Whitefield by Thomas Kidd

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.

Whitefield, Yale University Press, and the Meaning of George Whitefield's Biography

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. I think it�s about time for a name change, don�t you? You know, if your church isn�t growing, maybe it needs a new name. Calvary Church, Bible Church, Presbyterian Church.

I mean, that�s old school. We need something converge, collide, kaleidoscope. Maybe there�s a kaleidoscope. That�d be good. Kaleidoscope Chapel. We�re not really a church, we�re a chapel. Chapel of the Air.

Wasn�t that a radio show? Chapel of the Air. Thomas Kidd wrote a book called George Whitefield, Yale University Press. And one of the things I liked about the book I like the Dalai Lama two-volume Banner of Truth better.

It�s a great series. George Whitefield is one of my favorite theologians, but I still enjoy the book a lot. I don�t think it�s top five, but it�s up there somewhere, top 20. So interesting. Great writing.

Here, Thomas Kidd said, page 11, �Whitfield was haunted by memories of his early acts of uncleanness. Even from boyhood, he wrote, he was addicted to lying, filthy talking, and foolish jesting. With deeper regret, he recalled regularly stealing from his widowed mother.

Now of course, I was really sinful when I was a kid. But it�s interesting because that�s one thing I didn�t do. I didn�t steal from my dad because he would probably kill me. So I didn�t want to do that.

Page 11 goes on to say, �He used the pilfered cash, he recalled, to satisfy his sensual appetite by. How do you fulfill your sensual appetite if you�re George Whitefield growing up? By buying fruits and tarts and other treats.

I guess in today�s nomenclature, in our vernacular, he would sneak off to In-N-Out Burger for an animal 4x4. Page 11, �Augustine stole a neighbor�s pears, not for lack of food, but only to enjoy the theft and the sin itself.

And in a similar fashion, George Whitefield liked to steal. �I can see nothing in me but a fitness to be damned wrote Whitefield. Thomas Kidd pontificates, �But this episode had the effect of presenting him any more accessible light to readers.

How many remembered their own senseless acts of disrespect toward their parents? Whitefield was no exalted saint. He was a wretch who had cheated his widowed mother when given the chance. His sin was as bad as any of those who were converted under his preaching.

He needed God�s grace as much as they did. Isn�t that true? I wonder if, in some respect, God saved Paul so we could relate. Did not Paul say in 1 Timothy 1, �Though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor and insolent opponent, but I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, �of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those who are to believe in Him for eternal life.

To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. Yes, Paul, in fact, did say that. My question, actually it�s not this morning any longer, but my question is, weren�t we all so bad, weren�t we all so bad, I mean we are still bad, but let�s think about before we were converted, weren�t we so bad that it was only grace that could save us?

And when you talk about grace, the free offer of salvation is, in fact, the free offer of Jesus Christ. I�m reading the whole Christ by Sinclair Ferguson with the Merrill Controversy and the Octa-Arta Creed, and not just the fullness of grace as Christ is offered to the sinner, to the enemy, to the helpless, to the weak, to the ungodly.

I think it�s somewhere said that Jesus� work is the basis of God justifying the ungodly. Isn�t that said somewhere? Yes, of course it is. It�s Romans 4. When you look at Romans chapter 5, 1 through 11, you see four words that describe people that are unregenerate.

Weak or helpless, they�re weak, they can�t save themselves, they�re helpless, they left to themselves will be damned if there�s not help provided for them outside of themselves and there�s no hope. Ungodly, if God is holy, righteous, just, loving, gracious, and patient, then we are opposite of that, and we are unholy, unmerciful, unjust, unrighteous�I�m trying to think of the other words I used.

Thirdly, the word �sinner� is used in Romans chapter 5. By a word use meaning characterization, everything the person does is sinful. If I call you a drunkard, that means your life is personified by drunkenness, you�re a drunkard.

It�s a word of description, it�s a word of characterization, and so too is the word �ungodly. But I�m not talking about that word right now, I�m talking about the word �sinner. People now say, �Oh, yeah, I�m a sinner.

