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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's Mike Abendroth. I'm still bugged somebody messed with my chair. Got everything set up here just exactly the way I want it. Somebody comes buffaloing into my office and then what do they do?
Well, that's beside the point. 1517 is the $3 off code that you can type in to the website there if you want $3 off the sexual fidelity book. March 7th, I think I'm going to be on Janet Mefford's show, so that's exciting.
Been on different podcasts of late, Bible-thumping wingnut. After the sermon, these things go to 11. Mm, I don't know, but Roger Festa's got me set up. That's for sure. You ought to type in Roger Festa and see what he does with his book ministry there.
And I'm trying to look up here what his Twitter information is. Ah, you can look it up or you can write me, info at nocompromiseradio .com. We'll be in Germany, Lord willing, next May, 2017, speaking at one of the breakout sessions.
I'm not one of the main speakers. That's MacArthur, Lawson, James White, those guys. But I know those guys, and so I'll be like one of the subsidiary speakers at a breakout session. When the big speakers go have some extra coffee, then I'll be speaking.
If you want to go with us, info at nocompromiseradio .com, trying to plan a little ref 2017 tour, maybe Geneva. Lake Geneva is incredible. And maybe Zurich as well. We'll see. We'll see what happens. Okay, what else?
Any other announcements I need to make? I don't know. There you go. If you're going to be at the Shepherds Conference, we'd love to see you. And that's going to be, I don't know when. I don't know. I just want my chair to work.
That's all. That's all I want. How do you stomach the doctrine of God's sovereignty? It has edges. It has corners. And some want to plane those edges off. I remember the plane. We had the wood plane to make things smooth around the edges.
So it wouldn't poke you, prod you, prick you. Last time we were talking about Heidelberg Catechism. You know what? Where is my, there's got to be some notes around here somewhere for some of the shows we've already done.
Where would those be? I have no idea. Where did those shows go? Oh, shows, where did you go? And if you look at the Heidelberg Catechism, question 28, it talks about the doctrine of God's sovereignty and how he upholds all things, Hebrews 1 .3.
How it will give you patience in adversity and how it will give you prosperity during prosperity. It will give you thankfulness and a confidence in God who will not let anything separate you from his love.
So I wanted to help you all because I know I need help on more than one occasion as you consider the sovereignty of God, but it's difficult. So, all right, I tried to find my stuff here. Could not find it.
Can't get this chair. Can't figure things out. I don't know what's going on. Why is there a tweezers here? I have tweezers and a chapstick. Why is that? I have no idea. There, it works. First thing you've got to do for these kind of hamburger helper sessions that we talked about last time is you have to say to yourself, it's the Bible.
I have to be informed by the Bible. Let your intuition, let your feelings, let those things get involved and you are going to be dust. Here's basically what you will do. You will fashion a God in your own likeness and image or you'll fashion a God that you like, his image, and that that is called something.
That's called, where's my chair? Who messed with my chair? This is a rotten, awful, horribly bad day. What's that one? That's a book I used to read to the kids. I don't know what it's called. Proverbs.
Oh, it's called idolatry. Proverbs is not called idolatry though. Go to the book of Proverbs and you're going to see several verses, four verses in particular, that should inform you that God can control the will.
I mean, let's face it. When people have problems with the sovereignty of God, it's not over the weather. That's a minor thing. It's who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. That's the issue. Predestination and reprobation.
So what about the heart? What about the will? What about the mind? Is that a hands-off deal? God can't touch that. It's impenetrable. There's no access to it. Proverbs 16. The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
Proverbs 16 .9. The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his step. Yeah, there is human responsibility, certainly, but there's the sovereignty of God. God overrules. Remember that old slogan?
Man proposes. God, what? Disposes. How about Proverbs 19 .21? Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. God's counsel. You plan things? Why can't I lean back in this chair?
Man, it's really bugging me. I think I know who sat in this, too. I think Anthony did during discipleship. Anthony, you're busted. I know your last name isn't this, but I'm gonna call you this now, Anthony Cappadocia.
You're busted. You sat in my chair, I think. Maybe somebody else did, but I think it was you. You're in trouble. Proverbs 21 .1. The king's heart is a stream of water. 1 ,720 shows, by the way, I've done, and nobody's messed with my chair.
I'm turning it. I'm twisting it. I just want it to go backwards, that's all. Dope meets slap. The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord, and he turns it wherever he will. So what do you do?
You are a farmer, and you have irrigation ditches, and you control the water. The water doesn't control itself. There are all kinds of factors that come into play. Gravity, climate, path of least resistance.
But here, the heart, there are other influences outside of the human will, like God. Augustine, quote, "'God works in the hearts of men to incline their wills, "'whithersoever he wills, "'whether to good deeds according to his mercy, "'or to evil after their own deserts, "'his own judgment being sometimes manifest, "'sometimes secret, but always righteous.'".
