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If God chooses who He saves, why should we evangelize people? Pastor Mike shares a few reasons on today's show.
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, my name is Mike Abendroth, Michael E. Abendroth, M .L. Abendroth. A lot of theologians, they just go by the first two initials. So I don't know. That means I'd be called M .L., M .L. Carr, since I'm a Lakers fan.
I mean, what person wouldn't be a fan of Magic Johnson? I mean, really. Michael Cooper, Magic Johnson, big-game James Worthy. Huh? How about that? All right. I saw Magic Johnson one time at a movie theater.
Man, that guy was tall. This afternoon, I'd like to talk to you a little bit about evangelism, specifically with this in mind. If God has chosen people already, since he's elected people, why evangelize?
Sunday nights at Bethlehem Bible Church, I'm doing common questions, questions that over the last 20 years of ministry have been the most popular, questions that I've received most often, and this is one of them.
Why should you evangelize if people are already chosen? Now, at least the question infers that the person understands that all the elect go to heaven, that God does, in fact, select or elect. Ephesians 1, verse 4, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we might be holy and blameless before him.
In love he predestined us. So there is a selecting, there is an electing, angels, Israel, there's an election. And so at least the question understands that to some degree. So it seems logical that if God's going to bring all his children home, all the elect home, all the sheep home to glory, why should we evangelize?
It is a very common question. And you can ask that question as if you really want to know the answer, and then I'm glad to tell you. Or you could ask the question because you want to muddy the waters, you want to soil the waters with a murkiness and somehow expose the dark underbelly of Calvinistic election.
But either way, I'm happy to answer your question. If I said to you, when election goes through your mind, when you think of election, if there's a word association game, and I said election, I wonder if you would say things like fatalistic, dull, stifling, ungodly, right, I see some of the YouTube commenters and how ungodly that Calvinism is, or would you smile and say, praise the Lord, or something in between.
Remember, Paul praises God the Father for his selection. In Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3, praising God, before he even says, I praise you, God, for the redemption of my sins, the forgiveness of sins, in Him we presently have redemption of our sins, Ephesians chapter 1, verse 7, if memory serves.
But why should we have to evangelize if God is going to bring all the elect in? Well, let's ask the question, but I want you to have just a little context to this. Moby Dick, Melville, Herman Melville wrote that as a reaction to this doctrine of Calvinism.
Fall of the house of Usher was a metaphor for the fall of this doctrine, election, Calvinism. Oh, on the flip side, of course, Daniel Defoe wrote Cast Away with Tom Hanks as a track for the doctrine of Calvinism.
Just wanted to see if you're listening. Robinson Caruso, if you have not read Robinson Caruso, you ought to. First read the Bible, then read Pilgrim's Progress, then read Robinson Caruso. It's going to take a while.
Don't read the abridged version. Nothing good is abridged, not that I know of, not even your pocket New Testament. That's abridged. That's an abridged Bible, right? We should go on some crusade making sure you have a...
Pocket Bible's a wonderful thing, spectacular thing, but if it's just the New Testament, what does that say? I don't really like all the media stuff I'll have to say to my kids, now, okay, it's Bible time in the morning, and I want you to read your real Bible.
We're going to go to the worship service. I want you to bring a real Bible, physical. Now, does that mean I hate it when people read their Bibles on their iPads? No, and I often do. I preach from an iPad, make a noito, but what I'm trying to get them to do is just to have a physical Bible, and then they're not tempted to alt-tab over, you can't do that on an iPhone, I know, but, you know, slide over and double press things, and I just want them to read their Bible, and that is a good thing with the electronics, though.
At least you have the old and New Testament. It's just some, you know, it's just some megs, that's all, megabytes, it doesn't take up much room. So, at least people now, in their pockets, I carry my phone in my top or my left front pocket with my wallet, always there, you know, you walk out of the house, you've got three things you check, wallet, keys, phone.
