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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, my name is Mike Abendroth. I still feel like I�m kind of under the weather. I don�t know what that is, but still I�m feeling a little under the weather.
Don�t forget, if you�d like to go to Greece with us, No Compromise Radio ministry is going to Greece, Lord willing, next year, when the drachma rules. Next year, April 2013, part cruise, part tour, highlights of Greece, we�re going to go to Patmos and Ephesus, which isn�t in Greece, we�re going to go to Athens and Corinth in Greece, Thessalonica, Berea, Philippi, I�ve been to Greece before and have taught the book of 1 Corinthians actually in Corinth, taught Acts 17 on top of Mars Hill as well.
We�d love to have you go. You can write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com for a brochure. I don�t have the amount yet, it�s probably going to be about $3 ,300, I don�t have the amount yet because they don�t have the schedule, the pay schedule, cost schedule for the tours, the tour ships yet in Greece, they don�t come out quite yet.
So write us and we�d love to have you go. If you�d like to go on a Bible teaching tour, No Compromise style, we�d love to have you. Well last time I talked a little bit about death and the sobering fact that in fact all of us are going to die.
And so what do we do about that? We can just try to drown that out. I think that�s pretty much what I tried to do when I was younger before I was saved. I wanted to escape and so my escapism was through drugs, alcohol, I mean I love to go see a movie now, there�s nothing wrong with that I don�t think, but I think I especially liked it then because then it was two hours sitting there in a dark room where I never had to think about my problems and my problems were basically I am the problem.
You look at your life and you think what�s the common denominator in all your problems? Or with all your problems, is there a common denominator? And the answer is, the common denominator is you. So, how can we deal with something when we at the core are the problem?
And as I�ve said before, early on in my marriage I didn�t have a problem with anger, I was the problem. And I manifested my problems and my sin problems by anger, with anger, through the instrument of anger, that�s what I would do.
I had other problems too, but the day you think that you�re the problem and the day that you stop thinking that you have a problem, that is a good day because then you realize salvation is going to have to come from outside of me.
If you think you have a problem, then you can solve your problem, salvation from within, auto-salvation, auto-soter, self-salvation. I can fix this, we�re get-her-done people, we don�t really need anyone else, we figure it out, sola but strapsa, and we deal with the issues.
But if you are the problem, then you can�t deal with you because you can�t change your skin color and a leper can�t change his spots and you can�t change you. So that�s a very healthy thing. Oh, it hurts your self-esteem, yes it gives you depression, yes it makes you wallow, that�s all true.
But hopefully you come to the end of yourself. Sick and tired of being sick and tired, my dad used to say, but now sick and tired of me. That�s basically the gospel call in Luke from Jesus where he pretty much says when you�re sick of yourself, then come to me.
And so it takes people a while to recognize that. When you�re young, you�ve got friends, you have other friends, you got the life by the tail, like a tiger by the tail kind of thing, but then eventually you realize you have to wake up with you, you are the problem.
And we notice that we�re dying because of sin as we look at our faces in the mirror slowly, slowly, slowly getting older. Now I don�t really think I�m that morbid, I don�t think I�ve got an unhealthy dose of thinking about my own mortality and death, but I�ve thought about it more the last two years than I�ve ever thought about it before.
Now partly because I�m older and I get AARP things in the mail, but I think what goes along with that is all the medical ailments. You know, when I was younger, I�d go to the doctor and they�d say, �Don�t forget to bring a list of all the medicines that you�re on.
I couldn�t really figure that out because I was on no medicine, baby. I was on no medicines regularly. And then you get a little bit older and you think, you know, I have to take Prilosec every day.
I think that�s the only thing I take every day besides vitamins, longevity vitamins. But now I understand because I�ve had enough things go wrong in the last two years where I think I am breaking down.
I can�t do what I used to do. I can�t stay up as late as I used to stay up. I need more rest. I can�t go on the long bike rides one day and then the next day go do it again and then the next day go preach and then go ride the bike 50 miles in between sermons and come back to the church and preach and then the next morning wake up early and go ride.
