Get Ready for Jail

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 ministry. Mike Abendroth here. Don't forget nocoever .com. Episode two is now up. Thanks, Josh. And also you can go to No Compromise 90 on YouTube and find some videos there.

Preparing Children, Love, and Jail for the Coming of Gay Marriage

Well, what's on tap today? I read an article by David Murray. And by the way, let me promote, you know how I like donotbesurprised .com, Karen's blog. That helps me because then I don't have to scurry around and do all the research.

She can do it for me, my research assistant. And I also like the Aquila Report. I think it's .com. The Aquila Report, because it also does a lot of, it's kind of a digest of what's going on with the Presbyterian slant.

It's got an article listed February 11th, and that was only two days ago in real time. But of course, this is noco time. This is the middle of April. Did you get your taxes done? And it says, it's entitled rather, Prepare for Gay Marriage, subtitled How to Prepare for the Coming Challenge, written by David Murray.

And he says early on, he says, I hate writing about this subject, but with both French and British parliaments passing gay marriage laws in the past week, we're reaching a no turning back point in our world.

God is sovereign and specializes in last minute rescues, but barring a Mordecai type intervention, we might as well face up to the reality that gay marriage is coming down the pike at an unstoppable speed, and it's going to impact many Christians in damaging and even destructive ways.

So then he gives some hints, and I wanted to encourage you to read the Aquila Report, to read David Murray. And I think this was originally posted at his blog. He is a professor of Old Testament and Practical Theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary.

All right, one, I won't read you the whole thing, but I'm just gonna give you the bullet points. One, prepare our children. Prepare our children. We need to, now these are my own words, talk to our children about what the Bible teaches about men and about women, about marriage, about holy marriage, God's design for a man and a woman.

Yes, even as they're old enough to explain the differences between men and women, and also how he designed sex. Eventually, you're gonna have to have that conversation anyway. I think most Christians probably wait too long to have the sex talk with kids, because I don't know, I think they just, it's nervous, they're nervous, so they don't wanna do it, but anyway.

Preparing to Love Those Opposed to the Gospel

Number two, prepare to love. Now, I think he really is helpful here, David Murray. Though Christians are often accused of hating homosexuals, homosexuals harbor far more hate for Christians than vice versa.

They really do hate us in a way I've never seen in any other group, way more than radical Muslims or even secular humanist and communist groups of the 70s to the 90s, and that's saying something. Homosexuals aren't our enemies.

Of course, they are enemies of the gospel and of Christ, but we want their repentance, we want their best, right? That's what love is. And I personally, even though I have to say on the radio and from the pulpit and to my children, this is what God designs.

God has designed a man's body and a woman's body. He's also designed marriage and intimacy and sex and all that. He's also designed and ordained marriage, and it isn't anything new. It's a reflection of Christ loving the church, and then we have a man loving a woman, and I have to explain everything about a marriage.

And what I want when I have to say any deviation from the righteous standard of God and God's holy law is sin, and I have to say then adultery is sin and fornication is sin and homosexuality is sin, I have to say that the showcase sin in Romans 1, when God through retributive justice, as he pours out his wrath on a culture, our nation, our society, it starts off with homosexuality.

God gave them over, God gave them over, God gave them over. I have to say all that. And so the homosexuals who don't like that can be angry with me and say I'm a homophobe and that I hate homosexuals and that I'm a hater and all this.

But the homosexuals that know me, that live by me, it is my goal by the grace of God that they would even stand up for me against such an attack because they would realize, yes, Mike is a Christian and therefore he believes the Bible and therefore he says that homosexuality is a forgivable sin.

And because of the fall, we are all born with propensities and we all have things about us that show the effects of the fall and that he still is kind and loving and nice even though we know what he believes.

And I think by the grace of God, that actually would happen. And we, with David Murray, want to love the homosexuals. Number three, and this is the one that hurts. Prepare for jail. Now I do want to read his section here.

I doubt most politicians really want lots of otherwise law-abiding citizens, meaning Christians, jailed for refusing to bake a cake for a gay wedding, which there's a big issue regarding that, or for teaching that homosexuality is wrong.

Many do, however, want to create a climate of intimidation that will deter Christians from doing such things. If the UK pattern is a model and it looks as if US campaigners are using the same playbook, they will pass hate crime legislation, press charges against us, shame us in the media, stigmatize our businesses and churches, threaten us with the loss of our children and impose substantial fines, all in the hope to scare us into silence.

