Agitate Others

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.

My name is Mike Abendroth. I'm glad to be your host today. We're back in the mode. We're back in the, hey, let's get some shows recorded.

Let's rock and roll. I don't know about you, but maybe we need to change, maybe my opinion is

I got to change the intro music, but I just don't have any time. Why are we so busy? No time. Everybody says they have no time, yet we have lots of times.

Let me check that game on my phone. If I could,

I'd be tempted, some days at least, to go to a flip phone. Seriously, with my phone now, and I know you can identify, at least most of you,

I can be sitting on the runway and the plane is canceled and we're going back to the gate and I can be getting a new flight booked, so I don't have to go wait in line.

I can travel. I've been to two countries in the last year, different countries from the

US and both countries, I didn't even bring any New Zealand dollars nor Canadian dollars, and I could use

Apple Pay. I could just use credit cards. That's the thing with my bicycle, too. I used to always have to have a credit card with my bike in my saddlebag because what if I needed it, and then now with my bicycle,

I don't need the saddlebag full of that because I can just have my phone and then it's got Apple Pay.

I don't drink this very often, but that is a Coke Zero. Is it proper etiquette to drink

Coke Zero? I mean, if I was some kind of hipster, I would probably talk about how this is some special, who knows what, some special beer or something like that.

I don't know why people do that. I don't know why they're recording their shows in the pub and everything.

I know why, but I just wish they wouldn't. I'm 59 now. People don't need to do that. That's nobody's business.

You don't need to parade it around, and if somebody wants to have a glass of wine or a beer or whatever they want to do, there's something called

Christian liberty, and they're free to do that. They're free not to do that, and I don't need to kind of ...

I don't think I have too many people saying, oh, Mike's cool. I want to do what

Mike does, and whatever he does, I'm going to follow, and if he drinks Diet Coke Zero or Coke Zero, I will too, and if he drinks a beer,

I will too. I don't think we have that because the people that listen to me are 55 to 59 years old usually.

A few exceptions here and there. I keep telling you when I go to the YouTube channel to look at stats, it's usually male 50 to 59, and that's where I am, male 50 to 59.

We're in the book of Hebrews, duh, and I like to talk about Hebrews because I'm preaching

Hebrews, and also we're in this section that we're moving from Jesus is a high priest, so what?

You'll hear that with a lot of alliterating words, doctrine, duty, creed, conduct, credenda, agenda, that type of thing, belief, behavior, and we're kind of making that switch.

It's been very easy for me to talk about Christ -centered preaching for the last four years.

Hey, I had some radiation, some other things. That's kind of got some sting to it.

I don't really drink much Diet Coke anymore, kind of gave it up. I'd rather just have Stevia stuff or coffee, but this was in the fridge.

You never know what you're going to find in the church fridge. One time, my two -wheel drive Blazer could not make it up the ramp to get out of the church parking lot, so I was stuck here, and I was hungry and didn't really know what to eat, and I think we only had one car at the time.

My friend said he was going to come pick me up, a person who was my friend at that time who is my friend now, so I had to wait until like 7 p .m.

I was starving. I mean, I know how to live now on no food for quite ...

I don't get that kind of weird rush and like, I got to have some food or else and get all aggro and antsy.

Back in those days, I was doing that, and I had to go find some communion matzos.

That's what I would eat. I kind of thought that was like David with the special bread, the consecrated bread that he wasn't supposed to have, but it was acts of necessity.

Since Jesus is a great high priest, so what? How do we live? And right here in verses 24 and 25, it tells us, and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

And finish last show by talking about the three great theologians that all have their last names or their names that they're known for.

Start with A, Anselm, Augustine, and Aquinas. Now I know what you're thinking about Aquinas, and I always wondered why

R .C. Sproul would talk about Aquinas so much. He has lots of good things to say about the doctrine of God, and so he's in the news these days because of the eternal submission subordination that some are talking about,

ESS of the son. And you would hear someone like Aquinas talk about that's not the case.

