Public Scripture Reading

The Work of the Holy Spirit in Preaching and the Gospels

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 ministry, Pastor Steve. It has been months, literally, literally. If you have not been listening, this, Fred, is not a rerun, or if you have been listening, this is not a rerun.

Fred, this one�s for you. I know. So, it is, in real time, what do you think, Steve, the 10th of October, 2013? It is the 11th, actually. 11th of October, 2018, and I would say the leaves are changing out here in Burbank, California.

It�s kind of rainy. The sun is shining. It�s a beautiful day. No, it�s okay. It�s overcast and rainy. Yeah, that�s okay. But I normally get back to Massachusetts in mid-August, and it�s usually hot and humid, and now it�s kind of brisk and looks pretty outside.

It�s kind of hot and humid. Red Sox are winning. Compared to the North Pole, it�s hot and humid. Now Steve, I, last year, was going to take a sabbatical, then we had some radiation and other things, and so I decided to finish off the sabbatical this year, and that means you were at the helm of Bethlehem Bible Church.

Tell our listeners a little bit about what you are preaching, so then they can go to bbcchurch .org and listen to some of the sermons. I was steering the ship.

I think we got through a few chapters of the Gospel of John, and I think, you know, the number one thing that strikes me, the work of the Holy Spirit, both in affirming the disciples and apostles in their work of compiling and writing the New Testament, but also in the Gospels.

I�m just more convinced than ever as I work through that, that when we look at the Gospels, we have the precise words of the Lord Jesus Christ, you know, not estimations of them, but the exact words of Jesus, because the Holy Spirit, Jesus said the Holy Spirit would basically bring to their memory exactly what He taught them.

So why would we have variations? And the answer is, we don�t. You know, we have the exact words of Christ, and if we have variations of, you know, the documentation, well, those are generally easily reconciled.

So I was encouraged by that. I was encouraged by the work of the Holy Spirit, what He does, how He takes up resonance and actually how the Triune God takes up resonance in us. So there were a lot of really good things.

I had a great time preaching, so.

Preaching Sequentially and Turning Narratives into Proclamation

Now, Steve, if you preach kind of one-offs as an associate, it�s probably pretty hard, because I know if I don�t preach for a while and then I get up to preach again, it�s difficult. How was, you know, what, like nine weeks in a row?

How was that? Well, 11, but who�s counting?

On 11, I thought, wow, that was a long vacation, sabbatical.

You know, it was fun, and you know, like you said, I mean, the first week or two, I�m like trying to remember where I was and what I was thinking, and you know, so it�s kind of getting back into that and then getting back into the idea of, especially with narratives, turning them into some kind of proclamation rather than just recitation of the text, right?

Recitation with commentary, so that there�s some kind of a point to the sermon.

Not the point in what we�re saying is this.

So I mean, yeah, yeah, there is that, but it is nice to kind of get into a weekend-weekend or weekend-week-out groove, you know, and anticipating what�s coming next and thinking through that.

One of the things that I love to do, Steve, on Sunday nights, I just reflect on the sermon and think, what did I say that needs to be repeated? What should I add? Could I clarify it a little bit more with my words, kind of cut and paste, getting ready for the next week?

That�s kind of fun. If you don�t do it sequentially, I�m sure it�s more difficult. Yeah.

Oh, definitely. And you know, thinking, well, the other thing I do is, you know, people, I�m sure there�s people who go home and go, I wish Steve would have said this, or I wish he would have said that.

I do that, too. You know, I wish I would have said this, or I wish I would have said that, or, oh, I could have been more clever here, or, you know, whatever, so. Well, good.

Thank you very much for filling in. We�ll try to get back to some regularly recorded shows. Steve, one of the things I want to talk about before we get into anything else with Christianity today, tell our listeners why there should be a public reading of Scripture.

I guess I just looked up the verse, so I�ll read it, and then you can talk a little bit about it. I went to about, I don�t know, 12 different churches in the last, you know, 14 weeks or something, and some of them have a public reading of Scripture.

