God speaks (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, ministry.

Mike Abendroth here. We�re still sticking to the 24-minute and 30-second actual talk format. We�ll have to breathe once in a while. But if you would like, if the show is too long for you, turn your recording, playback device rather, to 1 .25 speed.

I think 1 .29 is about right. And off you go. And you can just hear the things real fast. And you can go along. This is an accessible affiliate link. NoCompromiseRadio .com. See? How that works. But I just messed you up if you do that, because then it just sounds like crickets.

You can write us, info at NoCompromiseRadio .com. If you have a topic that you�d like to discuss or have me discuss, maybe there�s a person that you�d like me to interview, you can send me that person�s contact information.

If you want to send a Pope bobblehead, I have lots of those. We need the reform bobbleheads. They�re probably around somewhere. I don�t know. I�m looking around. Is there any reform bobbleheads? The one that I just got from Erin the other day.

You need to listen to Equipping Eve, by the way, with your host, Erin. And you need to go to her website, DoNotBeSurprised .something. And she sent me a Solar Pope, S-O-L-A-R, Solar Pope. And his hand is always going in the motion.

That little hand thing he does, side to side, a little hand shiv, I thought that was a Krav Maga move. Last night at the Krav class, we were on the ground. Let�s say you fall down. How do you get up safely when someone�s trying to get you?

And you�ve got to do this special get up thing. But I�m 55. It�s hard to do the get up. Giddy up is about all I can do. So I was trying. But I had hurt my hamstring at the gym earlier in the day. Oh, man, talk about burn, B-U-R-N, burn.

Hammies that hurt are burn, baby burn, disco inferno. Well, enough of that. Hebrews, the book of Hebrews. Now as I�ve been preaching through the book of Hebrews, I once in a while want to give you the overflow out of the abundance of what I�ve been studying for the sermons at Bethlehem Bible Church.

I think they�ll eventually be played on NoCo, maybe, maybe not. It depends on what Charlie wants to do. And you can listen at bbcchurch .org to the sermons if you�d like to listen to those. But you know, sometimes I review my sermons on NoCo radio as I just think, �mole, chew on.

That type of thing. So that�s what I�m doing. I said to my son today, �I�m going into the church. I�ve got to do some work, and I�m going to review my message by talking about it on No Compromise radio.

How�s that? So instead of the overflow, this is the stuff that didn�t make it. This is the cutting room floor stuff, which actually, you know, that�s probably valuable if you�ve got the wide album at the Beatles to get that stuff.

I�m not the biggest Beatles fan. Rubber Soul is probably my favorite album. Revolver is not bad. Okay. The book of Hebrews. We were talking last time about the author and why it doesn�t really matter that we don�t know exactly who the human author is.

So I will call it the author of Hebrews, or Hebrews says. That�s what I�m going to do. God is a speaking God, and you�ll see at the very beginning of the book of Hebrews that he�s such a great God. That is, a particular person of the Godhead, Jesus Christ, he is so great that he�s greater than all the prophets, and therefore his revelation that he gives, the revelation he gives, is greater.

It is superior because he is superior, and it�s final because these are the last days. When you think of Jesus, he�s greater than the prophets and those that spoke the word of God in the past, right? Because that�s what we�re talking about.

God Speaks in Hebrews 1:1-2

Hebrews chapter 1, verse maybe 1 and 2 today, �Long ago at many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son and then it gives the list of seven, depending on if you want to count, six to eight, I think seven, descriptions, designations about who he is and what he�s done, so that you would say, yes, he is the final, supreme revelation of God, and he gives us that from God.

Well, when you look at the Old Testament and you see this comparison in chapter 1, verse 1 and 2, Jesus in these last days, it is said of him that he�s spoken to us, that God has spoken to us by his Son.

I don�t want you to think that the Old Testament�s less true and the New Testament is truer. I don�t want you to think worthiness, something in the Old Testament�s less worthy, more worthy in the New Testament.

I don�t want you to think of anything except progression, right, progression. We have promise in the Old Testament and fulfillment in the New. That�s the best way, and I think F .F. Bruce is correct, to think about this Old Testament, New Testament.

