Jovan Mackenzy Interview

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.

Reformed Rap and the Goal of the Interview

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth and I'm your host. We have a slogan around here and here's the slogan, always biblical, always provocative, always in that order.

And that is our desire here, is we want you to think about biblical issues, but we can situate them in a very provocative, thoughtful way to get you to try to think and engage your mind as R .C. Sproul would say.

And so today I have a special guest online, Jovan McKenzie, and he is of all things, are you ready for this No Compromise listeners? I know you think I'm probably young, restless and reformed, but he is a reformed gospel rapper and evangelist.

Jovan, welcome to No Compromise Radio. Hey, thank you for having me, brother. Hey, how can you be reformed and rapper at the same time? Probably some of our people, their minds are discombobulated and steam's coming out of their ears.

They know I like punk rock music in the past, but what about rap? Tell me about your ministry.

Well, actually, yeah, I know a lot of people look like, how can you be a reformed rapper? Well, actually, we know, of course, music in itself isn't sinful. It's the men that get behind the music or that make the music that are sinful.

And so like with the rap, me being reformed, I actually glorify God by putting the scriptures, like maybe taking hymnals and putting it to rap form, which is just adding a beat behind it, and different stuff like that.

But the message, when you listen to the message and the lyrics behind it, it's biblical theology.

Jovan, when I read your website, midwestnoise .com slash Jovan slash biography, it says, and I like the way you phrase this, God opened Jovan's eyes to the doctrines of grace in 2008. That's a good reformed way of doing it.

You didn't let God save you. Tell us how God saved you in 2000, well, earlier, but then opened your eyes to the doctrines of grace in 2008.

Yes, actually, I believe, I don't think I was saved at the time, but in 2005 is when God started really dealing with me as far as conviction of sin and really showing me that I needed a savior. I grew up in church.

And so it was kind of like, you know, thinking I'm a Christian, but living any type of lifestyle. Then in 2005, in church, I was like, man, you know, I was struggling with, man, living in the world and wanting to be a Christian.

So I started going to, I would watch TV in like all day, all the time, I would just spend all my time watching Benny Hinn's and Doctrine of Prosperity, you know, this type of doctrine. And then fast forward it, in 2008, is when God began to open reformed theology.

And at the time I heard of Calvinism, but I didn't know what it meant. So like you have Episcopalian, you have Baptists, you have all these different people. So I'm like, okay, it's just another denomination.

But I was, me and my friend Avi were reading through the scriptures and I didn't actually know I believed election until one day this guy, we got into a debate about it and I automatically, wow, I didn't even realize.

And God just started slowly opening up our eyes to reform theology, to listen to people. And somebody was like, hey man, you're a Calvinist or like, why do you say that? And then they directed us to totally what we were believing and what we were taught in most of the churches we attended.

Jovan, when I grew up, my father would say, oh, I don't like such and such a kind of music because I can't even understand the lyrics. And I don't even know what I was listening to at the time. But when I listened to your music, of course there's music in the background and sometimes violin, sometimes drums and other instruments, but I can understand what you're saying.

And what you're saying has to do with an exalted view of Christ, Trinitarianly centered. And I can understand the words, which I'm glad for that. Do people, do your friends say to you, you know, reformed soteriology, Calvinism, did you, that's a white man's religion.

Do they get you in trouble with that?

Or do they ever say things like that to you? Oh, well, all my friends are reformed for the most part. But yeah, I mean, I have met people, of course they say Christianity is a white man's religion or they'll say, when they find out I'm reformed, they say, well, somebody, a man must have taught you that because there's no way you can just read the scriptures and see it, you have to be taught that, which I look at it the opposite and say, for you to be Arminian, you have to be taught that because there's nowhere in the scriptures.

But yeah, that's pretty much, you know, every now and then I might be witnessing that somebody usually comes from people my color, black people that will say, oh man, it's a white man's religion, something like that or whatever.

But for the most part, people I hang around with, I don't ever hear that.

Well, for the listeners that are interested, you have a website too, JovanMcKenzie .com, right? Yes. And his album, The Narrow Road Famine, it's released and they can get a free copy if they just want to go to the website and if they'd like to donate, they can, is that correct?

Yes, sir, that's correct.

How are the sales going so far? The sales are going good, man, it's up and down, but I've had a lot of people that's been donating, man, every month. God is faithful to provide for the needs of me and my family through the ministry.

So it's definitely been a blessing.

Well, you can either pick up a book, let's say R .C. Sproul's book on theology or maybe a James Boyce book on theology, John MacArthur, or you could actually listen to The Narrow Road and learn theology.

