Weep and Mourn

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.

The Danger of a Shallow Gospel Message

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name is your host. My name is Mike Abendroth. I just was thinking about the first time I ever was on radio. It was back in Nebraska. I grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and I loved to listen to K-O-I-L.

I think it was 1230 a .m. or something like that. And I loved to listen to the station. They played Nebraska football games. Lyle Bremser, the great announcer, who was a better announcer to me than Johnny Most or Chick Hearn for that matter.

Anyway, I'd listen to the games and you hold up the transistor radio to your ear. I can still remember what that transistor radio looked like. And I called in, be the fourth caller, and then you got to go in behind the scenes and be on radio for the day or they ask you about some community thing.

And so that was it. I didn't know in 1968 that it might lead to my career as a radio show host. The great news about No Compromise Radio ministry is we are self-funding, so we don't have to ask for money.

I hate the beg-a-thons and the begging strips that are so often seen and heard rather, some shows. So we are completely self-funded here through the ministry of Bethlehem Bible Church. And we, I don't get paid for it.

I might get a free hat once in a while or a free shirt or something like that, but that's about all I get for free. And it is a privilege to do it. And if the Lord lets us continue, we'll do that. We are scheduled and committed through WVNE 760.

Through, I think through August of this year, and then we'll see what happens after that. And so we're glad that we're on the radio. We're glad that we're in your earbuds, et cetera. Today, I want to discuss a topic that I think you'll like to listen to.

The time goes by fast, 24 minutes, 30 seconds goes by quickly. I'd like to talk to you about what the Bible teaches regarding calling people to salvation, specifically a passage that tells people if they're unbelievers, to weep and to mourn.

So often we are prone to tell people as we've been taught by Campus Crusade, Bill Bright, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Now, I'm not against the love of God. I'm thankful for the love of God.

And Jesus tells us about God's love in the passage with Nicodemus, for God so loved the world, that's the motivating factor. How does God love the world? He loves the world in this way, by sending Jesus Christ, by giving his son.

So I'm not saying it's wrong to talk about the love of God to unbelievers, but you need to talk about how God loves, and that is by giving his son. If you immediately jump to God loves you, unbeliever, well, if I'm an unbeliever and God, somebody tells me God loves me, then I think, you know what, with my drug habits, with my drunkenness, with my sexual perversions and promiscuities, God is loving me now, great.

Why change anything if he already loves me? See, what that slogan does, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life, what that does, it confuses the complex love of God, the difficult doctrine of the love of God, a little booklet by D .A. Carson you ought to read.

And so just generally, if you want to think about the love of God, you can think about the love of God in the Trinity, that would be one way to think about the love of God. Towards the creature, though, is the next one, that God loves his creatures.

This is called common grace, as God gives pleasure and rain and food and other things to unbelievers, they are his creature. And so there's a love of God for the creature, but there's a special love of God for his bride, for his elect, for his saints.

And so if you just go up to someone and says, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life, I don't think you're thinking that as the creative, that as the love of the creature, yeah, easy for me to say, the love of God, the creator for the creature, you're confusing the people.

There are many other things that you should say instead. And James chapter four gives us something that's kind of gritty, kind of grisly. It reminds me of that story that Paul Harvey, the radio personality told about Eskimos killing wolves.

How does an Eskimo kill a wolf? Well, if you've got a little kid, maybe you want to turn this down now. I think kids should be able to listen to it, but that's my disclaimer. There you go. First, the Eskimo coats the knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze.

Then he adds another layer of blood and another until the blade is completely concealed by frozen blood. Next, the hunter fixes his knife in the ground with the blade up. When a wolf follows his sensitive nose, the account reads, to the source of the scent and discovers the bait, he licks it, tasting the fresh frozen blood.

He begins to lick faster, more and more vigorously, lapping the blade until the keen edge is bare. Feverishly now, harder and harder, the wolf licks the blade in the Arctic night. So great becomes his craving for blood that the wolf does not notice the razor sharp sting of the naked blade on his own tongue.

