Classic Friday: I Commend Joy!

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.

A Ministry of Jesus Christ and Galatians 2:5

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. What�s new? Well, I�m feeling pretty good. I don�t know if I get COVID again, if it�ll kill me, but it�s one year after, out of the hospital, a little over a year.

I feel okay. I don�t think I�m 100 percent, 80 percent, 85 percent, ride the bike some, probably about a third of what I normally would ride, but that�s okay. It gives me more time to do shows, working on books, that kind of stuff.

I have some articles on the Heidel blog, and I sometimes make a little guest appearance on the Heidel cast. I have been in the Heidel jeep, and I have petted the Heidel dog. I just want you to know that, and I�ve also been to Heidelberg, Germany, so just want to let you know.

Scott Clark, everything�s Heidel, all things Heidel.

Maybe I should have had some Heidel endorsement for my book. You know, we�ve got the Pactomverse with Pat Abendroth, and then we�ve got Heidel cars and Heidel pens, and I got some Heidel swag the other day.

What about Heidel Heno? What would that mean? Or if you�re Rich Barcellos, Heidel hmmm. Anyway, my name is Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio. Started off kind of this show 14 years ago as a discernment ministry, and now it�s turned into a duplexgratia ministry.

I�ve got duplexgratia .com. I own that, and I own at duplexgratia. So I might have an extra podcast since NoCo�s waiting. You know, we have fewer donors and fewer listeners now that I talk about Jesus and not about, you know, Ann Voskamp or Beth Moore or something like that.

Now, I think those are related. I think I could get more people to listen if I was always going after people, but I don�t want to do that, right? What we�re after is Christ for pardon, Christ for power, Christ for salvation, right?

So people can enter the kingdom and also Christ for power so they can say no to sin. They walk by faith and walk by obedience as Christians, union with Christ, Romans chapter 6, that type of thing. So that�s really what I�m talking about now most of the time.

I love to talk about Jesus, Him preaching. We talk about assurance. We talk about law of gospel. We talk about monardistic sanctification. I�m running out of topics to teach in American gospel. Those are it.

That�s it.

Brad and Kimber, that�s all I�ve got. Maybe I should try to be a little more well-rounded, but really that�s kind of like the key in life, right? I thought about doing one on how to teach the Bible slash preach, but I�m not sure if that would be a helpful series or not.

I�m not sure. I have 10 men in my preaching class here at the church. We meet before services every Sunday for about 15 weeks, and that�s been going well. So that�s kind of what I like to talk about. Besides my new grandson, Amos, famous Amos, Amos John Horek, A .J., Judgment on Israel Amos.

We FaceTime Amos. He�s like, �Amos. He just got done eating, and he�s all sacked out in NICU for 10 days, touch and go. The doctor said, �Good thing you brought him in. You probably would�ve lost him.

Because my daughter was out of the hospital for a couple days, and he just wasn�t doing well, so in they went. And here�s a funny one. The lactation specialist who they were seeing had asked my daughter about personal pronouns.

�What�s your personal pronoun And there she�s holding a two-day baby, two-day.

Old baby.

What do you think her personal pronouns are? And, you know, I can just imagine my daughter looking at her like, �What I think Gracie said the same thing. She was asked when she was getting a job in Santa Cruz for the summer, �What are your personal pronouns

And she looked at him like, �What And anyway, this lactation specialist said, �Your son feels a little cold. You should take him into the ER. It�s like 92 degrees or something, which also can be an infection, not just, you know, 102.

Anyway, we�re thankful he�s alive. We�re thankful that he�s getting better. He�s gaining weight. He just had�he was tongue-tied, and he just had a little laser to clean that up. Snipped that off. He used to do it with scissors in the old days.

That�s how they did it with Maddie when she was little, and then they�d gurgle in the blood.

Ooh!

Ouch!

That hurts.

And then, is Billy Rubin is better? Amos�s? He�s gaining weight. He what else? He had a hearing test, and so we�re hoping there�s no long-term deficits. They treated him like he had meningitis because they took a couple spinals, and they couldn�t assess if he had it or not because they were too bloody, you know, he was too small to get a good reading.