The subject of the first verb in chapter 1, verse 1, is God. I know King James puts it up front, but it�s long ago, and many times in many ways, God spoke. It�s said by scholars that once every 73 words, there�s a direct reference to God.

So this is a God-centered book. God speaks. God spoke to our fathers and by the prophets, and God has spoken to us in these last days by his Son. God is a speaking God. Now, I have to just stop here, and not completely stop the show, that�s only six minutes in, but I have to stop to make sure we don�t take this for granted.

Now let�s think of it. Imagine, God�s a speaking God, and you say, yes, general revelation, how he speaks about his power and wisdom through nature, but that�s not what he�s talking about here. He�s talking about special revelation, the Word of God.

We�re talking syllables, we�re talking syntax, we�re talking lexical, we�re talking grammar. God speaks. Everybody wants somebody who�s a good communicator. For years, I�ve always thought our president was loved and adored by many people because he was such an excellent communicator.

My opinion, that�s not true, but we want a good communicator. We want our presidents to be good communicators, our diplomats, don�t you like it when even your favorite sports star is a good communicator, and the microphone�s put in front of his face and he or she articulates well and speaks well.

We like effective communication. You can imagine, in marriages, there�s a breakdown of communication. No Led Zeppelin comments right now. We want a good communicator and think that not only God communicates well, we would all agree with that, but that he even communicates.

That�s the point of this show, God speaks. He spoke to our fathers by the prophets, and these last days he�s spoken to us by his son, that God would speak. The words of Moeller ring in my ear. Idols you could see, but they can�t talk.

God is a spirit, he�s invisible, but he speaks. God is a speaking God. He communicates. What if God was silent? What if he were silent? What if I had good grammar? What if I could communicate well? I could maybe have a radio show.

God�s the one that has to decide to speak. He initiates. He�s the one that says, �I�m going to reveal myself. The one who is superior, the one who is greater, he can choose whether or not he reveals himself.

God didn�t have to. There was nothing outside of his character that would force him. �We�re not like Job. I was reading Job 38 -42 this morning. �Gird up your loins and act like a man, and I�m going to ask you the questions and you answer me God says to Job.

It�s fascinating that God did reveal many things to Job, and God has revealed many things to us. He revealed himself. If he did not, then what do you think would happen? Well, everybody would be damned because there would be no one to believe in.

Belief, if you think of knowledge, assent, and trust, how can you have knowledge of anything if God doesn�t tell us? Let�s just say we only had natural revelation. That�s the only communication God gives.

Well, that�s enough to hold us all accountable, certainly, and to damn us, not into oblivion because there�s no oblivion in hell. Somebody got mad at me the other day because I said, �If heaven is eternal, hell is eternal, and vice versa.

They said, �I prayed for wisdom. God led me to this website. It was some cheesy, nasty website, and that website was talking about annihilationism and conditional mortality. God led me to that. Really?

Well, back on point for that person that wrote me and said, �Less rabbit trails, allegedly. We say to ourselves, �Look outside and you would say, �wise. Hydrological cycle that God would say to the oceans, �You can come this far, and that�s it.

Evaporation, seeds, food. You just look around, and you would say, �God�s wise. You would also say, �There�s a lot of power. Thunderstorms, hurricanes, tornadoes, the oceans, wind, power, it�s a lot of power.

You might also say, �There�s goodness to God, there is rain, crops, families. There�s those kind of things, but there�s no way to appease God. There�s no way to satisfy God, make propitiation. We would probably do what the pagans would do.

Well, we know God�s mad at us. We know we�re sinful. We know we don�t measure up to what we�re supposed to do, and we better offer some grain. We better offer something. As you�ve heard me talk about propitiation many times, it is a man-centered thing that Originally, man would try to figure it out, and he�d offer up the gods.

That�s why the New Testament is so wonderful, to think that God makes propitiation. You look at 1 John 2, 1 John 4. You look at the language of the mercy seat, and you say to yourself, �This is amazing, that God�s the one that does it.

