John Knox

Thanksgiving for Awana Kids and Pastoral Encouragement

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry, Mike Gabendroth here. What is new with you? I'm just looking at my email as I talk to you. Oh, today on the show, we're going to start off with a little levity, right?

You just laugh at your own jokes, right, Mike?

Yeah, right.

I received on my desk this morning, in my study at Church Building, some, I still like that song, I received some thank you cards from the children at Awana because today is October 31st in real time and it's the last day for pastoral appreciation.

So I was expecting gifts, I'm just kidding, I was going to say something dumb. So I want to read some of these cards that I received from the Awana kids and Awana, if you don't know, is the youth program we have here on Wednesday night.

We just bulk it up a little bit to make it a little more biblical, a little more Reformed, a little more to our liking. Pastor Mike, we appreciate you, thank you. That's the first one. Pastor Mike, and they drew a, it looked like between a kitty and a deer with ears, a tail, and no legs.

So it must be laying down. And it says, thank you for teaching us about God, I appreciate you. And then it's got a cross, that was a nice one. Pastor Mike, so far nobody's misspelled pastor because a lot of kids spell it P-A-S-T-E-R.

Pastor Mike, I go to another church, but I love doing Awana at BBC. That's nice. That's how we serve people. Awana is a gateway drug to come to the church. Actually it is true. Oh, we've got some new students coming to the worship services on Sunday from Worcester Polytech Institute, WPI.

I went there and did a law gospel primer, not primer, but a primer there. And I guess different pastors come and then we had some people that wanted to come for.

That.

So that was good. Speaking of primers, not primers, I just finished last weekend my first pass through a law gospel primer. And so hopefully it's going to be out in the next six weeks or so. But I worked on that while Kim was in Dallas with two of my daughters.

And I had, I think one day I worked on it 16 hours, another day 15 hours, maybe only five hours on Sunday. And it's going to be short. Hopefully people can benefit from it. Some people are new to law gospel.

And I probably was motivated to do it because there are several people that watched the law gospel series on American Gospel Television, and they want to know if there are study notes. A couple of folks who have watched it asked my permission if they could put a study guide together and they did.

It worked out great.

And I thought, well, I need to have something that can supplement that law gospel series. So it's called Law Gospel, A Primer. And it should be, oh, 80, 90 pages, something like that, smaller, Active Obedience of Christ size that my brother put out.

And so stay tuned. I just need to get a couple of things done. I think I know what the artwork's going to look like on the front, and that should be.

Coming up soon.

Back to the letters. Thank you for Awana, Pastor Mike. I love doing it. The last two have said love in capital letters. This one didn't have the big card stock, so it just looks like a little post-it.

I appreciate you, Pastor, then they corrected it, Pastor Mike. I open it up. I'm thankful for how hard you work with a U, and hope your, you are, Luke-mia heals. Like my son Luke, L-U-K-E, and then Mia, you're Luke-mia, you're Luke-mia.

But that's phonetically pretty good. I have bone biopsy coming up soon, CAT scan, PET scan, echo, blood work. I just hope the aortic aneurysm isn't large enough where they have to do the nasty procedure.

We'll see.

Pastor Mike, we appreciate you. This person seems to be a little bit older, and they've got some nice leaves there. It looks like it's really nice printing. They put Pastor dot Mike, but I think it's Pastor comma Mike, so Pastor Mike.

I guess it's, you know, equivalent. It's I'm trying to think about the grammatical term now for, oh, these two words are in apposition,.

Right?

That's what we say.

Remember that. They did it again on the second page, dear Pastor comma Mike comma, thank you for helping me understand the Bible more. I appreciate you a lot. That's a sweet one. This next one, don't bother me, don't bother with me, that's just my stomach.

It says, hello, hello, you are a great pastor, G-R-A-E-T. Now that's better than grating on people's nerves, and I'm sure I do that, but you are a great pastor. Thank you for preaching each Sunday.

Your sermons are great. Love. And then she gives her name.

Okay.

This one is crazy.

This has got to be a boy.

Thank you, Pastor Mike, for the passages, what that means. Thank you, T-H-A-K-Y-O-U. Maybe they're public school or maybe they're just behind in school, I don't know. Thank you, Pastor Mike, for these passages, what that means.

You're welcome.

All right, just a couple more. Thank you for teaching the whole church about the Bible. Everyone appreciates you. Hope you get better, Pastor Mike. From two ladies, two young girls, and then there is a popsicle stick, looks like it's unused, taped, excuse me, glued to this purple cardstock that I have here.

