Beau Bekendam Interview

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.

Hosting a Wednesday Interview With Pastor Beau Bekendam

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and today is one of those special days. You know, Monday is the rerun of my sermon, which is�it�s a good day. Tuesdays, Pastor Steve is usually here.

We talk about issues in the church. It�s a good day. Thursday, we talk about who knows what, Christ for pardon, Christ for power. That�s definitely a good day. And then Fridays is a rerun, probably those 13-year-old reruns.

There might be a little more Arminian than I want. But Wednesdays are good days because I have guests on, friends, authors, men that I respect who are in the trenches doing gospel ministry. And since it�s Wednesday, today we have a special guest, my friend, Pastor Bo Beckendam.

Bo, welcome to No Compromise Radio.

Thank you, Mike. This is my maiden voyage on the radio.

Well, it wasn�t that long ago where you interviewed me in your office, in your study, and so now it�s the shoes on the proverbial other foot. This is how it�s supposed to be. Okay, good. You know what you�re doing.

Now, early on, Bo, I have to tell our audience that I must, for many reasons, be kind to you and nice to you. It�s, A, the Christian thing to do, and we want to honor the Lord and be holy. But B, you�re the pastor of my daughter Haley, my son-in-law Marty, and my daughter Maddie.

And so I must be nice to my children�s pastor, because one day, with all the grandkids that could be there, I might have to move to Ventura, and I might have to apply to be the senior saint�s pastor working for you.

That�s a fun idea, honestly. I like it. Yeah, it�s just happening more. I�m getting pastor�s kids, and I�m so nervous about it, honestly. But there�s another pastor whose daughter just started coming, and he basically said, �Hey, if you preach Christ, that�s all I�m asking for you.

So I said, �All right, deal.

Amen. Well, let�s talk about the church that you�re allowed to pastor, Christ Church Carpenteria. And since you just talked about preaching Christ, is that really the center? I mean, it�s called Christ Church.

What�s the center? What moves you on Sunday to get up and stand behind that pulpit? Absolutely.

It is the person and work of Christ. Paul, I desire to know nothing among you but Christ, and Christ crucified, that wonderful verse Colossians, and we preach, we proclaim Him. And so it�s a reminder to myself, honestly, why we�re here, who put us here, and what our goal is, is to lift up the person of Christ.

So yes, and amen. Bo, your background might not be the typical, �Oh, I went to Cedarville, or I went to Grove, or I went to TMU or something like that. Tell our listeners a little bit about your background, what you found maybe lacking there, and then what the Lord did to you even there.

Yeah, my entire life is a �what not to do� type of life. Although it�s tough, I can be too critical, but I was raised in a Christian home, Christian parents, Christian grandparents, but the church we were at was a very seeker-sensitive, Willow Creek type of a church.

And to be honest, it was great. It was a ton of fun. Had a ton of friends. You know, we had nothing negative to speak for. If you were an unbeliever, nothing to be offended by, everything was handed to you.

And that was my entire upbringing, my Christian school and my church. And then I was definitely unconverted. And I was, you know, a classic unconverted Christian kid. I was good at playing the game, so to speak, and did all kinds of leadership roles and all that.

But I went off to Westmont College, which is out here in Santa Barbara, moved up to Santa Barbara, and it was just a more academic environment of the same thing. So there was not a lot of Christ-crucified talk going on, and I excelled in all the externals, but my soul was rotting from within, and just grew, and just mentalism, and this classic Pharisee, really identify how Martin Luther's testimony is out, and that was me, just trying to do everything I could to please God, to please my parents, to please those around me.

And I was just miserable inside. And my senior year, I got converted through a handful of conversations. Actually one really faithful professor, in fact I'll give you this story, this is great. So I'm a pretty good student, I worked pretty hard, and it was just an overwhelming week and I had to turn in this final, it was like a take-home final, turn in midnight of Friday, and for the first time in my entire life, I couldn't get it done, and I just basically gave up.

I was like, I'm going to get an F, I'm not even going to try, basically just fell asleep Friday night, didn't get it done. Class comes around Monday morning, and the professor, I've had him a few times, and he says, hey Bo, could you come up after class, and he's like, where's your paper, and I basically said, oh, just give me an F.