Whatever God does, it's right. Man's responsible, if he's right or wrong, guilty, innocent, pure, sullied, and God is always righteous. This is from the Bible. I could give you another one. Luke 22, 22, and 23.
"'For the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, "'but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed.'". Can you imagine? It's been determined, but woe to that man. What you have to do at the very beginning when you're struggling with the sovereignty of God, or any of the points, any of the doctrines of grace, what does the Bible say?
Ligon Duncan talks about Mark Dever being at a conference, and they were studying the attributes of God, and a guy named Bob got upset at Mark because he disagreed, and so he raised his hand and said, "'Mark, you know I like to think of God as omniscient, "'but not meddling, just, just, but not nitpicky, "'sovereign, but not overbearing.'".
And he finished, and then Mark Dever said, "'Thank you, Bob, but we're not here "'to talk about what you think, "'and we're not here to talk about you. "'We're here to talk about God, "'and so we are going to go back to the Bible now.'".
Now, there's more to be said about God than that's in the Bible. What I mean by that is, if you think of God's revelation, oh, it's a complete revelation for us, it's sufficient, but there's more to be said about God.
He's a God that hides himself back to the old Reformed description of God, deus, D-E-U-S, absconditus, absconditus, the hidden God. There's more, but we have everything we need in the Bible, and so the question is, do you submit to the Bible that teaches God upholds all things?
Let me give you another helper here on No Compromise Radio. If I only had one of you people here helping me trying to figure out how do I get this chair to go backwards, I've tried turning it one way, I've tried turning it the other way, and the thing doesn't go backwards.
Deus abscondus chair-itis. I just want the chair to go backwards. Can you hear that? Come on. Number two, remember that God is not like man. Okay, how do I get over the hump? I've got a charley horse in my brain because God's sovereign over everything, and that means the human will, that means heaven, that means hell.
I got relatives. I've got deceased relatives. You know where this conversation leads, don't you? And people begin to have the hair of the back of their neck go up. I don't know why now that I'm getting old enough that my hair on the back of my neck grows faster than the hair on the top of my head.
How does that work? No idea. Remember that God is not like a man. This is gonna help you so you don't sinfully question God. The way you could describe this the best is God is transcendent. He's not like us.
We try to think of God as like us, and if we're good, we just turn up the degrees and he's so much gooder, and he has a certain quality of goodness that's just way gooder than our goodness is. He's a man, but he's an infant man, talking about the son.
Well, I think there are some similarities. We are image bearers, but God is different. God is holy. God is transcendent. God is holy, W-H-O-L-L-Y, other. There's a difference, quality difference, quantity difference.
We are talking about an infinite God, so don't you expect your mind might be blown? Don't you expect you might not be able to figure everything out? Don't you expect that we're just to submit? So much of this to me is just submission, and that relates to pride, of course, when people don't wanna submit.
They're prideful. Isaiah chapter 40 helps as we look to the Bible to realize God isn't like us. There's a difference, a big difference, a gigantic difference, a ginormous difference, an infinite difference.
Who has measured the spirit of the Lord, Isaiah 40, 13? Or what man shows him his counsel? Whom did he consult and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice and taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding?
Nobody, no one. God, as Tozer said, knows instantly and effortlessly all matter and all matters, all mind and every mind, all spirit and all spirits, all being and every being, all creaturehood and all creatures, every plurality and all pluralities, all law and every law, all relations, all causes, all thoughts, all mysteries, all enigmas, all feeling, all desires, every unuttered secret, all thrones and dominions, all personalities, all things visible and invisible in heaven and on earth, motion, space, time, life, death, good, evil, heavens and hell.
I guess he's not really like me. I had to go to college, several of them. Or if I use the message, quote, Bible, end quote, don't go to smart mouth college, Psalm 1. Verse 15 of Isaiah 40, behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are accounted as the dust on the scales.
Behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust. When you drop a little droplet of water out of a bucket, do you notice? You know, if you have a bucket and you're trying to carry a bucket of water someplace, and I don't know, prime a pump.
When was the last time you primed a pump? I remember up at the cabin, we used to have a pump for water, well water. Well, water. And we had to prime it. And I don't know the physics of priming a pump, but I knew we had to prime it.
So you'd have to get some water. Where do you get the water to prime a pump if you need water from the pump to prime the pump? I don't have any idea. I think we went to the lake. So you go to the lake, or maybe you bring a gallon of water and you pour it in there while one person starts pumping.
And then what do you know? Oh, voila. Voila. But if you spill one little drop, you don't even notice. What's a speck of dust on a scale matter? A little, the coastlands are like fine dust. I mean, this is the word negligible that comes to my mind.
We're talking about an infinite God here. He's not like us. So when we think about the sovereignty of God and how he upholds all things, you can't just say, well, I think, you have to submit to the Bible.
