KLUV and Nahum

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.

Critiquing K-Love Lyrics and Shallow Worship Songs

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and this is quite a first for me. This is recording in the bunker of the No Compromise Radio home. I�m using a computer to do this, and I�m not having my normal stuff, so it seems odd.

You can write me, info at nocompromiseradio .com. You can also write me, mike at nocompromiseradio .com. Some good emails lately. So I�m just going to do a FaceTime Live or Facebook Live, and then a radio show recorded at the same time.

I�m using Audacity. I know that�s a computer program that some of you know, so that�s what we�re going to do. Some of you maybe know that I critique regularly K-Love songs and stuff like that, and I don�t know if it�s my background in punk rock and being a punk rock disc jockey and stuff like that, but I like music.

I just don�t really like sappy music, and so in light of that, let me give you some worship songs and their lyrics, and I won�t tell you who wrote them for the sake of just protecting them. You are my desire.

No one else will do, because nothing else would take your place to feel the warmth of your embrace. Is that how you sing to Jesus? If you do, you ought to stop. Here�s another song. Friend of sinners, Lord of truth, I am falling in love with you.

Friend of sinners, Lord of truth, I have fallen in love with you. That song�s entitled �Friend of Sinners. You called me child, and I�ll call you father. Kisses from heaven of joy and laughter. I want to lavish my love on you, Jesus.

I guess maybe if this was a Spanish guy, Jesus, or something, this might work, but I don�t think it�s going to work too well right now. In the secret, in the quiet place, in the stillness you are there, in the secret, in the quiet hour, I wait only for you.

What�s that movie, science fiction movie or something? You can�t talk or make sounds in the quiet place? Is this the theme for that? Because I want to know you more. I want to touch you. I want to see your face.

I want to know you more. Maybe I should use this for bumper music. I don�t like these headphones, but this is the best I got at home. Did you know it snowed like eight inches of snow today? It was called a bombo genesis.

I like the word genesis. There was a knockoff on Tarzan when I was growing up. His name was Bomba. He had a little speedo on and a knife, and he was barefoot, and he would swing through the vines and everything like that.

Since Tarzan was really popular, he was a knockoff. It was Bomba, so maybe this is the Bomba genesis storm. Here�s another song. Do you sing songs like this? The simplest of all love songs I want to bring to you, so I�ll let my words be few.

Jesus, I am so in love with you. Maybe you think that, but I would never talk that way. And just a few more, since this is no compromise radio. Like a rose trampled on the ground, you took the fall and thought of me above all.

See, even S. Lewis Johnson behind me, he doesn�t like that, nor does Machen. He doesn�t like that at all. This is bad lyrics. I�m going to be a history maker in this land. I�m going to be a speaker of truth to all mankind.

I�m going to stand and I�m going to run into your arms. You are my desire, no one else will do, because nothing else can take your place to feel the warmth of your embrace. Didn�t I just sing that already?

Okay, just a few more. You didn�t want heaven without us, so Jesus, you bought, brought heaven down. We are the hope on earth. The weakness I see in me will be stripped away by the power of your love.

Nahum 1 as a Praise Song About the Jealous and Avenging God

And then there�s one other one that I want to read on no compromise radio, and this is my introduction to the show tonight. Here�s another song. Do you sing this? The Lord is a jealous and avenging God.

The Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries and keeps wrath for His enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.

His way is in the whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry. He dries up all the rivers. Bashan and Carmel wither. The bloom of Lebanon withers.

The mountains quake before Him. The hills melt. The earth heaves before Him and the world and all who dwell in it. Now, did you know that is part of Nahum chapter 1, the book of Nahum? We call it a minor prophet, and that�s actually a praise song.

There�s a couple more verses that go with it, but God is to be praised for who He is, including all of His attributes, and there�s lots of things I could say about the K-Love songs that I�ve made fun of, and I know some of the songs that they sing are probably fine, but the focus, instead of being on us, chaos, is going to be on who God is, the Lord God Almighty, and that�s really when we think about praise songs, and I see a few people are watching.

David�s watching. Diane, Vicki, Liz, good to see you. It seems late at night. It�s 7 .30, 6 p .m. here in New England Standard Time. Still trying to recover from the Nor 'easter. Actually, you could look up Nor 'easter in the Bible in the book of Acts, and I think it�s called, maybe in the NAS, it�s called the Eurocleidon, and we just call them Bombogenesis.

My family was just bugged at me because I saw on the Weather Channel Bombogenesis, and so I just want to try to say it as many times as I can today, and then I won�t soon forget it. God has inspired Nahum to write this book, and Nahum means comfort.

