Preach the Word

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. My name is actually Michael Lee Abendroth. And that is

Michael, by the way. I haven't admitted this on No Compromise Radio, so this is a first. I'm revealing more and more about myself now that we're the third year in.

600 -and -chum -some -shows -later. Chums. When do you ever use the word chum?

I guess you could use it for two circumstances. You could say Chum Lee, those of you that know a certain

TV show, know who Chum Lee is, and chumming for sharks,

I guess. Those are the only two. Michael Lee Abendroth, and Michael is without an

A, and so M -I -C -H -E -L. I asked my mother, why did you give me M -I -C -H -E -L? People would say, well, you know, at school we're really poor in pronouncing people's names, so bear with me as a new fifth grade teacher.

Michelle Abendroth. That would be Michael. But anyway, then later

I thought it was kind of cool because I could sell my Nebraska football tickets that I had with the name

Michael to either females or males. That was the only good it ever got me.

Then it probably looked cool later. I said, mom, why'd you name me that? And she said, I saw some French producer at the end of some movie.

And I thought it sounded neat. Okay. So anyway, today, No Compromise Radio.

Two quick announcements. Number one, on our website, you can get the new book, Sovereignty and Supremacy of King Jesus, written by moi a couple years ago.

Just came out, $10 postage included, shipping included. I shipped a media mail the other day that one of those books, it was 241.

So such a deal. And then lastly, No Compromise Conference.

No, that's next year. Psalm 119 Conference, Wretched Radio Conference, coming up September 23rd and 24th at Bethlehem Bible Church, right here.

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Wax and Mike, Michelle Abendroth. That is

September 23rd and 24th. And seven hours of teaching on Friday, 1 p .m.

to 8 .30. And then Saturday during the day, 9 a .m. to 4 .30 p .m.

Sign up at Wretched. Or I have five free tickets. I have five tickets that I will give away. I think they're valued at $79, something like that.

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I should give you that. And you can use your creative mind and you can say something or other.

I don't really care, that's up to you. So that's Psalm 119 Conference, September 23rd and 24th.

Well, today I'm gonna talk a little bit about preaching the word. Preaching the word.

Boy, this really, really moves me, this topic. I exist to preach the

Bible. I am the one that has been captivated by Christ Jesus.

I don't know why I said I'm the one. I just looked out the window and somebody pulled up to the church and therefore

I got distracted. I love to preach the word. Years ago, when

I first heard John MacArthur preach the word, I thought, you know what? I would give anything to do that.

And now wildly, strangely, graciously of the

Lord, by the Lord, I get paid to do that very thing. I get paid to do a lot of things, but at the top of the list is preaching the word.

That is the major, major thing that pastors should do.

They should do many other things and you should overlook pastors, things that they don't do well, but if they don't preach the word well,

I think they're out and should be out permanently. Paul gave this commission to Timothy and every other elder, our pastor, and that was, you know it, 2

Timothy 4 .2. Preach the word, preach the word.

The Christian life, the church life centers upon the gospel proclaimed, the word of God preached.

And what you have if you have a church that doesn't preach the Bible is you have a club.

You have a club that is not honoring God. It is a nonprofit.

It is tax free. You can call it a church if you'd like, but it's not a biblical church.

It's not a biblical church unless you preach the word. And certainly when you preach the word, you'll be preaching

Christ. We know from Luke chapter 24 that when you preach the Bible, you end up preaching

Christ because you'll see Christ. If he's in the Old Testament, in the law and the prophets, how much more is he going to be in the

New Testament? Preach the word, to herald the word. It is a word that means, the

Greek word is keruso. It means to give a sharp command. This is military language.

This is the language that says, hear ye, hear ye. This is the kind of language that in Paul's day, a ruler made a special announcement to the land that he ruled by or via a special herald.

And he would go out there and speak for the king. Thus says the king, hear ye, hear ye.

I have a very, very important announcement for you. Listen up. That's what exactly that means.

It means to preach. I was asked the other day, do you,

I'd like to come to your church sometime. During the sermon, do you give some kind of, you know, is it a dialogue or is it just you talking?

You know, he didn't say you just, you know, taking over the floor, but is there a kind of a dialogue?

Is there a conversation? Isn't that language we use a lot today? It's a dialogue. It's a conversation.

Well, you can have a conversation maybe during Sunday school when they ask questions or afterwards or at other times.