I just can�t do that. I�m old. Now, I think I�m a young old in the sense of my mind and how I relate to the younger generation, etc., but we are slowly dying. Now just to give us a little levity here, I was listening to S. Lewis Johnson the other day and he said there was a story of a man whose mother-in-law died.
The funeral director said to him, �Sir, do you wish her embalmed and buried or cremated �Sir, all three. Let�s not take any chances. So today on this positive, encouraging, uplifting WV &E moment, 760 a .m. on your FM dial, we�re talking about death and specifically here�s what I�d like to talk about today.
Luke 13 and tragedy. When you read the newspaper, �What�s a newspaper a young one asks. When you read the internet and when you listen to talk radio and you are informed by a news show that someone has died tragically, what�s your response?
Now your responses can be many, �Oh, I�m sorry for that. It�s a shame regarding the family. �Oh, that�s too bad that those young kids had to die. And so there�s a panoply of responses, but somewhere in there your response should be if you want to think biblically is, �These people died tragically, 150 ,000 people die every day in the world, and I could be next.
Am I ready to die That�s the lesson in Luke chapter 13. Now when you see a tragedy, it would be wrong of you, categorically wrong of you, to say, �Well, how can a good God let that happen? God is all-powerful.
Why would He let that happen? God let suffering go on. God let the Holocaust go on. God did that and God did that. God didn�t do this. God didn�t do that. Those questions ought not to be asked of you.
Those are the wrong questions. Remember when Rabbi Kushner came out with a book 20 years ago or so, �Why Bad Things Happen to Good People. A quick review of just how sinful you are and what happened in the Garden and knowing what you deserve should put every thought like that out of your mind.
There is no one good, not even one, not even you. No one is good. Everyone deserves hell and judgment, the first sin they sin, yet many, many people, I would say in fact most people, after they sin, they don�t immediately become terminated by God.
God is good and so the question is not, �Why do bad things happen to good people But instead, �Why does anything good happen to bad, wicked, evil, depraved people Why would God give family, pleasure, intimacy, food, eyesight?
Why would He give any of that to people who spit on the son? It�s like how often would a slave have to spit on the master to have the master displeased with the slave? Once a year? Can you still get away with it once a year?
Just think about how sinful we are and what we deserve. So when tragedy happens, Luke chapter 13, our Lord tells us our response and the response is not, �Oh, let�s go theodicy. Let�s go philosophy. Let�s try to slam God.
Yeah, that�s right. It�s God�s fault. There�s no God if He�s all powerful and all wise and He�s all loving. Something�s got to give. Let�s attack God. That would be very unwise, except that�s what most people do.
They have compassion for the people who have been hurt, which is fine and right and good, and then they have a disdain for God. They can�t stand it, and so they hate God and so they lash out. And what comes out of the heart goes through the mouth.
You know, out of the heart the mouth speaks. And so Jesus says in Luke chapter 13, �There were some present at the very time who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
And he read their mind and he knew what they were thinking and he said, �Do you think that these were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered in this way?'. Now, occasionally there are direct results to sin that we see, like Herod in Acts chapter 12.
He was sinful and he got what was coming to him. But not all the time is that. Even though there are a lot of Job�s friends walking around, see, that person deserved it. These Jews fell into that, and these Jews were questioning the fact that the people that got killed by Pilate, they must have been worse.
They were worse sinners because they suffered. Karma came to get them. What does Jesus do? Jesus realizes that they�re saying that, and He is going to disavow them of such nonsense. They weren�t sane, sadly, to Jesus.
Just look how bad Pilate is. Look how he sent the Gentiles into the temple, and that would cost you death right there. Look at how he desecrated the temple and the sacrificial area. Now, whether the mingling of blood is a figurative type of speech, that is to say, he just had his executioners and assassins kill the people, there�s blood all over, or if it�s literal, there�s some blood from the sacrifices, and then they poured some of the blood from the bodies and mingled them together in an occultic, blasphemous cup of communion.