And he said, why don't you come to my office, and so he sits me down, and we're talking, and he says, Bo, do you know what grace is? And as a Christian kid of 21 years, I was offended and said, of course I know what grace is, and he says, I don't think you do.

He says, why don't you take the rest of the semester and you turn in that paper whenever you want. And I said, that's not fair, that's not, nobody else got that type of treatment. He says, well, that's what I thought, you don't know what grace is.

He says, either way, you can turn it in any time you want, you can go. And the Lord used that as an arrow to know what grace is. I know on paper, but my heart does not know what it is, and my entire relationship with God has been based upon my performance.

And that was kind of the fatal, like, wound, and then over the next couple months, I've crucified, and my relationship with God is based upon what Christ has done in my place. Now what I do, 21 years old, let me get into ministry stuff, or what do you think?

Sure, you know what, I just think I'm sitting there, I've heard you preach several times in person, I'm just sitting, listening, enjoying it, and then I have to think to myself, Beau, oh, I have to be ready with the next question.

How old are you now? I'm 32. 32, and do people say to you, you're too young to be a pastor? How does that come across, maybe not so directly?

Do you know what? Not in our context, because of kind of how everything came about. But I do feel too young, most times, most days. I definitely feel too young, which is part of why I really, I don't know, but I'm just going to preach the Bible, and I'm going to preach Christ, and trust that that's sufficient.

Well, Beau and I, listeners, we text back and forth throughout the week a little bit, and one time I was in a particular, I don't know, I'm going to give him advice, he's not even asking for it, and I said, to Beau the Younger, I would say.

So, I think he called me Mike the Elder. Well, certainly you think about Paul and his words for Timothy. I don't really care how old anyone is, as long as they're going to get up and pull the trigger on Sundays.

Tell our listeners a little bit, Beau, about why you think it's important to talk about the Lord Jesus, even to Christians. You're going verse by verse through Luke now. There must be a strategy in your mind.

Oh, I'm going to talk about Jesus now for the next eight years as we work through Luke. How's that all work?

It's seriously eight years as a conservative, who knows? We started in March and we finished chapter one last Sunday, but there's so much of Christ in there. You know, yeah. 1 Corinthians 15 is the text that really struck me in my salvation, because I went 21 years in Christian environments and never knew Christ.

The main takeaway I heard in every environment was what I'm to do for Christ, and very little about what Christ has done and how that informs what I do for Christ. And I love 1 Corinthians 15, I make known to you brothers the gospel.

Well, why? I mean, they already got saved. Why does he need to make known to brothers the gospel? And he says, which I proclaim to you in which you received, in which also you stand, present tense, by which also you are saved.

And so apparently there's something to the gospel that we need today and tomorrow. And it is the means of our salvation ongoing. And then he goes on, I've delivered first importance, and then he goes on to explain the gospel.

And then I love the end of verse 10. By the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain, but I labored more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. And so, you know, even as saints, we never move past Christ and what He has done.

And every act of obedience that we perform for Him, every act of love, cannot be severed from it. Abide in me, and you'll bear much fruit. And if the moment we forget about Christ and functionally try to do something for Him without faith, we're not acting like Christians anymore.

We're doing something entirely different without faith. It's impossible to please God. I'm honestly mostly preaching to my own heart. That's what my heart needs. And I have found that's similar for the saints.

And so just trying to proclaim Christ in whatever text we are in, because He is the end of Scripture. We put Paul, somehow, who wrote all the new, you know, how much he wrote in the New Testament, still said, I desire nothing among you but Christ and Christ crucified.

And so, Mike, the elder, likes to say, Christ for pardon and Christ for power.

Amen. Well, I think we're going to be great friends as long as I keep preaching Christ and so do you. And I'm so encouraged with the next generation of young men who, of course, we want to call our congregations to holy living and godliness and prayer and overcoming temptation, the one another's evangelism, worship services.