But when you look at the New Testament, certainly in the Gospels of sinner, these were people that knew God�s word and they didn�t care about it and they just did the opposite. Of course, it�s usually used now, it�s usually loosed.

That�s what happens, that�s what happens when I don�t have my TNT. Number four, not only helpless, not only�see, this is what happens when you do things from memory. Not only ungodly, not only sinful, but enemies.

When we�re enemies of God, we need to be reconciled, to be made friends. If it wasn�t for the work of Christ Jesus, we would have irreconcilable differences. And if you take your hands and place them with fingers spread apart and then you move them away from each other, we are reconciled.

And then you take your hands and you weave your fingers together like you would be praying if you were teaching a child, God has brought us back. Now we�re friends because of our advocate, our mediator, our representative, our substitute.

When I look at Paul and see what God did for him, I don�t have to be a killer, I don�t have to be a persecutor of the church, I don�t have to be a really, really egregious sinner in the eyes of civil society.

Every single person, because of Adam�s imputed sin, consequently then their sinful nature, they�re bad. You have a good testimony, you have a testimony of God�s saving grace in your life. Whether you�re a homeschool kid, or whether you�re a prostitute, I believe it�s my friend Byron Yon who talks about watching baptisms, and people give a testimony before they�re fully immersed in some Baptist churches, Baptist.

And you may be tempted if you listen to a prostitute talk about her old life, how God saved her freely, graciously, sovereignly, with distinguishing grace. Then she wants to live for him now. You hear that person�s testimony, and my guess is you�re tempted to clap.

Now we�re not a clapping church here too much, but there are times, especially when people give testimony in baptism, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you just respond with clapping. But what about the little homeschool girl?

What about the girl who raised up in a Christian family? She knows the Westminster shorter catechism by heart, Westminster larger catechism by heart. She�s even probably perused through the 1689 London Baptist Confession.

What if she gets saved? It is still an act of God�s grace, isn�t it? Isn�t it wonderful, matchless grace of Jesus? Was she not, again because of her federal head, Adam, and the consequences therein, wasn�t she ungodly?

And now because of the work of Christ, she�s declared not guilty. She has Christ-imputed righteousness, she�s in union with Christ, she�s no longer condemned ungodly, sinner, helpless, and enemy. And now because of the work of Christ, friend, saint, godly, and she has resurrection power because of what the Spirit of God has done in her life.

If you have stolen things from your parents when you were a kid and then you got saved, or if you have early acts of uncleanness like Whitefield did, or if you pilfered cash, or if you didn�t do any of those but you were just wicked, then when you get saved, if you�re saved, it is amazing, it is fascinating, it is wonderful.

I think it�s back to the old Michael Horton article, probably 20 years ago, 30 years ago in modern Reformation, not 30, and maybe 30, 30 years ago, what if your testimony isn�t exciting? I think we all want to hear about the Mafia Don who gets saved and how amazing that is, but these days it�s almost in my mind, this is hyperbolic, but it�s almost in my mind more magnificent to see moral kids get saved because their self-righteousness is a big inhibitor for salvation.

Of course, when you look at Romans chapter 1 and you see the lack of righteousness in the pagans and the Gentiles, you know that they�re unrighteous, and by you knowing that, Romans 2, 1 to 5, you are condemned because Romans 2 .13 says if you don�t keep the law completely, then you stand condemned.

So you too, Jewish person, moralist, you need a savior. You need righteousness. You don�t need 40 righteousness, you provide the rest. You don�t need 10 righteousness, you provide the rest. You don�t even need 99 righteousness because you�ve provided the 1%.

You need 100 righteousness. You need to be counted as a law keeper. That�s what you need to be looked as if you kept the law, and that�s why the representative substitute, of course he�s a substitute, but he�s a representative.