Nor does he recognize the instant at which his insatiable thirst is being satisfied by his own warm blood. His carnivorous appetite just craves more until the dawn finds him dead in the snow. It is the grace of God alone.

It is God's grace alone that keeps people from the wolf's fate. That's what Chris Zwinglenberg said. Only God's grace keeps anyone from the wolf's fate. And how does God keep us from that fate? Well, James chapter four has been talking about willingness and carnality and things like that.

And then in the middle of this book, the book of James, this book that talks about saving faith, James gives a call to salvation. And it's unlike any call to salvation you have ever seen. And he says in chapter four, verse five, do you think that the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwell in us lust to envy?

Well, thankfully, that's not the end of the story because we would be like wolves there. But in verse six, James says in chapter four, but he gives a greater grace. Therefore it says God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble.

God gives grace to the humble, this demerited, unmerited love in action, something that man can't deserve or buy or God is not obligated to give. Jerry Bridges said grace is God's favor through Christ to people who deserve his wrath.

That's a good definition. And then he says, regarding this greater grace, there should be a response. That's the Christian life, by the way, this is the way God operates. Here is a statement of God, who he is, what he's done, an indicative fact, statement of faith, a statement of a fact rather, and it is a statement of good news.

And then in light of that, you must respond. So there's God's side and then there's man's side. Here's what God has done, here's how we are to respond in light of what God has said or what he has done.

And here is a call to salvation. Here is a kind of an altar call, if you will, right in the middle of James. And so my question is this today on No Compromise Radio. Do you evangelize like this? Are you close to this in any way, shape or form?

Or do you fall into the God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life trap that's an error, actually? It's heretical, it's not proper. You fall into, you know, why don't you come to Christ and God will fix your marriage and give you a wonderful marriage?

Well, you know what, maybe he will. Maybe you're fighting like cats and dogs as a married couple and when God saves you, you both have the spirit of God dwelling in you and you can love one another for real for the first time.

That could be true. But he might just save you and might create a sword of division in your marriage and your spouse because of your Christian faith might leave you. So we never tell people, you know, come to Christ, this is what you get in that regard in terms of, you know, you're gonna get some kind of felt need that's going to be better.

If you tell them you're going to get by the pleasure and work of God, forgiveness, reconciliation, redemption, justification, those things I don't mind you telling them. But here in James chapter four, this section addressed to unbelievers is very, very tough and it contains 10 commands, kind of point in time commands.

They're not ongoing and these are for people who need to be saved, who are enemies of God. Believers are never called enemies of God. And here we have a book that's given to people to know about saving faith and doesn't it seem logical that there would be a call to saving faith in the middle of a book regarding saving faith.

And there are other examples of instances where people are called to salvation when the substitutionary atonement and resurrection of Christ aren't mentioned, enter by the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction.

Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. It's that kind of thing, but it is tough. If you're listening to No Compromise Radio Ministry today, you probably want me to be tougher than I am.

But this is as tough as it gets right here. James chapter four, how do you evangelize? And how does James evangelize? Yes, I know there are different ways and approaches, John, Peter, Jesus, John the Baptist.

I get that, but listen to James in a world full of worldly lusts and pleasures. This is what James says. Remember, he just got done talking about your adulteresses because friendship with the world is hostility toward God.

Whoever makes himself a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. It's tough language. When you worship anything more than you worship God, when you worship anything but God, there's going to be a tough, there's going to be a tough rebuke waiting for you.

And so here, Hughes calls these 10 jackhammer bursts. So are you ready? We're No Compromise Radio Ministry. I don't know, why do people say that? We are No Compromise Radio. My name is Mike Abendroth and I am here on No Compromise Radio.

That sounds better. One, first jackhammer burst to challenge you to see if you're really Christian. Submit to God. This is what you should do. Therefore, submit to God. Well, God opposes the proud. We've just learned that.

He helps the humble. So shouldn't you submit to him in all humility? Submit means to line up under. You've got a general and if you're a soldier, you line up under that commander who has authority over you.

