Is your church going south? (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. We're here to take your calls as well. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry.

My name is Mike Abendroth. No Compromise is a show dedicated to stand up for God's truth, and to stand up for God's truth, it implies, it means that we have to stand against error.

Galatians 2, verse 5, as just stated on the prelude there to the show, Paul would do the exact same thing.

And so we admire people like John MacArthur, Al Mohler, Winston Churchill, who would stand up—they're not all save men,

Churchill, no, Mohler and MacArthur, yes—but stand up against tyranny. Against tyranny against Scripture, against tyranny,

Nazi Germany. We are not really too fond of recalling Neville Chamberlain and his role in World War II, but we look up to somebody like Winston Churchill.

And so for men and women as well to stand up to say yes to truth, that's what we want. And so I did a show on how to spot liberalism in a local church, part one.

I think I've got 18 or 19 tick marks that you could go through to see if your church is liberal, which isn't a good thing.

And I got through four last time. So let me just give you a quick review, and we'll be off to the races, and we can talk about liberalism in a local church.

Your church is going liberal or is liberal if they use weasel words like, one, the Bible only contains the

Word of God, meaning that some of the Bible isn't the Word of God, some is. Number two, any kind of talk about evolution, gap, day -age theories, man was the product, no, of creation.

God makes man the crown of creation, and then when we attribute some creation to something less than God, then

God doesn't receive the glory. So that is something that would be liberal. Three, man is a victim. That's what they say, but man is a sinner.

He is bound in sin, sin stained, heart, soul, mind, and strength, after all his might sinning.

And we want to make sure that people who say, oh, man isn't sinful, we realize then you've got a liberal church.

And finally in review, man is made right with God by works. We would realize that man is made right with God, declared right with God as well, by Christ works, but that is usually set in the context of human works.

Your baptism, your sacraments, your confirmation, your catechism, your dedication, your consecration, your irrigation, your fortification, it cannot help you be right in God's eyes.

It is God who displays publicly as a propitiation in His blood, Christ Jesus.

He demonstrates His righteousness. He is forbearing. He passed over the sins of those previously committed, and then

He makes His righteousness at the present time that He might, as Romans 3 says, be the just and justifier of the one who has faith in Christ.

Number five, is your church liberal? Is your church going liberal? You need to make sure you know.

How to spot liberalism, number five. When they talk about all men will be saved, all men and women, universalism is what it's called.

That means each man and woman who's ever been born, including Hitler, Stalin, Osama bin

Laden, Judas, any people like Jezebel, all people will be saved.

That's universalism. They say, well, since Jesus died for the world, then the world is going to heaven.

If God loves every person just as they are, even in sin, then maybe they're all going to heaven.

Universalism is not true. Hell is real. Some are going to hell. As a matter of fact,

Jesus said in Matthew 22, 14, For many are called, but few are chosen.

We have the many who are called, called to repent and believe the gospel, the good news that Jesus alone saves sinners, rescues sinners from themselves, from eternal death, from the clutches of Satan.

But few are chosen. Not everyone who's born will go to heaven.

When I go to a football stadium or a basketball arena and look around 20 ,000, 50 ,000, 100 ,000 people,

I'm fairly heartbroken because I look around and I just think the few and the many. Many here, but only few going to heaven.

And that's the way it's always been. You can look back in the days of Noah's Ark with eight on the ark. There's the few and there's the many.

Jesus said in Matthew 7, Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it, for the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it.

When you see universalism sneak into the church, you'll see a liberal church. I don't blame people for not liking the reality of hell.

I blame people for suppressing God's truth and unrighteousness. This is not a doctrine that elicits some kind of joy.

When you talk to people about hell, you should be sad. When you have loved ones who go to hell, of course you're going to be heartbroken.

But that doesn't deny the reality of it. And so you can try to make in your mind some kind of little spot that says there's not a real hell.

But Jesus has spoken clearly about hell, as we've talked on past shows. He has talked more about hell than anybody else combined, and He is the one who is

God. And if He tells us there's a hell, and if He sends people there because of their deeds against Him, their actions against Him, their minds and attitudes against Him, and they want to try to kill

God if they could, if their arm was long enough, they would, then that is God's prerogative.

Remember, everyone deserves hell, and isn't it good and gracious of God that He would save some?

