Keep sharing good news without ads.
These two words are the turning point of everything. Could there be two greater words?
Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry, Mike Abitroth here.
Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome.
When this show airs, is it going to be 2025? Did we make it to 2025? You can write me, mike, at nocompromiseradio .com. Still don't know what's going on with the YouTube channel. Spencer, what's the update on that?
Got anything for me?
Maybe Ben and I will have to post some of the videos that were recorded on a new station. Who knows how that all works? If you want to go to American Gospel Television, you can find a five-part series on sanctification there called Sanctify, Law Gospel, five parts, Assurance, five parts, Cancer, 17 parts, something like that.
I took the Cancer book and made it a little smaller. It's called Jesus and Cancer. Smaller version so that you can just hand it out freely and what else? Law Gospel, a Primer, that's out. Seems to be doing all right.
You can email me, Mike, at nocompromiseradio .com. I know I already said that, but I need to say it again. By the way, if you did order a book, Law Gospel, a Primer, and it has helped you, would you please go to Amazon and write a review, please?
Please?
I said please three times including that one that would make four. Continuing our discussion on Ephesians 2 on today's show. Like I said, it's probably one of those passages that you have, I don't know, taught over and over and over.
You have heard preached. You get to the section in chapter two, verses eight and nine and you just think this is so awesome. And so I want to talk about it a little bit more today. I have preached this a lot and when I restudy it, I'm happy and I'm encouraged.
And therefore, if I restudy it and I'm happy, people that have heard sermons on it should be happy too. It's almost like you can't mess this sermon up. Ephesians 2, one to three, bad news. Ephesians 2, four to 10, good news.
I was in India once and I needed a sermon. I hadn't prepared a sermon to preach at this particular church. Thought, what do I do? So it was the first time I ever preached a sermon without notes. So I know it's not recorded and that was probably in 2005, 2005, that's a long time ago.
I'm kind of glad it wasn't recorded, to be quite honest. Did I mention to give me a review on the Law Gospel of Primer? Pat Abendroth, my brother, he gets lots of reviews. He's got it all figured out.
I don't know why I can't figure that out. There's just certain things I can't do. Maybe I'm nine years the older and he's got the whole social media thing figured out. Pactam .org, the pactam .org. I'd encourage you to listen.
What we did last time is I just went over Ephesians 2, one to three and describe that section with three words. Dead in trespasses and sins, dominated by the world system, Satan and sin itself. And then the outcome was going to be doom.
Children of wrath. Chapter two, verse four, everything changes. I think it was Lloyd-Jones who said, this kind of summarizes the gospel, the two words, but God. Oh, matter of fact, he does. It's right here in my notes.
These two words, in and of themselves, in a sense contain the whole of the gospel. The beacon of light and hope in a sea of misery. What the Bible is not going to do is say, oh, you know what? We've gone overboard on describing our life without Christ.
No, it's not going to do that. But we're going to learn about God's character and nature. I said last time, and I think it's worth repeating this time, why would God ever rescue us from the judgment in which he placed us?
That's really the question. Gershner asks it, and I think Ephesians 2, 4 -10 answers it. Why would God ever rescue us from the judgment in which he placed us? God is holy. We know that.
He's righteous.
He does the right thing. He is just. Justice is upheld. Is there anything in him that would make him cause him to save? Now, I want to be careful in case Steve Meister's listening to the message that I don't say anything wrong about the essence and nature of God.
But we do see some words in this section that help us understand who God is and what could, what explains, instead of saying cause, what explains salvation. And as Ephesians 2, 1 -3 gave us kind of our spiritual resume before we were saved, dead, dominated, doomed.
Here we have four blessed descriptions of God and his saving character. Rich in mercy, great love, grace, and kindness. God, as we see him relate to humans, I mean, we could just say God is love, God is good.
And here through the kaleidoscope of scripture, we see God is rich in mercy. God has great love. God is kind and God has grace. Ephesians 2, 4 -10, God is coming to the rescue. That's why this is kind of a good thing to do during Christmas time, because why would God ever save us?
Jesus had to come to earth to save us because we couldn't save ourselves. We were dead, dominated, and doomed. But from the divine perspective, why would he ever come? Because we deserved it, because we merited it, because, no, because God is rich in mercy, great in love, gracious, and kind.
God is not looking down the quarters of time to see what we're going to do. He's not waiting for our response. Satan voted yes, we vote, I mean, yes to doom us, we vote no to doom us, and then God, see how I tried to rescue that, didn't quite work.
I'm here, it's dark outside. It's Saturday, December 28th right now. It's dark and some car just pulled up and I didn't know what they were doing. So that's why I had the little pause there. We see God acting because God wants to act.
He's gracious and merciful and he's kind and he is loving, not because of our will, not because we are lovable, not because something in us. If you're going to heaven, why are you going to heaven? And the answer doesn't lie in you, right?
