Woe To TBN

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, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church. My name�s Mike Abendroth and I�m your host today. I don�t know if I seem loud enough. One of our callers said you�re not loud enough, so here we go.

I�m going to try to talk louder. I�m trying to do a little more volume for those. Pump up the volume. You can always write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com. Make sure if you�re interested in the Greece tour, that is not John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John.

This is Greece, the country. We�re going to go there. Partial tour, partial cruise, April 2013. Write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com. If you�d like a brochure, more information about reservations, et cetera.

I will be your host. We�ll teach the Bible at Patmos in Ephesus, at Corinth, at Berea, Philippi, et cetera. It�s been about a year since I�ve had headaches, bad ones at least. I�m very thankful for that.

Sometimes during that time last year I thought, �Will it ever end I wake up this morning, no headache. How great is that? All right. It�s Christianity Today, April 2012. Has some interesting notes here.

TBN, Family Lawsuits, and False Teachers

TBN embroiled in family lawsuit. Perhaps Trinity Broadcasting Network should start carrying family feud reruns. I didn�t say that. I�m reading Christianity Today. I did not say that. Brittany Copper, granddaughter of TBN founders Paul and Jan Crouch, has accused directors of illegally distributing $50 million in charitable assets for personal use.

She also claims she was fired as chief financial officer for refusing to cover up the scheme. Copper sued TBN attorneys over their role. Her uncle, Joseph McVeigh, has filed a similar suit. The attorneys previously accused Copper of misappropriating funds but eventually dropped their suit.

TBN. Couldn�t happen to a nicer bunch of people. Now sometime do a study on how Jesus relates to people. Now when he relates to people like the woman at the well, John chapter 4, you see a very kind, tender, gentle Christ who, yes, still talked about her sin.

But it was done in a different way. When he meets the self-righteous, especially religious leaders and those who call themselves religious leaders, he blisters them, as my mom used to say, �Mike, you�re going to get a blistering.

Verbal blistering. And it doesn�t take very many verses to read in Matthew chapter 23 to see the woes that Jesus gives to the scribes and Pharisees. And so when you�re talking to a sinful person and they know they�re sinful and they want help and they know they don�t have any righteousness or just talking to a regular person about that, I think our manners should be kind, loving, certainly truthful, certainly discussing sin and the Savior who�s greater than all our sin.

Talk about the substitutory death of Christ and his resurrection, obviously. And we can be kind to people. We can always be gentle, even with people who don�t like us. Second Timothy 2 talks about how we�re to respond with gentleness when we�re talking to other people.

So the question is, TBN, Trinity Broadcasting Network, now they highlight people who don�t believe in the Trinity. They deny substitutory atonement. They give a platform for false teachers of every possible stripe, from modalistic civilian heretics to word, faith, prosperity gospel.

Now has any truth ever been said on TBN? Yes, but that�s the damning part, because there�s enough truth to just get people to keep coming back and giving more. I�ve talked about how to extract money from people a lot.

Fear and greed are right up there. And so people are greedy, and they want some disposing God who, vending machine-like, gives out gifts. If you put in a quarter, you get out a piece of gum or whatever you used to get.

Now it�s a dollar for a Snickers bar or whatever it is. These people, I hope this family lawsuit deal brings TBN down. It needs to be off the air. It needs to be excised from the airwaves. One, it gives Jesus a bad name.

And two, it is a platform of false teachers. And so what does Paul say in Titus? Is Paul unloving when he says, �These men must be silenced. We need to shut these people up. Now, I guess if there�s a way legally, it doesn�t mean physically.

But we teach the truth. And I look at this passage in Matthew 23, �Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, �The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses� seat, so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do.

For they preach, but do not practice. And then he goes on to blast, �Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people�s faces. Woe to you blind guides who say, �If one swears by the temple, it�s nothing etc.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin and neglected the weightier manners of the law. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and plate, but on the inside they�re full of greed and self-indulgence.

That matches up TBN right there. �Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people�s bones and all uncleanness.

So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, etc.

