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Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.
Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures, verse by verse, with No Compromise.
Jonah's helpful because it reminds us about the supernatural nature of God. It helps us because it gives us assurance that that God would love me through Christ's work. It gives us an awe because the fear of this kind of God, it's the beginning of all kinds of wisdom.
In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verses 1 to 6, Paul is not really wanting to defend himself, but he must. And he says in chapter 4, verse 1 of 2 Corinthians, For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord with ourselves as your servants for Christ's sake.
Now don't miss this. For God who said, let light shine out of darkness. The God that said in Genesis chapter 1, verses 3, let there be light. The God that did that physically, that's how he saves people spiritually, has shown into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus, our Jesus Christ.
That's amazing to me. That's amazing. How does God create light in Genesis? Before there's anything, God creates light. How does he do it? Light. How does God create a Christian? Light. It's the same way.
There's a perfect parallel. That's what Paul is saying in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Mike, do you believe in evolution? Mike, do you believe in day-age theory? Do you believe in the picture kind of view, the pictorial day?
Do you believe in the gap theory? Answer, no way. Because I'm not a Pelagian, nor am I a semi-Pelagian, nor am I an Arminian. You say, what does that have to do with anything? Alright, let's think about it.
Day-age theory. By the way, this is good for us that don't know anything about carbon dating and fossil records. How can I look at Genesis chapter 1 if I don't know about that stuff? Day-age theory.
It says 7 days in Genesis 1, but it just means a long, long time. You've got to have enough time for billions of years to go on to make evolution. Why don't I believe that? Because when God regenerates somebody, he does it instantly and perfectly.
And he says, you're a Christian light. There's no evolution involved with people becoming Christians. Yes, the Father draws, but there's a time you were in darkness, and there's a time when you were in light.
And when God puts the light switch on, you believe, you respond with faith and repentance. And now Jesus on a cross, the risen Savior, he looks beautiful to you and wonderful to you. Before, you couldn't care less.
It's good for other people. Hopefully, it makes them better citizens. Why don't I believe in evolution? Because I don't believe in the evolution of human salvation. Why don't I believe in pictorial day theory?
What's a pictorial day theory, you ask? Glad you asked. It took so long for the earth to evolve from the Big Bang and everything else. We're talking gazillions of years. It took so long. How do you describe a gazillion years?
It's going to take you 168 hours to describe that is what it's going to do. So it takes a long time to evolve. It takes a long time to have God tell Moses. Friends, the supernatural salvation of a sinner doesn't happen over a really long time period.
Here's what happened. Eternity passed. Chosen. At Calvary, he dies for. And then in time, God says you used to be a child of darkness, and now you're a child of what? The light. Why don't I believe in the gap theory where there's a space between Genesis 1, 1 and 1, 2?
Answer? I wasn't there. How can I be so dogmatic about it? Because Paul says creation in the physical world, recreation of spiritual world. Genesis 1, 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Let there be light, physical.
Let there be new life, spiritual. They happen the exact same way, instantaneously, monergistically, according to the sovereign nature of God. Why don't I believe in the gap theory? Because I don't believe in a gap theory of salvation.
You know, with justification, a regeneration. God reger me, and then he aids me later, regenerates me. He starts to justify me, and there's a large gap in between, and then he saves me. It's amazing to me.
Paul, to Agrippa, thought about Genesis 1 when he got saved. Did you know that? In this connection, I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priest. At midday, O King, Agrippa, I saw on the way a light from heaven brighter than the sun that shone around me, and those who journeyed with me, with some of the exact same roots found in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, are used.
Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And you know what happened? He saw the bright light, and then about four years later, Jesus said, because there's a gap in between these two, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
Is that what happened? You're giving me that look. That's not what happened. Now, here's the bad, bad news. When you get rid of a God who's on his throne, who's sovereign, who's supernatural, and you just get rid of him, something's got to fill the vacuum.
And it's called liberalism. And here's what liberalism says. You don't really need such a sovereign God. All this doctrinal talk isn't too good. And so what do we need to talk about instead? Let's talk about God the Son as an example, not as a substitute.
Let's talk about the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God. Let's talk about how we cooperate with God for salvation. And all that comes in, in the form of modernism or liberalism. Out goes supernatural view of God, and in comes Jesus as just a good moral teacher.