The answer lies in the character and essence and nature of God. Looking at ourselves, we know we're doomed. God's going to have to rescue. It's going to have to be but God. And once you understand this, then I think your praise increases.
Why does God save sinners? It's because who he is. Because God is a saving God. Why does God save sinners? It's not anything in us, it's because of who he is. So the first reason that God saves sinners is that he is rich in mercy.
But God being rich in mercy, that's Ephesians 2, first part of verse four. I've said lately that my view of mercy over the years is a little distorted. It would be the view that I held was God doesn't give us what we deserved.
And that's an element to mercy, I guess, fruit of it. But mercy basically says, you know what? There's somebody that needs pity and they're helpless and needy and I will give them that. That would be a merciful thing to do.
And here we see that God is rich in mercy. We're rich in sins. People often say God is rich in mercy. The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, Exodus 34, verse six. God is good, therefore he is rich in mercy.
And Paul just begins to celebrate God's mercy. And of course we realize that Jesus on the cross gets no mercy. We get mercy, but Jesus on the cross, no mercy. Scholar Hebert defines mercy this way. The self-moved, spontaneous, loving kindness of God, which causes him to deal in compassion and tender affection with the miserable and distressed.
God is merciful. It's just like when you see Jesus, there's a large crowd and he feels compassion and mercy on them because they're like sheep.
Without a what?
A shepherd. The blind men are sitting there and they hear Jesus passing by and they cry out, Lord have mercy on us. Son of David. The Canaanite woman cries out, have mercy on me, Lord, son of David. My daughter is cruelly demon possessed.
If you're a Christian, God has been merciful to you. Has he not? Aren't you happy? Aren't you glad? Isn't that something to praise God for? We go through our trials in our lives and I've been through my trials, yet we always can have praise in our hearts and our hearts because of God's mercy.
Rich in mercy, inexhaustible in mercy. I mean, what would be the opposite? Poor in mercy, a little bit of mercy, a smidgen of mercy. Yeah, God gave me a smidgen of mercy. He gave me just kind of a little, like a mustard seed of mercy.
No, he abounds in mercy. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness or mercy. Did you know God delights in mercy? Who is a God like thee who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of his possession?
He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in unchanging love or mercy. God is a merciful savior. God is generous in his mercy. He shows loving kindness or mercy to thousands, to those who love him and keep his commandments.
Exodus chapter 20. Actually, do you know we're called in Romans chapter nine, vessels of mercy? You're a vessel of mercy. Not that you've got mercy in you. Of course, as Christians, we want to be merciful, but God saves people like us.
We receive mercy. Titus 3, five, he saved us not on the basis of deeds, which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy, of course, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing by the Holy Spirit.
First Peter chapter one, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again. We are people that have received God's mercy. So, dear Christian, when was the last time you praised God for mercy?
Thank you, Lord, for being merciful to us. I was rich in sin and now I'm rich in mercy. It's amazing, isn't it? Not only that, I mean, that would be enough right there, but it says, but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us.
Now, John Gershner somehow for the win again, love, love, impossible, mercy, maybe. Perhaps he can even spare us. What is there to love? Hate, yes, there's plenty of hate. Maybe he once loved us or maybe he could have loved what we once were, but we are beyond love.
He loves.
Then he has forgotten who we are, what we've done. No, he has not forgotten. He has not overlooked your condition. This is the love which loves where there is nothing. God loves you. Christian, you can say that.
God loves me and sent his son to die for me. For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son. And this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Free, spontaneous. Why is God a God of love? Because that's his essence. That's his nature. Not anything in us. It's everything in him, who he is. Second Timothy chapter one, verse nine, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was granted to us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.
Not our working. We love because he first, what?
Loved us.
We didn't have any love for God, but he loved us. So God's love is a cause, not a response. That's important for us to understand. And here, as mercy is rich, here, love is great. Sometimes the word great in Greek is mega, like a lot of.
Here is poly, poly love. His attributes are infinite, therefore his love is infinite. And he having loved his own, that is Jesus who were in the world, he loved them to the end. No wonder Paul is just so excited.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? And John, receiving the vision of Jesus on Patmos and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings on earth, to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.
And made us a kingdom, priest to his God and father to him, be glory and dominion forever and ever, amen. Jesus loves. Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so. Why did Jesus come? Nothing in us.
It's all according to who he is. And he is merciful, rich in mercy. He is loving, great love. Well, what else is there? Is there anything else we can learn about God to praise him? That he's gracious.
God saves sinners because he's merciful, yes. He's love, yes. And he's gracious, yes. Even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved. We're dead in our sins.
That's how we know how great this grace is. Reminding us, not rubbing our noses in it. We're not becoming nostalgic about it. He's holy, he's righteous, he's just, but he's also good. We see that as he is gracious toward us.
Generosity, some would describe grace as God's utter generosity, unselfish, spontaneous, which acts wholly out of loving concern for a person's need, even if they're completely unworthy of his love and help which he offers to them.
