Role Models for Hell (Part 2)

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, Michael Lee Abendroth here, good to have you tuning in. I�ve got a bunch of stuff here on my little no-code desk, just keeps stacking up over and over and over.

I don�t know, it could be good, but they are really, really pushing this crossway book by John Piper on Providence. They sent out this little pre-deal, and I don�t know how many pages it is, it�s free, and it�s 52 pages, definition, ultimate goal of providence before creation, nature and extent of providence.

Who knows, it might be good, but I just can�t read it. Sorry, I can read it, but I won�t read it. John Piper these days, the more I understand the difference between law and gospel and how he doesn�t agree with that, and he�s a Daniel Fuller student that would not see the difference, the more I understand Piper�s denial of the covenant of works, his future justification stuff, charismatic stuff, some crazy stuff about guns and weapons and who to vote for or how to vote and all this other stuff, I�m just like, you know what?

What good, better, best? Maybe it�s that paradigm. I�m not saying John Piper isn�t a Christian or anything like that, but no, thank you. So crossway, you can stop sending me all these providence things, and maybe it�s providence that I get them so that I can talk about these issues, but I think people, here�s my take.

My take is many, maybe you, listener included, many of you were introduced to the doctrines of grace, to Calvinism, to limited atonement, to whatever it might be, Bible exposition. You were introduced to those doctrines by John Piper, and you�ll always love him for that, right?

You�ll give thanks to the Lord for God using men to teach us the truth. Men that are sinful, fallible, who have all kinds of faults, and I understand that very well, because how else could I be a pastor, preacher, Bible teacher, et cetera?

Scholar, theologian, author. I�ll never forget the time I went, I think my first kind of overseas speaking thing, and I went to a country, and a person said, �Well, you know, I notice you�re an artist.

You know, what kind of art do you do? What kind of artist are you I said, �What? You got the wrong Mike Cavendroth. Artist? What do you mean an artist And I think if you type in, you know, people�s names, and then something comes up like author slash artist, it�s, you know, it�s not technical.

It�s like under this broad category, you know, of, I don�t know, limited license, you know, companies or corporations or whatever, LLCs, broad categories. And so it pops up as artist, right? If you�ve published a book, you�re an author slash artist.

So I said, �I�m no artist and I�m still not to this very day. I maybe would like to learn how to draw. You know what? I�d also like to learn how to cook better. Not the best cook, but it�d be fun to do.

I just never have enough time, it seems like. Right now, I think the only new thing that I can get my mind wrapped around, since I don�t really, I�ve got about five books that I�m supposed to be writing, but haven�t done it for quite some time, I think the only thing new is like if, you know, it�s a new swing dance I need to learn, a move, a swing move, or Kim was going to take me to the night to go dancing and it was, the dance of the night was the samba.

I said, �Well, it sounds like you have to use your hips for that, so then we better not go. I don�t need the samba. Anything with hips, I don�t, we don�t do. That�s something that maybe I should put on my learn list, but we don�t do the hips.

Any kind of, what are the other Latin dances? I don�t know. I don�t know them because I don�t, I mean, I can do the waltz. I can do the foxtrot, tango a little bit, east coast swing, west coast swing.

What are the other dances? I don�t know. Rumba. That�s it. I don�t do the rumba. Although, I think it�s got a box step similar to the waltz box, but you have to have hips. I think the hip things you can do if you do like a toe heel thing, but I�m not really sure.

For those of you that are listening today that are fundamentalist, and you think I�m sinning by dancing with my wife, then I think there�s another show you should be listening to. It�s not The Pact with my brother.

It�s probably something else. My friend, Matthew Johnson, I heard he�s also going to have a show called The Pact. I wonder who�s going to sue whom. He will sue him. Him and whom. Pact. All right. We have to get to some Bible teaching sometime, don�t we?

Can�t just criticize people all the time, right? Oh, and I also think John Piper is popular or was popular because he was passionate in his preaching. Right? They wanted a Calvinism that wasn�t dry and arid and stayed.

