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What is the difference between God' sovereign will and His revealed will? Is "Finding God' will" a pagan notion? What about marriage and God' "perfect" will?
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. Pastor Mike Abendroth here, and it happens to be Tuesday. Hmm, what does that mean? I don�t know, although I see the Tuesday guy Twitter feed blowing up, basically.
Well, I�ve worked hard on it. My staff of guys and I, 24 -7 pretty much trying to control the Twitterverse.
Steve, just imagine if we had a staff of guys. Paid guys. What would that be like? We have a staff of great volunteers, but it�s just different because those guys have jobs and families and all that kind of thing, and so then they just have no co once in a while.
Well, someday we�ll have the No Compromise Warehouse, you know, sending out the No Compromise cassettes.
Steve, what I�m waiting for, pining away for, is the opportunity that we can buy ourselves onto the New York Times bestseller list. Sweet.
Yeah, I�d say it�s about time, right? Just, you know, 100 ,000 copies to get us up there above Dianetics.
Just put these $100 ,000 worth of books, these No Compromise books, on your personal Amex and I�ll cut you a check. Thanks. Yeah. It�s the way to get it into Barnes Noble, though. Will the check clear?
Well, we�ll see. Keep your fingers crossed. Steve, anything new with you? What have you been teaching on Sunday mornings? Oh, we don�t have Sunday mornings here. No, we don�t. They�re all canceled because of the snow.
No, we don�t. I mean, I�m looking outside at glorious Mount Bethlehem Bible Church covered with snow.
For years, Luke wanted to snowboard off the roof here of the church, and I always said no, like a good dad. But now that he�s gone, he�s gone. Now if he snowboarded off the roof onto the mounds, it would be about a one-foot drop.
And it�s really, I mean, it sounds funny to us, but it�s really not funny when you look outside. And I was saying, you know, Sunday morning I came in and, like, there was a pile of snow at least 12 feet high outside.
It�s because to clear the lot, you know, they just have to keep bringing bigger and bigger tractors in. And I think the last thing was, like, it looked like some kind of big military tank or something, you know, with a plow on the front of it.
Steve, I was at the doctor yesterday and running errands everywhere you go. That�s the only thing people talk about. At the gym, every place else, you know, that�s what they talk about, the snow. I guess they don�t want to talk about the Patriots anymore.
We�re number one, though, in snow. Number one in the country. I got a little note from my daughter this morning, �Dad, you know, could you please pick me up at 2 .30? I need a ride. P .S. the window in my room is leaking.
PS. F .Y .I. F .Y .I. So, today on No Compromise Radio, Pastor Steve and myself, we�re going to talk about how to know God�s will. Did you know that, Steve?
You didn�t know that. Well, it wasn�t up to me to know the will of the Lord for this show, so.
Oh, it was not? Okay. Well, this happens to come from Charisma Magazine. Oh, well, then I know I�m going to like it. I know you�re going to like it.
Charismamag .com. I�m feeling the Spirit. And a guy named Daniel Colenda of the Flying Colenda Brothers. You know what? I knew you were going to say that.
And he has five keys to knowing God�s will, and I thought that might be good discussion for No Compromise Radio.
But see, it says five keys, but I see five arrows. Well, yeah.
What kind of graphics is that? The cover, which happens to be a stock photo, by the way, shows a pair of Converse All-Star and then five arrows. So, is that like the Who arrow with Pete Townsend and the H has an arrow up at the top?
I think this is just trying to show five potential directions, but see, that doesn�t go with the, what�s the title, that�s the word I�m looking for, I speak for a living. Five keys to knowing God�s will, well, there should be five keys in front of you, not five potential directions, which would indicate any one of these five directions is impossible,.
You know. Yeah, for that five directions and five keys, you�re exactly right. Yeah. Yeah. Do you listen to the Black Keys at all?
Negative. Negative. No, I�ve heard, you know, from some people, some good things about them, but I�m kind of down on experimenting these days.
Yeah. Steve, what would it mean with your kind of slick back hair and your beard that it looks like you�re kind of a Black Keys, kind of a hipster now? Do you have like beard oil and lotion and stuff?