In comes man's pretty good, God's not so great. Even the man Karl Barth, and I don't recommend you read him very often, but he's right here. One cannot speak of God simply by speaking of a man in a loud voice.
When the supernatural nature of God should be around in our thinking, and it leaves, here's what happens. You know, I determine everything now by experience and not by truth. Turn with me, if you would, to Matthew chapter 12, please.
Matthew 12. I like to just go to one passage and stay there. Today's a little bit different, but that's okay. It's a holiday tomorrow. Matthew chapter 12, verse 38. Now, we go to this passage often because this relates Jesus' death to Jonah's.
In Matthew chapter 12, if you don't know now, it's the chapter of opposition. Five times they're opposing Jesus. Now, we're turning to Matthew 12. Why would a fish have to rescue Jonah? Why couldn't it be like, I don't know, some vulture?
Why does it have to be a fish? Why couldn't God just take Jonah and transport him over to Nineveh? Actually, is divine transportation seen like that in the Bible? Yes. Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing, but Philip found himself in Azotthos.
He's preaching away. He's done preaching. God picks him up and drops him over here about 15 kilometers over there. Why a fish? Because the fish reminds us of the resurrection. The fish reminds us of supernatural deliverance.
Matthew 12, verse 38,. Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you. Didn't he just do some? The answer is yes. They had a tradition. When the Messiah comes, he stands on the Temple Mount, he does a bunch of miracles, says everybody's saved, and then some lights come from heaven.
We want to see a sign like that. Elsewhere, it was said to Jesus, we want to see a sign from heaven. I mean, Elijah's got signs from heaven. Elisha's got signs from heaven. Moses signs from heaven. Where are your signs?
Garland says,. But Jesus will offer this generation no noisy sign from heaven, only the wind whistling through an empty tomb after his crucifixion. The reason why Jonah has to be rescued by this fish, entombed and encased in his belly, is because Jonah was to die, as it were, to be buried, as it were, and to be raised, as it were, and so Jesus is going to be dead, buried, and raised, supernaturally delivered.
It says in chapter 12, verse 38, now verse 39,. But he answered and said to them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
Supernatural deliverance. For just as Jonah was three days and nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Jonah is the sign.
Jesus is the sign. And the rescue had to be through the fish. All right. What if I were to say this to you? Instead of going home today saying, Honey, what did you think of the message? What did you think of the service?
What if you were to go home and say in the car, I wonder how God liked our worship today as a family. We'd rather do the first couple, because that's easier to critique than to be critiqued. And I certainly want to be biblical, and if I'm not, you can critique me.
But Lord, I want my worship to be pleasing to you. How did you find my worship pleasing to you today? How can I think that way? Friends, I don't think you can think that way unless you understand the supernatural nature of God, who also sends His Son then to be cloaked with humanity.
Because I know I don't worship as I should, so I need a supernatural God who's not just transcendent above and supernatural, but also comes into space and time, and He is near, and He is Emmanuel, and He is now He, the Son, is one of us.
I need to say to myself when I go worship, I need to be in awe today. I need to be in reverence of God. I need a good dose of, I'm not God, and God is, and God, I'm impressed. How do you get that? And the only answer I can come up with all the Bible is, you've got to believe that God is a transcendent, supernatural God, or it's all done.
Yeah, but Mike, I just want five things to do today, and I'll feel better. Friends, by tomorrow you'll have already broken all the five things I told you to do. It's like when promise keepers came out.
That's the last thing I need is some more promises to break, because I'm breaking them all the time. I need Jesus who all the promises are yes and amen in Him. Show me who God is. Let me be impressed with who God is.
And by the way, if you study someone long enough, you become like them. Did you know that? Why do husbands and wives act the same? Some of them look the same. I mean, close. Because after 40, 50 years of just adoring and looking at and being around, you start taking some of the communicable attributes of your spouse.
I know it's scary. You're giving me those looks. The poor unmarried people are like, you know, Ixnay on that whole deal. You've got to show somebody this God who sits on a throne, who's high, who's exalted, and then He's so great.
