Sola Or Prima Scriptura (Part 2)

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.

My name is Mike Abendroth, and I think this is going to be played sometime in May or June. I just got done watching some of the T4G stuff, so that was interesting. Louisville is hard to get in and out of, especially if you live in Boston.

So we are talking about evangelical mysticism. We are talking about prima scriptura versus sola scriptura, scripture alone versus scripture in first place, meaning there are other things, not just church traditions and ex-cathedral statements from a pope, but evangelical burnings in the bosom, liver shivers, gizzard glitches.

Actually, I wrote a chapter about this, I wrote it about three years ago, so I forgot what I said. I hope it's biblical. I hope I haven't changed my mind. In the things that go bump in the church book, discerning the voice of God, chapter 9, subtitle, I hear voices.

I hear voices. Speaking of which, when it comes to evangelical mysticism and people hearing from God and dreaming about God and having impressions and insights and intuitions and, did I say impressions?

What would you think if people listened to their stomach growl and then took that as guidance from God, revelation from God? Now, I've been trying to get back into summer shape, except it's not the summer.

And so it's, you know, counting the calories and it's difficult and my stomach growls quite a bit because it's in Auschwitz mode, right, as Pastor Steve would say. But what if people that you knew, Christians, listened to their stomach growl and then they would have other people listen and then interpret what the growling stomach said and meant?

Of course, you'd have to pay for the people to interpret the speaking. Well, did you know that is something that happened in history? People would pay other people to interpret the sounds of their stomach growling because it was thought to be the dead talking through their stomach's growl.

That was original ventriloquism. Ventriloquism. Ventriloquism. How do you say that? Venter is belly. I know that. And Loki is not some weird character on, who's Loki? So there's Loki some character on some show or something.

Not up on this stuff anymore. Um, not Captain America, Thor, maybe Thor, Loki, Thor, does that make it right? Is that right? Some of you geeks, Greeks out there would know. So you have belly speaking to speak from the stomach.

Greeks didn't call it that, uh, venter belly stuff. They called it gastromancy. Sounds bad, doesn't it? Gastromancy. And so the unliving, the, in this sense, undead were living in your stomach and they would talk and you'd pay somebody else to listen to them because those dead people somehow were in a special zone and then they could tell the future for you.

You can go back to Pythia, you can go back to Apollo in Delphi, who's the spokesperson at the Delphic Oracle. And so what happened was, I think probably people caught on to this and said it's dopey and then it turned into entertainment.

It's like the Ed Sullivan Show. So when I grew up, I'm old enough to know that we have, I didn't probably watch Edgar Bergen as much with Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snurd. And I didn't know about Effie Klinker, E-F-F-I-E, and he would throw his voice.

So it turned from a religious occult practice to some fun. And so it'd be at a traveling fair. And according to the internet here, we have 1753 in England, Sir John Parnell is depicted in engraving, in an engraving of William Hogarth, doesn't say Hogwarts there.

By the way, just a side story here. We're down in Orlando and we're at Universal Studios. And so I said to the person who's working there, we got the tickets, we go in. Well, what do you think we should do?

What's the best ride? Oh, you got to go down to the Harry Potter thing. Now, this isn't a show that says if you're into Harry Potter, you're of the devil. You're just under one of his underlings. I would prefer my kids not to be into Harry Potter.

It's not that I didn't let my kids read Harry Potter. If they wanted to read one of the books, I'd say, okay, read one of the books. Now let's talk about it and don't waste your time with the rest. So it's not a matter of fundamentalism or anything like that, but I didn't really want to go.

And you have to go walking through this maze and they've got all kinds of, I don't know what it is. I used to know cream beer or something, some, all the stuff that they do and eat and sing and say and dance.

And, you know, there's a whole subculture anyway. Got stuck on the ride there. I thought this is just, you know, this is the cat's meow. And so I'm stuck on a Harry Potter ride out of anything else, you know, may a Superman or Batman.

I can just imagine the Orlando Sentinel or RC Sproul driving by or something. Hey, Mike, what are you doing in the Harry Potter area? But that would have meant he would have been in the Harry Potter area as well.