They wanted some enthusiasm. They wanted some personality to come through, some passion. I think it�s the same reason why people like Paul Washer, because he looks earnest and passionate and doesn�t just kind of lecture from the lectern in a, I don�t know, some kind of hyper-dry, you know, OPC, Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

I thought that�s what OPC stood for, OPC, Only Perfect Church, or is that Orthodox Presbyterian Church? I look in my, it�s like IFCA, Independent Fundamental Christian Association, or is it I Fight Christians Anywhere?

I�m trying to find the definitions of those things. So on NOCO we�ve been talking about false teachers a lot, and I don�t mean false teachers like I�m somehow implying Paul Washer or John Piper are false teachers.

I am not saying that. This is a break. If we did commercials on NOCO, we would have had a commercial, and now we�re into the new segment, because you tuned in not to hear my pontification, hopefully. You may be like that, but there�s something else that needs to be talked about.

I did role models last time. I remember Barkley got, Charles Barkley got in all that trouble for saying he was not a role model, and people said, �Oh, yes, you were. So I�m using that as my way to teach this passage in 2 Peter 2, 10b -16, and these are role models if you�d like to go to hell, right?

Because what the false teachers are teaching, they�re not godly things. They�re not, you know, you have to be careful, you can�t say, �How to go to heaven. I mean, if you want a how-to on how to go to heaven, well, then just perfectly obey the law and figure out what to do with Adam�s, you know, imputed sin into your account.

But I�m not saying it�s a how-to. Of course, the way to heaven is to trust in a person, you know, that the Father had sent the Son, and the Spirit of God helped Jesus, assisted Jesus in his life of ministry, and then applies his life to our account.

And so we ought to be thinking in a triune fashion. Oh, I am listening or reading Matthew Barrett�s Simply Trinity book. Really good, really excellent. And of course, I talked to my son Luke, and he�s like, �Well, that�s the layman�s thing.

I�m reading De Trinitate by Augustine, and I�m reading such and such by John Webster and Stephen Holm, and, you know, I�m reading the Cappadocian Fathers with Saint, you know, Gregory of Nysa, Nisan. Well, that�s how you know, I want Luke to go farther than I�ve gone.

So I�m at like the lower levels of the study like Matthew Barrett, which I never thought was at a lower level. By the way, if you read his canon book on Apollos Press, you wouldn�t be saying that now, would you?

Role models. What�s the first thing that you should learn about role models from hell is they don�t have any fear of the Lord. They have no fear of the Lord. We talked about that last time. They just blaspheme.

They�re bold. They�re willful. They�re arrogant. They do what they want. They�re defiant. They�re audacious. They do exactly the opposite of someone who fears and has reverence for the holy nature of the transcendent triune God.

They don�t act like creatures. They act like they�re running the show. So that�s the first thing. The second thing is if you want a role model to go to hell, follow somebody and believe what people teach you that have no real idea of salvation, that are ignorant of the truth of real salvation.

Peter uses the language in 2 Peter 2, �But these like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing.

And I like the language there. The language here is, you know what, they�re like unreasoning animals. God has made animals with some kind of imprinting and instincts and other things, but they�re not, right?

If you want to talk about animals and what makes an animal and do they have self-realization, self-actualization, you know, maybe you�re into psychology of that and everything else. And we would know, of course, that the difference between animals and man, even if it�s a monkey or a gorilla and a man or a woman with lots of similar things and similar, I don�t know if it�s similar DNA or similar something, but if they�re like, �Well, we�re 99 percent, you know, 97 percent with the same makeup of, you know, chimpanzees or whatever they are going to go ahead and tell you.

We know that we�re different and God breathed his spirit into Adam and that we have a soul and that, you know, it was sad when my dog Jetty at 15 years old died last year and we buried her in her little box, her little coffin.