But Paul tells Timothy and any pastor who's going to be faithful to preach the word.

He doesn't say make it a dialogue. This is one way. I don't know if you've ever played a trumpet or not.

I played trumpet. I played sousaphone, just baritone, just a little bit. But those instruments are hard to play.

There, you can't get any noise out of those things by inhaling. This language here is exhaling.

To cry out, to cry forth with a clear voice so everyone can hear, with good diction so everyone can understand.

The Bible says pastors should preach the word. Now let's just stop for a minute on No Compromise Radio. Are you listening today?

And you have a pastor that doesn't preach the word. Do you have that? Well, then you don't have a real pastor.

If you don't have a pastor that preaches the word, but he's a good mentor, he's a good life coach, he's a good administrator, he's a good

CEO, he's a good CFO, he's a good counselor, he's got a good bedside manner, he loves his wife, he's good with kids, he's got insight on how to raise money.

I'm not saying any of those things are bad, but they're bad if he doesn't preach the word.

Preaching the word is at the top of the list. On the flip side, if you do have a church pastor, a pastor at a church that you go to and you're part of and he does preach the word, you have a goldmine on your hands.

God has really given you a good gift. A man that in spite of culture, in spite of the pressures to give moralistic therapeutic deism, to give people what they want, to have a sentimentalized relationship oriented how -to moralistic message.

If your pastor stands up and preaches the word of God boldly, you have a goldmine.

You ought to be praising God for your pastor. What's the text say?

The text says, preach the word. That's what pastors do. That leads this list.

This drives this whole passage theologically to preach the word.

Notice what it doesn't say. It doesn't say to drama the word, or as we would say in New England, to drama the word.

It doesn't say to engage the culture. It doesn't say to dance the word.

It doesn't say make the word relevant. It doesn't say be experts in post -modernity.

No. If you're going to have language like this, military language, you better be strict and obey what this text says.

Remember, if you're a pastor, you didn't make yourself a pastor. Well, if you did, you're not a pastor, but if you are a pastor,

God made you a pastor, and now God gives you the command. Preach the word. I don't know about you, pastor, but I have something in the back of my mind, and it's this.

If I live long enough, I hope I preach every text of the Bible. Every text from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, every chapter, every word, every text.

Now, at the rate I'm going here at Bethlehem Bible Church, it might take me to 150 years to do that, but that's my goal.

You say, well, I'm going to preach everything, but I'm not going to preach Song of Solomon. Why? You better preach everything.

You can preach it tastefully, and you can preach it properly, but that is for Sunday morning exposition.

You say, you know what? Well, I don't think I can do it. Well, maybe that should be a different sermon, but you ought to preach the word, all the word.

You're not to cut corners, cut and paste, figure out what's really going to offend people and leave it out.

Well, I'm just going to... I know, I heard of one church that they skipped over Romans 9. So they preached, you know, one week, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

You know, the glories of eight. No condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. And the next week, and they were going chapter by chapter, week by week.

And then the next week is chapter 10. How should we hear without a preacher? Who does that?

I don't have any respect for people that do that. Matter of fact, I have more respect for people that say, you know what?

We better slow down and take two weeks for this Romans 9, because it's so packed full of Godness, the Godness of God.

God is God and you aren't. I like that, because deep down in my heart, I know

I'm not God. I know I'm lame, dumb, deaf, blind, ignorant, sinful, depraved, et cetera.

I just can't, I'm a nobody, I'm a nothing. I can do no good thing. I have nothing to bring to the table.

But can you imagine, by God's design, through faith in another Christ Jesus, we could become children of God, adopted into His family.

And children who are adopted in the family of God hear from the Father, and the Father says something about Romans 9.

Jacob, have I loved? Esau, have I hated? Then they say, okay, Father, okay.

Thing about it too, in preaching the Word, in 2 Timothy chapter 4, when you preach the Word, guess what you don't preach?

You don't preach yourself. Boy, don't you hate it when the pastor just talks about himself over and over and over, and he's a star of every story.

Now, certainly it's okay to give illustrations. And I've talked about my life, and what's happened, and what my son did as an illustration of the truth.

But I'm not the one. If I leave Bethlehem Bible Church, the church will go on.

Why? The church will go on because it's about Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It's not about me.

I'm not the star. I'm just the one who points people to the star, Jesus Christ, to be impressed with the glory of Christ Jesus.