Woe to you. That's what needs to be said of TBN. And so the sooner that septic tank gets dumped, the better. We have a septic tank in our backyard and we have to get that thing dumped every year or two.

That's exactly what that is, a spiritual septic tank. And if you're listening today and you say, �Oh, Mike, you're not loving. I love you enough to tell you the truth. Don't watch TBN. I wouldn't even watch it to just watch the antics.

My friend used to watch it enough, I think it was Pastor Steve. See how long it takes you to recognize the heresy when you turn on TBN. How many seconds? Count them. But I think as time goes on, you'll just decide not to do that anymore and fill your mind with good things.

I know I understand that if you got saved out of that kind of stuff, then you're tempted to watch it a little bit more so you can have some ammo for your family. I get all that. But you need to run from TBN.

Don't give any money. If you've given money to TBN, ask God to forgive you and run. You just need to not pass go. Do I want any personal harm to be done to people and any kind of sickness? Do I want to get out Paul Crouch's Holy Ghost machine gun and blow people's heads off?

The answer is no. The great news is, I'm not the judge, I'm not the sovereign king, and God can do whatever He wants with them. But many times you'll read in the Psalms the lament of David and others.

Why do the wicked prosper? How can all these wicked people have all these millions of dollars to fight over when smaller churches are hurting for money, have to lay off faithful pastors, they can't support missionaries anymore?

Well, do I somehow naively think that if everybody stopped giving to TBN, it'd all go to good churches? No. But I'm sure there have been people who have been hurt by TBN because they somehow naively or immaturely think that TBN people are teaching the Bible.

The Benny Hinn hucksters of the world and the Paul Crouches. Should you pray for their salvation? Yes. And should you pray that God would silence them, maybe through these embroiled family lawsuits? Yes.

Oh, that's so unloving. Friends, if you say that, you don't know what love is. To you, love is a sentimental Mother's Day card, and you don't want any controversy. Well, Jesus shows up at a wedding, there's controversy.

Jesus shows up at a funeral, there's controversy. Open up every book of the Bible and there's controversy. This is what we stand for, which means this is what we stand against. And I stand against a network that is gospel-less.

Don't you? If people that are your friends watch TBN and you don't tell them that's spiritual cyanide, spiritual arsenic, then you're the unloving one. It's not me. Maybe you don't want me to talk about this because it just unnerves you.

But this is the right thing to do. Does it unnerve you when Jesus says, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it? Jerusalem personified as the leaders of that city, the scribes and the Pharisees that he was just talking about?

How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you would not? I wanted to gather the people in Jerusalem that were being affected by the false teachers.

And the false teachers were saying no. And you false teachers would not. See your house is left to you desolate, for I tell you, you will not see me again until you say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Jesus left the temple and was going away when his disciples came to him to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, you see all these, do you not? Truly I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.

This is not just a system that is pointing to Jesus Christ the Messiah and I'm here now. This blood of bulls and goats isn't the ultimate sacrifice. Jesus is here. Plus, this is a corrupted temple. The temple by itself isn't corrupt.

What God prescribed for the Jews to do with sacrifice and altars and brazen offerings and all kinds of other things, of course those are good. But it's been corrupted. So, when you say, I don't want to listen to no-compromise radio because we're going to learn things about issues I don't want to know about, well, that's why I'm on.

That's why I'm on. That's why some shows will say, this is our great gospel in Christ Jesus, and other shows will say, let's see where there are theological compromises, and then let's offer biblical-oriented solutions.

So instead of spending all that time watching TBN, why don't you get the book Chosen by God by R .C. Sproul and look at something good and read. Why don't you go outside and take a walk with your family and look at the creation of God and discuss God as you see stones, as you see bugs, as you see praying mantises, as you look at the sky, as you watch the dog run around.

Yesterday I took a walk with my dog in the apple orchards, there's a couple of little ponds there, and I would take a stick and get her all riled up to get the stick, to obtain the stick, and then I would throw the stick in the middle of the pond and she would run full blast and then hurl herself headlong into the water and swim to get the stick and bring it back to me so she could do it again.

