Argue Less

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. Today is Tuesday, therefore that means, that yields, the sum is, Tuesday guys right here.

Buenos dias, mis amigos.

Steve, I don't know if you want to go on this trip, but I have to keep telling our people that we have a No Compromise Highlights of Greece trip, 11-day tour, and cruise. We're going to go to all the places where there's civil unrest right in the heart of Athens.

And hijackers. And pirates. That's right. April 2013, you can email me at info at nocompromiseradio .com. If you want to go along with us, we would love to have you. We'll send you a brochure.

What does that say? Cruise the lovely coast of Somalia. That is awesome. Wow. Show some guys screaming jihad.

It's not all a cruise. It's sometimes we're touring. So we'll tour some in Turkey, especially the Islamic areas. Yeah, and you get some gunnery training. It's pretty nice. Yeah, Patmos. You get deluxe lodging at the island of Patmos.

Nice. But seriously, 11 days in April 2013, we'd love to have you go. You can email us for details. A couple more people have emailed and said, you're not talking loud enough. The system's not loud enough.

So Steve... Well, I keep saying, I think my microphone's turned way down. I don't know if that's intentional or not.

Christianity Today and the Need to Contend for the Faith

Well, since Steve is back, we have to talk a little bit about Christianity today because it's a good springboard for us for theological conversation. Steve, what's the difference between a soliloquy and a colloquially?

I'm glad you asked.

One is completely solo, and the other one's with a co-star. Steve, just for fun, we have...

Having studied English literature. We have a special segment in our shows occasionally. This is the inaugural session, and it's called The Message Moment.

Wait, wait, wait, wait. We have this session, we have this part of our show... In my mind. Oh, okay. It's in my mind. It's developed out. How many of you subscribe to the podcast in Mike's head?

Well, some of those shows are really good, and some of them just seem like they are. This is The Message Moment. Ah. Can you give me a little... Moments in the message. Some kind of Stuart Smalley kind of voice,.

Steve, could you give us?

I'm good enough, and darn it, people like me.

So this is a message moment. We have The Message faux Bible in front of us, and it's here on NAV. Depressed.

Is that F-O-E or F-A-U? The faux Bible.

Very good. I thought you didn't know English. That good, buddy. Ain't no good. All right, so here is The Message Moment. 1 Peter 2, and it says, verse 1, so clean house. Make a clean sweep of malice and pretense, envy and hurtful talk.

You've had a taste of God. Now like infants at the breast, drink deep of God's pure kindness. Then you'll grow up mature and whole in God.

Just take out that broom and sweep it all the way.

And there we present our inaugural, our regular message moment.

That is bad translation, exceedingly bad.

Steve, tell me why you subscribed to Christianity Today besides having no co-fodder.

Well, there is no other reason. Well, you know, the occasional good Bruce Springsteen review on his CD, which they did do by the way a couple of months ago.

I have to just interrupt you just for a second. I kid you not, I don't have one of his albums, one of his 45s, one of his LPs, one of his MP3s, one of his DVDs, one of his anything else, but I dreamt about Bruce Springsteen concert last night.

That is bizarre. That is bizarre. Was he in concert with Billy Bragg? I would have probably gone to that one. Yeah. All right. So Christianity Today, the latest Well, anyway, why do I subscribe?

Because I want to know what's going on in the Christian world at large. Get to know me.

Get to know me. So today, Mike Abendroff, Steve Cooley, No Compromise Radio, always biblical, always provocative. And you'll get to know us. Always Christianity Today, a global media ministry.

Well, that's true, right? We get listeners from Australia and all over the place.

That's right. Well, Steve, here's what I'd like to start with first. There's an ad in the latest Christianity Today. What's the date for this Christianity Today?

Is this June? Yeah. No, you would be having the April one or No, it came from that one.

It came from the Crying Healing Mama Heidi one. May. May of 2012. Okay. So there's just an ad, and it takes a full page. It's an ad from Christianity Today, and I wanted to talk about this a little bit to see how you feel about it.

I think I'm going to feel quite good about it.

Here's what it says, and this is in quotation marks. Open quotation. I'd like to see the church, and now larger letters, the largest letters on the page, argue less about our faith and redirect that energy, change the font, into serving marginalized men and women, period, close quotation.

At the bottom, hear their hopes, share yours. Hope for the church, Christianity Today, a global media ministry. So, Steve, let me read that to you one more time, and just to analyze this for us with your NOCO hat on.

I'd like to see the church argue less about our faith and redirect that energy into serving marginalized men and women.