We put a little squeaker in there. We didn�t put a little mouse in there. She�s got something to do in the afterlife. A little scare beetle mouse squeaker. I remember the days where they never had those super duper mouse squeaker things where, you know, now it�s hard to get those things out.

You know, in the old days, they just had Tom and Jerry squeaker and the dog could get the squeaker out within like 30 seconds. Next. They�re a little more formidable now, are they not? That is so true, but dogs, they don�t have a spirit.

You know, they so mimic, you know, people in so many areas and we use anthropomorphic kind of ideas and does dog have empathy or sympathy or kindness or, you know, there�s a lot of things and people love their cats, I know.

And you know, I understand all this, but they don�t have a soul and if there are dogs and cats in heaven, they�re not going to be your dog and cat that you had on earth that now has a resurrected body and a soul that�s no longer sin tainted so they can be there.

I mean, right? Dogs and cats and animals have been tainted by the fall, obviously, because they die. So how are we going to remove that sin taint and get them to heaven? Well, the point here is these false teachers, these role models for hell, they�re irrational.

I mean, you would think there�d be a creature creator distinction. You think there�d be reverence, holiness, submission, but they�re just creatures of instinct. I mean, they just go by what they�re imprinted to do like an animal and they are because of the fall, they�re imprinted to sin like an animal is imprinted or instinctually knows how to do X, Y, and Z to track down a deer if you�re a bear or something, you know, they just have the instincts to do it.

And really, the end of these animals is here, he says, to be born to be caught and destroyed. And then he flips back to blaspheme about manners which they�re ignorant will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing.

They�re going to get it at the end. Why would you follow such a person? These people that are like with acting like they�re subhumans, obviously, they�re image bearers, the false teachers, but they�re acting like they�re subhumans and they�re acting in an irrational fashion, there are no real reason to it, there�s no logic except the sinful, torqued, perverted, iniquitous logic.

And you know, oh, we see holy angels and they�re servants of God and messengers of God. We should be servants of God and messengers of God as human beings and we should be teachers of holy things. And angels are a good role model for that instead of acting like angels, and I don�t mean that in a small, culturally relevant nomenclature, but I mean like the angels in the Bible, like the awesome angels, instead of acting like those, let�s just find an animal and act like the animal.

And he�ll talk about dogs and hogs later on in this chapter, in chapter 2, verse 22. Animals live by instinct, that�s how they operate, that�s how God has made them. And they get their end, right? Not every one of them gets butchered or anything like that, but many animals you have and that�s just what you own them for, is their food, right?

These animals are food, better not name the animals because they�re food. One writer said, �As animals are trapped through their eagerness to satisfy their appetites, so self-indulgence betrays these men to their ruin.

So if you want to go to hell, you follow these kind of people. They�re out of bounds, they overreach, they don�t stay in their lanes, they�re taking turns that are too wide. I regularly, I don�t know why this is, but I regularly have a dream that I�m driving a car and I�m driving it too fast and I lose control and I can�t make the turn and off I go.

Not necessarily down the mountainside, but just kind of off into the field or something like that. I don�t know why I regularly have that dream. Maybe you know something about me, my psyche, Val, or something like that, the Meyer-Briggs deal profile, but I don�t know why that is.

I used to dream that King Kong was in our neighborhood and I ran home and hid in the basement like I would for a tornado warning and somehow King Kong, maybe it�s descent or something, he would know where I was and he would pull the roof off the house and then look down and then reach his hand down to grab me, King Kong knowing where I was in my house.

How could he do that? I mean, that happened all the time. Well, now I dream that I�m going around a bend and I�m going too fast and it is over. Then I wake up. I don�t know why that is. These people are out of their lane, they�re overreaching their status.

They don�t act humanly. They don�t act angelically, superhumanly. They act subhumanly. Sad, isn�t it? Why would you want to follow somebody like that? They�re going to be destroyed. By the way, 2 Peter 3 goes on to talk about that destruction at the end of the world with fire when Jesus comes back.