And on it, it's like what a boy would write, but one of these two girls wrote it. This stick is worthless. And then lastly, but not leastly, the leaster one, love from so-and-so, and it's got a really, really cool picture of Moses with a staff, a burning bush, it's not burning, but it looks like it's burning, with cool orange, red, and then like a little lamb to the side.

Really cool. Anyway, I just wanted to say today on No Compromise Radio, I appreciate those young folks in Awana and probably the leaders put them up to it, and so I appreciate those leaders as well, teaching the children about the Lord Jesus.

Very, very important. And how many times have you heard the testimony, someone grows up in the local church, they go sow their wild oats, and the Bible verses that they were taught as children resonate in their minds, the Spirit of God brings those up, uses those along with other things, other passages, prayers, and then people get saved.

So we want to make sure as adults that we pour into the children, as parents, of course, we do that, and certainly the Bible's true when it says it does not come back void, right? It does its work. And for those believers, it powerfully works in those who believes, Paul said to the church at Thessaloniki, Thessalonica.

I've been to Thessaloniki, and I took Gracie there when she was 12, and there's not much. You can see the little square downtown where Jason, I think, was. We stayed at a really cool, modern, hip hotel with the group we were with, and the swimming pool was not symmetrical.

It was longer on one side than the other. It wasn't like a true rectangle or even a square. It was more rhombus-like. I've never swam in a rhombus pool before.

Have you?

Thanking and Encouraging Your Pastor

So the rest of the show today, besides, have you encouraged someone lately? Have you thanked someone lately? I can say this because I've already received my thanks here at the church. I hope you, dear listeners, those of you that do not have Mike Abendroth as a pastor, not asking for myself, but I hope you're thankful for your pastor.

I hope you encourage him. I hope you know that he's a sinner saved by grace as well. He's not perfect, but as long as he is—why am I breathing like this? But as long as he is pointing—that sounds weird—as long as he's pointing you to the Lord Jesus, then that's the main thing.

And so I hope you write him a letter. I hope you send him a pound of coffee. I hope you have your children write little letters with little sticks at the bottom that the stick is worthless. Whatever you might do, if you don't have any money, certainly just say, I'm praying for you.

And it reminds me of—and I'm not a big homeboy for Jonathan Edwards, of course. Many reasons for that. If you want to be depressed or weirded out, just read Religious Affections. I'm sure I'm going to get in trouble for that.

I'm sure it is. Charlton Heston. I watched the end of that show the other day, The Planet of the Apes, and I heard that they didn't really have a good ending to start, and then they hired Rod Serling, famous in The Twilight Zone as a narrator and originator of the show, and they hired him to do that final scene.

Nonetheless, what did Edwards say? Edwards said that when God takes your pastor away, a Bible-teaching pastor—I haven't eaten anything today—it's God's judgment. And, of course, if you're not a Bible-teaching pastor and you die, that's judgment on you, because you should be in the pulpit teaching God's Word and not undermining it.

See Charles Stanley's son, Andy. But if you have a Bible-teaching pastor and you run him out of town because he's not perfect or because he's made some mistakes or something like that, then, you know, shame on the church.

It's like every three years the church gets a new pastor, shame on the church, and pastors leave every three years, shame on the pastor. All that to say, please thank your pastors. And if you need to say, Mike Ebendroth told me to do this, I command you with all the authority that I have over you to do that, which, of course, is none, no authority.

Great Thoughts from John Knox on Calling, Sin, and Grace

I have a little booklet here that I'd like to read from, and this is going to be fun, because sometimes, remember, I just read from books that I've never read before, and then we try to make it interesting.

This little booklet I picked up for $3 .50. It's published by Old Paths Gospel Press, Chateau, Montana. Haven't really picked up many things from them, but this is probably 25 years old, never really cracked it open.

Great Thoughts from Knox, K-N-O-X. And I was thinking about this because my grandson, Eliezer, has two middle names, one middle name is my son's name, Luke. To carry on the tradition of the father's first name becomes the first born son's middle name.

But then my son threw in a little zinger, and so it's Eliezer Knox, Luke Ebendroth. And that's K-N-O-X from the Scottish reformer in the 1500s, John Knox. And so Hilda Noel Schroeder selected certain things from Knox to put in this book, and I'm going to read it, and we're going to talk about it a little bit, see if we can make this fun, interesting, edifying radio.

Now, there's a little introduction, and you probably know that John Knox is Scottish, was Scottish. And, of course, you can go there and see certain things, and you can see where he preached, you can see a statue of him in front of that church.