I'd like to see the church proclaim our faith more and use our energy to just preach Christ and Him crucified to unsaved men and women. That's what I would like to see. Marginalized. He's marginalized.

You know what this ad basically is? Oh, by the way, I know exactly what it is. It's the social... Yeah, it's shut up and get involved in the social gospel.

Yeah, Christianity Today, well, let's not argue about things. Let's not stand up and defend, you know, that whole verse in Jude 3, that contend earnestly for the faith. Forget you. I think that's the blogger verse, you know.

That's the watchman on the tower. That's the person who needs to... Oh, that was back in the old days, but now we're moving on. You'll know we are Christians by our love. I think Charles Stanley's son, Andy, just said that to me.

Yeah, let's sing it again. Yeah, that was pathetic. So before we get into that, though, argue less. Now instead of saying proclaim the gospel or stand up for the faith or contend, Steve, there are a lot of biblical injunctions that talk about standing up for the truth.

Aren't elders supposed to do that? They should just say here, quit eldering and act like a woman.

Well, I mean, if we're supposed to teach the truth, proclaim the truth, and refute those that contradict, as in Titus 1 .9, then what do we do about arguing less? Well, I guess that we no longer refute those who contradict the truth.

We just kind of say, you know what? That's really not important. What is important is to redirect our energy into serving marginalized men and women. What does that even mean, marginalized? I know. Marginalized.

Well, yeah. I mean, there are a lot of people we could say that in the church are marginalized. Let's see, the people who really don't get their voices heard, those who are in constant sin, those who are not involved in any kind of way, they really don't have much of a voice in the church.

And may I say rightfully not.

I actually, Steve, would like to put less of my energy standing up for the faith. I wish everybody would believe, and then I wouldn't have to do that. I wish everyone would say, I affirm what the Bible teaches, and it is authoritative and sufficient, and I submit to that.

I'd like to argue less about our faith, but I wouldn't say argue. The text says, Beloved, though I was very eager to write to you about our marginalized people, about our common salvation, I found it necessary, the ESV says, Jude 3, to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

Why? Why do we have to stand up? Why are men needed to stand up and preach the truth? For certain people have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

And the farce is, you know, a lot of people want to act like things have changed. But the truth is, we're not—when we refute those that contradict sound doctrine or good teaching, the truth, we're not arguing about yodes and tittles.

We're not arguing about the infinitesimally, you know, intricate aspects of the Bible. We're talking about major doctrines. We're talking about, is God really sovereign in salvation or is he not? Is homosexuality really a sin or is it not?

You know, they're just marginalized. Has God's moral character changed or has it not? Those are not small little fine points. You don't have to go into the 43rd paragraph of one verse, you know, allegedly.

You don't have to read between the lines. You don't have to understand all the aspects of grammar to get this stuff straight. And yet people are just like, you know, let's just wallpaper over all that.

Let's just kind of pretend like it doesn't exist and, you know, we'll just hold hands and run off to Shangri-La together.

Steve, when it comes to arguing, of course elders are not to be pugnacious, always looking for a fight. But to have peace in this world, you have to fight. And I think of Christ Jesus' example when you wanted to conquer the enemy.

It took blood. There was warfare and all kinds of warfare talk in the New Testament. Steve, let me tell you about a group of marginalized people and maybe we could help them, all right? Oh, sure. I think this is...

I like to help marginalized people.

These are the people that are the most marginalized, marginalized people that we ought to serve. And they're called Cretans. They were marginalized there in a small little island just south of Athens.

And the Bible says, one of the Cretans, a prophet of their own said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons. This testimony is true. Those poor marginalized people, let's stop talking about issues and let's serve them.

Yeah, that's just not right. I mean, who are we to say that they don't have some kind of syndrome that causes them to eat too much? You know, their dietary issues should not be a matter for criticism.

Well, I think their line has to do with a traumatic problem that they had when Euripides was down there preaching or something. He gave them PTSD. My daughter is taking a psychology class at the local community college.

And last night I was trying to help her with the homework. And I just thought, this is crazy. All these theories and disorders. And if, you know, when do you give psychotropic drugs to a depressed person versus a suicidal person versus a bipolar person?

And the list went on and on and on and on. And so I want to help people. Steve, I want to serve marginalized people, but I want to help them with the real help. And it's interesting, it said there's no empirical data for half the stuff.

It's just all whatever the DSM-IV talks about. But back on point, Steve, the text goes on to say in Titus 1, Therefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. How do we serve people?

Sometimes we serve them by teaching them the Bible, sometimes by encouraging them, sometimes by rebuking them.