That's all true. And I think we both want that. But there's got to be a reason to do that. And the reason is for the sake of Christ, for His name, for His glory, for gratefulness in our hearts. We're wanting to serve.

And so I love it that you're preaching through, Luke, verse by verse. Our listeners can access those sermons, ChristChurchCarp .com, ChristChurchCarp .com. I'm talking to Pastor Bo today on No Compromise Radio.

Bo, tell me a little bit about your training. You've got some young men there that you're training, working through theology books. What's your strategy there, and why are you doing that? Yeah.

Yeah. It's probably the highlight of... It competes with Sunday morning in my heart with what a favorite thing I get to do. Every Tuesday night, we get a group of guys together, work through systematic theology and right now, we're kind of closing in on the end of Beaky's first of four volumes on scripture and the doctrine of God.

We just started the section on the Trinity last night, and it was phenomenal. It was... I mean, more questions coming up last night than probably the entire book. I think we're in, like, the page 900 somewhere.

But Beaky's book is so good. It's like a chapter is about 15 to 20 pages, and there's so much application in there. I mean, he's exposing you to all the historic guys, and the footnotes are incredible, and it's devotional, and so we just walk through a chapter.

We start off with a little devo, some text of scripture, and we just pray and read the Bible and fellowship for about, I don't know, almost half, and then the second half, we review what we read and try to apply it, because the goal is...

Tuesday nights are, in my mind, that 2 Timothy 2 to what you've learned in Trusted Faithful Men. These are our future elders and deacons and Bible study leaders and, I mean, just husbands, and these are the guys that I want to invest in and multiply so that they can be ready to go.

And so we just have really, really sweet fellowship and really great questions, and in some ways, I do feel out of my depth, but they'll ask a question, and it's kind of like, hey, we'll get back to you next week.

I'll go try and figure that out. So that is such a joy to me, and Beaky's got four volumes. I know we'll at least get through three of them. I'm not sure if I'm with him on his final volume, but it's probably a great volume still.

Well, by the time you finish Luke in 10 years, you'll probably be finished with the Beaky four volume. That's a good decade. That is a good decade. All right, I'm gonna throw out some random words, and then you can respond any way you want, okay?

All right, let's start off with a fun one. Dreadlocks.

That would be me in college as a pacifist running around with Shane Claiborne books trying to save the world. Okay, good. Peter Sammons. Oh, man. Peter Sammons is my theology professor right now at the Master's Seminary, and he is, man, he's something special.

This guy is obsessive with the truth and how much he reads and devotes himself, and so he's just a ton of fun to sit and listen to. I mean, our reading list right now on the Doctrine of God, I mean, we're reading Charnock and Calvin and Bovink and Gregory Nanzianzus.

I mean, we're reading guys. We're reading stuff that's like, this is phenomenal. So I really love him, and I also love, you know, he's gone to bat for the truth and kind of been willing to not lose it all, but he's just gonna go with the truth.

And if that costs him, he's okay with that. I mean, there's nothing like a professor who put his money where his mouth is for me, so I really love that, man.

Peter and I are friends, and I think he's the kind of guy that if he did lose his job, I'd be glad to hire, and we could start a Bible institute at the church I pastor, or maybe it's in 10 years, and I'm your senior citizen pastor, and then we hire him at Christ Church, and him standing for the truth and active obedience years ago when that battle was happening.

And then now, I look at my seminary education, and you know, I'm on this side of it, and I could be maybe hypercritical, but I wish I had Peter Sammons for my professor for every class. That's not an overstatement.

And the Master Seminary Journal, the ones that he's edited, I mean, they are brilliant. They are ecumenical in the most healthy way, doctrinally sound with guys, you know, Fesco and Barcelos and all these guys.

Those things have been brilliant, and I don't know why there's a pushback against that. Well, I do know the reason why, but I really, really am thankful for Peter Sammons, and I'm glad Peter Sammons is teaching my daughter's pastor.

Classical Theism, the Doctrine of God, and the Simplicity of God

All right, let's start another topic. Classical theism.

Oh, yeah. So classical theism is something I fell into through a podcast, a 10-minute interview podcast that Steve Nichols had with R .C. Sproul. I mean, R .C. was, maybe, I don't think he lived much longer after this interview.