I think it's whatever, like, parking space 13 was where he was buried or something like that. Across the little street there, you can see, I think, a study up on the second floor. It's been since 2000 since I've been there, so I might have my facts wrong, but he was born in 1515, and he became a priest.

Then what happened was, as you know, he started around 1545 doing Protestant stuff. Mary Tudor comes to the throne in 1553, and they escape to Europe. In Geneva, it says in this book, Knox met and was influenced by Calvin until 1559.

Knox spent most of his time in Europe serving English congregations in Frankfurt, and Geneva working on his books. Mary Tudor dies, and in 1561, Mary, Queen of Scots, reemerges, or she takes the throne, etc.

So, he wrote History of Reformation in Scotland. He dies in 1572, and oh, here it is. He remains lie in St. Guile's churchyard there, covered over today by the stones of the courtyard of the Parliament.

So, I guess the parking lot's maybe somebody else. I can't remember. So, here we have some things that he would say. And so, I don't really have anything guiding me except randomness. And so, here are some great thoughts from Knox.

It would be easy if I could talk.

Knox on Calling, Prayer, and Human Corruption

For being drowned in ignorance, thou hast given to me knowledge about the common sort of my brethren. My tongue hast thou used to set forth thy glory, to opune idolatry, errors, and false doctrine. Thou hast compelled me to forespeak as well deliverance to the afflicted, as destruction to certain disobedient, the performance whereof not I alone, but the very blind world has already seen.

I guess that is his calling, or part of it. Here's another one. Be merciful unto me, O Lord, and call not into judgment my manifold sins. It already is better. And chiefly those whereof the world is not able to accuse me.

Isn't that interesting? Help me with my sins, my private sins. I'm not doing anything that's disqualifying in front of the world, but I know, Lord, before you who I am. In youth, middle age, and now after many battles, I find nothing in me but vanity and corruption.

For in quietness I am negligent, in trouble impatient, tending to desperation. And in the mean state I am so carried away with vain fantasies that alas, O Lord, they withdraw me from the presence of thy majesty.

There's a lot to be said for a prayer like that. I wonder how honest you are when you pray. I wonder how honest I have been when I pray. In quietness, negligent. Sound familiar? In trouble, impatient.

Sound familiar? Tending to desperation. Knox goes on to say, pride and ambition assault me on one part. Covetousness and malice trouble me on the other. Briefly, O Lord, the affections of my flesh do almost suppress the operation of thy spirit.

I take thee, O Lord, who only knowest the secrets of hearts, to record that in none of the aforesaid I do delight, but that with them I'm troubled, and that sorely against the desire of my inward man, which sobs for my corruption and would repose in thy mercy alone.

John Knox, a prayer, 1568. What a mature prayer. What a good prayer. A proper prayer. Troubled by sin. Now, remember, No Compromise Radio Ministry is really antinomian, right? That's what we do here. We do antinomian stuff.

You belong in the circus, Bob.

Well, antinomian belongs in the circus, but we're not antinomian. We stress holiness, obedience. We want to walk in gratitude, no covetousness, no sinful thoughts. When I get in the car, I rehearse the Ten Commandments, thinking about God's law.

You know what? I didn't do it today. I don't know why, but almost every day in the car, I still have time to go get trick-or-treat candy for the rascals in the neighborhood, and I'll put my hands on the wheel and then begin to think about many things, including the Ten Commandments.

But here you see, he's sobbing about the corruption and his inner man's desire and conflict there, and of course, very much Romans 7, and how he can just only rest in God alone. What a wonderful prayer.

Knox on God's Fatherly Care, Predestination, and Grace Alone

Here's a letter to Elizabeth Bowes, his mother-in-law, 1554. But no more than God is displeased when sometimes the body be sick and subject to diseases. No more is he offended. Albeit the soul in that case be diseased and sick.

And as the natural father will not kill the body of the child, albeit though sickness it faint and abhor comfortable meats. No more and much less will our heavenly father kill our souls, albeit through spiritual infirmity and weakness of our faith.

Sometimes we refuse the lively food of his comfortable promises. This is turning out to be better than I thought. As you know, I have some physical trials that I'm going through, and how would a father deal with a son who's got some problems?

And how would the heavenly father deal with adopted sons and, of course, daughters? And here, the heavenly father giving comfortable promises, even though we might not receive them like we should and as we ought.

As antinomians. Mike Abendroth, great thoughts from John Knox. Here are some extracts from an answer on predestination, 1560. Few shall be found that in mouth praise not the verity, and every man appears to delight in liberty.