Yeah. Well, I�m trying to go full Presbyterian, you know, I�m B .B. Warfield.
Steve, talking about God�s will, I mean, we all want to know what would God have us do. We�re Christian people and we say to ourselves, we want to honor the Lord and please the Lord, and so what is God�s will?
I�ve been reading a book about George Whitefield, and of course, Whitefield�s life intersected with Charles Wesley�s life and John Wesley�s, and Steve, I did not know it until this week that John Wesley decided that predestination and, you know, bondage of the will and stuff was not true based on his feelings and his casting of the lots.
Stop it. Yeah, I�m not kidding. I�m not kidding. Seriously? I could not believe it. Yeah. So, predestination, sovereign grace got the short end of the stick. How did that work?
It was so dopey. That�s just dopey. I mean, I was reading about provenient grace earlier this week and, you know, the idea that the Holy Spirit is just convicting everybody, so everybody equally gets, I guess I�d use the word, afflicted by the Holy Spirit, and those who respond are the ones who get saved.
That was Osborne who said that. Oh, it was? Okay. So, Steve, on this article, let�s talk big picture before we dive into the article. God�s will, revealed will, sovereign will, moral will, how are we to think about God�s will, just generally speaking?
Can it be known?
Is it the great knowable? Well, I mean, one of the ways we can know God�s will, and here�s a real key, and write this down, you want to carefully note this, it�s called the Bible. That�s one of the key ways that we can know God�s will.
And so, theologians have distinguished between what�s in the Bible, so husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church, it is God�s will for you to sacrifice for your wives, correct?
Well, I just don�t know if it�s God�s will for a wife to obey her husband. Well, if you don�t know that, then review the scriptures.
I always loved MacArthur�s, excuse me, marital advice when the man would say, �I don�t love my wife anymore. And he would say, �Stop that, repent, and start loving her. The Bob Newhart approach. Stop that.
Stop it. Tell me, Steve, what about the sovereignty of God? If we have a president, his name�s Barack Obama, was it God�s will for him to be elected?
I mean, look at Daniel, look at Romans, you know, God sets up kings, he takes them down, he establishes powers, you know, he establishes government, he gives us the leaders that he chooses to give. You know, if you look back through Israel�s history, they had good kings, they had bad kings.
In fact, they weren�t supposed to have any kings at all, but they did. That�s a whole other story. But they had good kings and bad kings. Were the bad kings, you know, so how did they get around God�s will?
No. He put them there and he put them there to teach often, teach Israel a lesson, let them suffer the consequences of their idolatry and their unfaithfulness to him.
Steve, when you were talking about Daniel, I had to quick look it up. Daniel chapter 2. �Blessed be the name of God forever and ever to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings.
He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. And so, we believe and teach there�s two kinds of God�s will, the sovereign will, that is anything that happens, and then his revealed will or moral will, exhortations found in the Bible.
Pete Yeah, and I think what sometimes people get confused about the sovereign will is that somehow, you know, we just kind of shrug and say, well, whatever, it�s God�s will. And that�s not the idea, you know, we can do things on, in other words, we go vote, we take, we participate in all these things.
But ultimately, God decides these things. And then, you know, after the election, we just say, well, he�s our president. And that�s just the reality of it.
No matter who wins. Pete Steve, great point. Let�s think of the will of God in time, not from God�s perspective in eternity past, but in our time. So, we would say, I know tomorrow it�s God�s will for me to love my wife because I�ve been commanded to do it.
But I don�t know about what will happen tomorrow, I�ll only know that the day after, or after tomorrow. So, talk to me about that. When do I know something�s God�s will?
Well, you know, the classic example, to just back up on the marriage thing again, you know, is this the right person for me to marry? Well, I know it�s the right person for me to marry after we�re married, right?
And then, you know, how do I know that Janet is supposed to be my wife? Because she�s my wife! That�s a classic, you know, case. So, how do we then adapt? You know, do we complain about our circumstances in life?
I guess we could say, you know, because God sovereignly arranges the circumstances in our life. And it�s up to us to joyfully, you know, soldier on sometimes, but to obey God even in the midst of difficult circumstances, because he brought all those circumstances into our life.