And R .C. brought up this book by James Dolezal called All That Is In God, and R .C. spoke so highly of this book. He said, I've read it twice. In another interview, Steve Nichols says, in the last, you know, kind of weeks of R .C.'s life, if you talked to him, he'd grab you by the arm and he'd ask you, have you read this book?

And so, I mean, I didn't, I don't know anything about anything, but I thought, I gotta read this book. So I get this book. It's pretty short. And it was, I mean, it was pretty tough, honestly. But it exposed me to the sad truth that the past, I don't know, 100 or 200 or so years in the evangelical church, we've kind of just assumed, yeah, yeah, yeah, the Trinity.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the doctrine of God. Let's move on to other battles. And fair enough in that there were other battles to fight, you know, the inerrancy battle and other things like that. But it was a neglected doctrine.

You know, I had been preaching through John, and I did notice as I was working through most of the commentaries from really well-known Bible scholars, they would say stuff like, yeah, you know, Jesus is God, but he's subordinate to the Father.

And that type of idea would come up very, very often in a lot of these commentaries. And you know, I believe the sheep know his voice, even if we're not formally trained. And there was enough in me to think, you know, I put a question mark in the margin, like, that sounds kind of funny.

I don't know. And then as I read this book, Dolezal kind of explains that we have drifted so far from our historic doctrine of God. So it's not classical theism is not some fancy new thing. It's classical in that it is what we have classically believed on to the on from there.

And it's in all of those creeds and confessions that you'll see this classic doctrine of God. What's maybe alarming for people is what has been taught to them through, you know, most sermons the past hundred years has not been classical theism.

We've actually departed from it. And the essential truth is this. God does not change. He is—we all know that verse. Therefore, in his relationship to you, you know, whoever you may be, your relationship with God may change, but that's because you change.

It's not because God changes. God doesn't suffer. And so when Christ was on the cross in his human nature, he certainly suffered, but he also had a divine nature that didn't suffer and could not suffer, which is why he had to take on a human nature.

And the other one that is so prevalent in a lot of the sappy worship songs was the father himself was in heaven crying as his son was being crucified. And so in all these subtle ways, we began to introduce creatureliness to God.

People would say stuff like, well, the God I know would never. And so suddenly we're redefining God based on our experiences or our humanity or our understanding of a father or a son. And so we've really severely departed from the biblical definition of God as Trinity and as unchanging as another doctrine called the simplicity of God.

He's not made up of parts. He's not more love than he is holiness. He's not parts. He's not like just a bigger piece of the pie here and a lesser piece over there. And so there's all these classic doctrines of God that, yeah, they take some work to wrap your head around because God takes some work to wrap your head around.

And even one of his attributes is his incomprehensibility. We'll never fully do it. But God has revealed in his word truth about him that that is different. We are as creatures. And so I praise the Lord that there really does seem to be, what would you call it?

Retrieval of these historic doctrines. They're not new. And I think maybe what makes some people uncomfortable is that these, as you mentioned, the word ecumenical, these truths are so fundamental that even the Roman Catholic Church bullies them.

I mean, you go back, and it's not because it's not a Roman Catholic doctrine. It was a doctrine before the Roman Catholic Church existed. The point is these truths have existed throughout the history of the Church.

And so these are so commonly shared. Now when you get to the gospel and other areas, yeah, we're going to depart from the Roman Catholic Church, but the doctrine of God we've all pretty much agreed on from these creeds and councils.

But sadly, lately, we've departed from it. So classical theism is this great recovery of these doctrines.

Amen. I think, Bo, like you, I listened to Nichols, and he said basically R .C. was saying underneath and undergirding the holiness of God book by Sproul was classical theism. That was R .C. saying that.

And then undergirding chosen by God, classical theism. And when R .C. says you need to get a book, you know, it's at the end of his life, and he's like, you got to read this book by James. It's like, okay, I better get that book.

And it's great to see the recovery of these doctrines. And for me, Bo, I mean, I can blame people, but I'm not going to. I taught eternal functional subordination, and I was wrong to do it. And therefore, I repent.