We have quotes here, we, like Jovan and I did it, but there are quotes from Steve Lawson, James White, Phil Johnson. I think maybe Jovan, the most impressive song to me is the song about the Trinity, the triune God featuring James White.

And for you to put Trinitarian language with rhyming and rapping, yet still be truthful, I really appreciate that song. Thank you, man, I appreciate it. So when T .D. Jakes comes on TV and we've got guys like James McDonald and Mark Driscoll who ask him, not even curveball questions, but underhand questions that, you know, slow pitch underhand softball questions that don't get to the issue, what aren't they seeing?

Do you think T .D. Jakes is a Trinitarian or do you think he's a modalist?

I still think he's a modalist. I think what he did, listening to the transcript and reading it, I just think what he did, he danced around questions, I mean, he danced around his answers, and Driscoll and McDonald, they danced around their questions.

It was never about getting to the truth. It was never about honoring the Trinity. It was, you know, it was what a lot of new Calvinism is. It was just pragmatic. It was, let's get a false teacher in here.

And instead of coming at him like, listen, you're false, you need to repent, here's the gospel, here's what the Bible says, you must believe this, it's more like, hey, let's just get together, you're a brother, I'm a Christian, we may not agree on everything, we may have different terms, but at the end of the day, we all serve Jesus.

It was kind of like a universal-type mindset. But yeah, if you look at his answer, like Jake, when he says, a red flag should have been, too, when he said, you know, I choose to use manifestations, because Paul used manifestations when he says God was manifested in the flesh.

Got a context, because of course, God in the person of Christ was manifested in the flesh, but that has nothing to do with the other two members of the Trinity. They weren't manifested in the flesh. So that's just talking about Jesus coming to earth, being a man, not that the Father came, or that the Spirit, for him to use manifestation and to say, well, I choose to use that over persons, you have to imply that the church has got it wrong for 2 ,000 years, which is just totally ridiculous.

Well, one thing that they never even brought up is the whole prosperity gospel that Jake's embraces. And with your background of prosperity gospel, and name it and claim it, I can tell by listening and reading what you've written on your website, that you don't like that damning doctrine.

You deplore it, and of course, I think you're kind to the people who are in it, but for the leaders who are promoting that, you're out to get them with the Word of God, aren't you?

Yes, yes, I definitely, especially me coming out of it and having a familiarity with the Word of Faith doctrine, I'm definitely totally opposed to it, because it's not God-honoring. It's all about the temporal and not eternal, and it doesn't honor Christ, it honors man, and it makes man sovereign, and it makes God just a servant of man and a genie.

It doesn't make him Lord and ruler. And so, yes, I definitely, any chance I get, I try to, if there's an avenue, I try to preach the gospel and at the same time refute a lot of the heresies that are in the Word of Faith, or oneness, or anything.

You know, witnesses I need to deal with.

Exposing False Teachers in the Music Video

Well, we're gonna play the song, What Am I To Do, in just a moment here on No Compromise Radio, but before we do, if people go to YouTube and pull up What Am I To Do online and then type in your name, Jovan McKenzie, when I first watched that video and saw that you were in front of Creflo Dollars, quote-unquote, church building, and then, who was it, Eddie Long?

Eddie who? Yes, it was Eddie Long. Eddie Long, okay, yeah. Eddie Long in front of his church, and then the security guy comes out, and then the police car comes out, and I could see the blue flashing cherry on top of the police car flash on your face while they were filming it.

I thought, this guy needs to be on No Compromise Radio. What happened that day?

Actually, we went out there, our friend Marcus with Crown Rights, it was actually my friend I .V., it was his video, and I'm just featured on the song on the second verse, and he, you know, they were like, man, we should, you know, we're in Atlanta, we should shoot in front of, the song was exposing false teachers, we should go out there and shoot in front of the church and warn people, show them the visible church, and also, if we see anybody out there, we can witness.

So a couple of church, we pretty much witnessed to the security guard, they kicked us out and stuff like that. So we went to Eddie Long's church, we were actually not on the property, but we were right in front of it, close enough to where we were almost on the property, but we were still on public property, and so the security guard, you know, let us know we had to leave or whatever, so we went way down the street where there's a sign that says New Birth Ministries, which is Eddie Long's up there, so the security guard comes down and starts harassing us, and we're not even on the property, but he's still like, we don't want you nowhere near, you know, trying to listen to the internet, so we just let him know, hey, this is what your pastor teaches, this is what the Bible says, you know, you need to come out and repent, and turn, you know, come out of that church, you know, pray, may God open your eyes.

So he didn't want to leave, so we're like, okay, so as we were rapping, we were rapping like, you know, I'm gonna call the police, legally, there was nothing he could do, and so that's pretty much what happened,.