Some of them don�t. And so, Paul writes to Timothy in a pastoral epistle, and he says in verse 13, �Until I come he�s Paul writing to Timothy, �devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture. And it goes on to say some other things, but why is that so important?

Well, I mean, in the context, he�s telling Timothy how to, giving him instruction on running the church and everything. And so, why is this so important? I think it�s important because, I mean, we need to do things according to Scripture, you know, the regulative principle.

I think it�s important because it�s important for the people to hear the Word and to highly esteem the Word. We want people to think of the Word of God as having centrality not only in the church service but in their lives, but we can�t expect them to hold it in great esteem in their lives if we don�t hold it up during the church service.

Excellent. Don�t you think, Steve, that�s probably the purest form of worship in an entire Lord�s Day service?

Yes. And I would certainly love to see people raise their hands while we�re doing it.

That�s an in-the-know thing. I always thought to myself, you know, people love to raise their hands to kind of peppy songs. �Sacred head now wounded, you know, thou wounded. We don�t really raise our hands for that.

But if that is an expression of worship, then why don�t they do that for preaching or Scripture reading? Or praying. Or lament psalms. When it comes to Scripture reading, it is the way that I would have the worship service set up if I were only God.

I�m sorry, if I were God, that�s the only thing I would have. I wouldn�t have preaching, I just have read Scripture. It�s amazing to me that God actually has frail, sinful men who have been redeemed, they get up and preach.

So you�re supposed to read the Word and preach the Word, but I would only say read the Word if I were the Lord. He knows better than you, I guess. He does, and then he gets glory even through sinful preachers and mouthpieces, so that�s fascinating.

I don�t often go to Roman Catholic Church masses, but if I do, I think to myself, �They do a lot of Scripture reading. And there are some churches that have less Scripture reading on a Sunday morning worship service than Roman Catholic churches do.

What do you think of that?

I�d say that�s pretty sad. That�s really sad.

Now, I can�t say for certain there�s an exact way to do this, because the elders are given quite a bit of leeway in terms of how the worship service is set up, right? We don�t have an order of service.

But Steve, I think to myself, if the public Scripture reading is, �I read the passage and then I preach it I think that that would be adequate a la 1 Timothy 4 .13. But I already am going to do that anyway.

I�m going to read my passage that I�m preaching through, because it�s verse-by-verse sequential anyway. Don�t you think it�s better to have a stand-alone time where the Scriptures can be read? I do.

Yeah. And I mean, we want to give a variety, too, and so I think, you know, if you only read the text that you�re preaching, I mean, there have been a few times I don�t do it as often as you where I just have one verse, right?

And so even when I�m reading the text before I preach, I�ll put it in a little bit of context, you know, so that people but, you know, just imagine if somebody got up and they said, �Well, I did give attention to the reading of the Word.

I read the verse that I�m preaching. Yeah, that�s right. So one verse is all, you know, somebody would get for the day, that one.

And you know what? If there�s a good exposition for that one verse and you never forgot it, right? It�s, you know, John 3 .16, �Oh, I see that in context. That�d be fine. I also, Steve, when I think of reading, public reading of scriptures, many times we don�t coordinate it because right now we�re in 1 Peter and just it�s chapter 1, then chapter 2, then chapter 3, week by week by week, to get people an overview and to get them as much Bible as we possibly can.

Sometimes I think if you�re in John 17, like where did you finish? John 16 .16. Okay. So you�re coming up to 17 and there�s a lot of, you know, this wonderful prayer and communion between the Father and the Son.

Well, what if you wanted to do some scripture reading that had some imperatives and maybe you read from James? Maybe you�re preaching in James or Proverbs or something, there�s a lot of moral imperatives, which are fine, of course.

But then you read John 17 saying this is who Jesus is and don�t forget even when you are not praying without ceasing, 1 Thessalonians 5, Jesus lives to make intercession for you, Hebrews 7. So you read Hebrews 7.

How do you like that? I like that. Well, it gives a little balance too, you know, I mean, otherwise you could wind up with all works and no gospel, you know, in your message. So you don�t want to do that.