Of course, with the incarnation, the son is submitting, but we wouldn't talk about that.

We'd talk about eternally begotten, but not eternally submitting pre -incarnation. And Aquinas is also good for things like simplicity and aseity of God.

Matthew Barrett has helped us with that. Anyway, Anselm, Augustine, and Aquinas. The three A's. Well, if I wanted to make a little outline,

I'd have the three A's that recognize the supremacy of Jesus. Three A's that are responses to having

Jesus be your great high priest. It's snowing outside. It's snowing outside.

It's November 8th, my mom's birthday. I miss you, mom. A number one, the first A.

A, pastore, agitate. This is easy.

This is easy for me. All right, let's see what the text says.

And let us consider how to stimulate or agitate one another to love and good deeds.

So here's what he's saying. I want you to think about it. You consider

Christ the great apostle, better than Moses, chapter three. Now I need you to think about trying to stimulate and agitate in a good way other

Christians for love and good works. I want you to spend some time thinking about it.

One commentator said, direct the mind towards and reflect on. I would say, direct the mind toward and reflect on.

We are to consider Jesus the apostle and high priest of our confession. And now, so we're not selfish, it is snowing pretty hard.

Jeepers creepers, you're to meditate on Jesus and who he is, chapter three.

Now in light of that, you need to think and to ponder and to meditate and to fix your thoughts on other people and how to serve them in love.

Of course, the Lord Jesus, he'd be the perfect illustration and example of that very thing. By the way, the word consider is also used in Luke 12, 27.

Consider the lilies, Jesus said, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you,

O you of little faith? And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried.

Jesus uses the same word here. He says, consider the lilies. I want you to think about them, kata no 'eo.

I want you to think down, get down and think about a lot and ponder a very personal, direct thought.

Think about, it's serious. It's going to take some time.

You're going to have to put your phone down and what do you need to think about? How to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.

How to stir up, how to agitate, how to incite. Now, sometimes this word can be used negatively, like contention, like he agitates me.

That no compromise radio host agitates me. Did I mention to you? It's snowing outside. Hmm.

November 8th seems pretty early to be snowing. Wow. What's his point?

When it comes to love, you're just going to say to yourself, uh, I can put it this way.

You just don't spontaneously love very often. It has to be thought out.

It has to be kind of preconceived. It has to be not, it's just, you know,

I guess there are spontaneous acts, but you're going to figure it out. How do you stir people up to love and good deeds?

As you know, we are not isolated. We have to have a community.

Love is communal. I just snorted.

That is a rarity on no compromise radio. We've got the Diet Coke going, Coke zero, snorting.

Jesus said, love your neighbor as yourself. Did he not? James two, the

Royal law is to love your neighbor. That is your debt.

Romans chapter three, fulfillment of the law. I mean, Romans 13, sorry.

Romans 13. Also, it's the fulfillment of the law. How am

I going to spur these people on to do these things? How do I motivate them? Paroxys, paroxysmus.

How do I provoke them to love paroxysm? The English word is sudden attack or violent expression of a particular emotion or activity.

Paroxysm. It means to sharpen beyond. It means to attack.

It means to have a convulsion. That's usually the negative. Positively here, it means to stimulate.

And it could be, some commentators feel this is the case, they think this is the case, that the

Jews had a particularly inward disposition, that they needed this exhortation because it was a lot of us four, shut the door, no more.

And they were prideful. And they were children of Abraham. And we have all these privileges and we have the oracles and we have the promises.

We have the patriarchs. And therefore, it was hard for us to, as Jews, to love other people, especially when

Gentiles, excuse me, are being added. And in general, it's hard for everybody, isn't it, to love sinful people?

Even if they're declared righteous, it's hard to love them. Calvin talked about peevishness in almost everyone.

If they could, Calvin said, would gladly make their own churches for themselves because it is difficult to accommodate oneself to the ways of other people.

So take time, think about it, heads up, stay off of social media as you consider how to stir them up, stir them up to motivate, to live as kingdom citizens, as adopted sons and daughters of the great king, the high priest.