And if I just would have gotten up in the morning, listen to my stomach growl and interpret it properly, I would have gone to Disney World instead of Universal in Orlando. So what happens? We've got these voice throwing people.

And when I grew up, it wasn't Edgar Bergen. It was who? Sherry Lewis. I remember watching Sherry Lewis and, and she would throw her voice, right? So you try to keep your lips from moving and you keep your lips just slightly apart so the sound can come out.

But to make some of the sounds that you need your lips for, like the F, like the V, like the B, like the P and the M, those are very difficult. So you get paid a lot of money if you were Sherry Lewis and you can come up with a little creature named, what was the creature's name?

Lamb chop. She also had Charlie horse and hush puppy, but I think they were right up there with the clinker and this nerd. So what happens when you look within, this is ventriloquist's nightmare that depravity has affected us on the inside.

See the inner light stuff, you've got an inner light in you that's good and wonderful and fine. That's Quakerism. That's George Fox in his journal over and over and over. Go to the teacher within, here's the teacher within.

How do you know God from the teacher within? You cannot know God unless you experience God. Go to the teacher within. In every soul, there's this light of God, the divine nature of God, the energy of God, the spirit of God, and you go within and you try to find that.

Well, the problem is it ignores depravity. Don't trust in your own heart. Now George Orwell, not addressing the situation, but it is apropos. To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle.

So to be reminded over and over and over of this doctrine of sin and original sin and the fall and depravity is needed because it's true and we can't trust our own hearts. We can't know our hearts. The corruption of sin is invasive.

I used to work in the operating room and they'd say, well, there's cancer in the patient. We're going to open them up and do a Whipple or do something else and take a bunch of stuff out. And I didn't see it that often, but sometimes where the doctors would open up the abdomen of the person and see so much cancer in so many vital organs that they couldn't do anything.

You could see that they were sad. They actually had genuine empathy and soon sympathy. They just sewed them back up. They'd look around. I could see their hands kind of digging in through some of the organs.

It's amazing when you're in surgery and you watch, of course, some things are super delicate and you have to handle them with care, but you just take all the intestines out and kind of set them to the side.

I mean, they're attached, but now they're just over to the side and you're moving around and digging around and you just think, wow, this is amazing. And so they just look at all the cancer everywhere and it's so invasive.

We just have to sew them back up. If you want to look inside of you, I don't think you're going to like what you find. I don't like what I find. Therefore, we have an external word, a more sure word, 2 Peter 1, verse 19.

When you read verses 16 through 21 in 2 Peter 1, you realize I need an apostolic word. I need a word inspired by God, driven by the Spirit of God so that it's pure and accurate and holy and undefiled and untainted and uncorrupt and blameless.

That's what I need. You open up the human heart and you're going to see blackness and you're going to see that even though you're a Christian, your heart has been affected by sin, your intellect, your mind, your conscience, your will, everything about you tainted by sin.

You say, well, don't knock me down. Don't bring me down. Sounds like an old ELO song. Don't bring me down. Cooley would know that, wouldn't he? No, it's just true. So you can analyze the life that you've been given well, and you'll say, I need to go outside of myself.

You know, I have a hunch. I have an impression. I have an insight. I have an intuition. Okay. Well, impressions are impressions, insights are insights, hunches are hunches. I'm not saying you can't ever do these hunches.

I'm not saying you can't ever go with an impression. Just don't make it divine. Don't say it's of divine authority. Maybe you'll get to heaven one day and say, yes, I see how God gave me those anxious moments and impressions and hunches not to do that, and that was the right thing to do, but there's no way you can know it now.

There's absolutely no way you could know it. Only the law of the Lord is perfect. Only the law of the Lord is complete. In other words, Psalm 19, verse 7, it's not going to lead you into any kind of trouble.

Now, I have a question for you. If the law of the Lord is perfect, if scriptures are perfect, all sided, lacking nothing, unerring guide, has your heart ever led you the wrong way? Well, I think I know the answer because I speak from experience and I know life, and so our hearts do get us in trouble, don't they?

