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Freewill is the topic of today's show!
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.
Compromise Radio ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and we�ve got the Predict-A-Pen here still. Predict-A-Pen. Will Fred Butler be on this show again? No-brainer. I just was telling the story when I was back in Omaha that I was going to go to Morton Junior High School�s gym for a swim meet.
I swam a couple different. I think I had different. I think I swam 100 IM and 50-yard fly were my two specialties. I got fifth in all of Omaha on a 100 fly in 1974-ish. There were only five people who could swim it without getting DQed.
That�s hard, and that undulation will kill you. But anyway, I didn�t get DQed, and I finished, and I got fifth in the city. Only five were racing, but that�s still fifth in the city. Come on. I also was first chair tuba in the all-city band in 1975.
That was a big year. Everything went down. Then I went to a franchise church, and it was all wrong. Was there a better year in my life? If you�re lucky. So I said to my mom, I�m concerned, am I going to win the race, the swim race?
I could always do athletics in a play in the neighborhood and win once in a while, but I wasn�t great. So I wasn�t going to win any races there, but I wanted to know if I was some dairy barn down the street.
I can�t remember what it was called. Like a Dairy Queen, but it was a solo deal, and when they had pizza burgers, we�d always get a pizza burger probably before I swam, and no wonder I couldn�t win a race.
And here I sit in my study by myself, laughing at myself. But see, I�m imagining that you�re there, that you, the audience, are there. You, the 24 listeners, are there. Do you realize I think that we have 800 ,000, 900 ,000 million downloads a year?
That�s pretty good. If I could just charge $1 a download, I�d be a millionaire, but then no one would listen, so then it wouldn�t matter. I asked the Ouija board. With my mom, we kind of kneeled down, huddled over this little Ouija board if I would win the race.
I was trying to push the little felt-shaped gizmo over. What�s that called? I don�t know. Anyway, it�s not in the house anymore, for which I am thankful. We have a little slogan here. It�s called �Always Biblical, Always Provocative, Always in that Order.
That�s what we�re about on No Compromise Radio. We have a YouTube channel. You can watch some YouTubes. No Compromise Radio, I think there�s 150 YouTubes maybe that you could watch. We have archives of the last 1 ,500 shows.
If you go to nocompromiseradio .com, please tell your friends about the show. We ask that you just tell your friends. We don�t ask that you give. Just tell your friends. After many years, I think after five years, we did put a donation button on there, and I�m not kidding when I say I�m thankful.
I�m thankful for it. I�d say three times a year, we get gifts. That�s it. I talk to other people and listen to their budgets and all that stuff and how much money they have got coming in. It�s amazing.
I think I need to tweak that a little bit, but it�s the S. Lewis Johnson in me where you can�t ask for money, at least not yet. Maybe there�s a dire emergency. We need another microphone or something.
Let�s see. What do I need? What does No Compromise Radio need? Well, I personally could use a nice MacBook Air. That�s what I need. I know people like that too. They just ask for things on the show and then they get sent things.
I don�t know. I mean, I pretty much have everything in my life that I really want. That�s pretty amazing when you think about it. You could say, well, my 1 ,500-square-foot house, I wish that was bigger.
My truck that�s got the head gasket blown out, I can�t go more than 10 miles. I wish it ran. Oh, man, that�s funny. But anyway, MacBook Air. I think that�s where we are now. Some MacBook Air. I got an iPad.
That thing works great. It burned out and then I got an iPad 2 replacement for the iPad 2, the old one. So I think that�s still the iOS is going to be fine for that for a while. I have an iPhone 6. Oh, you could send me a 50-centimeter carbon bicycle, preferably over 500, because I listen to a lot of things in my preparation.
Anyway, Sexual Fidelity, No Compromise is a book written stemming from conversations that I had with my son about the topic of what does God say about sex in the Bible? Not in a crude fashion, not in a rude fashion, not in potty-mouth fashion, but in just straight, no-nonsense, no-compromise form from no-co-media, and so you can order that online.
Probably by the time you get this, you can order online. We will have a Kindle version. I�m working on that as we speak, and maybe audio, right? Audio version. It was a while ago that I found online a bunch of Bible verses and quotes about the doctrine of free will, and it�s always something that comes up.
What about free will? I mean, wherever you go, even unbelievers, have you noticed that? Even unbelievers ask the question, �Well, what about free will Everybody�s talking about free will. Now, one of the things we have to remember when, for instance, if we talk to a Roman Catholic and they say Jesus is death, well, we have to define who Jesus is and how sufficient his death was, i .e., Hebrews 9 and 10.
Well, it�s no different when it comes to free will. We need to have the right definition. So if your definition of free will is Edwardian, again, you know, I�m not so keen on a lot of Edward�s stuff, but he�s right on free will, and I think he would discuss free will as nature-choosing or the will-choosing, yeah, the will-choosing, I think.
What kind of choices will an unbeliever who has an unbelieving nature choose? Well, he would just choose sin and only sin because his nature wouldn�t allow him to choose something else. It isn�t in his nature, to quote John Gershner, �It�s not in his nature.