And I thought, God, you are so great. You just teach a dog to swim. Dogs are born, I mean, besides they're little, you know, when they can't and they're just tiny baby. Once a dog begins to mature, they know how to swim.

It's built in. You have to teach humans, but for creation, God just instinctively builds those things in and I'm just happy. Just happy to be there with my dog, enjoying a dog, walking through the woods, apple orchards, stealing a few apples.

Oh no, I guess you can't steal them yet, they're not ripe, they're nothing but flowers right now. So, TBN embroiled in family lawsuit. I think it would be good, Lord, silence the heretics. Lord, give that broadcasting network to somebody who would talk about free grace, sovereign grace, full forgiveness found in the personal work of Christ Jesus, sent by the Father himself.

The Lord's Prayer as a Christian Template for Prayer

Well, today it's No Compromise Radio. My name is Mike Ebendroth and I am on my TBN rant. You say, oh, that's definitely a rant. Well, let's keep going. There's a little topic here in the Christianity Today, April 2012.

Is the Lord's Prayer a Christian prayer? Well, that's a good question. It says this is a topic in the current debate. So can you pray the prayer in a place where there are Jewish people, Christian people, Buddhist people, etc., just how Christian is the prayer?

And so then there are six people who offer up their ideas. And so, what would you say? Is the Lord's Prayer a Christian prayer? By the way, let's just talk No Compromise style for a moment. And I would say that out of the 15 years that I've been here, now there might have been something going on behind my back when I was on vacation, but as long as I've been here, we have never stood up and formally recited the Lord's Prayer.

Why? Because it's not a Christian prayer? No, because Jesus said, and when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

Pray then like this, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts. As we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. So when you pray, He doesn't say, pray this. Now I like all Scripture, I love all Scripture. When you want to put a song, when you make a song using Scripture for its lyrics and you want to sing Our Father, I like all Scripture.

I'm not saying I don't, I'm trying to just say to you that what Jesus said to His disciples is often done at churches when they just repeat the Lord's Prayer every single week. Now it's not an empty phrase, I know that, but it is repetitious and sometimes bypassing the mind.

When I was a Lutheran, we would pray it every week. We would also add something after delivers from evil, for thine is the power and the glory and the kingdom forever and ever. Amen. The first time I went to a Roman Catholic church and then thought I knew what they were doing and I was repeating the Our Father with them and then at the end I blurted those last lines out which aren't in the best text that the Catholics actually know aren't in the best text.

I commend them for that. I showed my Protestantism and my love for the Byzantine manuscripts that I didn't know anything about at the time. So pray like this. If your church prays the Lord's Prayer regularly, well, it's probably a more God-centered prayer than most.

But Jesus says pray like this. The most fascinating part to me about the Lord's Prayer, the disciples' prayer, the real Lord's Prayer is in John 17 in my opinion, but the Jews weren't used to calling God Father in this intimate way and that's the way Jesus talked to Him and that's the way Jesus told His disciples to pray, Our Father.

It's a pretty amazing concept to think about the fatherhood of God. You understand Christianity if you get God as our personal Father because of the work of the eternal Son. So back to the point at hand.

Is the Lord's Prayer a Christian prayer? Well, I think Christians should pray like that. It gives a good template for God, His holiness, His will to be done, His kingdom, His sovereign purposes, how He needs to sustain us every single day, how we need cleansing every day.

So in that sense, it's a good template for Christians. Simon Kistemacher, who is the New Testament professor at RTS, said, quote, It is distinctively Christian. In the New Testament, it is Jesus who gives us the prayer.

Throughout the Christian church, whether Catholics, Protestants, or Orthodox, people pray that prayer. You will not find it in a Jewish synagogue. Now I think Simon's not saying that Eastern Orthodox Catholics and Protestants are all Christian.

I think he's saying that broadly, this is known in every manifestation of what people call Christian. Now professor at Fuller Seminary, Clayton Schmidt, said, You could consider it a prayer for multiple religions, because Jesus is considered to be a rabbi or a great teacher by many of the world's religions.