Spurgeon said, whatever may be said about the doctrine of election, it is written in the Word of God as with an iron pen, and there is not getting rid of it. To me, it is one of the sweetest and most blessed truths in the whole of Revelation, and those who are afraid of it are so because they do not understand it.
If they could but know that the Lord had chosen them, it would make their hearts dance with joy. That's what I want. That's what I want your heart to do, is to dance with joy. Instead of seething, I want you to submit.
Instead of shivering with fear, I want you to smile. I want you to rejoice that the Lord is good, and God is by nature a God who chooses. That's built into His nature. Isn't it built into your nature as an image bearer?
Don't you like to choose? Do you like arranged marriages? Do you like people to tell you where to go out to eat? Which teams to root for? I think you make all kinds of choices, and you're glad you do.
You're a little sovereign, aren't you? Don't you love that about yourself, that you choose? So why do you love something in yourself but hate it in God? What does that do? How does that make any sense?
Why evangelize if people are chosen? Listen, answer number one, simple, because God tells us to. God tells you to evangelize. Both truths are true. Both verities are accurate. So what do we do? God has chosen people.
He tells us to go evangelize. Wasn't it Luther who said, I know whatever God says is right, and if He told me to go across the street and eat dung, I'd go across the street and eat dung, and I know it'd be good for me.
Well, hallelujah. Here, it just tells us to evangelize. Matthew 28, 18 to 20,. And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Baptize them in the singular name. One God, but subsisting the three persons in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age.
Why do you evangelize? Now the question is almost exactly the same. Why should we evangelize if God is sovereign? Why should we pray if God's sovereign? Answer, because you're commanded to. Now there are other reasons, you get to, that would be another one here, you evangelize because you get to, you evangelize because you are going to tell people about Jesus and his glories.
But the simple answer, why evangelize if God has already chosen people, is because God commands you to do that. Here's who you are in Christ and here's how you should live out who you are. Evangelize.
Oh, I could give other reasons, Jesus was an evangelist, all your favorite Bible authors were evangelists, probably a lot of your favorite people in church history were evangelists from Whitefield to Wesley, dare I say his name.
God tells you to evangelize. If you're wasting a lot of time trying to figure out how evangelism and sovereignty go together, so much so to the degree that you're not evangelizing, you ought to repent and stop that.
You ought to start evangelizing even though you can't understand it all. Sovereignty of God, human responsibility, how can you figure those out? If you had to pick one, if one had to have precedence over the other, which one would it be?
Man's responsibility? I think not. Why evangelize if God has already chosen people? Number one, on No Compromise Radio, God tells you to. Number two, God ordains both the ends, the salvation of the elect, and means of salvation.
He ordains ends and means. So if you only think He ordains the ends and you don't care about means and secondary causes and other things like that, then you're not thinking properly. You're not thinking biblically.
You're not thinking Christian-ly. Romans chapter 10. Why evangelize? God tells you to. Number two, because the ordained ends come along with ordained means. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Now listen to all these questions. How then, Paul says, Romans 10, will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautifully, or how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what He has heard from us?
So faith comes from hearing and hearing the word of Christ. Evangelism. Ordained ends and means. Commanded. You know, I'd like to just say for a moment, if I may, of course I may, it's my show. Election is going to help you in evangelism.
Instead of making this a negative thing, how can this help? It's a downer. It's a cold water in the face treatment. No, election helps in evangelism. You know why? Let me give you some reasons. One, it overrides your inadequacies as an evangelist.
Can you imagine Jesus saying, go make disciples of all the nations to that motley crew? There's only one group of people that are more motley than those disciples, and that's the no-compromise radio listeners with their captain, Mike Eavendroth, oh captain.
Kuyper said, that assignment was nothing short of overwhelming, speaking of Matthew 28. It was the case of 11 men against the world, of 11 relatively ignorant men of the most despised nation under the sun against all the power and wisdom of the world.