And you also can't say, well, God has to act like I want him to act. He's not like us. Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, verse 16, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering. You want to worship God?
He's so worthy of worship that you've got to go to take all of the forest of Lebanon and use that for wood. Still not gonna be enough. It's not gonna be enough. Burn it all. Burn Yellowstone. Burn the Berkshires.
Burn the Rocky National Forest. Rocky Mountain National Forest. Is that a forest? I don't know. All the nations are as nothing before him. They are accounted by him as less than nothing in emptiness. Note to self, nations are people.
Doesn't do you any good if you go, that's a nation. Nations are full of people. They're accounted as nothing before him. They're accounted by him as less than nothing. All the inhabitants of the earth are as counted as nothing, Daniel 4 also says.
And he does according to his will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And no one can ward off his hand or say to him, what have you done? Why didn't you save that person? Why don't you make it more explanatory in your word?
Is that a proper sentence? So I can understand sovereignty, responsibility better. How about a little sarcasm here? Isaiah 40 verse 18 and following. To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness compare with him?
An idol? A craftsman casts it. And a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains. Some Egyptian goddesses were suspended by a little chain, but they're dumb, mute, lifeless, can't move themselves.
He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot. He seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move. Gotta make sure you can make that just right. It's gonna fall over.
Do you not know? Do you not hear? Verse 21. Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? He who sits above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them like a tent to dwell in.
Can you imagine? God is not like us. He's other. He's wholly other. He brings princes to nothing and makes rulers of the earth as emptiness. He disposes. He predisposes. It's amazing. God sovereignly upholds everything without exception concerning everything.
He's above man. He's higher than man. He's greater than man. Your thoughts of God are too human, Luther said to Erasmus. Psalm 50. You thought I was just like you. When you struggle with the sovereignty of God, might I suggest that you consider, see this is the nice mic right here.
You're thinking somehow God's like you. Now, if you wanna go no-co, we go no-co on us. Here's no-co. If you say, I can't grasp that God's sovereign over everything, then besides looking at scripture, how can I say this in a nice way?
You are mistaken, my friend. And one of your big mistakes is, besides submission, it's pride. I want God to do what I think he should do. I wanna say what's right or wrong. Friends, even back to the word grace, we think grace is merited because God doesn't deserve to give grace to anyone.
Okay, you want me to push it? Okay, I push it. Does he deserve to give grace to a baby? Well, he doesn't deserve to give grace to anything or anyone because grace isn't deserved. It's freely given. This is, and I've done several shows on, do babies go to heaven when they die?
And if they do, it's not because they deserve it, because they're a baby. That's not a reason. You're like, see, this is meddling now. This is the trouble with all this talk. Yeah, but you gotta go to what the Bible says and you have to realize God isn't like us.
There's a particular incident in the Bible where a man was challenging God for these kind of things. And God kind of switched it around a little bit, the little divine switcheroo. Job 38, then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
Oh, this is gonna be so bad. Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man. I will question you and you make it known to me. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me if you have understanding. Who determines its measurements? Surely you know. Or who stretched out the line upon it? Or what were its bases sunk? On what were? Or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Job 40, Lord said to Job, shall I fault find or contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it. Lord was answered by Job. Job said, behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer you?
I lay my hand on my mouth. I've spoken once and I will not answer twice. I will not proceed. I will proceed no further. Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind. Dress for action like a man. I will question you and you make it known to me.
Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? Have you an arm like God and can you thunder with a voice like his? Job 42, then Job answered the Lord and said, I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I've uttered what I did not understand. Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Here and I will speak. I will question you and you will make it known to me.
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. When it comes to the sovereignty of God, the best thing you can do is start with scripture.
Secondly, you say to yourself, because of what scripture says, God's not like me. And all my questions that I have about him, for him, to him, just need to be silenced. You even see that in Romans nine, don't you?
Who are you to answer back to God? Who are you, old man? Who are you, little pipsqueak man? You're not asking God anything. Oh, you're asking, but you shouldn't be. How do we grasp that God upholds all things?
Why should we grasp that? Well, we should grasp it because friends, besides it being true, besides it giving glory to God by believing the right things, when you're in adversity, you can be patient because God, you know, is upholding all these things and nothing is going to happen without God's direct involvement.
He's there with you, for you. And then when good things happen to you and you're prosperous, you can be thankful. Hey, I didn't make these things. I didn't come up with these things. This is God doing these things for me.
He's the one orchestrating. He loved me because he sent his son to die for me and he was raised from the dead and he gives me all these other things. And also I have a confidence that nothing can happen because God's sovereign over it that would make him stop loving me.
That's why you study the doctrine of providence. We're going to look next time at a little more about this. How can we take the sledgehammer of God's providence and make it hit our brains a little slower and a little softer?
NoCompromiseRadio .com.
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.