It doesn�t really matter one way or the other. What is the response to tragedy? By the way, these people there who were slain were in a very safe place, what they thought was safe, safe and secure from all alarm.
But, there�s a date that they had with destiny. So, what�s the response to a person? What�s the person�s response, rather, when they see tragedy? The response should be, of course, I�m not saying you can�t be compassionate and kind and all that, but the response is, �I could be next.
This is a field trip. This is a school lesson. This is, �Oh, yeah, uh-huh. I don�t want to think about death, but death is surely coming my way. And so, Jesus says in Luke 13, verse 3, �No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
They�re thinking the wrong way. �Unless you repent, you�re going to perish. Everybody dies. I�m very sad that President Lincoln was assassinated, but you know what? Every person who was alive when the president was assassinated is dead now.
Every person is dead. Every single person is gone. Now, you�ve got a couple of exceptions when you think of Enoch, when you think of Elijah, but even there, what�s the percentage of exceptions? So, you�re going to die, and then what?
You need to repent. You need to think differently. That�s what repentance means. It means to change your mind, to have an afterthought, to think, �I am sinful. I am not self-sufficient. I do stand before the holy, just, self-existent God, and I am undone, and I need a Savior, and I need to trust what God says, and the conscience that He has given me, and the creation that screams out, �There�s a God and the scriptures that say this is the specifics to the atoning work of Christ Jesus, the God-man who was raised from the dead.
I need to think differently. I used to think that it was, �Well, I�ll do that later. That�ll be good for my kids, and when I�m older, I�ll be religious. Repent. �Well, you know, that�s just for other people.
I�m careful, and I�m not going to die anytime soon. My grandparents were both 95 when they died, and my parents were both 90. I�m going to live to be 90. Repent. �Well, those people must have done something wrong, and so what comes around goes around.
What goes around comes around. Repent. �Well, you know, I�ve been baptized, and therefore I think I�m going to be in good shape. Repent. Jesus didn�t say, �Go be baptized. Death�s coming. Go get baptized.
That�s why I think it�s one of the most egregious, appalling things that I�ve ever heard in my life is when I go to a funeral for someone, and then some man stands up by the casket with a bunch of smoke going everywhere and incense.
It�s all bedobbed up with the garments of Dagon, it looks like, and then they say, �Based on this person�s baptism, this child, we know they�re in heaven now. Could there be anything farther from the truth?
No. But people just, by tradition, by Satan�s deceptions, by their own want of trying to get somebody in heaven, Jesus said, �Unless you repent. Now, see, the negative side is repent, that is to say turning from sin because you think differently.
When you think differently about sin, you�ll turn from sin. And then turning unto Christ Jesus by faith. So, one coin, the tail, instead of negative, let�s say the tail side of the coin is repent, the heads is believe.
That�s what Jesus is saying. You�ve got to turn from your own self-sufficiency, to turn from your own way of thinking about these things, and repent. Repent and trust in the God of the gospel. Verse 4, �Are those 18 on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem?
No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. So, there�s a tower down by the pool of Siloam, and again, a safe place. A safe place. Now, the first illustration with Pilate�s henchmen, these people were killed by human hands.
Now, this doesn�t seem like it�s a case of human hands. Maybe they built something poorly, this scaffolding or this tower. Maybe it was an earthquake. But the tower fell, killed them. You use a tower so you�d look out, so you�d have good defenses, so you�d be safe, so you could see the marauders and the bands of renegades approaching the town.
So, a symbol of the thing that was true of making a statement of defense, they ended up dying there. A tragedy in a safe place. It�s supposed to protect them, not kill them. They didn�t die because they were worse sinners.
Everybody�s a sinner. They all deserve death. The question is not them now. The question is you. The next death you hear about, I just heard about the 15-year-old girl that they found dead behind the supermarket that we shop at in the town that we go to for our groceries.
And I think the story is she was drunk and it was late at night and she fell off the train trestle and down and must have hit her head and she got killed. Well, what�s the story for that? Well, I�m sorry to see a 15-year-old die.