In our world of assert yourself, know your rights, this is like a finger across the chalkboard. But this is exactly what God says. God is Lord and Master and Supreme and you're to line up underneath. Align yourself under that person's authority.

This is a picture of submission here in Matthew 10. He who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, that's all the idea of submission.

Number two, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Take your stand against the devil. And this is the opposite side of submission to God. Submission to God includes opposition to those who oppose God and who don't submit to God.

Stand against, again, a military metaphor describing those who stand firmly against something or someone. Stand against the slander, Diabolo, Satan or Chaiti and he will flee from you. Number three, draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

This is language of Levitical priests. This is language of priests offering sacrifices and he comes to God. Those by those who come near me, I will be treated as holy. But then over time, it began to be associated with those who would just approach God through which we draw near to God, Hebrews chapter seven.

And this is not an ongoing command. Keep on drawing near to God and he'll keep on drawing near to you. I think that could be true in regards to sanctification. But here, for the first time, for the initial time, for the first saving time in your life, draw near to God.

Come to God. Then it starts getting a little spicier. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Cleanse your hands. You need a pure heart and pure hands. You need to be pure to come to God. And so God says, cleanse yourself.

This is right from the language in Psalm 24. He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood and is not sworn deceitfully. Those are those, those are them rather, who may ascend into the hill of the Lord.

This is a salvation sense. This is just like in Acts chapter 15. He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. Hebrews chapter nine, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

That's what Christ did for us through the eternal spirit. How about this? Matthew 23, you blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup. So this kind of cleansing language, of course, symbolizes an internal cleaning.

And he is talking to unbelievers. Again, I've said on other shows, sinners is used almost all the time in the New Testament for a statement of someone who is characterized by sin. As Christians are characterized by being saints, unbelievers are characterized by sin in their life.

They're dominated by sin, enslaved by sin. That's what they do. They sin. Sinners will be crushed together. Isaiah chapter one, Isaiah 13, he will exterminate its sinners from it. Jesus did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.

Now he says, number five, purify your hearts, you double-minded. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Cleansing your hands, maybe that symbolizes external behavior. And now we're after your heart, your motives, your thoughts, your desires, who you are on the inside.

You need to be purified. This is reminiscent of Ezekiel 36. I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. People are double-minded, double-souled, and they need to be against God.

No, they need to be for him so that he's not against them. Now, here we come. No Compromise Radio Ministry. We're 16 minutes in to the 24 and a half minute show. And here comes the language that we're not used to.

Maybe I should have started with this, but I'm kind of positive, encouraging, Caleb kind of working my way up to it. But now we're here for the jackhammer. Do you evangelize like this? When was the last time you told an unbeliever the next few commands that James tells his listeners?

And these people had suffered. These people have been dispersed. They've been persecuted. And some of them weren't saved. And James now is going in the middle. It's like in the middle of a sermon, stopping, saying, I know there are some people here today who aren't Christians.

Let me call you to faith. They know about Jesus's life and death and resurrection. They know about how Jesus is the Lamb, the Substitution and Atonement. They've been informed of all those things. And so now James, with no further ado, calls people to salvation.

It's like saying, repent. It's like saying, believe, trust, follow, forsake. But he does it in a way that is amazing. He does it in a way that we don't usually talk about much these days. He does it in a way that don't really sell that many books.

If I write a Christian book on the next few statements, I don't think it's gonna sell like crazy love or God's crazy about you, you're extra special. It's all about you. I don't think it's going to sell.

So why don't we talk about these verses? Sixthly, here we have command number six from James chapter four, calling people to salvation. Be miserable. How about that found in verse nine? Be miserable, be afflicted, feel wretched, have an internal sense of deep shame, knowing that you're sinful and that this sin is against a thrice holy king.

How holy God is, how defiled you are, and then how broken you feel. That is pretty strong language, be miserable. Ever tell that to someone? You have to be miserable over your sins. Your sins are so shameful, you ought to be devastated.

You ought to be devastated. You ought to be afflicted, miserable. You have to be just broken over your shameful sin. Your sin is shameful. Now that is not God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life, is it?

