The Danger of Drift (Part 4)

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.

Michael Lee Abendroth here. You know, my pride wants to say I should probably change my name to M.

L. Abendroth because, you know, they�re just the Christian theologian

B. B. Warfield, J. G.

Machin, A. A. Hodge, R. L.

Dabney, D. M. Lloyd -Jones, Dave Martin Lloyd -Jones,

J. V. Fesco, M. L. Abendroth, H. L. Mencken. One of my favorite things to do, for instance, today, it�s

Friday, it�s one o�clock in the afternoon or so, and it�s pretty quiet here in the church building, and you just have to have a little laugh at your own expense.

I�m laughing, Mike, with you. I�m laughing within you, and, you know, there�s nothing like a little monster drink, and you�re good to go.

I critique men who are in the doctoral program of preaching at Mass for Seminary, and I try to help them.

I�m called a mentor, and I say to some, I try to give them tangible advice.

If I just said, �Be more enthusiastic ,� well, they might understand that, but then I try to give them details.

Or if I want to say, �Do you think you�re an enthusiastic preacher ?� and they�ll tell me. Then I ask them, �Do your armpits get sweaty during your preaching, and are your shirt pitted out after you preach ?�

�Oh, no ,� they say. Well, I want it to be, unless you have an iron -man disposition that you swim two miles, ride a bicycle for 100, and then run 26, and you just don�t sweat at all, unless you�re doing that kind of activity.

Then let�s put some oomph into it. I could even say Sunday school teachers. I�m not talking about nervous sweat.

I�m talking about sweat like you�re fired up. The Puritans would say, �Light and heat.�

Light is you, by the Spirit�s enablement, showing people, you know, put light on the subject, what does the text mean, and say.

Then heat is how you deliver it. I told the guy yesterday,

I said, �You need to drink a monster drink before you preach.�

He didn�t think I was telling him. He thought I was using figurative speech, figurative language, figures of speech.

I said, �I mean it. Drink a monster drink before you preach. Come on. You�ve got to go for it.

You�ve got to go for it.� It�s good news by content. It�s good news by delivery style. I told the guy he likes the

Pittsburgh Steelers, and I said, �I want some Jack Lambert style preaching. That�s what I want.� So I was trying to contextualize.

See? Reformation 2017, Germany, Switzerland, Mike Jenner and his wife, I think Kim and I, maybe my son and I, maybe

Kim, my son, and myself. Germany, March is not the right date,

May 20th through 30th, 2017. You can sign up via our website. You just need to tell people, �I heard about it through Mike Gabenroth.�

Because you get better seats in the truck, I was going to say in the bus. No Mark Driscoll bus comments allowed.

I�m talking about drift as I was finishing up last time, which was what, 10 minutes ago?

In between, we have the monster drinks and the lean cuisines, the extended special edition, limited edition lean cuisines, three minutes of microwave, a little sriracha sauce and some pepper flakes, and you are good to go in a calorie counting world, aren�t you?

Don�t forget about the book, Evangelical White Lies. We�re going to work through that book on the air. Oh, I wanted to ask.

Someone asked me if sexual fidelity was on audio. I don�t know if you want that.

If you want that, you should probably email me because why sit and talk for 30 ,000 words and have nobody want it?

We have to do this by demand, popular demand. If that�s interesting to you or for you or through you, let me know.

Mike at nocompromiseradio .com. I�m talking about drift and I�m consumed by the book of Hebrews because it�s consuming me in the sense that I�ve been preaching it on Sunday mornings and my armpits are sweaty and I just drink some

Peet�s coffee before I preach. I�m not the monster guy. I don�t want the carbonation. I just want the

Peet�s coffee. I had a Peet�s coffee this morning.

It�s my last bit of Peet�s. I think some is arriving in the mail, so that�s a good thing. I thought their Big Bang stuff this summer was pretty good.

The writer of Hebrews basically says this in chapter 2, 1 through 4 with this first warning shot.

The drift of unbelief can be combated by one, pay close attention to the things you�ve learned about Jesus.

That�s verse 1. Secondly, don�t forget that there�s a real judgment day for people that drift all the way from faith, alleged faith to unbelief to then apostasy.

