Ephesians Jet Tour (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.

Ministry Updates, Travel, and Prayer Requests

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. Mike Abendroth here, your host, and if you are not attending the IBS classes that we have here at the church, Bethlehem Bible Church, you can go online, bbcchurch .org, try to find the New England Institute for Biblical Studies and pull up some of those online.

We're thinking about the future. Do we put those up in video format? Should we Skype them? We're not exactly sure. What else? We hope you want to go to Greece with us, April 17th, 2013. You can be praying for my friend who's a pastor in California, used to be a pastor in Massachusetts, Joe.

His wife, Wendy, has ovarian cancer and she just had a very long surgery the other day. And I'm sure the family would appreciate prayers for Wendy and Joe and the rest of the family. A very, very serious situation there.

Publishing, Support, and the Freedom of Not Begging for Money

What else is happening here at No Compromise Radio? I've written a few more books and working on several other books, and I'm just trying to find publishers. And it's just this big publisher game. And the publisher game is, how many people attend your church?

Is your last name Furtick, McDonald, or Stanley? And how many Twitter followers do you have? How many people read your blog? What is the radio, not frequency, but what's the broadcast power of your radio station?

How many subscribers do you have on iTunes? How many Facebook friends do you have? How many do we have? I think Todd Friel has 20 ,000. I think we have 1 ,600. Well, before I met Todd, though, I think we had 100, so I can't complain.

Maybe we are one-tenth of the size of Wretched Radio. That's not too shabby. That's a full-time job for Todd. This is just my hobby, so I don't feel bad that the hobby... You know what? If Hobby Lobby people would give us money, then we could have the same kind of influence that Wretched Radio and TV would have or has.

No, I'm happy for my friend Todd. Hobby Lobby people, though, if you're listening, we don't ask for money on No Compromise Radio unless you're listening. Our policy for everyone else is we don't ask for money and we don't get any money, but for the policy for the Hobby Lobby people would be post office box.

It is so freeing, by the way, to be supported without having to beg for money. Boy, praise the Lord for that. And for the people who do the behind-the-scenes... What do we call that when you underwrite?

The behind-the-scenes underwriter slash writers. We are very, very thankful for them. All right, so No Compromise Radio ministry. Today it's a Thursday, so we want to do something again on the positive side before we get out the Billy Clubs on Friday.

That's what we should call it, Billy Club Friday. My father gave me a Billy Club when I was younger and he said, Don't ever use it. Now, how does that work? Here is a wooden stick and this stick had a bored-out hole at the end of the stick, so you had some, maybe it was lead or it was a metal of some sort.

And so why would your father give you one and say not to use it? If somebody's after you, aren't you supposed to wrap them on the head? You know, there were a lot of thugs in Nebraska. There were a lot of criminals.

The criminal minds were in Nebraska. All right, we're talking about Ephesians. Now, last time I said it was going to be a jet tour of Ephesians and we didn't do much jetting and we didn't really do much touring either.

Maybe it was a slow boat to Turkey tour or something. But we're going to go maybe a little faster today, I'm not sure. So I think I want to say last week's show was an introduction to Ephesians jet tour.

Jet tour introduction, that's what we'll call it. Moratorium on McLaren. And then this is going to take us a little faster. And so I wanted to impress upon you how great Ephesians is so you study it. Now, you probably already have studied it, but I think if you'll go back to study the book of Ephesians, it will be encouraging to you.

God's Plan in Ephesians 1 and the Praise of His Glory

And we looked at specifically last week in chapter 1 verses 3 to 14. These great themes that keep reappearing. So God has a plan, right? He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. He predestined us to adoption.

And He had a purpose in Him according to His kind intention, verse 9. Having predestined according to His purpose, who works all things after the counsel of His will, verse 11. You see early on as Paul praises God the Father for the work of the Father, Son, and Spirit.

You'll see early on that God has a plan. This isn't just made up on the fly. This is not how we do things where there is a stop, go. If this happens, then do that. Flow chart, check, redo, rearrange, realign.

I have a calendar and I try to say this is my to-do list for the day, but some things come up and I can't get the to-do list done. Well, here God has a plan. God's not like us, He's eternal, He's almighty, and He has a plan.