That's service to people. You know, Jesus also would serve marginalized people, people that would be marginalized in the kingdom of heaven by telling them the truth, right? What did he say to the Pharisees?

You know, and everybody's against the Pharisees, of course, these days. But then they were, the majority, they were the religious establishment. And what did he do? He said, woe to you. And he went on and on and on.

Why? Because they weren't going to make the kingdom of heaven. And today we want to pretend that the people who aren't going to make the kingdom of heaven, namely sinners, are just somehow marginalized, and that we need to reach out to them, not be concerned about their position, whether they're in Christ or out of Christ, but just serve them.

And, you know, if we can make somebody's life better and they still go to hell, I don't know what we've accomplished.

Steve, I think if Christianity Today would address No Compromise Radio, our entire staff of— Our massive— Two and a half. If they were to address No Compromise Radio, I think they'd like to say to us, stop arguing about the faith and redirect that energy into serving marginalized men and women.

That's exactly what they would tell us. Just be quiet. And lately we've gotten a slew of Tuesday emails about, you guys just need to be more loving. What is love? What is, how does that, are you unloving?

Well, apparently, because if you want to define the faith, you know, it's interesting, we should argue less about our faith. Well, how do we even know what it is? Are we going to allow just somebody to say that they're a person of faith and we go, okay, that settles it.

We don't need to talk to them anymore. Jakes. Yeah. Well, or any, just any generic, I meet somebody on the street and I say, well, do you believe in God? And they say, I'm a person of faith. And I go, okay, well, welcome to the kingdom of heaven.

Have a nice day. No, we need to define what that is. We need to say, well, what do you mean by a person of faith? What do you believe? And when they start straying off into the woods and they're wrong, I need to correct them.

Steve, what they're doing here, besides telling us just to be quiet and stop contending for the faith, agonizing for the once delivered faith, which I would hope I'd have enough courage to die for, by the way, what they're saying is stop talking and start serving.

You hit the nail on the head early on in the program. This is the social gospel. This is the gospel instead of a declared act of what Jesus did in history 2 ,000 years ago. Historical? Yes. Theological?

Yes. Confirmed by the resurrection? Yes. But instead of preaching the gospel, serve the people. Now we can serve marginalized people, that is to say sinners of all stripes and colors and backgrounds and ethnicity.

We can serve them by preaching the gospel to them, but the gospel isn't serving them with water and with trash removal and with school buildings. I think we should be kind to people, but you can do all that, like the liberal Methodists and Episcopalians, and those people still go to hell without the objective, proclaimed good news of the gospel of Christ Jesus, substitutionary death, and resurrection.

Yeah, and you know, one of the big movements now in Christianity is to go specifically to Africa, but other places in the third world, and give them clean water. And I think, well, that's really awesome.

But again, if they're fully hydrated and then they die and go to hell, what have they gained?

Steve, remember in Luke chapter 13 when Jesus was talking and there were some present people there told him about the Galileans whose blood had been mingled. And then he said, or those 18 on whom the tower of Siloam fell and killed them.

So Jesus talks about them, and you can imagine with the social gospel and arguing less and serving the marginalized, make sure you go take care of the people who've lost loved ones and the widows. You know, some of the men got killed when that tower fell, and so go serve those widows and the children, make sure they're fed, and follow up on them, take care of them.

That would all be fine to do. I'm not saying it's wrong to do. But what does Jesus say? Do you think that these were worse offenders than those others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

I wish he would just argue less about the faith and redirect that energy into serving those marginalized Siloam relatives of the people who got killed.

Well, and I think sadly, a lot of today's churches, their focus would be on building new towers that would be safe so they would no longer fall on people.

That's right. More legislation so you can't bake cookies in Massachusetts. Oh, that would be very handy. Steve, here's the great thing about all this. When you proclaim the gospel to sinners, and God is pleased by the spirits working to open their eyes, to regenerate them, to seal them to the day of redemption, to do a great saving work, not based on the other person's work, but by the work of the triune God himself, then when those people are forgiven and cleansed and made new, given new natures, those people want to help other sinners.

They want to help them theologically, they want to preach the gospel to them, and they want to help them with what we might call the social gospel. They do then try to love other people. But my problem, Steve, is if you just try to tell folks, just go help others with the social gospel and do these good things with water and irrigation and everything else, then the motives aren't right.

The motives aren't from, well, I've gotten saved, therefore since God's loved me, I want to love other people. It's just love other people because that's the cool, trendy, hipster, vintage, emergent, conversationalist, incarnationalist movement.