R .L. Dabney said this. He said, the preacher is a herald. His work is heralding the

King's message. Now, the herald does not invent the message. He merely transmits and explains it.

It is not his to criticize, it's wisdom or fitness. This belongs to his sovereign alone.

The preacher's business is to take what is given him in the scriptures, as it is given him, and to endeavor to imprint it on the souls of men.

All else is God's work. That's the issue. Pastors need to be men of one book.

Homo unius libri, the man of one book. And that's a good prayer request for your pastor.

Lord, would you just keep him to be a man of one book? I don't care what he knows about book reviews and economic policies and political infighting, sports stats.

I want him to know this one book, because when I come to worship Christ Jesus on Sunday in corporate worship, I want him to preach the word.

I want him to know that book and be mastered by it. Paul is saying to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter four,

Timothy, you're not just responsible to hear it, like when you heard it when you were a kid, chapter three.

You're not just responsible to just believe it. You're not just responsible to just obey it.

Not just responsible to just guard it. Not just responsible to suffer for it. Not just responsible to continue in it.

You are responsible, Timothy, and every other person who dares call themselves a pastor, to preach it to others.

You are to preach the gospel to other people. I love John Bunyan. John Bunyan said a lot of things, but when they put him into prison, they were pretty nice to John Bunyan.

Said, you know, if you would agree to stop preaching this gospel of Christ Jesus, you can come out of prison whenever you want to.

As long as you, that's the only thing you have to do is just stop preaching. And here's what Bunyan said. If you let me out of prison today,

I will preach again tomorrow by the grace of God. Well, then you must go back to prison.

Here's what Bunyan said. Here's what this man of one book said. If I go back and stay there,

I will go back and stay there if need be till the moss grows on my eyelids, but I will never deny my master.

See, Bunyan was called to preach and Bunyan knew who the master was and he knew that he was under the authority of Jesus Christ.

It's Jesus's church. And Jesus says, pastor, elder, preach the word. Do you notice the text?

Not preach a word, but preach the word. Just like Paul did.

Paul didn't say to Timothy to do one thing while Paul did another. Here's what Paul said in Acts chapter 20.

Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.

Isn't that neat? Paul didn't alter the scriptures. He didn't add to the scriptures.

He didn't subtract from the scriptures. He didn't add book reviews, politics, economics, current issues, opinions, theories of science.

He preached the word. When my daughter Haley was small, we'd tell her all the time, when you see a pastor, you tell him, preach the word.

Now, she was really little, a couple of years old. And so whenever we'd see a pastor, and this was before I was a pastor,

Haley, there's a pastor, and she would kind of waddle up, you know, with that kid walk and she would say, preach the word.

But she didn't quite pronounce it right enough. Not right enough, she didn't pronounce it well. And so I remember the one day that I said, hey, there's, that's

Pastor John there, Pastor John MacArthur, our pastor. He's a pastor. Would you, you better, what do you tell pastors?

And so she went up to John and she said, preach the word. Preach the word. John Stott said this, no one has the liberty to invent our message, but only to communicate the word which

God has spoken and has now committed to the church as a sacred trust.

I wonder if your pastor thinks that way. This is a sacred trust that I have. A sacred trust.

Hall said this, settle it in your mind that no sermon is worth much in which the

Lord is not the principal speaker. I like the old fashioned Billy Graham, don't you? The Bible says, the

Bible says, the word of God says, the Bible says, the Bible says, the Bible says. That's a good way to evangelize.

That's a good way to teach your kids. That's a good way to preach. The Bible says. And so here on No Compromise Radio, we're talking about preaching.

Pastors must preach. Of course, they must pray. Of course, they must counsel. Of course, they must lead.

Of course, they must guide. Of course, they must come alongside. Of course, they must admonish. Of course, they must encourage.

Of course, they must help. There are many things a pastor must do. But at the top of the list, the sine qua non of being a pastor is preaching

Christ Jesus. God, Yahweh, has always been a God who has used secondary means.

That is to say, he's used instruments. He's used prophets like Moses. He's used donkeys.

He's used other vehicles to proclaim his word. And sometimes he speaks directly, but in these last days, he preaches and communicates to us through his son and his son's apostolic messengers.

And we are to proclaim Christ Jesus. Listen to what Elisha Yale said.