That feeble by human standards, utterly negligible band was given orders to conquer the world that was Greece and the grandeur and might of the world's spanning Roman empire together with whatever wild tribes might be dwelling beyond Canaan's, or Caesar's rather, domain.
Impossible, and Kuyper says, unthinkable. See, there's no hope without election because we're inadequate. Who is adequate for these things? But God uses people like us, doesn't he? Because that's ordained.
Think about it. Election helps your evangelism, secondly, by keeping your job simple. By keeping your job simple. What's your job as an evangelist? Is it to save people? Is it to redeem people? Is it to forgive their sins?
Is it to crucify yourself in front of them and call people to look and be healed as they see you on a cross? Your responsibility, your job, your task is to preach the gospel, communicate the gospel, tell the gospel.
Okay, I don't like the words, but I'll say them anyway, share the gospel. You don't give faith, you don't regenerate, you don't justify, you don't bring into union with Christ. Your job is to sow the word.
Aren't you glad conversion's not your job? Aren't you glad that people aren't converted to follow you? Aren't you glad that you don't have to lead someone to Christ or the burdens on you for not doing it?
Have unbelieving family members and friends and relatives and you didn't do a good enough job? No, your job is simple. You proclaim who Jesus is and what he's done, and in light of that, you give them the response of repentance and faith.
You give them, that is you tell them, that's their response. W .E. Sangster said, here's what evangelism is, quote, the sheer work of the herald who goes in the name of the king to the people who either openly or by their indifference deny their allegiance to their rightful Lord.
He blows a trumpet and demands to be heard. He tells the people in plain words of the melting clemency of their offended king and of the things that belong to their peace. So, you go tell them about Jesus, the son of God, kiss the sun lest you perish.
His wrath's soon going to be kindled. Blessed are those who take refuge in him. Election helps your inadequacies. Election keeps your job simple. Thirdly, election helps you to keep the message undiluted.
I want people to get saved. You want people that you evangelize, that are your loved ones, friends, relatives, enemies, to go to heaven, don't you? Of course you do. So, in our desire for the people who are in front of us, we know that if we give them the real gospel, the offense of the cross, that like Jews they're going to want a sign, and it's going to be a stumbling block.
Like Greeks, they're going to want wisdom, and they're going to get foolishness, because that's in fact what the cross is to a Greek. It's foolish that Jesus would die on a cross, the king on a cross, naked or practically naked.
I want a sign. I want manna to come down, manna to come down from heaven. I want the Red Sea to split. I want the walls of Jericho to fall down. I want fire to come down on top of the Carmel Mountain Ridge.
But cross, developed probably in Persia, but now used viciously by the Romans to kill Jews, to kill the riffraff? You've got to be kidding me. I just stubbed my toe on it. Ouch. I don't like it. It hurts.
You're going to tell people that you have to be perfect. Do all the law and you'll live. Do this and live. That's the command. That's the law. Do this and live. Keep it all. No wonder Jesus said in Matthew 5, verse 48, you are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Try to convert somebody with that message. It's impossible. Salvation is impossible, and you've got to preach that. It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, isn't it? That's just a hard thing.
That's the needle gate. That's when the camel bends down. That's a lie. That's not true at all. What is it? Anybody can understand this. Go to your kid's room. Get the little giraffe stuffed animal. Get a bean, one of those little bean bag toys, beanies, there's something, I don't know what they're called.
Get any stuffed animal. Find the camel that's stuffed. Find the little figurine animal. It's called camel. And then bring in your needle from your sewing kit. Any size will do. And say, all right, here, you've got to put this through there.
And the kid's going to go, Daddy, I can't do that. Or they're going to say, Father, that's impossible. Yes, that's the point. It's impossible. But that means we don't lower our standards. We don't lower God's standards.
We don't lower God's holiness and increase the height of man's goodness. No, we just tell it like it is, with a tear in your eye and a sad step in your voice. But you tell them the truth. And the good news is, if you tell them the truth, the elect still will come.
