Slogan Christianity

760 AM WVNE. 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.

We're here to take your calls as well. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio. I think I could probably call it No Neville Radio, No Neville Chamberlain. We'd hate to model ourselves after someone who backed down when the world needed him the most.

Why Christianity Cannot Be Reduced to Slogans

No Compromise Radio. Today is Thursday, September 3rd, 2009. I can't believe it's September already. When I was a kid, I remembered these words, lay on ground, light fuse, get away, use only under adult supervision, firecrackers.

And once you open the word of God, practically to any page, you get an explosion. It's like handling nitroglycerin. And today's show is going to be, I hope, very interesting. I hope you're not bored when you study the Bible.

I hope you're not bored with this show. We're going to look at slogan Christianity, bumper sticker Christianity. On Mondays, there's a taped sermon on No Compromise Radio, 3 .30 WVNE, 7 .60 AM. Tuesdays, we have a variety of call-ins and counseling, pastoral ministries.

Pastor Steve Cooley will be my foil. Wednesdays, we have books, reviews, book updates, author updates. Thursday is Current Issues in Evangelicalism. So it's a fairly broad title. And so today we're going to be looking at bumper sticker Christianity.

Everything's reduced down to the bare minimum, slogans. I am going to take calls today, if possible. I don't know if the computer is quite right, but the number to call is 508 -831 -9863. If you have a slogan that somehow many Christians use, maybe it has a lot of truth in it, maybe it has a little truth, maybe it has no truth in it, you can call and we can talk about that very issue.

Bumper sticker Christianity. And so let me give you a few in just a moment. Before I do that, let me give you a couple advertisements. The first advertisement is for a Bible Institute class at Bethlehem Bible Church.

Next Thursday night, I'll be teaching a class on hermeneutics. It's a free class. You just have to buy the course guide and the syllabus and the books. But other than that, it's a free class from 7 to 9 p .m., I think it's seven weeks for the next seven Thursdays.

If you go to Bethlehem Bible Church website or go to No Compromise Radio website, bbcchurch .org, you can get their hermeneutics class, How to Interpret the Bible, one of the most critical issues for listeners and for readers of the Bible.

How do you understand the Bible? When you have a proverb, when you have a different kind of genre, when you have an epistle, there is a way to interpret the Bible. And so hermeneutics is the science and art of biblical interpretation.

Secondly, the second plug I'd like to give is No Compromise Radio is going to Israel. I will be taking a group of people to Israel with my brother Pat Ebendroth, who's also a pastor, Omaha Bible Church, and we will be going in 2011, February of 2011.

All the information should be online, probably even today. And so that gives you a little bit more than a year to save your shekels. Wouldn't it be great to go to Israel, sit by the Sea of Galilee, have the Bible opened, and learn from God as we're there?

It'll make the Bible literally come alive. I've been a couple times, and it was going to be one of those things where I thought, okay, I'm going to Israel. But then you read the Bible and you think, I now understand when I am north of Jerusalem.

And it says Jesus went up to Jerusalem. I think, why would He go up when He's now north of Jerusalem? And you say, I understand now because He's going up in elevation. So that'll be 2011, No Compromise Radio ministry with Bethlehem Bible Church and Omaha Bible Church off to Israel.

We'd love to have you go. You don't have to be a member of the church. You don't even have to like this show. You just need to like Israel and like Bible teaching. Bumper sticker Christianity today. Current issues in evangelicalism.

We try to reduce things down to bare minimums, maybe so we can memorize it, maybe so we can understand it. I don't know why we do that. Maybe we have to have a slogan that fits on a bumper sticker. I'm not sure.

But I think it's very difficult to reduce Christianity to a bumper sticker slogan. After all, you think of the Gospel of Romans, you say, what do you mean the Gospel of Romans? Luther called Romans the Gospel of Romans because it sets forth the good news.

It is the good news about Christ Jesus and how He grants His righteousness to those who believe. And so you have a book like Romans, 16 chapters. It's hard to reduce that to a couple blurbs here. There are 10 minute soundbite, a 10 second soundbite.

And so let's give you the first bumper sticker that I have for Christianity and then we'll critique it. Maybe you can come up with your own or you can email me info at bbcchurch .org. Oh, by the way, we got our bumper stickers in this week.

If you want a free NoCompromiseRadio .com bumper sticker, there are white ones and black ones. Kind of a Nosferatu font, I think they have, with some blood splattered there. We won't compromise even unto death.