There�s punishment for apostasy, so stay far away from that. And then he says in verses 3b to 4, don�t forget whose message this is, from whence it came, and who�s the one that first told it to you, and it�s the

Lord. The Lord Jesus himself, he himself preached. Remember how great the angels were?

Chapter 1, Jesus is greater. Jesus is in charge of angels as Lord. He�s in charge of principalities as Lord.

He�s in charge of powers as Lord. Don�t forget, he�s the one. Even on earth, all authority is given to me in heaven and on earth,

Matthew 28, 18. Don�t forget, this is the Lord Jesus. Matthew 7, 28, the people were astonished at his doctrine for he taught them as one having authority.

Don�t forget, this is the Jesus. You�re drifting away Jewish listeners, some saved, some not saved, and you feel the tug of drift and secularism and tolerance and Judaism and Gnosticism and Hinduism, things back then, things now, put them all together, the sirens are beckoning you.

It�s okay, you don�t have to believe that. There�s lots of ways to heaven. Jesus isn�t the only way. He�s just one of many, and you just hear that, and you need to put your fingers in your ears and then think, �I better watch myself by watching

Jesus, thinking about him, paying close attention, Chapter 2, Verse 1.

Remembering what the end of all this is. There is a day to die and then stand before God, and then

I need to make sure. I�m just kind of shocked back into reality. Oh yeah, it�s

Jesus. Jesus is the one who said this. This is the message from Jesus. He�s got the authority to teach whatever he wants.

Now the message from Jesus, if you want to go back to Luke 4,

I think that�s a good place to go. The writer of Hebrews wants you to be secure and have an anchor in these days of unbelief.

Well, go back to Jesus�s words. Go back to the Messiah�s message. Jesus is greater than angels. His death certainly was great.

He�s seated at the right hand of the Father. And when he was on earth, what did he say? What did this great

King say? That�s the point. And when you see Luke 4, this is really, when

I teach preaching students, I love to go to this passage because it�s Jesus the Expositor. He�s the

Prince of Preachers. Thomas Watson said Jesus alone is the Prince of Preachers.

He is alone the best of Expositors. Jesus, he is the

Prince of Preachers. I recognize, I understand that Jesus came to earth to do things, to live a perfect life, to die on the cross, but he also came to teach things.

You can�t just say I�m going to ignore what he said as he set his face toward Calvary.

Jesus was a preacher. And if you said, �Oh, I�d rather have the trifurcation prophet, priest, and king.

He�s a prophet.� Okay, I�m fine with that. I could even make an argument that Jesus was an expository preacher.

Now, I think what you�re going to immediately say to me is, �Well, sequential verse by verse. Did he teach through Deuteronomy that way ?�

I think if you just walk through Luke 4, you will come to some very wonderful conclusions about this very issue.

I would have liked to have been there. There�s lots of things in life I would have liked to have seen. I don�t know, interesting things, standing on the side of the railroad tracks as the train went by with Lincoln�s body in it.

I don�t know why that would be interesting to me. Oh, of course, there are many more exciting things to look at and to be observing.

But this is on the biblical scale, on the grand scale. Oh, walking on water, even the wind and the sea obey him, feeding 10 ,000, 20 ,000 people, casting out demons,

Emmaus Road. I mean, how can you pick? But I would love to have been there in the synagogue.

Luke 4, 14, �And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread throughout all the surrounding district.�

The Spirit of God propelled him to the wilderness to be tempted, and now the

Spirit of God propels Jesus to Galilee for public ministry.

And when Jesus was doing these things, I mean, his fame preceded him. His fame went ahead of him.

News about him spread. The word �fame� is where we get our word �fame.�

The truth about Jesus, what happened, the grapevine was going crazy.

Jesus is in the region. Jesus is in town. The Spirit is pushing

Jesus, guiding Jesus with Jesus, and it�s the

Spirit of God that guides him. It says in chapter 4, verse 15 of Luke, �And he began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.�

His fame preceded him. He shows up in the synagogue. They ask him to be one of the readers.

It says in Luke 4, �He went down from Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and he was teaching them on the

Sabbath.� It says later in that chapter, �I must preach the good news of the kingdom ,� and he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

Luke 4, there�s an emphasis, and the emphasis is on teaching. Jesus, the teacher.