The question is not ever, I can't believe God has sent some people to hell. The real question of wonder and bewilderment and surprise should be,

I can't believe that God would redeem any sinner and bring him into fellowship with the Son and the

Spirit, and bring him to His holy heaven. That is the wonder of wonders. Your church is going to liberalism when you have universalism.

It's already liberal. All men, well, we're not really, you know, maybe they don't call on Jesus' name, but they'll still be saved.

Some kind of Tony Evans transdispensationalism. No, no, no. That's not true.

Faith comes by hearing a message about Christ, Romans chapter 10. We send missionaries out.

Why? Because they need to know the good news in order to go to heaven. If they could get, if these indigenous people could get to heaven some other way, by being good, by trusting in God, by living up to the life that God has given them, and hopefully that's enough, then send the missionaries home.

Don't go to there and damn more people by telling them the gospel. Just let them be. But see, we don't believe that.

We believe there's a divine mandate from Acts chapter 1, verse 8, Matthew chapter 28, verses 18 through 20, where we have the great commission to go tell people the good news to the uttermost parts of the earth.

Number six, this is NoCompromiseRadio .com. This is Mike Abendroth on WVNE or you're listening on podcast.

We're talking about liberalism in a local church. Is your church liberal? I've come up with some of these weasel words that you can spot liberalism, because sadly, liberals usually at least are not so bold to say things directly because they know

Bible believers will cringe. So they like to kind of slip things in. They like to soothe it in.

They like to use the Bible just out of context to slip in their deadly, deceitful, demonic – that was alliteration, wasn't it – deadly, deceitful, demonic doctrines.

Number six, the sixth thing you should watch out for when it comes to liberalism in your church when they start talking about all men are brothers.

This is really number six and seven, the universal brotherhood of man. And what would seven be? The universal what?

Fatherhood of God. And so we want to make sure that God is not father of all, that's number seven, and not all men are

Christian brothers. Not all women are Christian brothers. Here is what 1

John 3 .10 says, how much clearer could it be? By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious.

John, the loving apostle John, the aged, mature apostle John says there's two kinds of people, the children of God and the children of the devil.

And here's how you obviously tell the difference between the two. You don't need a magnifying glass. You don't need to go to seminary.

You don't need to do research on the Internet. These things are patently and plainly obvious.

They're made manifest. Anyone who does not practice righteousness, that's as a lifestyle, is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.

So how do you determine between children of God and children of the devil? Those are the only two categories. Well children of God practice righteousness because they are a chip off the old block, the fruit doesn't fall too far from the tree.

They are image bearers of God and now they have a divine nature according to 2 Peter 1. There's an essence and nature placed inside the

Christian, the Holy Spirit, he also is in the Christian, and the children of the devil are obvious.

Children of the devil act like the devil. Children of God act like God. And we know Christians aren't perfect, but overall they practice righteousness and they love their brother.

And so this whole universal fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man is a lie.

God is not the father of every created person. God was not the father of Judas. He was not the father of Jezebel.

He's not the father of anyone listening today who's not a Christian. God is the father of all men and women who are

Christians and no one else. Not one, not one person. John 1, verse 12 and 13.

But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God.

They're the only ones that have the right. Everyone else who says they're a child of God but is not a

Christian is an usurper, is a fraud, is false. Those that believe in his name, his holy, patient, kind, just, wrathful, patient name, those, they're not born of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.

God is not the father of an unbeliever. He's not the father of Muslims and Jews and Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc.

He's the father of Christians. That's what the Bible says. We may not like that truth, it might not go down easy in a politically correct age and day like today, but that's what

God says. Whose father, unbelievers, who is their father?

Well, Jesus, talking to someone else, but it's true for you as well if you're not a Christian. John, chapter 8, verse 44.

You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father.

He was a murderer from the beginning. He does not stand in the truth because there's no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Jesus says if you're not a Christian, if you don't believe in the Messiah of Israel, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Christ the

Lord, then you have a father and his name is Satan. That is amazing. No wonder they tried to kill him.

He says Satan's your father. Do not believe the lie that the liberals came up with years ago, that Satan came up with millennia ago, that God is the father of all men who are created, and that all men are our brothers.

It's just not true. We believe that God is the father of a Christian because they only have the right to do so.

Not everyone's the child of the king, only the one that the king will adopt or the king will bear. In this particular case, we have the king of kings, this spirit

God who is invisible and he doesn't procreate or anything like that. That analogy breaks down there, of course, but if you're an unbeliever, your father's the devil and you need to cry out to God that he would deliver you from such a bondage and ask

God to be your father. Number eight, we're looking at liberalism in a local church. How do you spot liberalism?