But just imagine if God did not give us special revelation and we did not know, and we would not really realize how holy He is. We would not have the law to tell us that we are needy and we�ve fallen short.

We would not understand that God is gracious, and that He is merciful, and that He shows us great patience. He is a God who loves sinners. We would not know any of that. We would not know how holy He is, therefore we would not know how bad sin is.

And we would be animists. We would be Hindus. We would be all kinds of things. But if God did not speak, even think with regards to precision in worship, well, what happens? A strange fire is offered up by Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus chapter 10.

They knew clearly what God had revealed specifically, special revelation that is, and they didn�t do it. You know, Uzzah, well, he touched the ark. He was going to fall to the ground, but he didn�t realize that the ground is more holy than he was.

Actually, that goes back to David�s fault for putting it on the cart anyway and running it back, zooming it back, hastily getting it back. Those kinds of things would happen all the time. Instead of God�s righteous anger shown with just a few punctuation marks throughout the New Testament and old Ananias and Sapphira, it would just be regularly occurring.

We would not understand. We would not know. We would just, I mean, can you imagine how crazy it would be? But God speaks. We would not know how bad we were unless God would tell us. We would not know, oh, I could work the other way as well.

We would not know that God cares for us. God spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many ways and in many portions. God speaks. Paul gives usually grace to you and peace, Paul an apostle. But this writer, it just starts off with a bang, and it�s just this punch of exclamation that Jesus is God.

God�s not compelled to speak, but He does. And He has spoken in the past, and He speaks to us now in these last days through His Son. Well, yes, but I�m a visual learner. But God�s a speaking teacher.

He speaks with Greek and Hebrew letters. That�s what He speaks with now, a little Aramaic sprinkled in. Now that word �to speak�, in the old days, chattering birds, prattling of children, and then it moved to �language.

God speaks to us with language. Francis Schaeffer�s book, he is there, and he is not silent. I love to read the Old Testament for many reasons. But you hear in the Psalms, and in Isaiah in particular, about the idols.

They have mouths, but they do not, what, speak eyes, but do not see. For us, we�ve just taken it for granted that God is a speaking God. They have ears, but do not hear, noses, but do not smell, hands, but do not feel, feet, but do not walk.

Same thing. That was Psalm 115. That�s Psalm 135. They have mouths, but they do not, what, speak. They have eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths.

Mouths or mouths? Mouths. Mouths. Mouths. In their mouths. Mouths. Isaiah 41. Tell us what is to come after that we may know you are gods. Do good or do harm, that we may be dismayed and terrified. Behold you are nothing, and your work is less than nothing.

An abomination is he who chooses you. Bring them. Tell us what is to happen. Talk. Isaiah 44. What does this ironsmith do? He makes this idol, and he falls down and he worships it, and part of it he uses for a fire so he can eat and say, �I�m warm.

He prays to it and says, �Deliver me, for you are my God. Can you imagine? But those gods don�t talk. Isaiah 46. The Lord, He does talk, declaring the end from the beginning. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass.

I have purposed, and I will do it. Listen to me. Isaiah 48 says the same kind of thing. Hear this, O house of Jacob. The former things I declared from old, they went out from my mouth, and I announced them.

Declare them to you from of old, before they came to pass, I announced them to you. You have heard, now see all this, and you will not declare it? From this time forth I announce to you new things, hidden, that you would not have known.

Isaiah 48. Listen to me, O Jacob. I even, I have spoken and called him, I brought him, and he will prosper in his way. Draw near to me and hear this. From the beginning I have not spoken in secret, and from the time it came to be, I have been there.

Isaiah 49 verse 1. Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother, he named me, or he named my name. We just take it for granted that God speaks.

But over and over and over, just using the ESV, just quick typing in the search, thus says the Lord 422 times. God said 547. The Lord said 1092. We would have to figure things out on our own if God did not speak.

It's like the Delphic Oracle. When I was in Greece and went to Delphi to see this particular area, what happens? You go back in the classical Greek world, 1400 BC, and people are worshipping a god named Apollo.