But when none of those things move us, the legal penalties will intensify until eventually some of us, maybe many of us, will end up going to prison for us. We'd better get ready for that inevitable reality.

Betrayal, Refuge, and Eternity in a Hostile Culture

Number four, here on No Compromise Radio, David Murray's prepare for gay marriage in terms of Christians get ready, but prepare for betrayal. He said some Christians will cave. Prominent preachers will compromise.

Some will say, what's the point of going to jail? We can still preach the gospel without ever even mentioning homosexuality. We have to be wise. And Murray says there will be major Judas type disappointments.

Five, I don't know about this one, but I'm gonna read it because it's his article. Prepare a refuge. And he's talking about in the old days, persecuted believers fled persecution to find religious freedom.

He talked about pilgrims and he says, where can we flee to? Perhaps a state will come forward that will stand up to this tyranny and offer refuge to thousands of moral and spiritual refugees, aliens in their own land.

Maybe another Mayflower will be required. I guess I always wanted to live in Texas. Number six, prepare for eternity. Oh, there's some good news. Good job, David Murray. The Bible makes clear and history backs it up that when a people go down this route, it's close to its end.

It has run out of moral ground. It's already over a cliff and falling into the holy wrath of God. After a country passes gay marriage laws, the end is coming closer and closer. How far will judgment be?

Well, I understand what he's saying, although I think in Romans one, we are experiencing the judgment. So we have a friend of sinners. We have someone who has intercepted the wrath that we deserved from God the Father, and his name is Jesus Christ, and he is sovereign, and he will not let one of his elect go.

Every unregenerate elect person will come to faith, and that will include, I'm sure, many people who are enslaved to the sin of homosexuality and every other kind of sin, every other kind of heterosexual sin.

I never really could figure it out. You know, the Bible is a book of words. The Bible is clear on elders being one-woman men, and society understands that adultery is wrong and fornication is wrong, and we can't have pastors and church leaders who have mistresses and concubines and porcupines and these things.

But it's okay if you have a boyfriend, if you're a guy or if you're a girl, clergy, that you have a girlfriend. Anyway, it's beyond me. All right, what else? I do want to give praise and props and kudos to the Lutheran minister who apologized for participating in the Newtown Interfaith Prayer Vigil.

Interfaith Prayer Vigils and the Limits of Ecclesiastical Fellowship

Now, that is a horrible thing that happened in Newtown. I was thankful that Newtown Bible Church was there, and we at Bethlehem Bible Church have an affiliation with them and an association in gospel ministry and similar theological backgrounds and in a similar theological training at Master's Seminary.

And so I want truth to be told there. Interestingly, Pastor Rob Morris of Christ the King Lutheran Church. I always wanted that as a title for the church that I pastor. I almost said my church, not the Lutheran part.

Christ the King though. I like that. Christ the King. Someone should write a book about Jesus the King. I recently got a check from my publisher for that Sovereignty and Supremacy of King Jesus. And of course, there are some of the books already in the pipeline, but I sold 28 books in the United States in the last six months.

Well, technically 28 books were ordered from day one's warehouse. So maybe I sold a thousand, but they're just all in the pipeline. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I cashed the check. I cashed the check. You bet I did.

Recently issued a letter, Rob Morris explaining his regrets after he was reprimanded for participating in a service that included those of other faiths. Now, can we go give comfort to those who mourn with other people?

I don't think there's a problem there. But when you come together with Muslims, Jewish folks, Catholics, Baha 'is, Protestants, and then you have a prayer vigil, it's just not right. Now, it is very, very, very, very politically incorrect, or incorrect if you like.

So I wish he would have just not, I just wish he didn't do it at the beginning. But then he gets his hand slapped, and then he says, sorry, let's see. It says, personally be happy in any way I can help.

Let's see. Oh, here it is. Thus, to those who believe that I have endorsed false teaching, I assure you that that was not my intent, and I give you my unreserved apologies. If any of you know church members or friends or family who are now confused because of my participation, believing that the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod fully endorses the doctrine of anyone else who was on that stage, please correct this confusion lovingly, and I will personally be happy to help in any way that I can.