My son�s 15. That would be a tragedy. You�d want to comfort the family if you knew them. Come alongside of them. But eventually it needs to get into your mind. I�m next. I could be next. And what about me?
I could be in a coffin tonight. I don�t know what it is, but when you ride a bicycle alongside of a road and a 50-mile-an-hour, 60-mile-an-hour semi comes flying past you three feet away. I think, you know what?
Today could be my last day. Now I try to find a road that�s not very populated with cars, but occasionally I need to ride on one. And I try to stick over to the side. I�m not trying to be a big shot and be a road hog with a 20-pound bicycle.
But I�m thinking I could die, especially now with all the texting going on. If you ask me, I�d love to have a texting outlawed in a car because somebody�s going to kill me because they�re texting. Texting their girlfriend and not paying attention to the road.
So here in Luke chapter 13, Jesus is on his way to the cross. In chapter 12, he�s been talking about eschatological issues and end-time issues. I tell you, Luke chapter 12, verse 4, �My friends, do not fear those who kill the body and after have nothing more that they can do.
But I will warn you whom to fear. Fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. That�s the issue. Fearing the person who not can kill your body, but fear the person who can kill your body and then cast you into hell.
That�s the person you should fear. So do you fear that person? You should be afraid. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of what? Wisdom. If you�d like to be wise, that�s how you should be wise. To have a healthy fear, to have a reverence, to be frightened of, to be in awe of the self-existent one who created you and thankfully has provided a Savior to all those who will look and live.
I hope you�re upset by this, if you�re not a Christian. I want you to be upset. I don�t want you to just go home and have some NyQuil and go to sleep. I want you to think through these issues. Think. Why?
Am I going to get something out of it? Well, I�ll get the pleasure of seeing someone turn from their sins. That would be great, but it�s for your own good. You can�t, as S. Lewis Johnson says, die and approach judgment through proxy.
I�ll have my lawyer get me out of that one. I�ll have somebody else stand in for me. I�ll have somebody else take my spot. No, it�s going to be you. You alone. And Jesus alone returns from death. Jesus alone has conquered death.
Jesus alone has the keys to eternal life. Jesus said in John 11, �I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, even though he die, yet shall live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
This whole issue that Barna calls the Achilles heel of Christianity, why is there suffering in the world? That�s so wrong. You want to ask the question sometime? I don�t blame you for asking. But there are more important questions.
You can not know the answer to why is there suffering. You can get the wrong answer to why is there suffering. You can not have anybody tell you anything logical about that question. You can even suffer and not know why.
Or you can know the answer. And that still doesn�t matter. But to know the answer of have I believed in the Lord Jesus Christ or not? Have I repented or not? Do I trust not in myself but in the finished work of Christ Jesus?
His life, his death, his burial, his resurrection, his soon return. Do I trust in that? That�s a question you�ve got to get right. Consider your ways. That�s got to be settled. 6 ,000 year old earth, 10 ,000 year old earth, day age.
I have my opinions on those things. But those things you can not get correct and still go to heaven. This one though, do you believe in the resurrection and the life? Do you believe in the life of Christ Jesus?
Do you believe in him? And when the next tsunami comes or the next storm or your grandmother dies, there�s some other tragedy that�s happening, it should tell you wake up just as it was in the days of Noah.
So it will be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage. Until the day, Jesus said in Luke 17, when Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all.
Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot, they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all.
So will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. There�s a threat of a tragic end for you today. That�s right, today. Now you say, well, every other day I haven�t died, so today I�m not going to die either.
Yeah, but one day that�s not going to be true and you know it. So why try to drink down the mind-numbing cocktail of alcohol, excess, hedonism, and the list goes on. Sit down with your Bible outside, look at the stars.
In the day, look at the sun and say, God, you are the creator and I know you have laws that I�ve broken and my conscience bears witness to that. Would you grant to me salvation through the Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord?
I�m having a hard time believing, but grant me belief. God, I need mercy. I need your mercy. Grant me repentance, grant me faith, grant me eternal life. I know I�m going to die and I don�t want to die alone and pay for my own sins.
Info at 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 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.