So they just treated him as if he had it. So far, so good. That�s the update on that. What else do we talk about on No Compromise Radio besides the Lord and a couple personal things? Well, we talk about whatever I�m preaching because I like to sit down after I�ve studied and then talk out loud.

I can hear in the headphones what I sound like, a hick from Nebraska, public schooler. And then I can kind of clean it up a little bit before I preach. We�re going through Ecclesiastes, and there�s a bunch of themes in this wisdom literature.

The preacher�s giving us themes, and I don�t know about you, but I learn things the hard.

Way.

And I also learn things by repetition, over and over and over and over. I�m doing Duolingo on my phone for both Hebrew and Latin, and it�s hard go. And especially Hebrew, because my Hebrew is so bad, biblical Hebrew, I at least know letters, and therefore when I�m doing modern Hebrew, yalla, it�s hard.

So anyway, I have to just repeat over and over and over every day on Duolingo, and by the time I get to Israel in February, I�ll have known two words, abba, lo. But in Ecclesiastes, one of the themes that he repeats over and over is fear God.

And we�ve talked about that two times in the last week or two on this show, fearing.

God.

Okay, good.

We�ve also seen that life under the sun is difficult, okay, death is near. Those are two other themes that you�ll see in the book. And there�s another recurring theme that we want to talk about today, and that is enjoy everything that�s good.

Enjoy the little gifts from God. Make sure you recognize that God is a good giver, and in the middle of all the chaos of life under the sun, and this fallen world striving after the wind, there are times where you can have a little peace and quiet, a meal with your spouse or children, a fun activity at the beach, and you can just say thank you.

So one of the themes here in the book of Ecclesiastes is that for all of us, not just the recipients of the letter, but now we are the recipients of the letter, there are times, Christians, that you can enjoy things and you should just recognize those as a gift from God.

Okay, think about the strategy of Ecclesiastes. There are all these puzzles and enigmas and riddles, and they can�t be solved. Money can�t solve them, pleasure can�t solve them, wisdom can�t solve them, death can�t solve them, and therefore, if you can�t solve certain things, you should eat, drink, and be merry.

There are times where you can just have some joy in life. Rejoice always, again I say, rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord. That's both Philippians 4 and Philippians 3. My personal study for this week in the Greek is Philippians 3, and I see those words rejoice regularly and leads into chapter 4 as well.

And we need to remember that joy is to be commended. Did you know that's the section here? Ecclesiastes 8, 15, �And I commend joy. Well, so do I.

Cheers.

�For man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and to drink and to be joyful, and this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun. I mean, what are the conclusions in a world full of injustice, a world full of unrighteousness?

We need to make sure, okay, we understand that the triumph of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus, the God-man, the Lord Jesus, and we know there's triumph that's going to happen ultimately, and when there are certain times in the middle of this trial-filled life, we can sit and drink and eat and be merry.

Eat, drink, and be merry is not always negative in the Bible. We'll get to that in a little bit, but it can either be positive or negative, and it's positive here. There is injustice in the world. Robert Frost used to say, �Juries, like in the courtroom, they are 12 people chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.

F. Lee Bailey in America, �An acquittal doesn't mean you're innocent. It means you beat the rap. Okay, it's true. So, in the middle of all that, we know we're accepted by God in Christ Jesus, and to get back to last show, we're forgiven, we're justified, we're sanctified, we have the hope of glorification.

There's no more wrath for us. That's been propitiated. We're reconciled. We're redeemed.

We're saved.

We're saints. We're chosen.

We're sealed.

The list could go on and on and on, union with Christ, dead with Christ, raised with Christ, seated with Christ. I mean, the list goes on and on and on and on, and if you say to yourself, �That's so true, therefore, instead of scampering around to get yourself right with God, God did that.

Salvation is of God. Right? Could you give your testimony without saying the word, �I God saved I. God saved me. Well, I didn't use the word, �I. God did all the saving. My part was sin. I said, �My there, but I first just said, �Can you give your testimony without saying, �I

So, have a good meal and say, �This is from God's gift. Food and drink and companionship. In Isaiah 22, �Hey, God's telling me to do something. Eat, drink, and be merry. I don't want to. In Isaiah 56, �The leaders are so irresponsible.