And He works out that plan in and through the person of Christ Jesus. And so you'll see in Ephesians chapter 1, 3 through 14, everywhere you look, in Him, in Him, in Him, in the beloved, in Him, in Him, in Him, in Him.

God has a plan, He works it out through Christ Jesus. And He does that to the praise of His glory of His grace, verse 6. To the praise of His glory, verse 12. To the praise of His glory, verse 14. So here we have a Trinitarian praise.

The Father's praise for a Trinitarian work. We have the Father, verses 4 to 6. We have the Son, emphasized in verses 7 to 12. And we have the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, emphasized in verses 13 and 14.

God has a plan. And He has a plan that He works out in and through the person of Christ Jesus. And He does it to the praise of His glory. Now, are you ready for this? Through the church. Through the church.

That is the issue. He works out His plan in Christ Jesus. All blessings are found in the person and work of Christ Jesus. All the purposes of God toward the church are in and through the person of Christ Jesus.

In Christ. In Christ. In Christ. Union with Christ. Not for our satisfaction. Not for our happiness. Not for what we like. Not for our fulfillment. Some of those may be byproducts. But primarily for the praise of His glory.

God is not a graven image. And God gives His glory to no one or no thing. Isaiah chapter 42, verse 8. God's plan worked out in Christ Jesus for the praise of His glory. Now makes us more easily accept the fact that Jew and Gentile put together in the church was planned.

It's through Christ and it's for God's glory. Paul's ministry to the Gentiles, it was planned. It was in Christ. It was for the praise of His glory. How husbands and wives and children and families relate to one another.

This is planned out by God. It works out in Christ Jesus and it's for the praise of His glory. Spiritual battles, it's the same thing. We have a great book that extols God the Father. The truth of the gospel.

God the Son and the truth that Holy Spirit, He is part of the triune God. And after he praises God in verses 3 to 14 of chapter 1, he gives a great prayer. And it says in verse 15, for this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus, which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers.

This is a common prayer for Paul, like first Thessalonians. And what does he want to happen in the prayer? Verse 17, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, what a great name, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. God, I know you're working.

And Paul understands some of the mysteries of God and how God works and who God is. And God is simultaneously exercising all of His attributes, and He's simultaneously working out His grand, single, solitary, unitary, unitary, is that right?

Theme, decree, purpose, our will. And so since God's working all the time, and wouldn't you grant that too, if you're listening today, that God is not a deist God, that He hasn't wound up this universe in a sitting back, arms crossed on His chest or arms, hands down on His hips.

God has not worked in that way. That isn't who God is. God is a very hands on God. He's a sovereign God. He is a God who works all things together. And He is a God who providentially is working. So what Paul is saying, I'm praying for you.

I'm very thankful that you're saved. I've heard good things about you. Remember, Paul's in jail. And I want the Lord to give you a spirit of wisdom. And I want your eyes to be open so that you can see God's working, so that you remember what God has done.

So these truths of who He is, what He's done, what He's doing, we could say, that you would see God working. He is working. But we want you to know how powerful He's working and how He's brought that power about, verse 20, in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in heavenly places.

There it is again, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ. Paul says in verse 22,. And He put all things in subjection under His feet and gave Him His head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

God's redeemed people. Here, the church. We, Paul said, want you to know not just about God, but we want you to know God. To know what He's doing. To know how He has so extolled the person of Christ Jesus.

And to magnify all this, we move into chapter 2. And you know chapter 2 because we've taught chapter 2 and many other Bible teachers have taught it. Chapter 2, we turn to the state of humanity outside of Christ.

Dead in Sin, Walking in the World, and Enslaved to Worship

If you're not in Christ, this is you. If you are in Christ, this was you. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins. Spiritually dead. Dead to the superiority of Christ. Dead to the greatness of Christ.

Dead to the majesty of Christ. Alive in your body, yes. But like an animal that sees no beauty in a mountain. That sees no beauty as I'm looking outside and seeing the fall colors of yellows. Lots of yellows this year in New England.

Reds, greens, oranges. When you see those colors, the dog doesn't appreciate those. They're dead to those things. And we are dead to who Jesus is. And no desire for fellowship. You take the reflex hammer and hit it to the knee.

Nothing happens. Dead. Spiritually dead. In which you formally walked according to the course of this world. You walked and you lived your life. And you, the Greek word is peripateo. You know about peripatetic teaching.