Oh, there are miracles, but the miracles are to draw attention to the preaching and the teaching of Jesus, and the response is a response that�s usually reserved in the

New Testament, this Greek word, for praise for God. God is to be praised, and here

Jesus himself is praised by all. Of course, for us, we look at it and we go, �Jesus is

God.� We get it. Temple exists, but you�ve got a lot of these little synagogues that probably popped up during the

Babylonian captivity. Jesus is there, and he begins to teach. He�s praised by all.

I think the writer, Luke, wants you to say, �Oh, I wish I was there. I wish

I could kind of listen in.� What�s Jesus going to say? How�s he going to talk to these people?

Here�s the problem. When Jesus teaches on a Sabbath in a synagogue, the formula in the

New Testament is usually, �Jesus, Sabbath, synagogue, trouble.�

That�s the formula. Almost every time, maybe there�s one exception. In Luke, six passages,

Jesus is at the Sabbath, and there�s a lot of trouble. What�s the controversy? What�s the problem?

What�s going on? Luke 4 .16, �And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as was the custom, he entered the synagogue on a

Sabbath and stood up to read.� Now, what they would do back in those days would be standing while the

Word of God was read. Sometimes commentators will say, �Well, when

Esther was read during the Feast of Purim, you didn�t have to stand, maybe because the word �God� isn�t in that text.�

They�d read Torah, and then sometimes they�d read a prophet after that. You have some reading, somebody in the audience in the congregation gets to instruct, right?

That�s what they would do. �And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him, and he opened the book and found the place where it was written.�

He enrolled the scrolls, and he was going to open up more than a scroll in a minute.

He was going to open up the sluice gates of his Messianic ministry. He opens, spreads out, as Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, he went up to the house of the

Lord and spread it out before the Lord, spread a feast out on the table. That�s what Jesus is going to do, give them a feast that they�re not going to soon forget.

Whether Jesus knew they were going to open up to Isaiah, providentially put this all together,

I think that�s what�s happening. The divine orchestration, Jesus is going to read a message in Isaiah about the

Messiah, which is about Himself. It�s a fixed schedule, ours just happens to be that one.

I think it�s going to be the fixed schedule in the province of God, it happens to be today, Jesus is there,

Isaiah chapter 61. He is the

Messiah. He is the one who�s the prophet and king and deliverer.

Now Jesus says, �The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the

Lord.� He knows He�s Spirit anointed and He gives the message.

And this is the message about the Messiah and Jesus says, �The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.�

Now when I read that, �The Spirit of the Lord is upon me ,� I�m telling you, and you can see from context, it�s about the

Messiah. Jesus is meaning something different. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.

This is me. I�m going to tell you what the Bible says about me. That is amazing.

He does change the verb tense and basically what

Jesus says is, �The Messiah in your midst is me.� The Messianic era starts today.

I am that servant. I am the one who�s proclaiming the favorable year of the

Lord. What does God do spiritually through the Messiah? What does He do physically through the

Messiah? I�m the one. I have good news for the poor, liberty for the captives, sight to the blind, liberty to those who are oppressed, proclaiming the year of the

Lord, the favorable year. Jesus said, �That�s me.�

He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, sat down, and the eyes of all synagogue were fixed upon Him. If you don�t know the tradition, you kind of get lost here for a second.

He now sits down and now is when the exposition begins. In the synagogue, there would be the reading, the teacher would sit down, and now there�ll be the teaching.

So of course all the eyes of the people in the synagogue were fixed upon Him. Can you feel the drama?

Can you sense the anticipation? What will Jesus say? How would

He say it? I mean, this is dramatic. He rolls up the scroll, gives it to the attendant, and sits down because the

Jewish rabbis would sit to teach. You�d have a reading in the synagogue, and then you�d have a teaching.

It�s kind of like what we do. We have a scripture reading earlier in the service, and then we have the exposition.

What�s the expositional message based on Isaiah 61 going to sound like? They�re staring at Him, spellbound, mesmerized.

And He began to say to them. What? He began?

You mean to tell me we get one sentence of the exposition? That�s all we get.

We get the first sentence. He began to say to them, �Today the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.�

He began to say. There�s more than one sentence to His message. We just don�t get it.