They just eat, drink, and are merry. Eternal destiny,. �Hey, let's eat, drink, for tomorrow we die. Right? �Soul, you have ample goods laid out for many years. I say to my soul, �Relax, eat, drink, and be merry.

But God said to him, Luke 12, �Fool, this night your soul is required of you and the things you have prepared. Whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

That's not a good one. What do I gain, 1 Corinthians 15, �Humanly speaking, I fought with beasts of Ephesus. If I fought with beasts of Ephesus. If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.

Don't be deceived. Bad company ruins good morals. Here, though, in Ecclesiastes, it's in a positive way. I could put it this way, �Therefore, whether you eat or you drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

This is the Christian who says, �I'm going to thank God for everything I have. Count your blessings. Name them one by one. Count your blessings. Name them one by one. Count your blessings. See what God has done.

Count your blessings. Name them one by one. Sing a song about revival, and it's 101. I'm not a good singer, but in past days I was so vain I wouldn't sing in front of anyone because I didn't want to let you know that.

But it's okay. You already probably knew that, so I've just proven it. It's fine. I think I've gotten better over the years. Can you imagine? I didn't say that was good, but whatever I just did, I used to be worse.

Side note, sing with your voice, especially if you're a man. Lead your family and sing. I mean, if you want to have conviction on antinomian radio, here's your conviction. Here's your conviction. If you don't sing heartily, enthusiastically, maybe you just had surgery on your mouth.

I don't know.

There might be a legit reason.

How about this?

God, I don't want to sing because the voice you gave me is no good. Ooh, antinomian radio. Some compromise radio. There is a some compromise radio Twitter account. I don't know who it is, but they're not after me.

They're pro no-co radio, which is, it's nice if you're going to have a, what do they call those accounts? Not a fanzine account, stalker. True or false? Every good gift, every perfect gift is from above.

True so far, right? See if there's any negatives coming up. Anything that's false would make the whole thing false. Coming down from the father of lights, true so far. With whom there's no variation, true so far.

Or shadow due to change, true. That's James 1, 17, as you know. The gift, the act of giving, some people think, I think Ryrie thought this, this might even been a hymn. It's kind of got that flavor to it.

Is God holding out on Christians? He gives you the greatest gift, Jesus, but he doesn't give you anything else, lesser.

Gifts.

This is talking about comprehensive giving. Everything included in this giving, every two times in Greek for emphasis. He gives you useful things, beneficial things, good things. He's generous. He lavishes everything from salvation to food, children, our bodies, taste buds, food, enjoyment, laughter, friends, children, family, clothing, shelter, beauty, ability to hear, see, taste, touch.

It comes from the father of lights, a continual coming down, coming down over and over and over, descending, descending, descending, wave after wave, unending. The goodness of God poured out on his people, poured out on you.

And the context is, do you think God's tempting you to sin? Of course not. Look at the generosity and the kindness and the lavish love of God. He gives good gifts, and he's even called here the father of lights.

And of course, God created the heavenly lights. That's a good gift. Sun, is that a good gift? The moon, is that a good gift? We have warmth and everything for the day. We have sight at night for the moon and the tides and all that stuff.

He doesn't change. Verse 18 of James 1, of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. That's amazing. Our very regeneration to be born again.

That's all God's work, monergistically done, God alone. And therefore, what do you do? Well, I think now, especially as Christians, God caused us to be born again, 1 Peter 1. We have all these other gifts.

And so I say to you, dear Christian, I commend joy. I commend joy. Rejoice always. And again, I say rejoice. Actually, it doesn't say that in Philippians 4 .4. Here's what it says. Rejoice in the Lord always.

See, therefore, even though there's trials, even though there's troubles, even though there's difficulties, even though there's striving under the sun, striving after wind, and everything's difficult because of the fall and the creation's groaning, and you see some of the effects of that on the earth, and you see temporal, at least, injustice.

There'll be justice one day, Ecclesiastes 11 .9. And you notice all that, and you think, okay, but I can in the Lord. And the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy. And therefore, you can rejoice in the Lord always.