You'd like a free bumper sticker? You just email me info at NoCompromiseRadio .com and we'll be glad to send you a free bumper sticker if you put it on your car. You could tape it on there if you want, but you don't have to put the sticker on if you're not that kind of person.

I guess you could put magnets on there as well. So first one, lay back and let God. I think if I was going to say it in a different way, lay back and let G-A-U-D. Some people say God that way. Lay back and let God.

And so what is right with that slogan? What is wrong with that slogan? Lay back and let God. Well, it's very pietistic. It's very, it even sounds good in the sense that you say, well, I can't work on my sanctification.

It has to be God, justification is of God. And so sanctification, Galatians 3, can't be in and of myself. So it almost sounds good initially, but it is way too passive when it comes to sanctification.

Of course, regeneration is a work by God alone. We believe the Bible is monergistic, mono, alone, erg, where we get the word work. God alone works. We don't cooperate with God's grace. We don't somehow cooperate with God by providing the faith so he's allowed to save us.

It is all a work of God from start to finish, from election to redemption, to the seedling ministry of the Spirit of God, to granting us faith. It's all of God. But sanctification has two components. It has both God working in us and it has us working.

Paul would say that he, in his sanctification, works to the point of sweat, the Greek word kapiao. I could just read you one verse to blow away the lay back and let God mantra, our slogan. Let me read you Philippians 2, verse 12.

So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Verse 13 is very important, for it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

The Christian life takes work. I'm not saying it's not Holy Spirit-energized work. I'm not saying we can do it all on our own. I'm not saying it's moralistic. I'm not saying for those who aren't in Christ, they can do these same things without the Spirit of God.

I'm not saying that at all. But I am saying this, justification, regeneration, salvation, it is a work by God alone. Sanctification, the way our wise God has ordained it, is that we would work. That we would work with sweat, with toil.

Paul goes on to say in Philippians 2, do all things without grumbling or disputing. And so there are things that God commands us to do that are difficult and that we need to work. And so the first bumper sticker slogan that I don't think is the best is, lay back and let God.

Number two, the second one, I'm looking at the phone lines here, Dave, and I don't see anything up where I can click on people, so we'll just keep on going. Number two, I found it. Remember that? Remember back in the 60s and 70s, I remember driving around and I would see this slogan, I found it.

And I think what was supposed to happen is you were supposed to ask someone, what'd you find? Who'd you find? And then they would say, oh, I found Jesus. I found God. I was just living my life and all of a sudden I stumbled upon God, you know, try Jesus kind of thing.

When all others are, I was assigned by my house and it's out in front of the yard of this house and it says, when all else fails, try Jesus. Anyway, I digress. I found it. What's right or what's wrong with that?

Certainly when God seeks us, it's an aggressive seeking. No one seeks after God. God is the seeker. In a seeker sensitive church, there's only one real seeker and that is God, the triune God. Remember the hymn, Jesus sought me when a stranger.

The problem with I found it slogan is this, we didn't find anything on our own. It wasn't our own active looking. There are many people like Saul of Tarsus who were running from God. They weren't seeking.

They weren't looking. They weren't trying. They were going to go the opposite way. And so when God interrupts, as Pastor Dave Jeffries like to say, he interrupts a sinner by divine grace. It is God seeking.

It is God initiating. It is God doing the saving. Jesus is the alpha and omega. He is the author and he is the finisher. And so we can't say we found something. It would be better to say, God opened my eyes so that I might find.

Maybe that would be a better way. Certainly like Lydia in Acts chapter 16, God opened Lydia's heart. How can a dead person, how can a corrupt person spiritually, how can a totally depraved person find anything?

What they'll find themselves in is the quicksand and the muck and mire of their own sin. That's what they'll find unless God intervenes, unless God interrupts. And so when we look at Ephesians 1 language, for instance, it is actively speaking of God.

We are the ones that it is passively speaking of. Salvation is something done to you if you're a Christian. It is outside of you if you're a Christian. The Latin extra nos, outside of us. And so we don't find anything except we're stuck in the straight jacket of sin and we need a Savior.

That's the good news. The good news is not we found anything. The good news is Jesus sought me when a stranger. And when the Father in eternity past chooses you, Ephesians 1, 4 -6, then Jesus comes and dies for those chosen ones, Ephesians 1, 7 -12.

Then the Spirit of God quickens and seals to the day of redemption, Ephesians 1, 13 -14. There is a response and that response is to the praise of the glory of His grace. If I found something, then I don't praise God as much.