Walking back and forth. We walked. It was the conduct of our life to be devoted to our best friend. You know that Queen song? You're my best friend. My kids like some of the songs from Queen. I'll let them listen to it.

Some of them I won't. You're my best friend. Sin. Self. Satan. The world. Quite a few best friends. The besties. Sin is my bestie. BFF is sin. And so, instead of running to God. Instead of seeking God.

Instead of understanding God as a great God who is a rewarder of those who seek Him. People aren't, as unbelievers, seeking God. Searching for God. They're running from Him. They're not running to God.

Verse 3 says, Among them we too all formally lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of flesh and of the mind by nature, children of wrath, even as the rest. So then we're setting, Paul is setting us up, so we understand if we're this bad and God saved us, what does that mean?

Well, for many, here's what that means. That just proves our self-worth. God don't die for no junk. Well, actually, the Son of God died for things that are worse than junk. Because junk serves a purpose.

Junk is junk. And people like to go junking. People like to go and they watch Storage Wars. And people like to do dumpster diving. Right? Even junk has a purpose. Some people dumpster dive and find these great things.

Well, I'm trying to think if I've ever done any dumpster diving. Oh, I will confess this. That when I lived in Nebraska, I was probably 16 years old at the time. And I was going to the Lutheran Church.

Lutheran Church. And that would be Calvary Lutheran Church on 84th Street, maybe. ELCA, I think it is now. And we had a pastor. And the pastor was really a pretty good guy. When I say that, that's not really what you want to have people say of your pastor.

If you describe me as if I'm your pastor, I hope you don't say, out of the gun, out of the chute. He's a good guy. Because that's irrelevant, really. Do I want to be a good guy? Yeah. Do I want to be a buddy?

Do I want to be a handyman? Well, this particular pastor was all those things. But he wasn't a Bible preacher. He wasn't a man who focused on the finished work of Christ Jesus. It was the Bible and Christ plus baptismal regeneration plus sacraments.

I still remember going up to the altar and would receive communion. I would be hungover and still half drunk. And I would receive the communion. And I remember what he would say. Based on the authority vested in me, I now pronounce your sins forgiven.

Go in peace. Serve the Lord. And when I would taste that wine that would go down my throat and into my stomach, kind of a warming sensation, I mistook that wine feeling—this is not a tirade against wine used in communion.

I think it should be, but that's another point. I mistook that feeling for that is forgiveness. This is what forgiveness feels like. I feel a warmth. I feel a sensation. God is forgiving me. As it's covering my esophagus or stomach and it goes down into me, I am feeling God's forgiveness.

And I would feel forgiven. And I would feel glad. I knew I was a sinner. I knew I had lots of sins to be forgiven, even the night before. And then now I'm cleansed and I can go do the other sins because communion was soon found on Sunday the next week.

Well, some people today confuse the Spirit's work with a bass drum or a bass guitar in a quote-unquote worship service, a mundane worship service, far from transcendent, worldly, mundane. And so I would receive that from the—I was going to say Catholic, but I meant Lutheran—pastor.

Well, that's a long story, but it's my show. It's No Compromise Radio. And so this pastor's wife needed some extra money, and she worked at McDonald's. And so she would tell us, this McDonald's closes at 12 midnight.

We're not supposed to do this, but we'll do it for you because you're parishioners. And she didn't say that. Nice family, I have to tell you. But it's good to be nice and it's nice to be nice, but only holy, perfect people go to heaven based on the work of Christ Jesus through faith alone.

And so she would say, I'll take all the extra McDonald's sandwiches, Filet-O-Fish, McRib, Big Macs, fries, and instead of throwing them away, which we're supposed to do, I'll put them in the green garbage bag that I'm supposed to take out to the dumpster.

And instead of throwing it in the dumpster, I'll set it behind the dumpster on the northwest corner, north by northwest. And so we would drive up at about 1202, and there would be this big green bag full of tasty treats.

So all that to say, well, I've never done dumpster diving. I've gone to the back of the dumpster and taken a huge bag of Filet-O-Fishes, and then we bring it back. And so you'd have your buddies over, your friends.

It's a midnight party, and it's free. And so I don't know why it is, but food that's stale, food that's maybe not really that good for you, fast food. See, there's nothing wrong with McDonald's per se.