Pete Steve, when I think about weddings and marriages, and you�ve officiated many of them, and so have I, you think to yourself, okay, if a young man came to you and said, �Is it God�s will for me to marry this girl
Right? And so, what do you do? Is you say, �Well, you know, is she a girl? Has she always been a girl?
Is she born again The Elmo thing, right? Yeah, yeah.
And, yes, and all that. And then we would realize, okay, it could be God�s commanded will, moral will for you to marry another believer and, you know, enjoy a family and all that stuff. And then from his sovereign will perspective, we don�t know until you say, �I do.
That�s right. And once you say, �I do we know it was God�s sovereign will. That�s exactly right. And so, let�s include the big sticky wicket here, God ordaining and sovereignly willing sin, and the case that I think of is Calvary, that God ordained and planned and purposed and predetermined that men would sin against Jesus, the sinless Savior.
Acts 2 and Acts 4. I mean, that�s exactly, you know, it was God�s foreordained, preordained will that Jesus would be put to death at the hands of wicked men. That's exactly what the scripture says. So, it was man responsible, yes.
You know, did God sovereignly ordain it? Yes. Well, how can men be responsible for it? Because they are. You know, well, how can God sovereignly ordain that and yet not be tainted by the sin of.
He�s not. Perfect point there, Steve. His moral will, when we break that will, when we disobey, we don�t love our wives as Christ loved the church, that�s sin. And when we see God�s sovereign will come about, we can�t say to ourselves, well, we are sinless, we are guiltless because God has decreed one sovereign will and we can�t change it because those men who crucified Jesus were held accountable, and it says in Acts chapter 4, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
That is to say, those men did it, and it was sovereign. Both are included. That�s right. You know which is true? Yes. Okay. Is God sovereign or is man responsible? Yes. If you had to pick one that was more preeminent, what would you pick?
God is sovereign. So, Steve, talking about this article today in Charisma Mag, he has a variety of different keys here. His first key is God has a standard will and a specific will. And so, let�s just say his standard will and specific will is what we would call the moral will and sovereign will.
Okay. Let�s say that. Let�s just grant that. Okay. Okay. But second one he has, it�s amazing. God has a good will, but also a perfect will. Now, you don�t have this on your paper, but I have it.
Well, I was going to say, I haven�t seen the story yet. The perfect will. Perfect will. There�s a good, I�m familiar with good will, but not perfect will. Uh-huh.
Yeah. Good will, is there a name of a movie with good will in it or something? Good Will Hunting. Yeah. Good Will Hunting. So, that�s what we�re doing. Perfect Will Hunting. We�re hunting for God�s perfect will.
Sovereign Will Hunting. So, it says here, since you don�t have it in front of you, God has a wonderful plan for our lives. Mmm. Yeah. But, since he has given us the ability to choose whether we are going to follow his will, it seems that there are actually four possibilities.
Okay? So, this is where it gets fun. Yeah. I�m already having a good time. Uh-huh. Steve, if people want to write you an email and say, you know, how could you? How dare you?
It�s Mike at NoCompromiseRadio .com.
Subpoint 1 here, or A, we can remain ignorant of God�s will. This is not you. If it were, you wouldn�t be reading this Charisma article right now. Allegedly. You�d have a deeper desire in your heart to discover God�s will for your life, and you will make that discovery.
So, I guess you could kind of wander around and be ignorant. Technically, Steve, if people don�t read the Bible. Or you could read Charisma magazine. Secondly, we can know what God wants but still disobey.
This is disobedience and head-on collision of God�s will and the stubborn rebellion of human flesh. There�s a word for that.
Yeah? Starts with an S, ends with an N. Three letters.
I will never forget in the early 90s, and HIV was very, it was in the forefront of everyone�s thinking and minds, and it was a major issue for all the right reasons and wrong reasons. And MacArthur did a series called the SIN virus or something like that.
And I thought, man, I�ll never forget that. Are you SIN positive? I know. Well, we used to say that with the NIV. If anybody would walk around the NIV Bible, are you NIV positive? But now actually the NIV compared to the updated 2011 NIV, that�s probably something good.
We long for the old days of the 1977 NIV, right? Uh-huh.