Liberalism doesn't come up and say, follow Satan, follow me, I want to damn you, I want to damn your kids.

It's just like when Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons come to your door. They look nice. They're dressed up. They know how to comb their hair.

They know how to be clean -shaven. They know how to knock properly and be polite and try not to be rude, but they're selling you spiritual strychnine for your soul.

And so, of course, Satan is going to cast himself as an angel of light, and his emissaries also try to look kind and nice, and they try to use the

Bible. They're not trying to use the satanic, you know, LaVey Bible or something like that. So we want to be careful.

How do you spot liberalism in a local church? Church number eight, when people say that Jesus was only a good man.

Now, Jesus was a good man, but he was not only man, he was also God. In the beginning was the

Word, and the Word was with God, and Jesus the Word was face -to -face with God.

Jesus was, furthermore, Jesus was with God face -to -face, and the Word was God. Jesus is

God. He's much more than a good man. He is the God -man. So we call this the hypostatic union.

If you say Jesus is just a good man, and he's a good example, you ignore the divinity of Christ and you are undone.

Just think about this for redemption. If Jesus was only a man, a good man, even a perfect man, and that was it, then how much righteousness would he have to give to someone else?

Well, he could probably just give his own righteousness, and he could save one person. But since Jesus is also divine, he has an infinite amount of righteousness, divine righteousness, that he can bestow to all those who would ever believe.

Jesus needed to be man so he could be our representative, so he could be man's substitute, so the prophecies would be fulfilled, but he also has to be divine.

So liberal churches like to talk about the humanity of God, which is fine, but they only talk about that.

They only stress that when the Bible stresses both. Romans 9, verse 5, that Jesus is the

Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Jesus is God. Titus 2, verse 13, our great

God and Savior, Christ Jesus. First John 5, verse 20, in his

Son Jesus Christ, he is, this is the true God in eternal life.

So God the Son, God the Father, God the Spirit are one God. We believe in one

God, three persons, and so you have to remember that Jesus just isn't a good man, that Jesus was the

God man. Number nine, how to spot liberalism in a local church. They'll say, the liberals, with kind of weasel -like words, that Christ's birth was only natural.

They'll say natural, but they won't say anything about the supernatural conception. Christ's birth was natural.

They would affirm that Jesus was born naturally, because if you're a human, you have to be born naturally.

And so Jesus came out of the womb, Mary's womb, but it was a supernatural conception.

There was no male involved. The Holy Spirit was the one who was hovering over the virgin womb of Mary.

Listen to Luke 134, Mary said to the angel, how can this be, since I am a virgin?

And the angel answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, and for that reason the

Holy Offspring shall be called the Son of God. And behold, verse 36 of Luke 1, even your relative

Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age, and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing will be impossible with God.

And Mary said, behold the bond -slave of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her.

Jesus was born of a virgin, the virgin conception. Talk about virgin birth, that's true,

I like to talk about the virgin conception, through a natural labor. Mary had a natural labor, she bore

Jesus, but it was a holy offspring. He was a holy offspring, rather, because Joseph wasn't involved. As Elizabeth's womb was barren, still

Elizabeth's husband was used to impregnate her, and then the baby, John the Baptist, was born. But with Jesus, it's different,

Matthew 1, 23, behold the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, translated,

God with us. How do you spot liberalism in a local church? Number 10. I mean, there's so many kind of running out of my voice here.

Christ died for our example. Now, again, like anything else, that is true,

Jesus did die for our example. It was a love example, it is a wonderful example, it is a fine example, but if you think

Jesus died only as an example, then you are a liberal. If you're worse than that, you're heretical.

There is more to Christ's death than being an example. And so what happens when we think of the atonement?

You need to remember that Jesus died a substitutionary death. He died in the place of, and the stead of, on behalf of sinners.

He died vicariously. Vicarious means to die in the place, means one in the place of another.

Jesus died a vicarious death. He died in the place of someone else. He was the substitute.

He bears the punishment. Of course it was an example of love, but this example of love is not only.

What if he just died as an example of love, then who bears God's wrath? Nobody does except the person who sins, so there's no heaven for anyone.

There's a theory of the atonement called the example theory or the martyr theory. And so some

Reformers were teaching, of course, that Jesus was a substitute. And so the

Sassinians of the 16th century, and today the Unitarians, talk about this moral influence view, but they've got something more liberal than that, and that is that just Jesus was an example.