I don't teach it anymore. I was wrong. I think about God only, the Son in the incarnation as any way obedient, becoming obedient to the point of death, and so on. Now I teach something different. I'm concerned that some people have been confronted with this truth, and they won't simply say in 30 seconds, I used to teach it.

I'm wrong. I repent. And I don't know what the reason is. Maybe they want patriarchy. Maybe they want men to dominate women. I don't know what the reason is. Maybe it's, you know, relationships, but it's a sad thing.

The good news is young men like you, did I mention who teach my daughters? I'm just kidding. Have the right view. And by the way, I'm never going to get this out of my mind, Bo, singing a song about the father crying, especially if sung by somebody with dreadlocks.

That's a picture you can't get out of your mind. It's not your son or you. All right. Let's talk lastly about family. You and I love to share pictures about our children and family and trying to guard the time that we have.

We're dads before we're pastors. Just tell me a little bit about your wife and children and some of the special times that you try to reserve just for them.

Marriage, Sabbath Rest, and Family Rhythms

Yeah, thanks for that. So my wife and I, we've been married for 11 years and we have four kids, four and under. So our house is exciting. We actually, my wife and I knew each other since I think about kindergarten.

We both went to that church and I flirted with her at the junior high church camps. I finally started to date her when I was a senior in high school. And I'll even say, praise God for my salvation. Our relationship made a drastic turn when I got saved and the relationship just really sweetened up.

And we've had 10 or 11 really, really happy years of marriage. And now we're having kids. And I tend to, my personality is, I tend to run as fast as I can. And I tend to push myself with commitments to just, I don't know, I just love to move fast and to work hard.

And my wife loves quality time with me. And so that was a healthy tension to where we've learned. Man, I think, you know, Christians are not bound by the Mosaic law, but there seems to be great wisdom in the concept of a Sabbath, of taking time off, of resting, of remembering that God is God and we are not, and we need to rest.

And if even God rested on the seventh day, there's something special, holy, set apart about that day. And so we've really a day a week where I don't work on church or now seminary, and we just enjoy each other.

We try to sleep in and eat good food and exercise and read the Bible. And now, especially with my kids, because their schedule is so busy. I mean, they love, for us, it's Mondays after church. You know, after our night service, we go home.

We have this little tradition. We make dinner at the little counter. My son loves it. And it's Sabbath now, and we just get to hang out. And so they look forward to it and we look forward to it. And it's just a really sweet time.

You know, even if the charge hard, it's something that we all get to look forward to. Just enjoy resting. And so that's something sweet that we really love. And it does seem to preserve us. I mean, we're moving really fast, but it's, you know, praise God, it's still enjoyable.

Amen.

Thank you, Will. Some people think I don't believe in the law today for Christians, but I'll give you some law, Bo. Excel still more. Excellent. Excellent. Well, Pastor Bo, thanks for being on No Compromise Radio today.

Appreciate you and the love of the Lord that he has put in your heart and the desire to preach Christ crucified, not just to my family, but all those families there at Christ Church Carpinteria. You can access Bo and his sermons and a little bit more about his bio.

Christchurchcarp .org, is it org or com? I think it's com.

Yeah, .com. It actually may be Carpinteria, maybe the full word. I'm looking at it right now. I finally pulled it back up.

Christchurchcarp .com. There it is. You knew better than me. Yeah. And so, last sermon, Luke 1, 74 to 80. Man, that's a lot of verses in Luke 1, don't you think? 80 verses in one chapter. Wow, that's like Psalm 119.

Luke 1 is the Psalm 119 of the Luke.

I mean, it's packed full. You got prophecies in, you got the Magnificat, you got, we just did the Benedictus, you know, multiple parts, I mean, it's a chapter.

I don't know, you're sounding like you got too many Latin words coming out of you. Can I trust you?

No, you know, yeah, you can.

Thanks, Pastor Beau, for being on No Compromise Radio.

It's an honor, a privilege to you, Pastor, your family, and to be your friend, brother. Thank you. Amen.

Thanks. 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.