It�s short for Nehemiah, Nahum, Nehemiah, and it means God is my comfort, Yahweh is my comfort, and what�s happened in the book of Nahum, I�m going to preach this tomorrow, by the way, so Diane, you get a sneak preview.

Nahum is writing to essentially the people who are in Judah who are experiencing the suffering underneath the Assyrian domination. One hundred years earlier, Jonah wrote to the Ninevites, and Nineveh being the capital of this dominating power, Assyrians, and there was great repentance, but 100, 125 years later, they were back to their old ways, and God is going to judge them, and Nahum gives the people of God comfort knowing that their oppressors, that Judah�s oppressors, will be judged, and he�s happy about that, and he�s excited to give this oracle, even though it�s an oracle of judgment.

It�s called in verse 1, chapter 1, verse 1, an oracle. It�s another word for burden. It�s also called a vision. This is like in John, chapter 1, where this vision is given. This is going to take place in the future, and the prophet Nahum delivers God�s word, and it�s very fascinating to watch what he says early on.

I don�t think you�ve ever read a book like Nahum. Just starting off with God is a jealous God. You know, it gives the chapter 1, verse 1 overview, and it�s this oracle and vision of Nahum, and by the way, this is an interesting thing.

If you go with us to Israel in 2022, Lord willing, we will go to a place where Jesus spent a lot of time, Capernaum. Isn�t that good? Capernaum. That�s where Nahum is in the word Capernaum, Capernaum, and so that one�s free.

This is, you know, you get what you pay for for No Compromise Radio Land, and so we have this song of praise. If you look at your Bibles, Nahum 1, 1 gives the introduction, and then Nahum 1, verse 2, chapter 1, verse 2 through 8 is this praise song, praising God for who he is.

I want you to think about this for a second. If you�re oppressed, a matter of fact, oppression is probably around our corner very quickly, but if you�re oppressed and you get a letter, this was a written book as well, what do you want to know?

Probably the first thing that I would want to know is the enemies are going to be killed. The enemies will be vanquished, the enemies will be destroyed, they�re going to be taken care of, rest assured.

And you know what? That�s going to be told to us later in the book of Nahum, but early on, that�s not the focus. Early on, the focus is, here�s who God is. By the way, I want to remind you of who the Lord God is, and maybe you say, I love God�s grace, I love God�s mercy, I love God�s loving-kindness, I love that he�s patient and faithful, and I agree, I�m glad you do, I do as well.

But I�m wondering, since this little praise psalm doesn�t talk a lot about his positive perfections or attributes or characteristics, as we call them, but there are some ones that are almost embarrassing to some people.

There are attributes and characteristics of God that are jealous, wrath, avenging, vengeance on his adversaries keeps wrath for his enemies. You might love the slow to anger and great in power stuff, but by no means will clear the guilty.

You have to be very, very careful. And so the first thing I want to say to you on No Compromise Radio land is that when you think of the attributes of God, make sure you can praise God, and do praise God, for all of his attributes, not just the ones you like.

When is the last time you said, God, I could praise you and sing your praises because you�re a God of wrath, you�re a God of vengeance? It�s hard to talk about, isn�t it? It�s weird for us to kind of think that way, but in fact, that�s what is happening here in the book of Nahum.

The Simplicity of God and Why His Wrath Must Be Praised

One of the things that I think I can help you with in No Compromise Radio world, and of course my home church, is the doctrine called the simplicity of God. God is simple. Now when we first hear the simplicity of God, we somehow think, you know what, it�s demeaning God, it�s not right, what am I going to do, by the way, for time?

I don�t even know my time on this. Usually I have a little monitor. Oh, there it is, 10 minutes, 48 seconds. God is simple, and what we mean by God is simple is that he�s not made of component parts. He�s one.

He�s not a bunch of different things all put together. Let me tell you what it means, a description of Doazal, you ought to get his book All That Is in God is God. That�s a good book on the simplicity of God.

We cannot posit a distinction between God and his attributes the way we might between a creature and its attributes. A man, for instance, may be wise, just, and powerful, but he is not identical with the wisdom, justice, and power by which he is such.

Each of these is a part that contributes some form of being to him, and each is distinct from the man as a whole. He depends upon these qualities to be as he is. When you think of the simplicity of God, I just want you to think theologically that God doesn�t have parts, and here�s how it fleshes out for you when you read your Bible.