But if I realize I was found, maybe that would be a better sticker, I was found. Then we realize we were lost. Amazing grace, then we sing. We don't say, well, we cooperated when we got saved. That's not the gospel.

So that's the second one. The third bumper sticker slogan that many of you probably have heard is, accept Jesus into your heart. How about that? I've heard that. I wish I had a dollar for every time I've heard that.

You need to accept Jesus in your heart. Now with all fairness, many of those people have good evangelistic intentions. Many of those folks maybe have not been taught anything else. Maybe they have just bought into pop Christianity and kind of a man-centered Christianity.

And so the motives could be good. But here's what I'll say. Could you give me a chapter and verse that talks about accepting Jesus in your heart? In all the Bible, can you find such a verse? You might look at heart talk with sanctification in mind when it comes to Ephesians 3.

But the closest you'll get in the Bible to accept Jesus in your heart is in Romans 10. But you'll notice it's not accepting Jesus into your left ventricle or into your aorta, or as we say here in New England, in your aorta.

One time I was in a church and I heard someone stand up and say, quoting the words of Jesus, I am the Alpha and Omega. Funny thing was nobody laughed because that's just how we talk here. And so accepting Jesus in your heart, Romans 10, it does say in verse 11, whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.

It does say in verse 13, whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. But just prior to that, it says that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus as what, Lord, and believe in your heart, believe in your heart, believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.

Friends, accept Jesus into your heart and believe in your heart are two different things. Paul is saying with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, will, emotion, with the totality of your being, with the wholeness of yourself, the complete totality of the Jewish mind thinking with everything I have and am, I believe.

Not holding anything back. It's not somehow accepting Jesus into your heart. Maybe they think that's synonymous with that. I prefer just the biblical language, believe with your heart. That's better. Frankly, you can accept Jesus into your heart a thousand times, but if God the Father does not accept you into his heart based on the substitutionary atoning death of Jesus Christ confirmed by the resurrection, you're not going to go to heaven.

Again, see, it's a little too man-centered, isn't it? Accepting Jesus into your heart, let's just be more biblical. Let's just grow in the knowledge of the grace of God and who he has said he is in the Scriptures.

Wouldn't it be better to say, believe with all your heart? Have you believed in Jesus with all your heart? That's better than saying somehow the preposition into, that he somehow goes into. Of course, when God invades us, he invades us and his Spirit, the Holy Spirit, lives within us.

So I just think it'd be better if we start using the language of the Bible and talk about the real issue is this, has God the Father accepted you into his heart? Because unless you've repented of your sins, put your faith in Christ Jesus alone, abandoned your own self-righteousness, picked up your cross to follow him, God the Father doesn't accept you in his heart, because he only accepts Jesus in his heart, and you need to be in Christ.

All right, number four, bumper sticker Christianity. Bumper sticker slogan Christianity here on No Compromise Radio. If you're just tuning in, this is the first week of the show, this is the first Thursday show.

Thursday shows are current issues in evangelicalism. And so we are looking at some of those current issues, and one issue is, things seem to just get dumbed down. I don't know why that is. You read the Bible and you realize there are monosyllabic words everywhere?

Well, yes, but there are polysyllabic words, there are big words, a propitiation, there are big theological terms that we use to succinctly summarize the Christian faith about the triune God, or one of my favorite words to pronounce, it's not in the Bible but it's theologically, is sacerdotalism.

We have to use big words, and by the way, don't you use big words at school? Don't you use polysyllabic words at work, technical manuals, computer language? We live in a world where we have to learn big words, whether we like it or not.

And so why do we have to have everything dumbed down? Some kind of, you know, the Bible for dummies, as low as it can go, I just think that helps foster that mentality. And so let's go to the fourth one, WWJD.

What would Jesus do? Boy, everybody seemed to have that years ago. What would Jesus do? I don't know if they mean He would overturn the tables in the temple. I guess Jesus would do that, wouldn't He? I don't know if that is Jesus fasting for 40 days on the Mount of Temptation.

Certainly Jesus did that. I don't know if that is, in a substitutionary way, dying for sinners. I know Jesus did that. Talking to Satan, rebuking Satan. There's all kinds of things that Jesus did that we, frankly, ought not to do and we never should do.

And because something is in the Bible doesn't mean we have to do it. You look at the book of Acts as well, and just because the Apostles did something that doesn't mean it is prescriptive for today. When you go to the store and you have a pharmacist fill your script or your prescription, he is prescribing, take these two pills twice a day.