Why would He then send His Son to be cloaked with humanity? What about the incarnation? See, the incarnation means nothing to you unless you realize the supernatural transcendence of a sovereign God. And now when Jesus says, you know, I condescended, I didn't count it a thing to be grasped, and I'm going to make myself low by adding the flesh of a bondservant.
And that's why then God the Father highly exalts Him. Now here's what I'm going to do with the time we have left, and it's going to be a speed version of this. I last taught this to you in 2008 because I looked up my computer program.
It said 2008. So who was not here in 2008? Good. Everybody else who didn't raise your hand, you already forgot it. So I'm going to remind you. 2008, I did a little paradigm through the Gospel of Mark that talked about the supernatural nature of God, and the response is always in Mark, fear and awe.
You're like, somebody give me something to be in awe of. Give me something to worship. I mean, money's not going to do it, power's not going to do it. For me to go run up to someone and bow down on my knees and say, I worship you, they're going to have to be pretty awesome.
So turn your Bibles to Mark chapter 4, and I'm going to give you six quick demonstrations of Jesus' supernatural transcendence that will cause you to say, I'm in awe. So for those of you taking notes, you get the outline at the very end of the sermon.
So here's six. Six demonstrations by Mark, the writer, that show Jesus' supernatural power and awesomeness so that you respond with awe and fear, a godly fear. And if you got this down, you're never going to have a problem with Jonah.
You're never going to have a problem with anything else in the Scriptures because you're going to say, my God sits in the heaven and He does whatever He pleases. And it pleased Him to send His Son to be cloaked in humanity for me, a sinner.
All right, are you ready? Buckle up. Get your WD -40 on the spines of your Bible. What do you do if you have an iPad? WD -40 work? I don't think it's going to work. Mark 4, verse 35. Demonstration number one.
Congregation, the paradigm is supernatural display of Jesus' transcendent power results in fear and awe. Not shock and awe, fear and awe. It drives you to worship. It drives out any liberalism that's sneaking in.
435, it says, on that day when evening had come, He said to them, let us go across to the other side. Leaving the crowd, they took with Him in the boat just as He was, and other boats were with Him. And a great windstorm arose.
Same language of the Greek translation of Jonah 1, 4. Winds were breaking into the boat. Waves, rather. So the boat was already filling up. This tempest, this squall. Matthew says this earthquake like of a storm.
He was in the stern. Makes me think of Jonah asleep on the cushion. They woke Him and said to Him, Arise, go to Nineveh. No. Teacher, do you not care that we're perishing? He awoke and rebuked the wind.
It's like He cast out the demon of the wind. That's the language, rebuke. You rebuke a dog, be muzzled, be still. The wind ceased. There was great calm. And He said to them, why are you so what? Afraid.
They should be calm now. None of this is going on. Why are they afraid? Because they've seen the supernatural God of the universe in their boat. And that makes you say, wow. Aw, yes. Reverence, yes. But a tiny bit of fear.
Verse 41, And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey Him? Now, if I were to tell you as a liberal would tell you, Jesus stilled the storm of fear in the disciples' hearts.
That doesn't move me. That doesn't make me say I'd worship such a God. Just don't be afraid. It's like, you know, you pat your little child on the head. Be afraid. Daddy's here. No, how about the oceans obey, the sea obeys, and now He's in my boat.
He's transcendent, but now He's incarnate. He's in my boat. Demonstration number two. Demonstration number two found in Mark chapter 5. Jesus is not just supernaturally strong over the sea as God. He's actually more than that.
He's supernaturally God over demons. Remember the legion and the demons and cutting and blood caked over everything. Verse 7 of Mark 5, Crying out with a loud voice, What do you have to do with me, Son of the Most High God?
I adjure you by God, don't torment me. For He was saying to him, Come out of the man, you unclean spirit. What's your name? My name is Legion, for we're many. Verse 11, the great herd of pigs was feeding there.
Remember? He cast out the spirits into the pigs, and the pigs numbering 2 ,000. Verse 13, Rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned. They were choked. Just imagine, what does 2 ,000 choking pigs, drowning pigs sound like?
And the herdman's fled, was told in the city and the country, and the people came to see what had happened. They came to Jesus and saw the demon possessed man and the one who had the legion sitting there clothed in his right mind.