I mean, if you've ever, you know, fallen for somebody of the opposite sex and you've said, you know, my heart's just getting in front of me, ahead of me, see, you know, but the scriptures aren't. So, see, here's what I'm trying to do.

I'm trying to get you to go for Sola Scriptura, the Bible alone, not Prima Scriptura, Sola alone, Prima first. I don't want it just first and there's other things, second, third, fourth. No, I think since scriptures teach that the law of the Lord is perfect, it's never going to lead you into trouble.

Then why do you replace Ephesians experience? Why do you replace the Bible with experience? The testimony of the Lord is sure, okay? The word of God, according to Psalm 19, it's trustworthy, it's verifiable, it's established, it's firm.

On the other hand, it's not wishy-washy, it's not unsettled, it's not vacillating, it's not uncertain. You can trust it. You could stand firmly upon it. Spurgeon said, we hasten from the quicksands of human speculation to the surety of divine revelation.

So, now I have a question for you regarding all these internal things and liver shivers and hunches and impressions and intuitions and God talking to you in prayer. Are you sure that's God? Are you absolutely positively sure that's God?

Because I'm absolutely positively sure that the testimony of the Lord is sure, that the Scriptures are sure, they make wise the simple. I'm positive of that. Psalm 19, the precepts of the Lord are right, straightforward, just.

They're not full of iniquity, they're not full of perversity, they're not full of crookedness. It's upright. Are you sure that your heart is telling you the right things? I'm going to go for the sure thing.

I have other ways to argue for sola scriptura, but here if I'm just using good, better, best, you say, well, I do believe Scriptures, but I also believe these other things. I don't want you to. Can I have you consider what comedian theologian Lily Tomlin said about those who say they're hearing from God?

When we talk to God, we're praying. When God talks to us, we're schizophrenic. See, even Lily knew. Even Lily knows. Psalm 19, the fear of the Lord, verse 9, is clean, enduring forever, clean, pure, crystal clear.

It's not dirty, it's not sinful, it's not unholy, it's not wicked, it's not filthy, it's not soiled, it's not defiled, it's not corrupted. Now you think about your own heart, even as a Christian. Think about the things we've thought.

Think about the Romans 7, wretched man that I am, who's going to deliver me from the body of death? Thankfully, there's no condemnation in Christ Jesus, right? But still, we battle with this sin principle.

Some people call it sinful nature, sinful flesh, the sin principle, harmonological hangover. I don't really care what you call it. But we all know, especially your spouse knows, that you're not perfect.

Positionally, yes. I get it. Practically, no. So if you're not, and your heart is blackened still, it's got some gray on it, let's just say that, if you want some self-esteem still. Why go to that when there's a possibility that there's something wrong with what you're hearing from your own heart?

There is evil there. There is corruption there. There is error there. There is filthiness there. There is profaneness there. So go to something that's clean. The fear of the Lord, that's the figure of speech for the Bible, is clean.

The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. When God makes a divine verdict, when He slams the gavel down and says, this is the right thing in His Word, it's true. It's actually true. How do I know that about my heart?

That's why the psalmist says, more to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them, the Word of God, the external authority, your servant is warned.

In keeping them, there is great reward. I know that it is a humbling doctrine, indwelling sin. I don't like it. I don't like it that I still sin. I don't like it that I can't trust myself. I don't like it that if I've got a decision to make, I need to find some wisdom.

God give me wisdom. Other people give me wisdom, because I can't trust myself. I've met a lot of smart people in my life, and I've met a lot of dumb people, too. But the smart ones are even more difficult to deal with, because they're so smart they can rationalize any bad decision they want, because they can figure out a way to do it.

It's a humbling doctrine, original sin and indwelling sin. Calvin said, no one knows the one hundredth part of the sin that clings to his soul. True or false? Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding.

In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He'll direct your paths. See, of course, of course. Impressions are fallible. Intuitions are fallible. Insight, fallible. Hunches, fallible. Liver shivers, fallible.