That�s right. So you�re probably wondering why I did this whole scripture reading thing and this is the reason, Steve. Everything was a lead up. I noticed on the worship service behind-the-scenes schedule that our secretary does for us that you are reading this Sunday.

First Peter 3. So I�m preaching and you�re reading and we have a different elder read every Sunday and then they do a pastoral prayer afterwards. And I just wanted to make sure since I looked at the passage, First Peter chapter 3, you�ll be reading that and I wanted to make sure you got the correct nuances and there�s some textual apparati that you might need.

And so in front of me, I have the Message Bible. Okay. Good.

Small B. That�ll be helpful.

And a few verses down after the clothing issue with the ladies, it says, �Cultivate inner beauty, the gentle gracious kind that God delights in. That�s a good sense, right, for the ladies? Yeah. �The holy women of old were beautiful before God that way, and they were good, loyal wives to their husbands.

Sarah, for instance, taking care of Abraham, would address him as, �My dear husband. My dear husband, really? Not Lord. �You�ll be true daughters of Sarah if you do the same, unanxious and unintimidated.

This is the bullying message. The same goes for you husbands. �Be good husbands to your wives. Honor them, delight in them. Oh, that�s nice. �As women, they lack some of your advantages, but in the new life of God�s grace, you�re equals.

Treat your wives, then, as equals so your prayers don�t run aground.

You know, actually, that�s not the worst bit of work he�s ever done there. Your prayers don�t run aground. Right.

Yeah, that�s not bad. I think some texts say hindered, and I want to say receptus stuff is cut off.

I like run aground, though. You know, I mean, you know, if you picture a ship running aground, that�s pretty bad, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

What about this? Would this apply to No Compromise Radio at all, the Tuesday shows? 1 Peter 3 goes on in the message, Small B Bible, �Summing up, be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble.

That goes for all of you. No exceptions, no retaliation, no sharp-tongued sarcasm. Uh-oh. Uh-oh.

Hello. Hello. Well, it�s confession time.

Repentance. You know that No Compromise Radio has affected and infected the world, Steve. When you, it happened to be me, though, but I�m in Canada, and I see Phil Johnson, because he�s also a speaker, and he goes, �Hello.

Yeah, but one thing he never says,. �Where�s Tuesday guy

You know what? So far, Phil has not said that. You see. There was a story that has circulated for years about Phil, as he would do some editing for some of John�s key books, not every one, but just the key ones, and I said, �Phil, is it true that you put the word �bogus� into all of the books that you�ve edited of John MacArthur

And he just laughed, and I thought, �It must be true. And he said, �I was with Lance Quinn years ago, and Lance loves to use the word �bogus. And so he said, �You know, why don�t we put that in one of John�s books

And so I think Phil put that in A Shame to the Gospel or something, but he hasn�t done it in every one, but that was in there. So then Phil was writing the social justice update for F21 website, and I said, �Phil, if I give you some words, can you just put them in there

He said, �Sure. I said, �Cornucopia and fair-weathered. And he goes, �Those are easy.

So they�re in the article. I was happy for that. You should have given him something like �philanderer� or something.

I don�t know why those words came to my mind.

Or �ne 'er-do-well. You know, I mean, give him some hard ones. Uh-huh. That would have been perfect. Phil�s just like, �Oh, sure.

I can do that. You can write us info at nocompromiseradio .com. If you go to the website, I think we have 2 ,000 archived shows, and there�s a great search engine. Just type in, I don�t know, T .D. Jakes, and you�ll probably find something.

Is that right? 2 ,000 shows you�ve done? I think so, yeah. Some of them are reruns, but yeah. So if they go into syndication, you know, like with the Jetsons and stuff like that, I mean, how do we stack up?

I�m not quite sure, but if you�ve got 8 years of shows, this is going into the this is into the 9th year, I think, or maybe we�ve done 9, I�m not sure, times 300. That�s a lot. Uh-huh. Yeah, I know.