We either get a summary of it or we get the first sentence of it. He began to say.

There�s something more to be said. More. What�s the substance?

What�s the sum and substance of the more? It�s amazing, isn�t it?

And they were all speaking well of Him and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips, and they were saying, �Is this not

Joseph�s son ?� Earlier I said Jesus was an expository preacher. I think the emphasis of expository preaching should be that teacher tries to expose the author�s intention.

Expository preaching should be authorial intent -driven. Small context, larger context, context to the

Testament and context to the Bible. That�s what we�re after. But I think here when you look at Jesus, most likely it�s the next section of Isaiah.

There�s some reading, there�s some talk about it. And now Jesus does that very thing. He reads the first two verses,

He sets down and now He gives verse -by -verse exposition of Isaiah. That�s what

I think is happening. And I don�t have to put my whole weight of verse -by -verse sequential teaching on this, but that�s the most rational way to look at this.

Jesus is the preacher. He�s the Prince of Preacher. He exposes the

Jews to the proper meaning of the biblical text. Why? So they would believe Him. I think

He used expository preaching, what we would call expository preaching. F .B.

Meyer, �We cannot found an argument upon the single act, but it is at least significant that the Lord gave a sanction to the systematic reading and consideration of the inspired word in His earliest sermon.�

Expository preaching. He�s logically exposing the biblical text to the mind and will of the congregation.

He�s opening it up. He�s uncovering it. He�s laying bare the rich truths of the Word of God. This Old Testament Messiah suffering servant in Isaiah, the servant,

He�s me. I am the one. And with accuracy and biblical fidelity,

Jesus unfolds this very text. Why does

He do it that way? Well, because that�s how you teach the Bible. That�s how you teach really any book, unless you wanted to torque it.

Now here�s the context again of our message about drifting. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Remember, there�s an end.

Apostasy has an end, so stay away from that. So keep believing. And then, who�s the one that told you this message?

It was Jesus that came and announced, �I�m setting captives free. I�m preaching the gospel.

I have told you that the response to the gospel is repentance. I have good news, forgiveness of sins.�

That was His message that He proclaimed there at the very beginning of His public ministry, Luke 4.

Remember, Jesus said these things. I could say maybe if I wanted to with a little more

Hebrews 2, verse 4. Don�t forget, it�s the Word of God. Read the

Word of God. If you struggle with unbelief, you struggle with doubts, get your mind back in the Bible. Nobody that I know of that�s struggling with doubts can be ultimately helped in any other way until they get their nose back in the book that reveals who

Jesus is. That�s what you need. And when you have smooth -talking men like Andy Stanley who try to�I don�t know his motives, but in my opinion, he just doesn�t want to look dumb in the world of academics and intelligentsia.

And so if I say something about the Bible, that means you�re going to go straight to can�t wear polyester and what about Noah?

Versus, well, we�re just going to get him back to Jesus. And then he jumps through all these hoops denigrating the

Word of God. I mean, he�s like on the inside camp and we�ve got Bart Ehrman on the outside camp. But we have a plumb line.

We have a standard. Jesus is the one who said it. And I want to take the rest of our time today to have a little detour and to remind you that Jesus�s view of Scripture, even back to the

Old Testament, when the Lord spoke, what didn�t he speak? He didn�t say, �By the way, all this stuff is wrong.�

He�s going to say something else. He�s going to confirm and affirm. And he�s going to say, �And you�ve heard it said, but I say to you, also driving it home to the internal.�

Well, my name is Mike Avendroth. This is No Compromise Radio. And we are armpitted out today.

We have our little monster drink. It�s not a true monster drink. I get those little powders thing, the powder deals, and you put them in your drink.

I just closed my iPad case and it made me think of the reviewer we had on iTunes. And they said, �There�s too much other noise.

They need better production.� So I�d love to have that producer, that person, help us with production.

We�ve moved over from No Compromise Radio to under the umbrella of NoCoMedia. So you can give us a help.

You can give us a shout out. Mike at NoCompromiseRadio .com if you�d like to email us. We�re going to have some guests soon.

Don Green, Dr. Fesco, J .V. Fesco. Those are coming up soon. Thank you for listening.

I really appreciate it. I�ll see you next time.