And we just got it all on tape. Well, pull up I .V. and Jovan, What Am I To Do?, I think you'll be encouraged, matter of fact, let's just play that right now so our listeners can get an idea of the ministry.

Listen up, listener, I just ask of you one thing, please listen to the scriptures that is in this song, and go back and study it. Please listen to them, write them down, study it. Let's do it. Here they go again, Payin' they man money, they makin' they feel Like I'm takin' from they pockets Cause I'm sayin' the truth.

I'm talkin' biblical proof. You don't wanna hear it, it's true. Hope the Spirit's in you, so you would understand. Man, I'm sick of man. Look at what they teachin' When I turn on TBN. Look at all these heathens.

Speakin' about givin'. Not concerned about true repentance. Look how they livin'. But you tell me, just forget it. Romans 16, listen. Mark those that cause division. 2 Timothy 4, boy, they is the sitchin'.

5 Verse 28, look at Verse 23. He that repeat, find more favor Than he will fathom speech. Come on and turn with me. To 1 Corinthians 5 Verse 12, we not supposed to judge outside. But if they claim to be in the body We let them have it.

We'll duke them sharply. That's what God commanded. When you speak the whole truth, it's true. Everybody gets disappointed Disappointed. They say, don't put your mouth on me. And to God they say, touchin' out here is anointing.

Out here is anointing. All I hear is cliches. Stickin' out of context. What am I to do? What am I to do, man? What am I to do? Should I listen to scripture? Or should I follow you? Yo, now in the Bible it tells us to rightly divide The word of truth.

But we can't divide if we don't study. To show ourselves approved. And scripture is good for doctrine and for reproof. Which means if I preach false doctrine It's when correction's used. Let's chop it up like vegetables.

Because they destitute, they follow wolves. They can everything they pastor said was true. Now that's incredible. What the leaven they eatin' isn't edible. But that's what they do with man on a pedestal.

See in the pulpit, there's preachers Who claim to know Jesus. But look into the text, that's why James said Woe to you, teachers. Knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. So we must stay accountable.

Avoid doctrines of Satan. No, you don't have to love me. The Bereans were more noble Because they didn't trust Paul. But they went back and studied. Now that should be our motto. That's something we should follow.

So throw away the cliches. Please heed the Bible. When you speak the whole truth is true. Everybody gets disappointed. Disappointed. Don't put your mouth on men of God. They say touchin' out here is anointing.

Out here is anointing. All I hear is cliches. Stickin' out of context. What am I to do? What am I to do, though? So tell me, should I listen to scripture? Or should I follow you? His sheep know the sound of his voice.

And he ain't got a choice. If the father draws them, then he can't resist it. And I know his sickness. So-called Christians twist the scriptures. Gotta get a witness, witness bein' said. Lotta believers ended up dead.

I'm going against the religion of man. So most of these churches don't understand. What about, read about martyrs. Sons, daughters, mothers, fathers. Losing their life for reppin' the Christ. We need to go harder, not smarter.

With worldly wisdom, ism, and schisms. Edenism, visions, and eloquent speech to convince them. And I see the way they caught up in emotionalism. Listen, but I know we need to go get them. And hit them with facts.

And we need to preach to hold counsel. As simple as that. Whether in season or not. No, we cannot stop and stop compromises. And we need to call them out. Need to close their mouth with false prophesies.

See the way they be more search and preach. And they teach it so falsely. And the blind, they lead the blind. And they fall in the pit cause they can't see. Yeah, when you speak the whole truth is true.

Everybody gets disappointed. Disappointed. They say, don't put your mouth on me. And the guy, they say, touching out here is annoying. It's annoying. All I hear is cliches. Sticking out of context. What am I to do?

Come here, you serious? So tell me, should I listen to scripture. Or should I follow you? I know a lot of y 'all was okay with this song until now. When you got people like Creflo Dollar. Where we standing at right now.

His church preaches nothing but heresy. He preaches not the orthodox view of the trinity. And he also preaches against Christ's deity. And he's all about prosperity. If anybody goes to this church right here, New Birth Eddie Long's church.

After all these sexual scandals. And all his heretical preaching over the years. I pray that you would come out. Cause it's doctrines of demons. Google the names, look up websites like alleleleven .com.

And please, do your research. Look at whole messages and come up out of these churches. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

That was What Am I to Do? With Ivy and a special second stanza there. With Jovan. See, I just like that. Where you're calling out people. Saying go to a little leaven. See, this is my style. I think maybe I should change my theme music.

For you, to you guys. How'd you like that? Very good, I praise God. All right, we only have a few minutes left. Let's talk about famine in the land. Before I play the song. As you know, Amos chapter eight, verse 11 Talks about a famine, not of bread Nor for a thirst of water But of the hearing of the word of the Lord.