Don't say they're revelation. Don't put them in that category. They are what they are. You say, well, sometimes they prove true. Okay, they prove true, so what are they? They are what they are. That's all.

You cannot say that intuition, gastromancy, belly talking, God talking to you when you pray is still a small voice. Not to study that passage, we're going to do that in No Compromise one day. Don't. Don't trust your own heart.

As you trust your heart more, your confidence in Scripture decreases. Spiritual maturity says, I've got a long for the pure milk of the Word that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. You'd like to grow?

You'd like to mature? You'd like to live up to your position in Christ, to use Ephesians 4 language, verse 1, to walk in a manner worthy? That's the language of a scale. And on one side of the scale, you put some weight, 10 grams, and on the other side, you need to have 10 grams to make it equal.

So you've got, you know, 20 ,000 tons of theological truth in the phrase, in the prepositional phrase, in Christ, in Christ Jesus, in Him, found in Ephesians, and that's the weight of one side. That's the seesaw effect where you just slam that great doctrinal truth of the union of Christ on the one side, and now you, by the Holy Spirit's power working through you, you live up to what you know, conduct befitting an officer, conduct befitting a gentleman.

Now, you can't ever weigh that out perfectly, glory will weigh it all out, and your position in practice will be equal, but that doesn't alleviate our responsibilities for doing the right thing. And once you start saying, you know, depravity is not really that big of a deal, and I'm more of a Keswick perfectionist, I'm more Wesleyan, I don't really sin that much, I'm listening to Bob George's crew at 430 or whatever, and we don't confess the sins as much, they're all confessed in a positional way, and parental forgiveness doesn't need to be done because it's all judicial, and you start going and going and going, and it spirals out.

You need to remember about indwelling sin. Henry Mahan said that there's enough evil in the heart even of the best of sinners to make another devil. That's why when Ananias and Sapphira felt led, they were misled by their heart.

Peter said, Ananias, Acts 5, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back some of the price of the land? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart, you have not lied to men but to God?

Led by the heart, was actually misled by the heart. You say, well, I got an impression. Does he really speak to us? The God of the universe now speaks to us, like Henry Blackaby says in his book, Experiencing God, by use of impressions.

Furthermore, he says that if you don't normally feel those things, you don't regularly feel those things, you don't often feel those things, you're not regularly and truly experiencing God. That's hogwash.

That's Hogwarts. You ought to get stuck on the Disneyland ride for that one. It's all wrong. I'm actually feeling an impression right now. I think it's from the Lord. I don't know, maybe it's my stomach growling.

That Blackaby's wrong. Say well, yeah, now it's your word against his. Okay, perfect. I've won then. I'm not in this to win. I'm in this to help you. But I've won the argument. If you say one thing and I say another, I guess we're going to have to go to a tiebreaker.

Okay, what's the tiebreaker? We'll have to go back to Scripture. We'll have to go back to Scripture. Spurgeon, to live by impressions is oftentimes to live the life of a fool and even to fall into downright rebellion against the revealed Word of God.

Not your impressions, but that which is in this Bible must always guide you to the law and to the testimony. If it is not according to this Word, the impression comes not from God. It may proceed from Satan or from your own distempered brain.

Our prayer must be, order my steps in your Word. Now, that rule of life, the written Word of God, we ought to study and obey. My name's Mike Abendroth, this is No Compromise Radio. You can write Steve at Tuesdayguy at NoCompromiseRadio .com.

Ben has been doing a great job with Twitter and with Facebook, so you can go there. Even if you don't have those accounts, you can type it in and still see what's going on. Harry's been doing the blog now regularly, so if you go to NoCompromiseRadio .com, there's a blog and you can follow us there.

And he writes a lot of articles, one great article a week. And you can also go to Israel with us, February 17th. It's around $3 ,300 and we still have some spots open, flying out of Boston. And so, my name is Mike Abendroth, this is No Compromise Radio.

You can also catch us at iTunes.

God bless you. 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.