He was an example. That was it. He obeyed, he loved, and he inspired people to be sacrificial in their love.

Well, I don't know how inspirational that is to you, but for me, I need to be assured that I don't have to bear my own sins.

And knowing that God is just and there's no double jeopardy in his economy, I'm glad that if Jesus paid for my sins,

I don't have to. So this example martyr theory just doesn't hold up because you have verses like the just dying for the unjust.

Mark 10, verse 45, for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.

How about 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21? God made the Son, he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

It doesn't say anything about the example of love. That talks about how Jesus died in our place.

Christ died also for the sins, once for all, the just for the unjust, verse Peter 3, 18, in order that he might bring us to God.

So we believe in substitutionary death. If you want to say it was an example, it was inspirational, that's fine, but at the end of the day, you must include substitution or you're a liberal.

Number 11, how do you spot liberalism in local church? You can email us at info at nocompromiseradio .com.

By the way, I've got all kinds of listeners from Singapore to Germany to California when we track some of this information, so who knows how the

Lord will bless the program. I'll just preach it to Worcester, and if God blesses it past Worcester, that's up to him.

We'll just try to be faithful in the ministry of the gospel here. The 11th thing that you can look for in your church to see if you're a liberal church or not is

Christ rose again in spiritual form only. He rose in spiritual form only. And so what do people do by that?

They say, well, you know, the resurrection, and he kind of went up without a resurrection body, and they just wiggle is what they do.

They wrangle. Jesus rose again in his body.

Listen to what John 20, 20 says, and when he had said this, he showed them both his hands and his side. The disciples, therefore, rejoiced when they saw the

Lord. The resurrected body was glorified, but there were links to his old body.

People recognized him. Crucifixion wounds remained, John 20, 25. The other disciples, therefore, were saying to him, we've seen the

Lord. But he said to them, unless I see in his hands the imprint of the nails and put my finger in the place of his nails and put my hand into his side,

I will not believe. After eight days again, his disciples were inside, and Thomas with them.

Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, reach here your finger and see my hands, and reach here your hand and put it into my side, and be not unbelieving, but believing.

Thomas answered and said, my Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, because you have seen me, have you believed?

Blessed are those who did not see and yet believed. And so Jesus has this recognizable body, although new resurrected body, glorified, still a link to his crucifixion.

Those remain. He could eat, Luke chapter 24. He breathed, didn't he?

He had flesh and bones. See my hands and feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.

Liberals don't like this because they want to get rid of the supernatural. You want to see a liberal, you show me someone who wants to get rid of all the supernatural events in the

Bible. Jesus rose again in bodily form. Number 12.

Here's what a liberal would say. Is your church liberal? They'd say teaching hell is counterproductive to Christianity.

Teaching hell is counterproductive to Christianity. Well, it may be counterproductive to the whims and the fancies of current political postmoderns,

PC people. But Jesus said what he said. Call yourself a Christian, you better go with what he said.

But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court. And whoever, Matthew 5 .22

says, whoever shall say to his brother, Rachah, shall be guilty before the supreme court. And whoever says, you fool, shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.

Jesus believed in hell. You better believe in hell too. And if you've got a pastor or pastorette or an elder or an elderina who says there's no hell and it's counterproductive to talk about, oh, we'll believe it but we don't talk about it, then you need to run.

You need to run. When's the last time you heard your pastor talk about hell? When's the last time you heard your pastor discuss hell?

When's the last time you heard a sermon about hell so people would have enough sense to run from it? Run from hell and run to Christ and his saving work.

We need to teach hell. By the way, show me a liberal church and I'll show you a church that won't preach consecutively through the scripture because there's too many things in there that are dangerous.

It's like nitroglycerin. It's like TNT. It's like dynamite. These things will explode and then they'll explode the church out and people won't want that.

Well, friends, we don't really care what people want. We care what God requires, and pastors need to preach for God's glory, not for what the church wants.

I'm glad BBC, Bethlehem Bible Church, wants the truth, but if they didn't want the truth, I'd tell them it anyway. Why? Because we're men and women under authority.

I'm a man under authority. So if you've got a liberal church, you've seen some of these things today. Sure, can you pray for your leadership?

Yes, but I think you might need a new church. That might be a good question. Bethlehem Bible Church, NoCompromiseRadio .com.