Jesus is a great model of this very thing. And now we need to, how do we get people to serve one another?

How do we get people to, you know, to rouse them up?

And this is not just do better, try harder, do more, N plus one. This is based on chapters one through 10 of Hebrews.

We're talking about a provocation unto love and good deeds.

When people say deeds, not creeds, no, no, no, that's not here. To love and good deeds, it's deeds because of creeds.

It's deeds because of Hebrews 1, 1 through 10, 18. Love and good works.

What's best for other people? And if they're doing that, thinking what's best for other people, then everything's working pretty well.

This trashes the idea that there would be a good monastery type of situation.

Yeah, I'm going to get off grid in Montana. I'm going to be Amish. Solitary religion,

Wesley said, the Bible doesn't know it. We need each other. There's an old church covenant that said we engage to watch over one another in love.

You had to sign that. You had to sign that statement. Good deeds. You even see good deeds pastorally in Titus over and over and over.

Good deeds, good deeds, good deeds. As Romans says, as we present our bodies, a living and holy sacrifice, a living and holy sacrifice, living and we live in large.

And we acknowledge that the works that are done have to be thought of properly.

You don't work to get to heaven. Your works would have to be perfect. Jesus did his works to get us to heaven.

And since now we are Christians, we work not because it will save us, but because we're saved.

And that's very, very important to get the order correctly. Our works are evidence that we're

Christians, not the ground. And if you get that right, you're going to get a lot of things right.

Legal standing is Christ's work. Fruits are evidence. Good works and love, fine.

Root of salvation, fruit of salvation. That's another way you can look at it. While our works, one man said, are not as ground of merit for justification, they are all important as evidences that we are justified.

We want to serve other people for God's glory, to be obedient because it's best for them.

We have been redeemed from every lawless deed so that we could be zealous for good deeds.

Titus chapter two. Luther said, faith is a busy, living, active, mighty thing.

Not because it has to be active in order to be saved, but because you are saved, that's what it is.

And you say, pastor, will God accept our good works because I don't perfectly do them?

There's not perfect sincerity. There's not perfect love. Sometimes I begrudgingly do them. Sometimes I don't have a good attitude.

How could they ever be perfect enough to be accepted? Other Christians will accept our good works.

That's true. But what about the Lord? I love our confession. Nevertheless, on the

Baptist confession, believers are accepted through Christ and thus their good works are also accepted in him. This acceptance does not mean our good works are completely blameless and irreproachable in God's sight.

Instead, God views them in his son and so he is pleased to accept and reward that which is sincere, even though it is accompanied by many weaknesses and imperfections.

That's lovely. God approves our work as if they were whole and perfect, Calvin said.

He goes on to say, A work begins to be acceptable only when it is undertaken with pardon. Now whence does this pardon arise save that God contemplates us and our all in Christ?

Because our iniquities are covered by Christ's sinlessness, so our works are righteous and are thus regarded because whatever fault is otherwise in them is buried in Christ's purity and is not charged to our account, end quote,

John Calvin. Wow, that's great motivation. God accepts our feeble, less than perfect works, less than perfectly motivated works because he accepts them on account of Christ.

And of course when we dig deep enough we would realize that our good works are

God working in us. How does God see our works?

Maybe here's an illustration. You see the little boy, when he's a little, that's hence a little boy, you see a boy and he gets one of those plastic mowers and his dad's out mowing and the little boy's out mowing too and the grass isn't even getting cut.

And then the son gets a little older and when he's, I don't know, 13, 14, something like that, he puts on some shoes with steel toes and he's out there mowing.

And maybe he doesn't do a great job, but he's accepted because, you know what?

He's out there helping her. Maybe it's the illustration of the daughters learning how to cook and how does the mom accept that?

They don't have to be perfect, but since it's her daughter, she accepts those cookies and has a couple and throws the rest out.

London Baptist Convention, these good works done in obedience to God's commands are the fruit and evidence of a true and living faith.