No barrier is too impossible, because all things are possible with God. And so you don't want to water it down at all. Election helps your inadequacies. It helps keep your job simple. It helps keep your message undiluted.
And fourthly, election will keep your methods biblical. If your job and your only job is to sow the seed, pray for its growth, then you don't have to worry about anything else. How many people you led to salvation, how many numbers you have in census, you don't have to do that at all.
Oh, yes, but the denomination's asking for how many, you know, nickels and noses, attendance buildings and cash. They want numbers. How many people have been baptized? I don't know. Has there been anything so damaging, as in sending numbers back to the home office?
What's that all about? What would the numbers of Isaiah be, when he was told to go harden people's hearts, and they're going to see, but they can't see, and they're going to listen, but can't hear? I wonder what that would mean.
Isaiah 6, 10, 11, 12, 13. Well, my name's Mike Abendroth, this is No Compromise Radio, and I'm talking about evangelism, because I'm regularly asked the question, what about evangelism in light of election?
John Aerosmith said this, "...Election having once pitched upon a man, it will find him out and call him home, wherever he may be. It calls Zacchaeus out of the accursed Jericho, Abraham out of idolatrous Ur of the Chaldees, Nicodemus and Paul from the college of the Pharisees, Christ's sworn enemies Dionysius and Demerus out of superstitious Athens.".
Now this line here, wow. "...In whatever dunghills gods elect are hid, election will find them out and bring them home.". Isn't that good to know? You got that rebellious teenage son, that rebellious teenage daughter, that rebellious father, mother, friend.
And General Stonewall Jackson said, "...Duty is ours, consequences are God's.". So we just go ahead and preach away. You say, yeah, but what if the non-elect desire salvation? What if non-elect people, what if the people who aren't chosen want salvation?
What if they want it and see only the elect get it? What if these others want it? Is that possible? What does it tell you about man's depravity? Hmm? What does it tell you about man's depravity? Listen to what Palmer said, "...Let it be firmly stated that everyone gets precisely what he wants.
To put it the most blunt way possible, Hellians are glad they are in hell. Nobody is in hell against his will. Everybody there is glad to be there. They do not want to be in hell, but when they know that the alternative to hell is to go to heaven with a pure heart, they'd much rather stay in hell.".
R .C. Sproul said, "...The reprobate do not want to embrace Christ earnestly. They have no desire for Christ whatever and are fleeing from him.". And then A .W. Pink, "...There are those who misrepresent the doctrine of election this way.
Here I am sitting down at my table with my family to tea. It's a cold winter's night and outside on the street are some hungry, starving tramps and children. And they come and knock on my door and they say, we are so hungry, sir, oh, we are so cold and hungry.
We are starving. Won't you give us something to eat? Give you something to eat? No, you do not belong here. Get off with you.". Now people say that is what election means, that God has spread the gospel feast and some poor sinners, conscious of their deep need, come to the Lord and say, have mercy upon me.
The Lord says, no, you are not among my elect. Now, my friends, that is not the teaching of the Bible nor anything like that. That is absolutely a false representation of God's truth. I do not believe anything like that.
Now then, here is truth, Pink said, God has spread the feast, but the fact is nobody is hungry and nobody wants to come to the feast and everybody makes an excuse to keep away from the feast and when they are bidden to come, they say, no, we do not want to, we are not ready yet.
Now, God knew that from the beginning and if God had done nothing more than spread the feast, every seat at his table would have been vacant for all eternity. Back to Spurgeon, if they could have but known that the Lord had chosen them, it would make their hearts dance with joy.
If you are a Christian, God made you a Christian. No one can come to me, Jesus said, John 6, verse 44, unless the Father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on that day. John 6, verse 37, all that the Father gives me shall come to me and the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out.
My name is Mike Abendroth, this is No Compromise Radio and you can write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com. When you give in to election, you finally give up on yourselves and the matter of salvation, so says Michael Horton.
You want to know if you are elect? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll know. 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.