So grace stands against merit, works, salvation. Grace is a concept that we could just summarize the work of Christ when the grace of God appears. Could talk about the incarnation that way. Charles Wesley, plenteous grace with thee is found, grace to cover all my sin.
Grace sees unworthy, mercy sees helpless. Grace is God's free gift and he is called the God of all grace. And grace brings salvation because Jesus brings salvation. Grace brings eternal life because Jesus brings eternal life.
Grace, grace. I love it in 2 Corinthians 8, 9, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. That though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor so that you through his poverty might become rich. 2 Corinthians 13, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Paul said, I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself in order that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.
God is gracious and he has raised us up with him. Verse six of Ephesians two, seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Jesus was raised from the dead. We're raised up with him. Jesus triumphs over sin.
We have triumphed over sin. We are united with Christ. Christ triumphs over death. We have triumphed over death. Christ has triumphed over hell. We have triumphed over hell. This is the doctrine of the union of the Christian with Jesus Christ.
The spiritual union, federal union, personal union as Ian Hamilton talks about it in his wonderful little commentary on Ephesians in the Lectio Continua series. Mike Abenroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry.
We're 21 minutes into the show. That means we have seven minutes left. I wonder if we should just spend those seven minutes talking about how great mercy, love and grace is. Those are pretty great. Mercy, love and grace.
If you could ask anything from God, those would be three pretty good ones. Don't you think? Well, it keeps going. That is Ephesians chapter two, verse seven. It says, so that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable, easy for me to say, that he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Now I said earlier that if you understand Ephesians two, one to 10, you understand Christianity. I also said that if you understand this passage, you should be able to preach it and teach it. And you just can see the attributes of God, the perfections of God in here.
And you can just say, why does God save sinners? Mercy, love, grace. And here you see a new word, kindness. I mean, one would do mercy or love or grace. It just keeps adding them up over and over and over.
The word kindness, it's kind of like the word mercy, but it's more tender. There's a sweetness involved, as some lexicons would tell us, a benevolence. God is helpful in meeting the need. And that's what the word kindness means.
One man said, it's a beautiful word. One pervading and penetrating the whole nature, mellowing there all which would have been harsh and austere. It's a goodness which has no edge, no sharpness in it.
That's what Trench said. R .C. Sproul is gonna say R .C. Trench, synonyms of the New Testament. You can hear the same root word in Romans 2 .4, can't you? Or do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?
A sweet word. God wants to show entire universe how great he is and how there's not just riches of his grace, but riches of his grace and kindness, surpassing riches of his grace and kindness. And he wants to show that all in Christ Jesus.
It's a display. It's a, I almost want to say PR campaign, but that might be blasphemous. God is demonstrating though. God is showing everyone, look at my handiwork. And of course, I love that little, I'm not a big life application Bible commentary guy, but there is a quote in it that I'll take.
When you see a turtle on a fence post, you know he didn't get there by himself. And here's God's display. See what I do with sinners, people that are dead, dominated and doomed. And there's just all the modifiers and riches and kindness and grace and exceeding and great.
This is a salvation to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb. That's what's going on in Revelation chapter seven. It's echoing there. Here's what S. Lewis Johnson says. I think one of the most wonderful things about heaven is going to be the revelation and the manifestation of all the wonderful ways in which God has shown his grace to the saints of God.
I have no doubt. I wonder, Christian, when's the last time you said, thank you, God, for being kind. Kindness is a lost art these days in the world, is it not? Are there just any, is anyone kind anymore?
I mean, of course I want to be kind. I think about the Proverbs that talk about being kind, but God is kind. And even if people have been unkind to you, ungracious to you, unloving to you and unmerciful to you, if you're a Christian, if you had to pick, I can only pick between people being kind, loving, gracious and merciful to me, or God, and you don't have to pick, I know, but if you had to pick, you'd pick that God is kind to you.
God is gracious to you. It's all because of the Lord Jesus. So today we celebrate the life ministry of the Lord Jesus. And we are united in Christ. And therefore we can stand before God as recipients of his mercy, rich, his love, great, his grace exceeding in his kindness, riches immeasurably given.
Aren't you glad? Well, my name is Mike Ebenroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. Don't forget, you can get the new book, Law, Gospel, a Primer. I'm hoping people just pass this out like candy. That's what I'm hoping.
So if you want to order 10 or more and get 40 off, you can email me, we'll just drop ship it. Can't get it as fast, but that's all right. Somebody, I won't tell you who it is yet, but somebody ordered 999.
That's my max author amount. 999 of the Jesus and Cancer booklets just to hand out to people who have cancer, sitting there having chemo. What a great idea. It's unbelievable. 999, you should have seen the shipping bill for that.
It's a joy to be used by the Lord and the Lord who is merciful, gracious, loving, and kind.
Amen. Amen.