And he slayed, he was supposed to have slain this dragon, a python. They called it, and this python was protecting the navel of the earth, they would call it. And then they would have, therefore, a priestess there who would be an oracle who would talk because they want to know what's going on.

Should we go to war or should we not? And they had the priestess of the Oracle of Delphi, and her name was Pythia. That's what she was known as. And, you know, it's like First Timothy kind of qualifications, except here it's all wrong, of course.

Blameless life, she had to be a peasant, she had to be older, and she would sit on a little tripod and the earth was open there, and she would breathe in the noxious fumes that would give her some oracles.

This is some fissure in the world, and according to legend, the fumes would come out, and that's where Apollo threw a python's body, and then this lady would go into a trance, and Apollo would possess her, and she'd give information, a static speech.

She'd chew orlander and inhale the smoke, and she would get something called sacred disease. Kind of looked like epilepsy, according to some. And they would say, what do we do publicly, personally? Do we go to this war?

Do we found colonies? What do we do? That's what we would be reduced to if we didn't have a God who would speak. Yes, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork. But we need to know specially, in particular, what God says, and God takes the initiative to speak.

And here's how He talked in the Old Testament, Hebrews 1 says, and now here's how He talks today. Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. And what happens? In these last days, He's spoken to us by His Son.

There is a stage, a first stage, and a latter stage. And God reveals Himself long ago, in the old days, the olden days, literally it means of old. This is how He used to do it. It's not what He's doing now.

This is how He used to speak, through the patriarchs, the forefathers, the Old Testament believers. And this was long ago, in contrast to chapter 1, verse 2, these last days. Last days between the incarnation and the second coming.

When you're talking to these Jewish people, the letter to the Hebrews, it would be good to tell them, look at the Law and the Prophets, the Law, Wisdom, and the Prophets, Torah, the Old Testament. I'm not saying Torah is the Old Testament, but comma, the Old Testament.

These are things that you grew up with, and these are things that you know to be true. That's how God did speak. And He did it in very diverse ways. Diverse form, diverse content, different ways of communication that He would give His revelation.

Form and content, maybe visions would be a different form, Urim and the Thummim, that a different form, promises, law, prophecy, signs, speaking out of a burning bush, still small voice to Elijah. There's a vision that shows the holiness of God to Isaiah in chapter 6.

You've got fruit in Amos 8, chapter 8, verse 1. There's a variety of God's revelation. And there's no one who could say, oh, a monotony. There's many ways, maybe through Abraham, Isaac, Jeremiah, Daniel, different ways, dreams, visions, pillar of smoke, pillar of fire, different ways.

There's not just one mode. There's many parts, many segments, many pieces, all pushing toward, via progressive revelation, the one way, the final way, the Supreme Being, Jesus Christ. Jameson Fawcett Brown said, "...all was not revealed to each one prophet, but one received one portion of revelation and another another.

To Noah the quarter of the world to which Messiah should belong was revealed. To Abraham the nation, to Jacob the tribe, to David and Isaiah the family, to Micah the town, to Daniel the exact time, to Malachi the coming of his forerunner and his second advent, through Jonah his burial and resurrection, through Isaiah and Hosea his resurrection.

Each only knew in part, but when that which was perfect came in the Messiah, that which was in part was done away with.". I think one man said it's like every prophet in a different way that it was communicated.

God's Word was communicated in the Old Testament. It was just a syllable put all together. Then we would know and we'd see. Here was the promise. And then now, Jesus, we have the fulfillment. The Old Testament, Old Covenant, this old thing wasn't wrong.

It was just partial. It was pointing to something else. Well, my name is Mike Avendroth, this is No Compromise Radio. And we were just looking a little bit at the book of Hebrews and that God would speak.

Can you imagine God speaks? You know, maybe somebody's mad at you and they don't talk and you want them to talk. Well, here God was mad at us. And He talked anyway because He loved sinners. And then He sent His Son to die for people like us.

Raised Him from the dead too.

Program Sign-Off and Ministry Information

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Avendroth 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 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.