I took the action that I took, I and no one else. In the end, I believe my participation to be not an act of joint worship, but an act of community chaplaincy. Chaplains are expected to give faithful witness under circumstances which are less than ecclesiastically perfect, even as their fellow chaplains may proclaim a different witness.

Well, I'm glad that he said something about it, and of course, this doesn't get the news that everything else gets, because this isn't as nice. It says here, let's see, who's Harrison? Matthew Harrison is the Missouri Synod president, wrote an issue about the subject.

Now, of course, in Lutheranism, Missouri Synod is one of the most conservative factions. Synods. Matthew Harrison said, if you were upset that such an otherwise fine young pastor offered his apology for something for which you do not believe he should have had to apologize, I would simply respond by stating that we have the apostolic injunction.

Now he quotes Ephesians 4 .1. He doesn't say it, but he prints it. To walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called with all humility and patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

To those who think his apology insufficient, I would encourage you, as the commandment enjoins us, to put the best construction on everything. That's a new one. It must be the Message Bible, a message.

And accept with gratitude and forgiveness in Christ's name the real apology given you. I'm not Jesus, I'm not omniscient, I'm not infallible, Harrison concluded. I simply seek the best for the Synod, that we may be about our chief task.

I covet your prayers. Well, very, very difficult circumstances and the right response afterwards. Now, I was reading in the paper the other day as well, speaking of responses and our community and our faithful folks here in the community.

Civic Moralism Versus the Gospel in a Snowstorm Essay

Oh, I do, I think I've told you the story, but I'll have to tell you the story again. I moved here 16 years ago to the West Boylston area. And I was told that I should probably be on the town clergy council.

I don't know what they call it here. But in town, let me see if I can get this right. There's a Lutheran church. It's not Missouri Synod, I don't believe. There's a congregational church. I think it's UCC.

It's not 4Cs, the conservative branch. It is not. There is the Freedom Fellowship right there by Walmart. I believe they are charismatic. I don't think they are four square, but they're charismatic. We have the Catholic church, Our Lady of Good Counsel.

We have a Methodist church in a little kind of mini part of West Boylston called Oakdale. And so it's, I think it's UCC. And I think that's about it. And then we have, of course, the cult, Bethlehem Bible Church, down the street, the cult.

So I was asked to be part of the clergy council. Maybe there's, I don't think there's a Jewish synagogue, but we do have a jail. So anyway, I said, no, thank you. And I wanted to be nice about it, but I said, no, thank you.

And then I was laughing about it that, you know, to friends or something that, how could I do this? Because we don't even believe in the same God. And so, you know, and you get asked to do the baccalaureate at the high school for graduation, and then you can't say, Jesus, let's keep those guys quiet.

Although I was asked to be a part of the July 4th parade, I think. And actually get to pray at the very end. Haven't been asked back lately. So anyway, coming to find out, I looked up in the council and I was a member.

And so I had to write to the folks who were leading it and saying, please remove me. Thank you. But we don't even believe in the same God. And 2 Corinthians 6 won't allow me to be a member. I didn't go over so well.

So I get it. I understand. Here we have Reverend Gary Kowalski, and he is a local pastor, not in this town. He is Worcester's first Unitarian Church pastor. So no such thing as a Trinity. I would imagine he doesn't believe in the deity of Christ then either.

Our common foe. So here I'm thinking underneath the little subtitle in our local newspaper, speaking in faith, our common foe, and the guy's a reverend. So I thought, you know what? Let's have a listen to see what he has to say.

And he's an author of best-selling books on animals, nature, history, and spirituality. Harvard College, Harvard Divinity School. He's been translated into German, French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Czech.

But I don't think he, oh, appeared in periodicals like TIKKUN, T-I-K-K-U-N, and Yoga Journal. I can't make it up. And his books sell more than my 28 copies in six months. You can bet your life on that.

Our common foe. And I thought, all right, you know, if you're for something, you're against something. Propositional truth, antithetical truth, black and white, for gospel, against moralism. I thought, oh, finally, maybe even this Unitarian is coming around.

Let It Snow: Civility, Neighbor-Love, and the Power of God

People seem friendlier in a snowstorm. As a New England pastor, I recall many Sunday mornings, just like the one coming this weekend after a big snow. Plows had been working so hard, the main thoroughfares, clearing the main thoroughfares, that my little side street was still impassable.

