ambition, quarrels and fights among you, passions at war, desire do not have so you murder, grumble against one another.

I just looked at a variety of those different commands. There are a lot of commands in James, I want to say 52 commands. It is easy to break those, shamefully easy, I would say. In Jesus it says, without sin.

Without sin, how can that be? How can it be that Jesus has no sin? And you think, you know, yeah, but it'd kind of be better if I had a Jesus who did sin, then he would kind of know what it was like to sin and then be helping me today.

You know, fallen pastors, then they're more sensitive. Well, first of all, if Jesus did sin, he'd have to die for his own sin and you have to pay for yours. So, don't think that way. Second of all, what Weirsbe said is right.

You would think that one sinner would have compassion for another sinner, but this is not always the case. Sin makes a person selfish. Sin can blind us to the hurts of others. Sin can harden our hearts and make us judgmental instead of sympathetic.

No, it is the spiritually minded person with a clean heart who sympathizes with a sinner and seeks to help him. See Galatians 6 .1. Because we are so sinful, we have a hard time helping other sinners.

But because Jesus is perfect, he is able to meet our needs after we sin. Wow. I never thought of it that way. I always thought, well, I'm just going to take it by faith that Jesus has been tempted, yet he can help us even though he never sinned, and that if I do sin or I'm getting tempted, he's the high priest I need.

I mean, that's just the way I always thought about it. But yes, it's correct. Weirsbe's right about Jesus. When you are the spiritual one, you can help out more because sin doesn't taint in any way Jesus because he's sinless.

Sin would taint us and drive us into selfishness, or we're going to just pragmatically help or help for the sake of just helping, but Jesus by nature loves sinners, and he is without sin. You say, yeah, but what happened at Calvary?

Didn't he become a sinner? Wasn't he born again or something like that? Some of these word faith teachers teach that. Second Corinthians 5 .21, he made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us. What's that mean to be sin for us?

How can he be without sin if he's sin for us? That's a good question. What does it mean when Jesus bears our sins? How does that work? Taking upon himself, Luther said, our sinful person, and gave to us his innocent and victorious person with which we, being now clothed, are free from the curse of the law.

By faith alone, therefore, we are made righteous, for faith alone lays hold of this victory. I mean, you listen to these word faith teachers long enough? Did somehow he take on sin? Did he become sinful?

Did he become a sinner? Is he the embodiment of sin? What is Jesus doing? Benny Hinn said, he, talking about Jesus, who is righteous by choice, said, the only way I can stop sin is by me becoming it. I can't just stop it by letting it touch me.

I, and it must become one. Hear this, he who was the nature of God became the nature of Satan when he became sin. Benny Hinn, Trinity Broadcasting Network, December 1st, 1990. This is from an article on Cripplegate, these compilations.

Copeland, how Jesus then on the cross, how did he say, my God? Because God was not his father anymore. He took upon himself the nature of Satan. Wait a second. I just thought it says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, he, Jesus knew no sin.

And as Cripplegate says, whatever the rest of the verse means, you better interpret it about, you know, in light of the earlier verse content, right? You just go someplace else, 1 John 3 that I read earlier, a snippet of, or 1 Peter chapter 2, no sin, Jesus saying, well, how do you convict me of sin?

And when you talk about the righteous one, Jesus, and sin bearing, he's still talked about as righteous, Isaiah 53, but the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. If he would render himself a guilt offering, he will see his offspring.

He will prolong his days and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand. As a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and be satisfied. By his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant will justify the many.

He will bear their iniquities. Talking about the righteous one who bears their iniquities, he doesn't become a sinner and have the nature of Satan. How would you have a right sacrifice to offer to God with a blemish?

Our own book of Hebrews talks about that, you can't have that. How could he be a substitute? No, the idea is here in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21 is imputation. That's what's going on here. Martin Chemnitz, how was Christ made sin?

Certainly by imputation. That's the idea. Jesus committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth. And while being reviled, he did not revile in return. While suffering, he uttered no threats, but kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously, and he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, for by his wounds you were healed.

John Chrysostom said, God allowed his son to suffer as if a condemned sinner. See, that's the language, as if, so that we might be delivered from the penalty of our sins. When you think a sinful priest might be more understanding to your falling to temptation, better think twice.

Jesus is without sin. And remember, when it comes to the temptation for us, temptation stops once we give in. The temptation for the rest of your life, dealing with that and not yielding and having the full velocity of that temptation, Jesus is faithful.

He's tested. He got tested and he was obedient to the point of death, even the shameful death of a cross. Could there be anything greater than that, that you could go through, and Jesus doesn't know about?

He's sympathetic to the point of helping. And the context of this temptation, by the way, is not a sexual connotation or anything like that. People ask, you know, was Jesus tempted in this way and that way and sexually and all these other things.

Well, we can answer that question a bit later if you'd prefer, but the context of this temptation here in Hebrews is suffering. That's what's going on. He learned obedience from the things which he suffered, chapter 5, verse 8.

Chapter 2, verse 18, he himself was tempted in that which he suffered. We're talking about suffering here. I think Jesus was a man and he was tempted in a variety of different ways, but the context here is suffering.

Listeners to this epistle and readers of this epistle, you're suffering, you're tempted to go back. Jesus suffered and was tempted, theology of glory before the theology of the cross, but he didn't do it.

And therefore, he can sympathize and he can give you help. Isn't that good news? That is anything but strange magic, don't you think? Very much so. My name is Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio.

You can write us at strangemagic .com, hashtag Jeff Flynn, hashtag Strange Magic.

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.