When you read your Bible and it says, �God is love, God is wrathful and everything in between, I don�t want you to think God has love, that�s a component. He has wrath, that�s another component. But God is love.

God is wrathful. His being is identical to his attributes, and when we talk about the attributes of God, I don�t mind that terminology, the characteristics of God, the perfections of God, but we are using words of accommodation because we cannot explain this divine being without using English words, or Greek words, or Hebrew, or whatever, language of accommodation.

Simplicity means that the characteristics of God, his perfections, his attributes, are not a bunch of parts of God that make up God, they are God himself. God is simple, and therefore God doesn�t have goodness, he is goodness.

So how does that flesh itself out when we think about the attributes of God, and God is wrath? The reason why you have to believe that God is wrathful, and that�s part of his nature, our character, God is wrath, he doesn�t have wrath, is because this will help you accept it.

I guess that�s really what I�m after. Instead of apologizing for the wrath of God, you know there are these sections in the Old Testament where he�s wiping out people and kids and Canaanites and treats them like some kind of cancer and all this other stuff.

I just want you to understand that you can�t say, �I like God�s love, give me two portions of that, and his wrath, I don�t really want to deal with his wrath. No, no, the simplicity of God should remind us that God is good, God is wrathful, God is merciful, this is who God is.

So you have to believe God as he is revealed in Scripture, and he is revealed in Scripture. Of course, a God who is faithful and compassionate and kind and merciful, but he is a God that is wrathful. And here, Nahum records this praise psalm, Nahum 1, verses 2 -8, to praise God for his wrath.

I mean, do those get played on K-Love? That�s a serious question. Would you dare sing a song like that at church about praising God for his wrath? On Twitter, I think three or four days ago, I just took the reference away from Nahum 1, verse 2, and talked about God�s jealousy and wrath, and just said, �True or false?

God is a jealous God, and God is a God of wrath, and takes vengeance on his adversaries. True or false Because it�s so odd, we don�t know if we want to believe it. But here in the book of Nineveh, the book of Nahum, this is a comfort to the people of God.

Nahum means comfort, and he�s comforting the people of God, and he�s going to tell them, and is telling them, as we read the book, that God is going to execute judgment on God�s people�s oppressors, the people of God�s oppressors, to use proper English.

God’s Jealousy, Exodus, and the Meaning of Holy Wrath

And so let�s just look at one of these examples tonight. God is jealous. The Lord is a jealous and avenging God. And of course, we�re using the word here, Lord, L-O-R-D, all capital, and that�s Yahweh, the four letters describing God�s essence and who he is, God is, I am.

This is the covenant-keeping God who exists, who exists personally, who is self, who is independent, who is self-sufficient, and this God is a jealous and avenging God. Now, when I first read, I�m not kidding you, this is an interesting little snippet, at least to me it�s interesting, and it�s my show, and this is free.

When I read for the first time in the Bible that God is jealous, I didn�t know what to do, because for me, jealous, either personally or as I watch it in other people, isn�t really something to be praised, right?

That�s not one of those self-help sections of Barnes Noble. Remember Barnes Noble? I used to go there. It was called a book store. You�d go in a store and read some books. So I don�t have any stores for books now.

I just have to have my own library down here. Maybe I�ll give you a tour one day. But anyway, I got a Baker�s Dictionary of Theology, and it wasn�t written by Baker, but it was published by Baker, and it�s got all kinds of different conservative theologians who write articles for theology, and I still have a couple copies, and I would encourage you to get it.

I think it�s actually online for free on Crosswalk, Crosstalk, Biblehub, Bible something or other, whatever, Baker�s Dictionary, and pull up Jealous, Jealousy, God is Jealous, and I remember reading that thinking, �A lesson to be learned, Abendroth.

If you try to take a word from the Bible and just interpret it through the lens of your own eyes, your own thoughts, your own dictionary, you could be seriously wrong. So I had to think to myself, well, I have to let the Bible describe itself, and if God is jealous, it�s got to be something good, right?

And so Nahum is praising God. God is jealous. That�s the first thing he tells the people. What do you tell oppressed people? Well, you tell oppressed people what? The enemy�s going to get it. Before that, he talks about the nature and character of God.

God is jealous. God is protective of his people. God wants exclusive claim over his people. He wants a reciprocal commitment, as some of the writers talk about, jealousy. Since God is holy, and if anything impinges on his glory and his holiness, and your loyalty is divided or your allegiance is somehow diverted, don�t forget God is jealous.

Think about this verse here in Exodus 20. �You shall not worship them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. He doesn�t want you committing spiritual adultery with some other false gods, right?