The doctrines you are to teach are not the investigations of reason, but the dictates of inspiration.

The duties you are to enjoin are not the commands of men, but the laws of Jehovah. The threatenings you are to denounce are not the expressions of human displeasure, but the thunders of divine wrath.

The promises you are to present for the encouragement of the convinced and desponding are not the fancies of the theoretic philanthropy, our love for fellow man, but the overflowings of God's unbounding goodness and mercy.

Your embassy is from God to men, from the wise and good ruler of the universe to a portion of his rebellious subjects.

And the proposals that you are to make from his word are to the unalterable terms of life and death.

The result of your ministry are not to be the happiness or misery of empires and ages, but the happiness or misery of immortal beings forever.

Now that is weighty. That has gravity. That issue there tells me that I better stay at my post and preach the word.

It's Mike Abendroth in No Compromise Radio Ministry. Here's what we're talking about today, preaching the word. Now I have a desire in my heart and I would like the

Lord to grant it. And here's the desire of my heart that when I am buried one day,

I don't know where I'm going to be buried. Hopefully California. It might be too expensive to fly me back there.

When I am buried, I hope my wife and my children say, you know what?

I love my husband and the kids say we loved our dad. And I hope they give all kinds of different reasons and fun things we did together and times we enjoyed.

But I hope they say, you know what? One thing I remember about dad is he preached the word. And I hope people at the church, at Bethlehem Bible Church, say, well, you know what?

He wasn't really good at this and he wasn't so good at that. And he wasn't the best at such and such.

But one thing we do know that by the grace of God who captured him and who saved him, when he got up for a funeral, he preached the word.

When he got up for a wedding, he preached the word. When he went on the radio, he preached the word. When people ask him for counsel, he preached the word.

When he got up on Sunday morning, he preached the word. When he got up on Sunday night, he preached the word. When he got up on Wednesday night, he preached the word.

When they went to the camp out, he preached the word. That's what we want. Don't you want the pastor who does that?

I mean, if you really go to the church because you like the music, but the preaching's horrible, you can go to the tweeter center for good music.

If you say, well, I like the drama at our church, well, A, grow up, and B, if you don't think the drama of redemption's good enough,

I don't know what to tell you. But if you want good drama, you can go to the Wang and get good drama. But where do you go outside of a local

New Testament church for the preaching of the word of God? Where do you go for that?

You can't go anywhere. That's the only place you're going to get it. And so that is why the pastor is to preach the word.

That's why when people say, well, we're going to play a little video clip, we're going to play a road song and kind of supplement the sermon.

Friends, if I've got 45 minutes or 55 minutes or 40 minutes, or some of these other churches, 25 minutes, if I've got that, then it's going to be straight to the text.

On your mark, get set, go. Time to text. We have something in preaching class called time to text.

T -T -T. And that is how much time does it take the pastor from when he turns on his microphone to get to the text?

Now for the new guys, it should be seconds. For people that have preached a little bit longer, maybe there's a reason why they're setting up some introduction to get attention, secure interest, something that they're trying to do.

But they need to get to the text and stay to the text. You need to keep, and if you're going to have a golf swing,

I don't know anything about golf, but golf swing, you better keep your head down. And so when you get up to preach, that's why

Charles Stanley makes me nervous when he wanders all around without his Bible and away from the pulpit and away from the

Bible. That scares me a lot. Stand up there, preach the word, time to text, and stick there.

Keep your head down. I don't even care if I see the pastor's eyes. I want my head down.

I don't care if I see my congregation. I look up, yes, eye contact's good, et cetera, but that's not what

I'm after. I'm after to preach the word. So Bethlehem Bible Church today, no -compromise radio rather, we want your pastor to preach the word.

And if he does, hallelujah. If he doesn't, pray for him, or you need to fire him. I don't know if it's a congregational rule church or not, but maybe finally congregational rule would come into play where you say, we're going to fire the pastor because he doesn't preach.

You pay his bill so he can study all day long, and he can study Hebrew and Greek and systematic theology and historical theology, et cetera.

All right, I'm going on a rampage. Pastors, preach the word. Sunday school teachers, preach the word.

Evangelists, preach the word. Dads, preach the word. Moms, when the dads are gone, preach the word.

Kids, other friends at school, preach the word. We are to preach the word because in the word of Christ Jesus is found.

The only place you can find him today, the risen Savior King Jesus. 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 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.