But such companions do follow both the one and the other in this life that both are despised and called in doubt when they are offended, or excuse me, are offered most plainly to.

The world.

Okay, not bad.

Not as good as the other ones, but not bad. John Knox, a smaller little quote here. Therefore, let wicked men rage as they list. We will not be ashamed to confess always that grace only makes difference betwixt us and the rest of the world.

We don't care if you don't like grace alone, but that's the only difference. Of course, if I were to ask you the question, if you have a family member or a friend, spouse, and they don't believe and you do, wherein lies the difference?

Is it in you? Is it in them? They're really bad, and so they don't believe, and you're better, and you believe. You say, well, I'm not going to say I'm better, but I don't know how to explain it. And of course, at No Compromise Radio Ministry, you would know the answer, and the answer's not found in either of the people, the believer or the unbeliever.

Certainly, the believer has responded with faith, but even that's a gift, and so the difference is always found in sovereign grace. As John Gerstner used to say, sovereign grace. It's a redundancy to say sovereign grace because grace is sovereign, but it is a blessed.

Redundancy. Sovereign grace.

Do you think he smoked cigarettes? Here's another one. God's providence, we call that sovereign empire. That's pretty cool. And supreme dominion, which God always keeps in the government of all things contained in heaven and in earth.

And these two things we so attribute to God that with the apostle, we fear not to affirm that in him we have our being, moving, and life. That is excellent. Makes me want to read John Knox all the more.

Great thoughts from John Knox with Mike Abendroth and No Compromise Radio Ministry. The flesh lacketh not reasons and persuasions to bring us from God. The devil by himself and by his messengers dares boldly say and affirm that we have nothing to do with God.

And a weak faith is often compelled to confess both the accusations and reasons to be true. It's amazing what can happen with weak faith. Here is a Thanksgiving for deliverance prayer, 1560. So far I've enjoyed his prayers maybe the most.

Oh, thou Lord, that only give us all good gifts. Give us hearts with reverence and fear to meditate on thy wondrous works lately wrought in our eyes. Let not the remembrance of the same unthankfully slip from our wavering minds.

We granted acknowledge, O Lord, that whatsoever we have received shall fall into oblivion.

With us.

And so turn our condemnation unless thou by the power of thy spirit keep and retain us in recent and perpetual memory of the same. Certainly we forget and we waver in our thoughts and we forget about scripture.

We forget about the Lord's faithfulness. We forget about how faithful he is, how he's delivered us, how we can trust him. And that's one of the many reasons why it is important for you to be there on Sunday morning to be reminded.

And of course, it's important for you to read your Bible. Don't let anyone tell you your own personal Bible reading isn't helpful and isn't good and isn't right. You have a Bible. Why wouldn't you read it?

I try to read my Bible every single morning. There are times, I don't know, 30 out of 31 days a month I get up and read it. Those other days, I have to get up at four in the morning to go to the airport or something.

And then even there, I like to put on the ESV app deal and just listen to the Bible being read if I'm super tired. Anyway, it's important to read your Bible so you don't forget the promises of God. And you talk about assurance.

One of the keys to have assurance in the objective category is remembering the promises of God. Standing on the promises of God. Here's another one. John Knox, great thoughts. We ought not to think that our God bears less love to his church this day than when he has done from the beginning.

For as our God in his own nature is immutable, so his love toward his elect remains always unchangeable. For as in Christ Jesus he has chosen his church before the beginning of all ages, so by him will he maintain and preserve the same until the end.

Smart. Important. You think about the church that God was building over the centuries. You think even the Lord Jesus talking about building the church. Then you remember he's immutable, and he's unchangeable, and he is always love.

And so by him he'll maintain and preserve the same us, the church, until the end. Be of good courage, O little and despised flock of Christ Jesus. For he that seeth your grief hath power to revenge it.

He will not suffer one tear of yours to fall, but it shall be kept and reserved in his bottle till the fullness thereof be poured down from heaven upon those that cause you to weep and.

Mourn.

That is really good. Well, today on No Compromise Radio, I'm surprised that I like this so much. Why wasn't I doing this much earlier? Great thoughts from Knox, which makes me think I've got to get back to Teddy Bazer sometime soon.

Please pray as I wrap up the Law Gospel series, The Little Primer. And don't forget to go to American Gospel Television. I think they have some free offers to watch a variety of those things there. If you're in the area in central Massachusetts, Bethlehem Bible Church, West Boylston, Massachusetts, bbcchurch .org.