And in light of that, you can have a nice meal and be with your wife and sit there and say, isn't the Lord been good to us? Has not the Lord been faithful? And again, I will say, Philippians 4 .4, rejoice, commands, God's good work.

And no wonder he says in James, count it all joy, even when you're in a trial. People think, well, that's weird that Solomon would say you'd be joyful in the midst of a fallen world under the sun. I don't think it's out of place at all.

I think we need to realize that bread, something to drink, a little bit of work, those are gifts from God. And since they're from God, we shouldn't belittle them, right? One man calls these things, these smaller gifts from God, although we need them to survive,.

Right?

Shalom, consolation, peace, well-being, well-rounded. Luther said, the world is ungrateful, always looking elsewhere and becoming bored with the things that are present, no matter how good they are.

And we're not to do that. We're to sit and think, Lord, thank you for this wonderful gift. Thank you for the food. Thank you for the taste buds. Thank you for my spouse. Thank you for my children. Thank you for little famous Amos.

Isn't that good?

That is so important for us. So let's preach here on Noantinomian Radio.

What about you?

Is this the kind of person you are, a thankful person? The silence is deafening. You say, I shouldn't be as grumbling as I am. I shouldn't complain as much as I do. I want to be more thankful. Amen. Just ask the Lord to forgive you.

Lord, forgive me for my complaining, my grumbling, and how I don't have much joy in the simple things. And what do you think the Lord will do? He will forgive you.

Of course.

You say, well, I don't even think I enjoy much, and how can I call myself a Christian? You know, there are people out there preaching, especially at communion services and elsewhere. If you're not obeying, the first thing they do is say, then don't call yourself a Christian.

A, how would you like to live with somebody like that? But B, that's not what we're supposed to do. There are times, 1 Corinthians 6, 9, 10, and 11, where we have to tell people, don't be deceived. You practice unrighteousness, heterosexuality, heterosexual sin, homosexual sin, idolatry, everything in between.

Such were some of you. Don't be that now. You could easily be deceived, thinking you're a Christian, and live in a state of unrighteousness.

Like that.

There's a time to talk that way, but there's also a time to say, here's who God is. Here's how great he is. Here's what he's done for you in Christ. And when it comes to obeying him out of gratitude, and to eat, and to drink, and enjoy things as God's good gift, and then take them with joy instead of a cynical, I don't even know another synonym for cynical.

Just this kind of, everything's off, everything's wrong, everything's bad. By the way, quit watching news stuff so much. That would probably help. Every night, sitting in front of the TV, watching Fox News can't be helpful for you.

It wouldn't be helpful for me. This is not Legalism Radio here, so you can do whatever you want. But just between us girls, my dad would say, that's a good way to get bugged. Because I know, I mean, I don't watch it, but I go to enough websites to say, oh, yikes.

So I'm going to commend joy. Dear Christian, I commend joy to you. Cheers for joy. Hear, hear. All in favor of joy.

Hear, hear.

Prost.

Yalla.

Isn't that a much better way to live? Okay, if I wanted to convict you, I'd say, what kind of people would you rather be around? The mumblers and the complainers are those that commend joy. Just the simple pleasure.

If you don't drink alcohol, don't drink alcohol. So get yourself a seltzer. Get yourself some apple cider here in New England this time of year is wonderful. And sit down and have a nice steak and some apple cider with your spouse and with your Bible open and say, here's to commending joy.

And if you're a person that drinks wine, open up a bottle of wine, your favorite wine, sit down with your spouse, sit over by the fireplace, eat some onion rings. I don't know what goes with wine. Don't ever ask me about pairings.

What's paired with what? I don't have any idea what a pairing is. I'm a homeschool. I mean, I'm a public school kid from Nebraska. I don't know what a pairing is. My point is I commend joy. Thank you, Lord, for all these things.

That's the kind of person I want to be. And I think the reason I want to be that is because the Spirit of God is in me working. So instead of saying, how could you call yourself a Christian? Well, call yourself a Christian because you wouldn't want that righteous thing unless God was working in you.

Right? Right.

Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry. I commend joy.

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.