I know. So, then it says here, we can know God�s will but settle for less. If we had been far better off, if we only had been willing to obey, settling for less than God�s best is often an easy road. What does that mean?
I�ve been to several seminaries and I still can�t quite figure this out.
Well, I mean, again, I hate to keep going back to the marriage thing, but this is, because what are we primarily here, God�s will with regard to marriage and divorce, you know? Well, it�s not God�s will for me to be miserable for my entire life, therefore I have the right to divorce or, you know, whatever.
Well, I miss God�s perfect will and therefore I�m married, you know, my current spouse.
See, that�s what I want to talk about, where people think, you know, I married someone and this was a good choice, sovereign choice, but I missed out on the best.
Yeah, I missed God�s perfect will. Yeah, who talks like that?
Where does this kind of philosophy come from?
I don�t know, but I�ll tell you what, you bring that into marriage counseling, there are going to be issues, right? Now let�s think about God�s. My wife�s okay, but, you know, God�s, I miss God�s perfect will.
Let's talk about the sovereignty of God and how he can take bad decisions, immature decisions, foolish decisions, sinful decisions, less than perfect decisions, and turn them out for his glory and for our good.
But Steve, we as people have to make one of the most important decisions we�ll ever make in life, you know, short of, of course, believing in the Lord Jesus. That is marriage, and we make it at 21 years old, 24 years old, we�re very immature, and we make the super important decision.
How does that all work?
Well, I don�t know, but I mean, these days, you know, the date or the age keeps getting later where, you know, the average age keeps going up and up and up and up, and I don�t think people are making any better decisions now than they, you know, I mean, you could be 40, getting married for the first time, still make, you know, a less than wise choice, you know, so.
Steve, this is kind of diverging down a path, not taken that often on No Compromise Radio,.
But. Oh, we�re taking the road less taken or whatever.
I know, I couldn�t remember either. So by the way, do you have the new Beck album? Do you like that?
The new Beck CD? You know, all I know about Beck is he�s got more musical talent is, you know, left pinky than Kanye will ever have, so that�s my only comment about that.
Well, I have to tell you that I hadn�t listened to the whole album before, I think I got the free iTunes download or whatever it was, the Starbucks deal. But when I went to the chiropractor and they put the muscle stimulation kind of machine on, and then they said, �Would you like to listen to some music
I said, �Sure. And they put the new Beck album, it was perfect chiropractic music. Was it? Yeah. Very soothing. It was very soothing. So what do we do with people who are young and they need to make a decision to get married?
What role does the parents have? What role does the church have in making such a decision? Are the people just left on their own? We hope you make a good decision, you know, hopefully she�s godly and pretty at the same time.
This is controversial.
You know, I mean, this is really controversial because there are a lot of people who just think, �Hey, basically the young people need to make their own decision and, you know, who are you and what are you part of a cult or the parents, you know, what are you some kind of helicopter parent, you know, going to tell your parents or your kids what to do and you can�t control their life and blah, blah, blah, blah.
And I�m like, you know what? Honestly, I mean, I could say this and no disrespect to my mom or dad, but basically from the time I was 13 on, I made all the decisions in my life. I mean, all of them.
And in fact, you could probably back up even earlier than that. I mean, I washed my own clothes, I prepared my own food, I made my own lunch every day for school, I did everything. And you know what? I did a lot of stupid things.
A lot of stupid, a lot of sinful things. And I�m like, it would have been nice to have some parent go, �That is stupid
Petey Didn�t you just teach that to the youth here, a cornerstone youth, that there�s a reason why you have parents? Yes!
Because your parents should stop you, you know, if they see you about to, well, let me back up a little bit. I think ideally as parents, what you want to do is teach your children gradually to make their own decisions.
And what does that mean? That means gradually you give them, as they get older and show more maturity, you give them more and more decision-making ability, more capacity to do that, more room to make their own choices.
And then when they make a stupid one, you kind of pull them aside and you go,. �You know what, Steve? Can I just tell you that probably wasn�t the best decision? Let me tell you why. Would you like to, or you know, you�re about to make a big mistake.
Can I just tell you why I think it�s a mistake And walk them through it.