Through good works, believers express their thankfulness, strengthen their assurance, build up their brothers and sisters, adorn the profession of the gospel, stop the mouths of opponents and glorify that we would be able to serve other people.

We can't serve Jesus, but we can serve other people who are following Jesus and have the Spirit of God in them.

We would recognize that it's the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit.

He's the one to work in us to will and to do his good pleasure. True? Yes. Not to merit anything, but because we have been forgiven.

We couldn't do anything to be merited, no matter if we were like Mother Teresa. That doesn't merit salvation.

If Mother Teresa is in heaven, and that's a show in and of itself, because she said a lot of things that were wrong.

But let's just say she's in heaven. I don't know what happened at the very end. If she's in heaven, she's not in heaven because she did good works.

She's not in heaven because she did a lot of loving things and good deeds and sincere thoughts and actions and won awards and everything else.

That's not why she's in heaven, if she is. If she is in heaven, it's based on the work of Christ alone.

Christ alone. What's the cause? Grace alone. What's the ground?

Christ alone. Right? What's the instrument that's not meritorious? Faith alone.

God's working in our hearts and lives, and we do good deeds for other people. Who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure?

True or false? Apart from me, you can do nothing, Jesus said. Nothing, right?

But by this he goes on to say, my father's glorified that you bear much fruit and so approved to be my disciples.

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain.

Paul concurred. Grace toward me did not prove vain, but I labored even more than all of them, yet not

I but the grace of God with me. So dear Christian, do good.

Be ready to serve other people. Unplug from your iPad, go through the directory, pray and think.

Come to Sunday morning worship early, look around, see how you could see things that could be done.

Our people. Read the bulletin to see some ministry that exists, and you could go do that.

You could sign up for the BBC Announce, and there is cookie ministry, chair ministry, junior church ministry, nursery ministry, snow shovel ministry.

Well, that's one of the things I did with Luke. We get there early. He usually shoveled, but I was inside.

Rest home ministry, moving ministry, stirring up, stimulating, provoking a agitate

B attend. What's the response to Jesus?

The high priest. It's so great. He's so great. Attend verse 25 of Hebrews 10, not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some.

So not forsaking the assembly, corporate worship. It's important.

It's key. It's life giving. Luther said, a home in my own house, there is no warmth or vigor in me.

But in the church, when the multitude is gathered together, a fire is kindled in my heart and it breaks its way through.

Once again, this is not coming to the church because you're going to get, although you would be blessed and other people will bless you.

This is coming to worship the Lord and then to love other people. You can't stimulate one another to love and good deeds if you're not around other people.

Solo Christians. Oh, Christians bother me. So I stay at home. I have my home church. No, read the passage.

What does God say? Well, no, I kind of have my internet church. I'm not talking about if you're sick and you have to stay home and you're in a country where there's persecution.

And even when you are in a country where there's persecution, people are out and they're trying to serve and do things just like this at their own cost.

Some days I have a hard day. So you need to remember around Christians are acting strong.

They're walking by the spirit. Let's say I'm walking by the flesh. I need to be around those people. Some days I'm walking by the spirit of the people walking in the flesh.

They need to be around me. Just like with marriage. Sometimes I'm weak, him strong.

It's the other way around sometimes as well. Other people need you at church. You don't say, I'm not going to go because I don't get anything out of it.

Friends, think about Jesus. He lays down his life, a ransom for many. He seeks and saves the lost.

He didn't come to be served, but to serve, right? Not forsaking. It's a present tense.

You need to regularly think about this issue. Don't neglect to meet together. Demas left

Paul. We're not going to leave that. And so many will say, well, you don't understand the sports schedule.

Really? No, you don't understand this first. I understand how the sports people want to push and push and push, but this text is the text.

Well, my name is Mike Abenroth, No Compromise Radio. That was a fast 24 and a half minutes. I'm also glad to be on the

Alaska station. I only wish I remember the call letters, but we're glad to be on hail Alaska. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abenroth 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.