It's missional. Wow. How many hyphens was that? Hyphen. So, if you really preach to unbelievers and they really get saved by the Spirit's work, they'll want to go serve other people. But Steve, at face value, I reject this.

Let's come up with our own no-compromise thing. You tried it. Let's see if we can elaborate. I'd like to see Christianity today proclaim the gospel more and advertise less and redirect the energy of bad advertising and pushing modalistic people like T .D. Jakes down our throat into serving Christian men and women by edifying articles.

Okay. No Compromise Radio, a global media ministry.

Yeah. Can we take out a full-page ad and Yeah.

I guess if we start begging for money from no-compromise listeners.

How about repent. Christianity today for the end is near. Do you think they'd take it?

Probably not. I don't think they would, but they might be tempted. Although if we gave them a million, I bet you they'd take it. Tempted? Tempted. Hear their hopes, share yours, hope for the church. I'm just trying to share my hope.

And my hope is Christianity today goes back to what they used to do. Steve, there was an old, I think, Leadership Magazine statistic, and it said that over the years, when Christianity Today started, it had 80 of its contents was theological articles and reviews and encouraging things that were uniquely theological, Christological, centered on Christ.

But then over time, Leadership Magazine watched Maybe they did this because they were trying to promote their own magazine, Leadership Magazine, but the demise of Christianity Today because now it's 14 theological and the rest is a bunch of

Yeah. I mean, most of the articles now are, my hope is built on nothing less than mosquito nets and righteousness or whatever. Mosquito nets. And I have nothing against trying to get rid of malaria and all that.

Those are fine things. But again, the issue, the singular issue in life, really, is what are you going to do about the Lord Jesus Christ, his perfect life, lived for us, his death in our place, and the resurrection?

What are you going to do with those things, with your sin? How are you going to stand before a holy God and say, well, you know, I didn't really believe the truth, but I did give fresh water to people in Africa.

I did contribute to mosquito nets. I did give clean needles to people who are addicted to drugs so they wouldn't get AIDS. And I did all these good things. Now let me into the kingdom of heaven.

And again, Steve, I like trying to do good things for people.

But the issue It's nice, yes.

Because we want to be kind to people, and you can say, well, that's Matthew chapter 5, since the Father is kind to people by sending rain, so should we be kind to people as well and love our enemies? I get all that.

But what I don't get is, let's just get rid of the gospel. Let's assume the gospel.

We don't want to argue about the gospel. Steve It's a stumbling block and a rock of offense. Let's get rid of it.

Steve, it's this thing we go back to all the time. Somehow, controversy is bad. Good things stem from controversy. Controversy for controversy's sake, well, maybe not so good. I guess you could get ratings and people would listen to you.

But controversy makes us think, what do we really believe? Why do we believe it? The creeds and confessions and major statements of faith have pretty much throughout the centuries come from controversy.

And there's no problem with that. But God is love, and we're to be known by our love. What about that? Huh?

Steve I wonder if Jesus should be told, I'd like to see Jesus argue less about his faith. Jesus looked at them and said, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you clean the outside of the cup and plate, but inside they're full of greed and self-indulgence.

First clean the inside of the cup and plate, and that the outside may be also clean.

See, and today, if you said something like that, they'd say, who are you to judge? You know, but of course they'll give Jesus a pass because he could judge. But the same principles apply today. Those same principles are that they're unchanged.

And yet we want to just set all of those kind of issues aside in the spirit of unity and love and harmony and peace. And you know, it's the age of Aquarius gospel. That's what we've gotten down to.

Steve, why was it that Jesus, when he went out on his mission, I'm thinking of Mark chapter one now, he's preaching, he rises early, he goes and prays. He just healed a bunch of people. And then he says to Peter, when they found him, Peter said, everyone's looking for you.

And Jesus said, let us go into the next towns that I may preach there also, for that is why I came. There's a bunch of more, there are many more people who need healing. And Jesus said, there's something more important than physical healing.

And that is just as you alluded to earlier with the water and the hydration. It is more important to have your sins forgiven, because if your sins aren't forgiven, but you have a whole body until the day you die, then there's perdition.

Yeah, it's absolutely useless. Again, the central issue in life is not our conditions. It is the singular condition of, are we in Christ? Do we believe in Jesus' perfect and finished work or not? And that is no, that's nothing that we should set aside.

That is our faith and we don't argue about it. We proclaim it. We tell people and God uses that to save people.

I'd like to see Tuesday Guy less polemical and have Tuesday Guy redirect that energy into choosing pop songs with more clarity. That would be outstanding. We're No Compromise Radio. You can write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com.

Go back and read Jude 3.

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.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.