Broadcast Reach, Local Radio, and the Alaska Station

And speaking of which, I wish I knew the name of the station, but an Alaska station emailed and said, �Can we play No Compromise Radio on our Alaska station, our Christian station Now, typically, we get offers all the time.

Why? Because we have to pay. This particular station said, �We�ll just run them. And I said, �Are you sure you know what you�re getting into And they said, �Yeah. So anyway, whatever that station is in Alaska, we are glad to be in Alaska.

You should definitely find out. Give them a little promo. I know. I will do that. And I think we got the I think we�re on the 3 a .m. slot or something. Just getting dark about then. 3 a .m.? Yeah. So pretty much prime I�m just kidding.

I think we�re right after Rick Warren and just before Ravi Zacharias. I�m not sure. Nice! Actually, Steve, on the local station here, what�s the name of it? WVNE? Yes. They I think we went off the air several years ago, because it was like 14 grand or something to be on.

We went off, and I think we were replaced by first James McDonald. And now I think he�s off. Norm McDonald. No. Now, that was funny. And James is off, and I want to say or maybe they moved him around or something.

I think it was maybe Rick Warren type of thing. They used to, when we first got on that radio station and the folks at the station have always been really good to us, except that one price increase.

And I asked them, by the way, when we got the price increase, �Is this because you�re really just wanting us to quit? You know, I�m a big boy. Just tell me. And they said, �Oh, no, that�s not the case.

Anyway, there was a financial show for Christians on there, kind of a Dave Ramsey kind of guy.

See, I took that as a zinger, you know, like, �Oh, you guys want to complain about the money? We�re going to put a financial show on, you know? Maybe you guys need some financial counseling. That�s good.

That�s good.

Anyway, the people would hear, �No compromise for the first time, and then they would call and complain and complain and complain, and they wanted... Some compromise. They wanted the financial guys back.

Well, remember back in those early days, we had page turners or book burners, remember? Then that fool burned the Koran down in Florida, and that kind of our segment went away. It sort of incinerated it.

Oh, it went up in flames. So anyway, we�re talking about Scripture reading. We have some other things to talk about, Steve, I know, but I don�t know if we dare work our way into that. Through your stack of nonsense?

Yeah. Let me ask you this. Yeah, go ahead. When it comes to Scripture reading, you read from the ESV.

I do, because that�s our official, you know, we are ESV only. No, we�re not ESV only, but ESV, that�s our official.

Yeah, okay. So you and I, we cut our seminary teeth on the NAS. And because of a lot of the fairly foolish things the NAS Lockman folks did, in our opinion, we switched to the ESV for, you know, just it�s an easier Bible to get to.

I think Crossway does some very Christian-like things with it. But any regrets switching to the ESV? Do you have any true confessions?

True confessions? Well, no, from the standpoint of Crossway�s much easier to work with. I mean, they do give the Bible away for free, you know, online and in other formats. I mean, there have been some translations that I probably would not have made, you know, that I come across.

I mean, none readily come to mind. But I, you know, whenever that happens, I just say, �Well, you know, I probably wouldn�t have said it exactly this way you know, and I sort of clarify the meaning, you know.

But yeah, I mean, those things pop up from time to time.

I read the NAS at home for my edification, for my do we have quiet times, devotional times? Yeah, well, yeah. I try to get up every morning, and that�s the first thing I try to do, is I try to get up, make the French roast coffee, French press rather, and then sit down with my Bible.

I try to read the Greek of my passage that I�m going to preach, and you know, if you do that every day, it gets pretty easy at the end. Yeah, you�re Greeking it up. Yeah, that�s right. And then I� well, and that�s because I have the special Spiros Zodiades study Bible helper.

Mmm! I know, right? Just kidding. And what was the slam on him with this Greek stuff, that he would conflate classical Greek, Koine Greek, and modern Greek or something?

I don�t even remember. I just remember, you know, being in the congregation when he preached it, grace, and he did something untoward, or said something untoward, I should say, and I� you know, so.