In this respect, jealousy from the human perspective would be right. Of course, a husband doesn�t want his wife to commit adultery, and he would be jealous for her. If he doesn�t allow her to talk to the man at the supermarket who�s behind the cash register.

Remember cash registers? When I grew up, we had this cloth paper that you would give to people. It�s called money. There�s a bad kind of jealousy, but there�s a good kind of jealousy. I am a jealous God, Exodus 20 verse 5.

Exodus 34 verse 14. Get this. �For you shall not worship any other God, for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God. Does God approve of rivals? Does God approve of some rival that tries to divert the attention, allegiance, and love for him, God, away from himself?

Of course not. When you think of jealousy, God being jealous, don�t look at it through the lens of, �Oh, that�s some sinful jealousy that some guy has, and God�s got some problem. No, no. God creates us.

He has us as his special people, and when our allegiances go to some other rival, of course, using language here that we can understand, language of accommodation, anthropomorphic language, we have to realize God is jealous for his people.

He brooks no rivals. Therefore, in the context here of Nahum, this is one of the first things that said, �Lord is a jealous God, and his honor he will protect. So if you want the big picture, I�ll tell you what�s going on with the big picture.

The Ninevites are crushing God�s people. They are dominating them, and they are oppressing them, and God�s not going to put up with that. He will use them to chase in his people, but it�s gone too far, and now it�s going to be Judgment Day, and it�s going to be a protection of God�s honor.

God is going to keep his promises to his people, and he is a jealous God. But the big picture here, when I started talking today, 20-some minutes ago, think about the songs we sing. Think about the songs you sing.

Think about the songs you like. Think about the songs I like, and I�m not talking about, I don�t know, secular songs. I don�t know. Do you like E-L-O? R-E-O? Why are there some bands that just have those three letters?

E-L-O, R-E-O. I don�t know. Why is that? Can you think of any others? I�m not sure. God is transcendent. He is majestic, and therefore he is jealous. And you can�t just say, I want to have God�s goodness and his kindness, because all that is in God is God, right?

That�s the Dozol quote that�s very well known. Here�s what Eric Thonis said about godly jealousy. This is how it manifests itself, five ways. There�s a lover, okay, God. There�s a beloved, his people.

There�s a rival. In this case, it�s Nineveh and the oppressors, or it could be you have a fascination with something or someone that�s not God. There�s infidelity expressed in some way by the beloved, and then there�s a response to that infidelity.

I think that�s a good way to think of jealousy. There�s a lover, a beloved, a rival. There�s infidelity, and there�s a response to that infidelity. And of course, with us and people, there are sinful aspects to it.

With God, of course, there�s not. Although, I thought this was fascinating, and we�re going to have to wrap the show up here soon. Some people think that a jealous God is the result of, quote, vestiges of our reptilian brains.

The only reason you think God is jealous is because you�ve got a reptilian brain. Now, if I had a long tongue, I�d maybe stick it out. That�s what�s going through my mind now. Here�s what somebody else said, a secular psychologist, about the jealousy of God.

Again, importing sinful man�s jealousy into God�s attributes and character and nature. They view jealousy as little more than, quote, the motive in homicide and wife beating. Well, no wonder Caleb doesn�t sing songs like that.

Now, of course, there�s a good jealousy in humans. And when you think of, remember Moses, he smashes the tablets, the Ten Commandments, on the ground. And he grinds up the golden calf into tiny pieces and makes the Israelites drink it so they can�t go through the stuff that it�s going to be in to reconstruct it.

I think that would be a jealousy for God�s jealousy. We come to the book of Nahum, and it�s one of these books that is really, really fascinating because it just destroys kind of all normalcy for the Christian who�s thinking in a man-centered way.

This is the book for you to read regularly when you just go, you know what? I need a kind of a wake-up call. I need to do something that is going to refresh my brain. Every night before I preach, I take my iPad and I reboot it.

This is good reboot material when it comes to thinking about things the right way. Jealousy, vengeance, God will not give his glory to another. He is jealous and avenging. And so maybe one of you who�s a writer can write a song about this.

This is a praise psalm. Later in the book of Nahum, there�s a bunch of taunts. So Nahum is a book full of songs, some praise songs, some taunt songs, you know, nanny, nanny, nanny kind of songs, except to the nth degree.

So my name is Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio. We�re going to try another one of these either in just a few minutes or a little bit later. And we�re working on this new program here. And so you�re the guinea pigs.

Thanks. 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 bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.