And what's the paradigm? Supernatural, display of who Jesus is. And what's the paradigm? The response is, Hey, deviled ham for supper. The response is, fear. And they were afraid. The liberal view of this doesn't thrill me.
The wild man was so freaked out, he chased the pigs in the water. Wow! Worship, on my knees to worship you, Jesus. No. Number three, third demonstration. Found in chapter 5, verse 25 and following. Jesus is supernaturally God over disease and sickness.
Remember the lady, verse 25, discharge of blood for 12 years. Can you imagine? Everything ceremonially unclean. Suffered much, went to all kinds of quacks. It says, in verse 29, Immediately the flow of blood dried up.
She felt in her body that she was healed of her disease, and Jesus perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned into the crowd, about into the crowd and said, Who touched my garments?
You see the crowd pressing around you, yet you say, Who touched me? And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, What's the paradigm? Supernatural. Response is, Came in fear and trembling and fell down before him.
Three more demonstrations. We've got to go quickly. Mark, chapter 6. Mark, chapter 6, verse 45. Jesus is supernatural God over the elements. Take a look at chapter 6, verse 45. This is another case. They're in the sea.
Jesus is alone on the land, verse 47. They're making painful headway. He wanted to pass them by to show with languages of Exodus, chapter 34. He intended to pass Moses by to show him his deity. And what does the text say?
But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out for they all saw him. Now they see Jesus and were what? Terrified. Oh, yeah. I forgot the liberal view that causes me wonder and awe.
They saw Jesus by the boat walking on a sandbar, and they all flipped out. Number five. Mark, chapter 9. Mark, chapter 9. We see who Jesus was on the inside in this supernatural transfiguration. Remember, it says in verse 2 of Mark 9, transfigured, clothes radiant, intensely white.
No one on earth could bleach such a garment like this. He appears with Elijah, with Moses. Peter says, Rabbi, it's good that we're here. Let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.
For he did not know what to say, for they were. What's the paradigm? You see the supernatural nature of God, and you are what? In awe. And they were afraid. Finally, Mark, chapter 16. This is important because it ties into the resurrection of Jesus, and it ties in to the picture of Jonah as one who is in the stomach of the fish and raised, supernaturally delivered.
And now we see the pinnacle, the apex of supernatural deliverance, the resurrection. Now, there's all kinds of arguments about Mark, chapter 16. Does it end in verse 8? What about 19 to 20? What about 21 and 22?
Even in your Bibles, it'll say right after chapter 16, verse 8, with a little asterisk, the best manuscripts don't have what's the rest. We're arguing over and over and over. There's no argument. It ends in verse 8.
Why? Because Mark wants to say this. Jesus is the Son of God. You can look at Mark, chapter 1, verse 1 for that. How do you show someone is God himself? Because he supernaturally was raised from the dead, and it ends on an exclamation point.
It ends on something supernatural so that you, the reader, respond with fear and awe. It's supposed to stop in verse 8. Now, when the Sabbath passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary, mother of James, chapter 16, verse 1, Solomon brought spices, might go and anoint him.
First day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They were saying to one another, Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb? And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back.
It was very large. Who's going to move the stone? Now, who could have moved it? Entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe. They were alarmed. Do not be alarmed.
You see, Jesus of Nazareth is crucified, risen. He's not here. See the place where they laid him? You want evidence? Here's evidence that demands a verdict. My word. The only evidence you get is revelation, what I say.
He's not here. He's risen. He's crucified, risen. He's not here. See the place where they laid him? Go, tell his disciples, verse 7, And Peter, that he's going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.
Now, before I read the next verse, here's what Mark is wanting to do. Jesus is a son of God. He's to be worshiped by you, believed by you. Do you worship him? Do you believe him? He's the only Savior, and he's going to prove it, because he's a supernatural God of the universe.
And it's going to end with an abrupt stop, because you're going to be forced to do something. You either believe or you don't, and there's no middle ground. And it's supposed to give you the shock, like when that wind came and the sea now is flat.
Shock. What's my response? The demons cast out. Shock. What's my response? The demons are cast out. The winds and the waves obey him. He's walking on water. All these things, healing people. What was their response?
Afraid. What's your response to this next verse? That's the question.
No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts. 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 8 .30 and 11 a .m. and Sunday evenings at 6 p .m. We're located on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. 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.