So I'd have to hitchhike to get to church. But I didn't worry because I knew some helpful Samaritan would surely pick me up. When cars were stuck on ice, strangers would hop out of their vehicles to give a friendly push.

Dead batteries were a cinch, for there were always passerbys, passersby rather, with jumper cables willing to lend a hand. And then he says, a century ago, philosopher William James wrote an essay entitled The Moral Equivalent of War, where he observed that the world needs a substitute for the martial virtues that arise from facing a joint enemy.

Wartime evokes camaraderie and heroism as nothing else can. Is there a less destructive nonviolent means of awakening those same feelings of selflessness and connection to a higher good? Yeah, because we don't, or clearly our common foe is indifference and disregard.

Here we go. The daily rut of inhumanity that blinds us to our neighbor's needs, keeping us snug inside our warm automobiles, even when we see a fellow motorist spinning his wheels on a slick patch. Why not get out, lend a hand?

If a February storm can rekindle even briefly our understanding that we are all one race, the human race, then I say, let it snow. Now, here's the most interesting thing in the Whispered Telegram and Gazette.

Reader comments, add a comment to this blog, and then it says this, please keep it civil. We reserve the right to delete offensive messages. Please keep it civil and lively. How could we write something offensive to this?

How does that work? Offensive? Milk toast, pablum, do good, be nice, moralism. Everybody agrees. But if you get a shot to write something in the newspaper, we need to give people the good news. Nobody needs to be told, be nice to your neighbors.

Are there mean people in the human race? Yes. Are there mean people in New England? Yes. Should we help our neighbors? Yes. But we all know that. So see, here's what the gospel does. And I think Michael Horton is to be commended for his banging the drum incessantly.

We don't need to be told to be better neighbors, to help shovel, to throw a little bit of rock salt on your neighbor's slippery ice patch. Why? Because we understand civility. Now people can be more civil.

Yes. But Christians, reverends, need to tell people, here's one to revere. Can you imagine the God who can dump this amount of snow? I think that shows his power. You can look at the ocean to see his power.

You can look at the sun to see his power. You can try to understand gravity to see his power. But one of the ways I see the power of God is through these snowstorms. How much does snow weigh? I saw some people trying to clear out the lake to make a little hockey rink.

And when there's 35 inches of wet snow on top of it, you basically just do a little, what do you end up doing? You can't even make the rink. You just have to make the thing that you can go on the outside of it all.

Make a little lap or something, a little ring around it. I don't know what you call it. I'm looking outside and I'm actually seeing, I kid you not, there's a house right across the street from the church and they have horses.

And there are two big horses running through the snow right now. So you think about the powerful horse. They used to measure power back in the old days by horses and chariots, right? In the Old Testament.

Think about how heavy snow is and then you dump three foot of heavy snow. I don't even know the weight of it. From, I don't know, where was it? From New York up to Maine. And you just dump it on every single square inch of earth.

And I think about the power of God. Oh, there are other displays of the power of God and tsunamis and volcanoes and other things, Mount St. Helens, but God is powerful. Just how powerful He is. And to think that He is so powerful, He can take sinful people and make them born again and regenerate them and make them alive.

The power of the gospel. Paul says, I'm not ashamed, meaning I'm confident of, I'm glad in, I take courage in the gospel, Romans chapter one, verse 16. And can you imagine the righteousness of God can be imputed to our accounts because our sin imputed to the account of Jesus Christ.

And He, as our representative, bears our sins on the tree, is raised from the dead because God says, I commend your work. And when you said it is finished, I agree, excellent work, my son. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

That's exactly what the resurrection did. Oh, it signified other things like judgment, Acts 17, but we have a risen savior. It's hard to trust somebody who's dead, but Jesus is alive. And so when you get the opportunity to write something, then we write things that should be declared.

The gospel ought to be declared, gospeled. That's what 1 Corinthians talks about. We gospel the gospel. We proclaim the gospel. We foretell the gospel. So my name is Mike Avendroth, No Compromise Radio, WVNE 760, or you can go to our website, No Compromise Radio, or you can go to Facebook, you can go to Twitter, you can go to NoCo90, you can go to NoCoEver.

It is a brand, branding gospel. Info at NoCompromiseRadio .com. If you ever write a letter to the editor, include the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Avendroth 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 six. 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.

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