Cultural Critiques, Wokeness, and Christian Publishing

Well, I think we should probably you know, all Christians, they kind of get saved, and then they want to be in Hollywood, and they�re going to redeem Hollywood, and they�re going to be a screenwriter, and they�re going to be a special actor that�s not going to be any bad, you know, R movies, but they�re going to just do wholesome things.

And I just met a young man two months ago at Grace Church, and he was here from, you know, wherever, Minnesota, and he was going to change the culture and everything. I thought, fine, but I would like to reach out to that young man.

I can�t remember what his name was. Sancho. Theophilus or something. Who did you say? Sancho. And here�s what I suggest, that we do a Christian remake of our big, fat Greek wedding with the Zodiades family.

Oh, great. And, you know, we can talk about translations, and instead of the lady works at the restaurant, they�re at the translation center, and I think that would just be a big hit.

Well, I mean, talk about tilting at windmills, you know. If you want to be the ultimate windmill tilter, just try to change the culture. It�s almost as hard as changing the Catholic Church, but I digress.

Wow. I heard they�ve got a lot of rooms out in St. Peter�s Square for tents for the refugees. There�s a church in Santa Cruz in the big sign out front. I mean... All refugees welcome. They are. Oh, yeah.

And it shows a picture of Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus, because they were refugees. And I just think of Tom Petty every time I drive past that church.

You don�t have to live like a refugee.

I mean, if you�re going to be one, that�s, I understand.

Move to Nebraska, get your 40 acres, and get busy. Uh-huh.

That�s right. So, in terms of the ESV, fine translation, I actually am very impressed with lots of sections, where I just think, �You know what?

That was a great way to translate. Well, I mean, no translation is perfect. Even when you�re reading the NAS, you know, you come across things, and you just go,. �Yeah, I veto that.

Yeah. And I especially like the ESV study Bible notes and articles, the articles that they have about biblical theology and other things. Those are really good. They are. If you�re a pretty new Christian, and you�d like to have some education, and you think, �Well, there�s no Bible colleges around here, but I�d like to do something to increase my general knowledge of the Bible as a whole read the articles in the ESV study Bible.

I agree.

I have it right next to my big chair in my living room. Yeah.

But I would say, I probably have some, I�m not going to change back, but I have some kind of buyer�s remorse, I think, for the ESV, because I think, you know what? I would just as soon preach from the NAS, and you can all have your ESVs on the side, but that�s just...

That�s water under the bridge, and we�re not going back. Uh-huh. This is a... Hear that, Crossway? We don�t want to lose our sponsorship, you know?

I do like the way they act in terms of the ESV Bible. I think that�s good. I don�t know if I like the way they act on who they publish these days with woke Bible church study guides. See, there is going to be, eventually, I know we only have a minute left, there�s going to be commentaries that only non-white people can contribute to, right?

I have the non-white, non-Angloid, non-blah-blah-blah study Bible and commentary set. Oh, it�s coming.

I mean, some of the things I read online just make me... They would make me blush if they just didn�t make me angry, because I have never read a book and thought, you know what? I really need to know what the ethnic background of the author is.

I don�t care about that. I want to know what their theological background is. I want to know what their theological acumen is. I really don�t care what color they are. That means nothing to me. I know.

It�s crazy. Well, that just shows to me, Steve, that you�re repressing some of these thoughts. And see, you�re worse off than I thought, because if you�d at least admit it, then we�d have somewhere to go.

I want to be on the road to being woke. Uh-huh.

Mm-hmm. Somebody asked me the other day, �What�s woke mean I said, �Well, I�m sure glad you don�t even know what it means. I think it�s a breakfast juice. Oh, maybe. You know, with a little caffeine.

Caffeine added. They�ve got caffeine water. They�re now going to start having pulp orange juice with caffeine. And it�ll be called woke. Yeah. Yeah. Perfect. But what if I don�t want to be woke, then I�m going to put an A in front of it, an alpha privative to negate it.

A woke. A woke. A woke. Caffeine-free. Caffeine-free. Caffeine-free. Caffeine-free.