So tell us what inspired that song. And why you wrote it.

The album is actually called Famine as well. So what inspired the song in the album. Was I heard a Steve Lawson book called Famine in the Land. And so I heard the sermon that he did about. I think he did a few different ones called Famine in the Land.

So I listened to those. And I was just inspired not only by the sermons In the book that he did But also just in my day-to-day evangelism And meeting so many people down here. I live in Jacksonville, Florida.

So the South is full of just religious people Who claim to be Christians But either don't know the gospel. Or maybe they do, but they live in a type of way. You know, just any type of way. And so I was like, man, it really is consistent With what's going on today.

People are going to church. And they're going to all these religious events. And they're buying all these religious books. But they still have not been presented with the truth. It's not just the fact that they reject the truth.

Most of them haven't heard the real truth to reject it. They're ignorant. And so I was like, man, it's really a Famine in the Land. I think this will be a perfect album to do To kind of address some of these topics That I see every day.

That is not being dealt with. And that enough people are not speaking out against.

And I think in the one album there The song featuring Ivy I think you have some of Steve Lawson. Actually, you know, some of his preaching in the song. Is that correct?

Yes, in the Famine in the Land. On the intro I have some of his sermon excerpts. From Famine in the Land. That's right. Now, I asked you before.

At least when we were emailing I said, I love it that you had the song That talked about propitiation. And you've got some lady background singers Singing about propitiation. And it was just so classic I just loved every second of it.

What is propitiation?

Oh, well, yeah. That was actually my wife. My beautiful wife was singing that I wrote the hook for her. And she gladly didn't mind singing that. Oh, yeah, propitiation, of course, is just Just to break it down in simpler terms Is an appeasement to God.

When you look at the death of Christ Him on the cross Taking on the wrath of his father It was an appeasement. Or it pleased God. And it settled the enmity or the hatred That God and man have with each other.

And so God is legally no longer mad at his elect Because of the elect people he died for. That Christ died for. The father is no longer legally mad at us Because of the propitiation of Christ. So his death is what pleased the anger Or satisfied the anger of God.

Well, thank you so much, Jovan McKenzie. His album The Narrow Road is released. Called Famine. What's it called? Narrow Road or Famine?

What's the difference? Narrow Road is actually my first album. And so this is kind of like a part two. This is actually my fourth sound action album. So this is kind of like a part two. So it's called The Narrow Road Famine.

Okay, and if they want to get the album, where do they go?

They can go on JovanMcKenzie .com There's J-O-V-A-N-M-A-C-K-E-N-Z-Y JovanMcKenzie .com And then they can click on I think it says downloads.

Or it should be on the front page. If not, they can click on downloads. And they'll see the Famine album. All right, thank you so much for being our guest today. On No Compromise Radio. We are going to play Famine in the Land now.

And we're going to hear Jovan. And we're going to hear I just like at the beginning all the violins. And it seems so nice. It seems like even Steve Lawson could listen to such a song. And then comes the beat.

Jovan, thanks for being on No Compromise Radio.

Hey, thank you for having me, brother. When it comes to God People praising for blessings.

The land is in a famine Amos 8 and 11. It's not a famine of bread No, a thirst for water But of hearing the words of the Lord, God the Father. And that's a scary thing. To not hear his word To not hear his voice.

Even in the church. We living in a day where we don't believe in Jesus. Not the one of the scriptures We just even teachers. They got itching ears But I ain't the one to scratch them. Yes, I'm a rapper But no, I am not just rapping.

Satan wants to distract them. Get them caught up in fashion Let them cash in Then go to hell with us weeping and gnashing. I'm in the wilderness You know I'm crying out. I'm warning people. There's snakes in the church hiding out.

Paul said call them out. So I call them out. I let the word divide. Truth will haul them out. You can search all around the world Going from churches to made of churches. You'll never catch them trusting Christ alone.

They never rest. They just keep on working. You can expose the lies. You can expose these gospels. See these passes. They won't examine. And you can look for truth But never find the truth. You won't be able Cause it's a famine.

It's a famine. So many people blind. They can't see. They in the church building But lack understanding. And they lack discernment. Look at the pastor's sermons. I'm thinking it's about time. We draw back the curtains And look at the worship.

Looks like they at a circus Vain worship. Every week it's the same service. And the main purpose Is purpose driven life. The pastor preaching health and wealth So he living nice. But the people broke.

The people poor. But the people stay Cause money they seeking for. Verse 76 Says they need to withdraw. The pastor in the pulpit He just seeking applause For godliness with contentment. It's great gain.

And Paul said to Christ I can do all things.

You can check us out online at bbcchurch .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.