Once God gives you a new nature, it�s called regeneration, new birth, new life, Titus 3 .5, John 3, then you can make choices and you will make the choice, the initial choice, yes, I now want to serve the Lord Jesus, I believe in him, the risen Savior.
So if you say free will is the mind choosing, the person choosing, well, then we factor in the nature and we�re okay. As long as you factor in the nature of the unbeliever when it comes to free will, you�re going to be just fine.
If you mean by free will that the mind, the will, the emotions, everything is free from the debilitating effects of sin, free from the world�s influences, free from being captive to do Satan�s will, 2 Timothy 2, free to do whatever it wants and not a slave to sin, Romans 6, then you would be wrong.
And I think most of the time people think of free will that they are free to do whatever they please, and they�re free to believe in Jesus whenever they please as well. That�s where we have the rub. So there was a website, and I�m surprised that it�s not listed here as I printed out all these things, a bunch of quotes from the Bible then before the Reformation, during the Reformation, from some Reformation confessions, and then after, stuff about free will with quotes to just devastate the doctrine of free will.
I believe in free will, and that�s God�s will is free to do whatever he pleases. This world is only big enough to have one ultimate free-willed being, and his name is God. So what we�re going to do is let me just read you some verses to start, and then maybe we�ll read some quotes, and we�re just going to talk about one of my favorite doctrines.
It�s the doctrine against free will, because it points me then to if I�m going to get saved, somebody else is going to have to do it. It actually is going to be a savior, and it�s not my own salvation, my own auto-self-soterism salvation, self-salvation.
I cannot save myself. I need someone to give me a new nature. And of course, when God does give you a new nature, you don�t go into the kingdom kicking and screaming, getting dragged along like a cavewoman, Psalm 33 .10, �He maketh the devices of the people of none effect.
By the way, this list here is going to be in King James, so for those of you that are King James only and hate no-compromise radio but just want to troll, Morgan, Guten Morgan, Psalm 81 .12,. �So I gave them up to their own heart�s lust, and they walked in their own counsels.
Proverbs 21 .1,. �The king�s heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water. He turneth it whithersoever he will. I mean, if king�s the most powerful, and what does God do? He can turn the king�s heart.
Proverbs 28 .26,. I�m not going to read that one,. Ecclesiastes 7 .20,. �There is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Getting tired in the studio here. We need some fresh air.
Who were born, John 1 .13,. �Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. See, to be born again, you�ve got to be born of God�s will. John 6 .44,. �No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will raise him up on the last day.
John 6 .65,. �Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my father. Romans 3 .10 -12,. �As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one, there is no that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
That�s right, it said, �There is no that understandeth. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Romans 5 .6,. �For when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.
We�re talking about verses that are going to demand God is going to have to save. And then at the end of the day, as we say, you can say, �Thank you Lord, you�re the one that saved me. Not me, not my own will, I didn�t let God save me.
Romans 8 .7,. �But the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Romans 9 .16,. �So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
S-H-E-W-E-T-H, showeth. Ephesians 2 .5,. �Even when we were dead in sins, he quickened us together with Christ by grace, ye are saved. I will have to say that I often love the King James when they have the ye�s and the you�s because they got the y�alls right.
Augustine. So let�s move from Bible verses to some quotes from people. Okay, so what are we doing here on the show today? I have no idea. I just sit down, off we go. No, I have a stack, you should see my stack.
I�m going to show you behind the scenes stack sometimes and you can just, there�s all kinds of stuff here. Makes you tired though. I tell you that when you look at the stack, boy. Augustine, �I once labored hard for the free will of man, until the grace of God at length overcame me.
Nice. Bradwardine, �What multitudes, O Lord, do this day join hands with Pelagius in contending for free will and in fighting free grace Pretty much you�re going to have to go for one or the other.
You either believe in free grace or free will. So I�m trying to push you to free grace. I�m trying to liberate you. Liberate .org is now closed. I want you to think of free grace, not free will. Every time somebody says, �Well, I believe in free will.
Ask them this question, �Well, what do you think about free grace? What do you think about sovereign grace To use Estilus Johnson�s words, �What do you think about distinguishing grace The Waldensians, �Whosoever upholds free will absolutely denies predestination in the grace of God.
See, our view of grace is so tainted with the impurity of merit that we don�t get it. If you believe in free will, you don�t believe in grace. See, it�s not even a disconnect for many people, but the Waldensians are right.
If you believe in free will, then how can you believe in predestination? How can you believe in grace? Luther. Now we move from Luther. We go from Bible verses. See how that works? To before the Reformation, now Reformed times.
Luther. Free will is an empty term. That�s right. It is very fluid. It is very, I want to say viscous, but that�s not right. It is very fluid. There�s just a fluidity to liquidity. Free will cannot will good and of necessity serves sin.
Here�s what�s going on really with free will. At the fall was the will affected. Consequently, were people born sinners and everything about them affected by the fall and sin except the will? So there�s a little island of righteousness there, an island of Gilligan�s righteousness, Gilligan�s island of righteousness.
Hey, little buddy. Call free will. That would be as dumb as saying the fall didn�t affect my emotions. It affected everything else. That�s why we call it total depravity. Not because you can be as bad as you could be or as bad as somebody else.