It was not originally delivered as a Christian prayer. It was simply a teacher teaching his disciples a good way to pray. Now that is just making my gag reflex want to be operated. Why is it called an Adam's apple, by the way?

I just touched my throat. Why is it an Adam's apple? Jesus, the great teacher. By the way, I'd like people who think Jesus is only a great teacher to read the Passover, the last Passover account found in 1 Corinthians 11 and Matthew 26 and other places, Mark 14.

Here's the Passover, celebrating God's great deliverance. And the death angel does not kill the firstborn of the Israelites. The great celebration of Passover, and Jesus said, from now on, when you think of God's Passover, Yahweh's deliverance in the lives of the Israelites, do this, Jesus said, in remembrance of me.

Now that's startling. Who would talk that way if they're just a good teacher? A megalomaniac? He'd talk that way. A lunatic? He'd talk that way. A liar? He'd talk that way. No boastful person that I know, the biggest boasters in all the world, I haven't heard him talk like this.

Maybe a David Koresh, maybe the dude that calls himself Jesus who lives in Columbia or wherever he lives and flies around to Florida, I don't know where he's from. But Jesus said, do this Passover service with the bread, with the cup, in remembrance of me.

Now that's just a good teacher? If you're not a Christian today, stop calling Jesus just a good teacher. Obviously, he was the best preacher. He's the prince of preachers. Nobody taught like Jesus did.

Nobody gave the parables that Jesus did. The Sermon on the Mount, it's brilliant. But he's not just a good teacher, because good teachers don't say, I'm Yahweh, and by the way, here's a memorial that I want you to have, and now it's no longer the Passover, thinking about Israel's deliverance, it's about me, delivering my people from their sins and their transgressions and their iniquities and their trespasses.

Do this in remembrance of me. So this great teacher, it's not a Christian prayer. Now, I will admit that this is before the resurrection of Christ Jesus, so there aren't any Christians yet, but there were Christ followers.

They're not—this is pre-Cross, but I don't think the Fuller professor is helping us in any way, shape, or form, trying to conflate this into modern mumbo-jumbo ecumenicalism with world's faith kind of talk.

Do this in remembrance of me. And after all, the teaching part, although very, very, very, very, very important, when Jesus taught something, we obviously should listen and heed and take heart and obey and memorize and follow.

I totally affirm that. But the veil was not rent in two in the temple, signifying the sacrificial system of Moses is over. That did not happen when Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount. Redemption was not accomplished when Jesus gave the Olivet Discourse.

Reconciliation to God did not occur when Jesus gave the parables in Matthew 13. When did it happen? When Jesus bore our sins on his body on the tree. And for those three hours when Jesus was on the cross, it was dark, signifying the judgment of God at noon, from noon to three.

Jesus doesn't call God his Father anymore. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Jesus dies on the third day. Jews count any part of a day, a day, day one, Friday, day two, Saturday, day three, Sunday.

That's the Jewish accounting term for days. So you could actually have 24 hours and two seconds could be three days, because there's a second of Friday, 24 hours of Saturday, and a second of Sunday. Of course, it was more than that.

But the Jewish accounting, third day he rose from the dead, just like he said he would. So when it comes to the Lord's Prayer as a Christian prayer, I want you to use that template to think about God and his holiness, to think about his relationship as Father because of the Son and what he's done, to think about his will being done and his kingdom and his sovereignty, and it's not all about us.

And then how God takes care of our daily provisions. I ask myself all the time, why do I get hungry so much? Well, one of the reasons is because it teaches me to try to remember that God must supply all my needs.

So today on No Compromise Radio, we've talked about two things. The first thing we've talked about is TBN, and the second thing we've talked about is the Lord's Prayer. The good news is about all the singing of the Lord's Prayer, you've memorized it.

So now use it as a template. That's what I'm after. I'm not saying people are heretical if they've ever repeated it in a church. I'm just saying we don't do that because it's a template, and we can pray along with the template as Jesus taught his disciples to pray.

When you pray, pray like this. My name is Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. Info at NoCompromiseRadio .com for the Greece trip or for anything else. God bless you.

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.