Steve, but the culture today where it�s no longer it takes a village, but the children have rights and they are the ones who cannot be, you know, tread upon. Well, I said to someone in an airplane once that, �Oh, yes, my daughter�s in Florida going to school and my son�s in Los Angeles.
And for their first year, for both of them, I told them they weren�t allowed to date.
The person looked at me like, �Who are you
Well, I mean, let�s just think about the culture that we live in right now. And I�m not going to get political, but we have a culture that says, �Listen, children should stay on their parents� medical insurance until they�re 26.
When you�re 25, you�re not a child. At the age of 25, I�m not boasting here, but I�m saying that I�d already been a cop, if you count the MPs, for six years. I owned a home. I had three kids. I was married, you know, et cetera.
Should I have been allowed to be on my parents� medical insurance? What kind of rubbish is that? Twenty-five years old, you are a grown human being. Act like it.
Well, see, that�s why we like No Compromise Radio, because you know what? It�s soothing.
It�s calming. It�s biblical. But, I mean, there are so many contradictions. You know, if you are, you know, basically 13, 14 years old, you should be allowed to get an abortion on your own, but you�re not mature enough, that�s what the law says, but you�re not, and without your parents� approval, but you�re not mature enough to get a tattoo, you�re not mature enough to get your own medical insurance, you�re not mature enough to get married, but you can go ahead and commit murder.
You can murder your baby, that�s fine.
Steve, I hate to unveil this on Nationwide Radio today, and I know they can�t see it, but I have my knuckles tattooed with the N-O-C-O, with kind of a NorCal font on my knuckles. It�s a big no-co fist bump.
Well, I�m getting rings made so that I can just, you know, when somebody does something stupid, I can just no-co.
Steve, can you think of good books about the will of God, if people want to determine the will of God, what would they read?
Well, Friesen, you know, Decision Making and the Will of God by Friesen.
That�s probably the old school one, right? It�s detailed, but I think good, biblical. Does Claire Ferguson have one? He may have one, maybe Discovering God�s Will, but what�s the one by Kevin DeYoung that I think it�s the best now?
Just Do It? Something like that? Yes. Decision Making and the Will of God, Friesen. Probably number one, I would rank Kevin DeYoung. Why is Kevin DeYoung such a good writer? I think it�s his bowling.
I don�t know why he is. I mean, I think he just communicates well.
I know, but when No Compromise Radio approaches him and says, �Could you give us 24 and a half minutes What happened? I think he did a bad decision-making thing there when he said no.
Yeah, he said, �Too hip, gotta go. You know, here�s the thing, Steve.
For someone to turn down No Compromise Radio and for us to still like him, you�ve got to be pretty good.
Well, you know, he goes, �I would love to come on your show, Mike, and talk to the literally dozens of listeners you have.
Hey, I did email Sinclair Ferguson, and he said next time he was in town that I could talk to him about being on the show. Now, that�s pretty good.
We�re getting closer. So, the next time he�s in West Boylston. Well, I�m sorry.
I didn�t mean town. I meant country, because he�s moved back to Scotland, so. Okay.
Yeah. Hey, the next time I run into you at Red Robin, we�d be glad to talk.
At Ruth Chris Steakhouse, we�d love to get in touch with you.
No, Red Robin, because he�s like, he picked a restaurant he�d never go to in a million years.
There�s another good book written by Bruce Waltke before Waltke fell off the deep end into evolutionary theory and stuff like that. But it�s something about knowing God�s will, and the subtitle is �A Pagan Concept.
In other words, make sure you�re trusting in the Lord God with all your heart, leaning not on your own understanding, acknowledging him and he�ll make your path straight. Versus, you know, is this particular act today taking this test at school, you know, God�s will or not?
I liked it.
Yeah, because it is. But, you know, getting back to the parenting thing, parents need to parent. Parenting is a verb. It�s not some, you know, office of honorary title. It is something that you actively have to do.
Could you please, kids, go get me my television clicker? It goes beyond that is what you�re trying to tell me? Yeah, that is not parenting. Mike Abendroth here with Steve Cooley, Tuesday. Guy, this is No Compromise Radio.
You can email us at 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 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.
The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.