It�s not utter depravity. It�s total because it affects everything including the will. Here�s my question for you. Did the fall of Adam affect his will? And by consequence, does it affect your will? Okay.
So what�s so free about it? Luther, this is plainly to ascribe divinity to free will. What�s Luther saying? If you really think free will is the way to go and you will die on that hill, then free will is the God.
It�s the God that chooses. It�s the God that sits in the heavens and does whatever it so pleases, whither it so pleases. Is that what it was again for King James? I frankly confess that for myself, Luther said, even if it could be, I should not want free will to be given me nor anything to be left in my own hands to enable me to endeavor after salvation, not merely because in face of so many dangers and adversities and assaults of the devils.
I could not stand my ground, but because even were there no dangers, I should still be forced to labor with no guarantee of success. So stop right there for a second. Luther said, even if there is such a thing, I don�t want it.
So why can�t I get it through several of your noggins? Galvan asked, why can�t I get it through your noggins? You don�t want free will. Your vaunted pride is clouding your vision. I�m here to help. You say, I want better bedside manner.
Okay, here you go. Would you please read Romans 9? Would you please consider the end result of free will and who�s the one who�s really the Savior? Who�s the one really letting God save? Luther goes on in his book called The Bondage of the Will.
But now that God has taken my salvation out of the control of my will and put it under the control of His and promised to save me, not according to my working or running, but according to His own grace and mercy, I have the comfortable certainty that He is faithful and will not lie to me and that He is also great and powerful so that no devils or opposition can break Him or pluck me from Him.
Furthermore, I have the comfortable certainty that I please God not by reason of the merit of my works but by reason of His merciful favor promised to me, so that if I work too little or badly, He does not impute it to me, but with fatherly compassion pardons me and makes me better.
This is the glorifying of all the saints in their God. Martin Luther. Who are the ones that are really promoting free will during the Reformation? It was the Roman Catholics, wasn�t it? Weren�t it? Ain�t it?
The Papists. What does John Calvin say about free will? The Papists hold that man, through his own free will, returns to God, and on this point is our greatest contest with them at this day. Concerning that this clown babbleth of free will, it is certainly or sufficiently rejected throughout the whole Scripture.
Calvin knew during the Reformation, the dividing line, the issue�oh, there were many issues of authority and of the solas, of course, but he boiled it down to the will, and then as he would fight people, that is, through the pen.
You�re going to babble about free will, yet it is contested, it is rejected throughout the whole Scripture? What about faith? Calvin said faith is a special gift of God which proceedeth not from our free will.
See Ephesians 2. See Acts. See Philippians 1 .29. Calvin, no free will of man can resist him that willeth to save. Okay, so we�ve got the MMA battle of the century. It�s in the cage. It�s a cage match.
I don�t know. I don�t watch MMA. WWA? What�s it called? I don�t even know. Mixed martial arts. Cage match to the death. Free will, God�s will. See, we�re back to free will and free grace. You got to pick one.
Which one�s going to win? Man�s puny will or God�s sovereign will? Calvin, let that ethical philosophy, therefore, of free will be far from a Christian mind. My appeal to you today on No Compromise Radio, many of you already know this.
Just stop it. What are you doing? Why? You don�t have a leg to stand on. Go research free will in your Bible. Go study the fall. Go study total inability. Go study original sin. Study the effects of sin on the mind and the will and the emotions and the heart and the body.
You know sin has affected the body. You have gray hair. I know sin has affected the body because I not only have gray hair, I have no hair on my head. I have a yarmulke instead. I have hair on my ears that I don�t want.
I said to my wife, �Honey, just please, if I�m in a rest home and I don�t know who I am, where I am, just take care of the nose hairs and the ear hairs and stuff. I don�t want one of those eyebrows that�s like four inches long.
�Please, please, if you love me she said, �I�ll take care of that. So see, I�m set. That�s love. That�s love right there. That�s true love. 39. The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works to faith and calling upon God.
Wherefore, we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God without the grace of God by Christ preventing us that we may have a good will and working with us when we have that good will.
How about the Heidelberg Catechism? Question and answer eight. And we are then so corrupt that we are wholly incapable of doing any good and inclined to all wickedness? Question? Answer? Indeed we are, except we are regenerated by the Spirit of God.
On No Compromise Radio, which one gives more praise to God? I know this is not the only way to argue. We could argue exegetically in other ways, but which one gives most praise to God? I am in heaven, God, because I decided, I followed, I freely chose.
Or, God, I would never have been here except by your grace. You gave me a new nature and then I received you and I believed in you and I followed you and I love the Lord Jesus Christ because of what you've done.
And can't you hear the refrain now? But that makes you a robot. It does. God gives me a new nature and now that new nature freely responds and I never would have responded at all except with hatred unless God intervened.
That is just a dumb argument. Oh, he doesn't want to force people to love them. He doesn't force anybody to love them. He gives them by sovereign grace regeneration and that person now loves what he hates and hates what he.
Loves. Mike Abendroth,. 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 10 .15 and in the evening at 6. We are right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .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.