And so some of the Bible describes much of the narratives and some of the Bible prescribes. And so we have to be careful. What would Jesus do in many cases? That's an excellent way to live. Jesus was love and he did loving things for other people.

He was agape love incarnate. And so there's lots of times we can be helped by that slogan, but it doesn't really go far enough. I have to write this out so I get this straight. What would Jesus tell us to do would be better?

What would Jesus tell us to do? W-W-T-T-U-T-D. I don't think that fits on a little rubber bracelet very well. W-W-T-T-U-T-D. What would, no, that's not even a T, that's a J, I can't read my own writing, W-W-J-T-U-T-D.

What would Jesus tell us to do? Or we could probably say, what would Jesus tell you to do? W-W-J-T-Y-T-D. And so we want to be careful that when we look at Christ's life, when he tells us to do something through his own words or through his apostolic messengers in Romans through Jude, that we do those things.

Because some things we are not to do, some things we cannot do, some things we shouldn't even consider doing because we are not the sinless Son of God, the Son of Man. Well, it's about 349, and we're working our way through these slogans for bumper stickers today.

We don't want to reduce the truth, we would like to have that expanded out a little bit. So the fifth one is, know Jesus, know peace. Know Jesus, know peace. The first no and the second no would be N-O, something without, a negative.

Without Jesus, there's no peace. And the third and fourth no's are K-N-O-W. Know Jesus, if you know him intimately, then you know peace. I think that one's the best one so far. If you have know Jesus, you will have no peace with God.

Sometimes we, though, think that you could somehow have no peace in your family, no peace of mind, no peace in your heart. Friends, lots of unbelievers seem to have peace. Maybe they have such a cauterized conscience.

They seem to have peace, and they have a good marriage, and they have a good job, and their life is fairly fulfilled. But one thing they lack, and that is peace with God. According to Romans 5, they are enemies of God.

And so if you have know Jesus, know peace with God, I affirm that bumper sticker. Know Jesus, know peace, then you would know the peace of God. Not only peace of God, but peace from God. All right, next bumper sticker.

Christ Alone, Not Christ as a Co-Pilot

God is my co-pilot. Maybe that would be a good slogan for No Compromise Radio Ministries. What do you think? God is my co-pilot. And then some other ones are like, if God's your co-pilot, you need to scoot over or something.

This is just one of these crazy, I think I should probably say blasphemous bumper stickers. God is my co-pilot. Now friends, God doesn't co-anything with sinful, finite, fallen people. God is transcendent.

That means God is over. God is above. God is holy. And we aren't. And so God is never our co-pilot. God doesn't kind of walk through life, you know, hand in hand with us as we both make decisions and we both do this or that.

Certainly God is close to us and God sticks close to us. And there's an eminency, a closeness of God. But it's not in a co-regent kind of fashion. God is not a believer in democracies. He's not a believer in republic organizations.

He's not for oligarchies. God is a dictator. Thankfully, he is a benevolent dictator. But God is a monarch. God is a king and he's the only king. And I don't know too many kings in this world who have a mighty military army and lots of resources who are kind of co-pilots with the serf people, with the people in their kingdom, with the peasants.

And so we have to be very careful when Jesus is called the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He's not our co-pilot. He doesn't ask us. He doesn't guide life together. He is the only sovereign. All right, we don't have too much time, but I'm liking these bumper stickers.

We've got enough for another show. How about this one? Got Jesus? Got Bible? All this kind of got milk thing? How about Jesus is my homeboy? I mean, some of these I can't even respond to. How about friends don't let friends go to hell?

Certainly, if you're friendly with someone, you ought to tell the truth to them. How about praise the Lord and pass the ammunition? I guess that might be good. Jews for Jesus. My father's a carpenter.

Jesus is the reason for the season. God's love is unconditional. Warning, in case of rapture, this vehicle might swerve off the side of the road. This is NoCompromiseRadio .com, No Compromise Radio Ministry out of Bethlehem Bible Church.

My name is Mike Abendroth, and we have been looking at bumper sticker slogans. Maybe you have a few more. Why don't you write me at info at NoCompromiseRadioAllTogether .com. NoCompromiseRadio .com. Tomorrow, Friday on the show, we'll look at miracles.

What is a miracle? What is a real biblical miracle in this day where I think people underestimate the spectacular miracles that are in the Bible as God revealed Himself in that special way? Let's see, do I have any other bumper stickers here before I hear the music?

Afterlife, smoking or non-smoking? I mean, are these things too trite? Maybe we'll take those out next time. We'll be right back with Pastor Mike Abendroth. This 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.