It's just not meant to be eaten every day. It wasn't supposed to rhyme. All right, back on topic. Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio. Dumpster diving, trashes. We're in Ephesians 2, by the way. See, you'd think I'd forget.

Flotsam and jetsam. Trash has its purpose, but God made us to worship Him, and we're not even doing what we're made to do. We're doing the opposite. Men and women are born worshipers. Ecclesiastes says that we have eternity set in our heart, but we don't worship God.

And so we worship someone else. See, that's why people who are involved in addiction therapy will never get it. They'll never know the real answer. They can do behavior modification, but we are born to be addicted.

See, that's the issue. We are born to have addictions. We are born to be wrapped up in something and unable to remove ourselves from it. And that is we are born to be, if I can use the vulgar language, addicted to worshiping God.

Addicted to God. Eternity set in our hearts. We are made in God's likeness and image so that we can worship Him, so that we can have communion with Him. We are in covenant with Him. I am your God and you will be my people.

And He makes us in such a way back in the garden. And then now by natural procreation we are image bearers. And we will be addicted to something. So what do you do with a person when they're addicted to alcohol?

If it's not stop this by repentance and then turn in faith to Christ Jesus, they're just going to be exchanging their addictions. And so when I quit drinking, when I quit doing cocaine, then it was to the next thing.

Then to marijuana, then it's the next thing. Then it was on to alcohol, etc. And until God opened my eyes and turned me as 1 Thessalonians 1 would say, turned from idols to serve a living God, then there's no help.

Well, everyone is born into sin. And when God saves us, the point is getting back on target. It's not because we're so lovable. It's not because we have such great self-worth. The cross doesn't magnify how great we are.

The cross minimizes that. The cross talks about the glory of Christ Jesus. So that's what Paul is doing in this book of Ephesians. He wants to extol Christ Jesus and praise the Father for the work of the Son.

God had a plan. He worked out that plan in Christ Jesus. He did it to the praise of His glory. And when you're not so bad and then God revitalizes you, well, there's an attaboy for God. But when you're dead in trespasses and sins, and when you walk according to the course of this world, according to the power of the prince of the age who runs the whole thing, when your will is ensnared and enslaved to sin and the world system and Satan and everyone else, and then God saves you, then to God be the glory, great things He has done.

You see home makeover shows, and they pick dilapidated houses. Why? Because after they're done, whatever that guy's name is, and you get the good feeling of helping a neighbor, and they make money on the show, then you see the handiwork of the construction people, of the guests, of the hosts who run the show.

You go, wow, they did a great job. And so when there's a beauty makeover, you know, I'm always interested in that. I think it started when I was younger, and you have a person, and they make that person over.

We'll have a makeover. Now sometimes pretty people get makeovers, of course. But for the shows, they pick what? Who do they pick? They pick ugly people. Why? Because if you can make up an ugly person and turn them into somebody who's pretty or handsome, then we say, wow, they're pretty or handsome because you have constructed that.

You have sculpted that. You have highlighted that. You have dyed their hair. You have coiffed their coiffure. I don't know what are these words they even mean. I always like that bumper sticker. I'm not big on bumper stickers, but I do like that one.

I'm a beautician, not a magician. I'm a mortician, not a who knows. So when a plastic surgeon is going to give free cosmetic surgery to you because they want the advertising to advertise how good they are, you get the point.

We are worthy. That's true. But we are worthy to have eternal punishment poured out over us. We don't have worth. Our worth isn't because Jesus is so great he died for us. That's not what our worth is.

To God be the glory, great things he has done. Why would the holy God of the universe save sinners that deserved wrath? And the answer is Ephesians 2, verse 4, but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved.

Isn't that amazing? That is unbelievable, undeserved kindness, undeserved compassion, undeserved love. God's rich mercy is so rich that he can save bankrupt sinners, chapter 11 sinners, chapter 13 sinners.

He loves. And when God loves, he loves with an everlasting love. God is provoked by your sin. God's wrath is excited, if you will. Yet God is a God of grace and to some he gives grace. And if you receive grace of the risen Savior, you ought to be a happy person.

You ought to be extolling the great God of the universe. Well, Mike Abendroth today. This was part 2 in the book of Ephesians as we have a little flyover and extol Jesus Christ our King. God bless you.

Info at NoCompromiseRadio .com.

Closing Credits and Station Disclaimer

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth 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.