Be miserable. I dare you to say to someone, a believer this week in the context of a gospel presentation, what you've done with your life should make you miserable. That's the true thing. You want to try to dope yourself up or drink yourself up or try to ignore all these things.

Your life should make you feel miserable. That's the right feeling, that the conscience that God has given you should feel when you have created idols out of your own imagination. Number seven, mourn.

When's the last time you told an unbeliever to mourn, to have sorrow over sin, funeral-like grief? There's lots of words for mourn in the New Testament, but the one that's showing the most grief, the most pathos, the most emotion is this word.

And it's the kind of grief that when you go bury your grandma, you go bury your mom, and you can't stop crying, your shoulders start going up and down and you just can't hold it in. You can't hide it.

This is remorse. You ought to be so struck because of your sin and how it has defamed God and stolen his great fame that you should be broken. Blessed are those, Jesus said in Matthew 5, who what? Mourn, mourning over sin.

Like the miners of Kingswood that Wesley preached to, when they heard the message of Christ Jesus, they realized who they sinned against, they began to cry. And Wesley said, the tears made runnels as they ran down the grime of their faces.

You know, this is a far cry from Sheryl Crow. All I want to do is have some fun. It's a far cry from eat, drink, and be merry. It's a far cry from live it up. You ought to mourn. If you're an unbeliever today listening to today, you ought to mourn.

What's the next one? Weep, number eight, weep. This means to wail. This means loudly wail, responding with tears. And I have to say, this outward manifestation of your sin, sorrow for sin as MacArthur describes it, will protect you from weeping and wailing forever, gnashing your teeth in hell.

It's either weep and wail now or weep and wail later. There has to be true godly sorrow for your sins. Number nine, let your laughter be turned into mourning. Let your laughter be turned into mourning.

You know that life you're living as an unbeliever, just day by day, full of fun, full of leisure, full of laughter, kind of ignoring God, defaming God, having a flippant attitude about God, denying God in your life, those days are over.

You think you've fooled God. You think you've pulled the wool over God's eyes. You think you're just going to have some fun in your sin. You have another thing coming. That's futility. This is the laughter of a fool that you're doing.

That's Ecclesiastes seven. Luke six, woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. You need to wipe that smirk off your face. That's the kind of idea here with this language.

Yes, it's tough, but it's tough love, as some people would say, because this makes you realize who you are, and then you realize who you're gonna stand in front of one day when you die, and you're going to be undone unless you call out for the mercies of Almighty God, and say, God, be merciful, a sinner.

And then James gives a summary. Number 10, far from God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and he will exalt you.

It kind of sums everything up, doesn't it? Just get down low. Get down as low as you can. You realize that you're in the presence of a king, that you're in presence of the king of kings, and you just get down low as you can.

And be humble like a little child, just low in the presence of God. John Flavel said, they that know God will be humble, and they that know themselves cannot be proud. And you know what the promise is?

Here's the great news, and he will exalt you. He will exalt you. This is the way to exaltation. Not self-help, not self-promotion, but self-humiliation before God. Self-exaltation leads to self-annihilation.

It's basically what it leads to, eternal ruin. Here's an old proverb, a tree strikes its root downward in order to go upward. That's the thing. When God sees this, God has been working in your life, and you cry out with this great contrition, humble mourning, turning your laughter into mourning, God exalts people.

And the text says, whoever exalts himself, Matthew 23, shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted. Have you been obedient to these commands? Have you been obedient to these commands that call people in light of the risen Savior who died on Calvary as a substitutionary atonement for all those who would believe to repent, to believe, to weep, to wail, to mourn?

Have you done that? You don't wanna be like the wolf. You don't wanna be like the wolf who just, it's self-gorging, it just feeds on self till death. My name's Mike Ebenroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry.

We've looked at James chapter four today, six through 10, 10 commands for those who are not Christians. And not one of them says God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life because you need to know it's time to believe the gospel or else it's time to repent or else it's time to trust in the risen Savior or else it's time to believe today.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebenroth 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 six. 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 in staff or management.