He�s a legal agent. When we think of federal headship, you have to think legal agent, as Adam was your legal agent. So too, Jesus, if you�re a Christian, is your legal agent, your second Adam. As Thomas, one of the Thomas, not Thomas Watson Puritan, but there�s another one, why can�t I think of it, probably Thomas Goodwin said, �All men are hamming it up on comedians in cars.

All men are hanging on Adam�s girdle, or Christ�s girdle. You have Adam as your federal head, and if you are a believer in Christ Jesus, you now have Jesus as your federal head. Here�s what it says in Thomas Kitt�s George Whitefield, �Whitefield soon came to recognize the truth about his own sinful nature.

In the best-selling account of his life, written for devotional and evangelistic purposes, Whitefield opened the narrative, following his December birth in an inn, by describing the darkness of his heart in language directly repeating the rector�s prayer.

�I can remember such earthly stirrings of corruption in my heart as abundantly convinces me that I was conceived and born in sin, and that in me dwelleth no good thing by nature. The echo of Romans 7 there, �And that if God had not freely prevented me by his grace, I must have been ever banished from his divine presence.

End quote, George Whitefield. He did come to recognize that truth about his own sinful nature. I�m sorry to say that our society that we live in, this western culture, and pretty much every religion, is a little bit like that.

If you have a systematic theology, you want to study the doctrine of sin. Sin is missing the mark, yes, but there are other aspects of sin. Sin stems from, ultimately, the root of unbelief, which leads to lawlessness, and then it manifests itself in immorality, idolatry, especially in the counseling circles.

Idols of the heart and driving for the root cause being idolatry. I don�t think that�s the root cause at all. Unbelief is the root cause, not idolatry. Idolatry is certainly a symptom of unbelief, and it is a sin, but it isn�t at the root.

It isn�t at the core. If you�re looking around for people�s idols of their heart all the time, I think you need to dig a little deeper. This is Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio. You can order Sexual Fidelity, No Compromise, the book, and the $5 promo code is HENNO.

Cultural Critique, HENNO, and the Doctrine of Original Sin

That is what my grandmother used to say when she answered the phone, HENNO, 5533836, area code 402, the number to call is BR549, 8576309. When you call grandma and say, �Grandma, you say HENNO, but not HELLO, why don�t you say HELLO

She said, �I say HELLO. We call right back, rotary dial, HENNO. HENNO then has come to mean in our NOCO lingo, something that�s weird, something bad, something like HELLO, so we just say HENNO. I don�t know where the trademark is going to come into play, but maybe if it�s not too expensive, we trademark it.

I�ve always thought about tattoos, and maybe I get a HENNO tattoo, a HENNA HENNO tattoo. That could at least wash off in a couple months if I didn�t like it. Where are those kind of folks where they don�t want to wear bell bottoms their entire lives, so they get a HENNA HENNO tattoo?

If you get a HENNA HENNO tattoo and take a picture of it, we�ll post it online. Assuming it�s an appropriate picture, but I�ll do my best to post it on the NOCO Facebook, the HENNO HENNA, HENNO-rific tattoo, okay?

Make it nice. Make it real nice, but if you�re a lady, make a little swirl or something. If you�re a guy, give me some jagged edges. Oh, no, I thought men and women are exactly the same. My bad. The Doctrine of Original Sin, writes Thomas Kidd, George Whitfield.

I meant to say mike at nocompromiseradio .com if you want to email me. If you want to give something to the ministry, you can�t do that unless you�re a millionaire. Millionaires only. There�s a little donate button.

It follows the cursor. The Doctrine of Original Sin, writes Kidd, the notion that all are corrupted by and even guilty because of Adam�s sin was coming under criticism by 1714. But the rector�s prayer and Whitfield�s wholehearted acceptance of the principle remind us that Whitfield grew up in a world largely convinced of the depravity of man and the brokenness of creation.

These grim realities entered the world upon Adam and Eve�s fall from grace in the Garden of Eden. Page 9. I think if you look at the world, you would say, maybe you�d use a different word, but you�d realize something�s wrong.

You might not say this is sin run amok for six, ten thousand years, whatever the amount of years. You�d say something�s wrong. Isis, I mean, how do you explain Isis without sin? Without the Doctrine of Sin, how do you explain Isis?

Something is wrong. Of course, you can see the sin in other people�s lives and other ologies, but it�s hard to see in yourself. Those days in the 1700s, it was attacked. And of course, one of the ways and part of the way you attack sin, Adam�s sin, is�well, let�s now talk about hominids walking the earth, representative, thousands of them, and God picks a couple, one for Adam and one Eve, and we have an attack back in Genesis.

Some want to stop that slippery slope. I think Tim Keller has enough sense to realize he needs the last Adam, Christ Jesus. But once he starts talking about his support for biologos and Genesis 1 as poetry, when does it kick in for him to have a literal view of the fall?

Was it a literal snake, and literal sin, and literal Adam, and literal federal headship, and literal covenant of works? When does that all happen? I think we�re in similar days. We are in similar days.

Anti-Catholic Polemics and the Distortion of Grace

Whitefield�s biography by Thomas Kidd, Yale University Press, I commend it to you. Here�s a quote. �An anonymous pamphlet spoke for many in anti-Catholic themes that George Whitefield would later echo when it described Catholicism as the most �destructive religion in the world, as not deeming any people worthy to live upon the earth, but the slaves of papal jurisdiction.

Interesting. What do you think of that? Well, I don�t know if that Lady Lois who writes me things about Mike Gendron would hear me say that, but I would echo that. I know one man who calls he�s a pastor in Rome he calls Catholicism, Roman Catholicism, the masterpiece of Satan.

I was quizzing the discipleship men here last night at Bethlehem Bible Church. True or false, Catholics believe that the Spirit of God wrote the Bible. True. Catholics believe in virgin birth. True. Catholics believe that Jesus did miracles.

True. Catholics believe that Jesus forgave sin. Catholics believe that Jesus cast out demons. Catholics believe that Bartimaeus was healed. Catholics believe that Legion was exorcised out of the man. True.

Catholics believe in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. True. I mean, the list goes on and on and on and on and on. Literal David. Literal Goliath. Literal Five Stones. But they believe that the benefits of Christ are received like the Judaizers would believe in Galatians, through faith.

Plus, in the Judaizers' case, Galatians, it would be through circumcision. And for the Roman Catholics, it would be through baptism. I don't usually go to Catholic masses if somebody is in the Catholic Church and they die and I want to go pay my respects or encourage the family.

I will go to the wake the day before and I avoid the Catholic service. I say to my kids, he probably will give a greeting, the priest will, small p, and then he's going to lie to everybody. And he's going to say that this person's in heaven because they were baptized as an infant in the Catholic Church.

And we start off at a time where truth is needed. I don't like wakes very much in general because I need truth to set the stage, to frame the situation. You've got a long line of people who are crying and who are sad and in front of them is a dead body.

I need context, I need truth. Truth helps frame what's going on and I need that helper, the word. But there's not word preached at the wake very often because people, between five and eight, what are you going to do, preach for three hours?

Sometimes there's a little service, but people are coming and going and they're just trying to get there when they can after work. There's something worse than having no word and that's the word distorted.

And you have the message of God's grace and then it's distorted and mixed with baptism or any work. Paul would then say, if you're going to cut something off, you might as well keep going. Mutilate yourself, emasculate yourself, he says in chapter 5, I'm guessing verse 12.

My name's Mike Ebenroth, this is No Compromise Radio. I thought it was a good book, George Whitfield, written by Thomas S. Kidd, Yale University Press. And you can get that online, I'm sure. If you've got questions for me, Mike Ebenroth, it's Mike at NoCompromiseRadio .com.

Don't forget, at NoCoRadio is our Twitter handle. You can go to our Facebook site as well and you can order the new book or things to go bump in the church or whatever you'd like online. And however we can help you, if you've got a Bible question, you can ask us as well.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebenroth 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're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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