They think they�re so smart and really they�re just following the scapegoat in the stockyard and at last minute, the scapegoat, sorry, technically called a Judas goat, slips off to the side after it�s led all the other goats up for the slaughter or the sheep up for the slaughter and then it ducks out because it�s got to lead the next hapless group of sheep slash goats and then they all go up to get slaughtered because they just all follow each other.

I don�t want to do that. They�re acting in a way that shows that there�s no thinking. There�s no rationality. There�s no, hmm, we should do this and then if we do, it means we should, then that should happen.

It�s the wise and the fool in the book of Proverbs and the wise person does many things including he thinks there�s an after. He thinks there�s tomorrow. He thinks there�s the morning after. The fool says I want what I want and I want it now and I�ll deal with the consequences later.

What consequences? I just want everything right now. The fate of the hunted animal is the fate of these wicked false teachers who run their mouths about things that they are ignorant of. They don�t know the real Jesus because if they did, they would speak well of him.

They don�t know his salvation and his free forgiveness earned for us and given to us with sovereign grace because if they knew about that, they�d talk about it because whatever they want, whatever they�re after, whether it�s riches or sex or anything else, they don�t realize that the giver of all good things, including often sex and riches as wonderful benefits that we receive as creatures of God, but there�s a greater gift than that.

When you make the lesser gift the greater gift and you make sex and money the ultimate, making good things ultimate. That's not the root of all sin, by the way. That's an easy way to sell it if you're in New York.

The root of all sin is unbelief, which leads to lawlessness and then manifests itself in things like idolatry, making good things ultimate. Everything's messed up. If they knew who Jesus really was, they would talk about it, but they're ignorant with these things.

It's like a dog. Preach the gospel to your dog and see what happens. Maybe this shall come up to the front of the church and speak in an unknown bark. I don't know. I see that, Paul. Oh, it's raising its leg.

I thought it was going to accept Jesus, but he's doing something else. I mean, that kind of, I mean, I know that's crass, but I'm tired. False teachers are like animals, that's the other point. Why would you want to follow them?

No reason. They're brute beasts. The way to translate their unreasoning is a lagos, no word, no logic, right? Where you get lagos, logic, word. There's none of that. They're just caught to be destroyed.

They're destined for the slaughter. Yeah, yeah, but they're nice and they've got a lot of followers and they're friendly. Can't we all be one? Can't we just all get along? It's not worth dividing over.

I mean, I think they say Jesus, don't they? I haven't heard him say that they don't believe in the resurrection. These people are like animals, trapped by their own insatiable ignorance and desire for hedonistic pleasures.

They're surely going to be destroyed. Stop it. And unlike an animal that's simply destroyed temporally, that is to say killed and then it's over, there's an after, eternal after. Why would you want to follow these people who are telling you about things that are wrong?

That there's an eternal after called eternity in hell or in heaven. In the presence of God with a mediator, who is Jesus, that's heaven, or without a mediator, that's hell. So you're going to need a mediator if you want to go to heaven.

You're going to need an advocate and you're going to need to hear from people who know what they're talking about, who teach the Bible, who are submissive to the Bible, under the Bible, want to tell you what the Bible says, and says that the Bible's even trumping them and their own words and their own actions, unlike the false teachers.

You shouldn't be following a pastor who thinks his word is equal to or above the scripture and who doesn't care. And by the way, if your pastor doesn't really teach you the Bible, he's functionally that kind of guy, that he doesn't care.

What he says goes. There's no difference than Oprah book club. If you don't teach the people your Bible, and don't teach people about Jesus. I really think that there's a lack of real Bible teaching these days, and what we do is we just use it as a practical application and a guidebook and timeless truths, and they forget to talk about who Jesus is, and it is really sad.

It's really sad to go to churches, and you don't really hear about Jesus. Most fundamentalist, Baptistic, King James only churches talk about Jesus more than a typical seeker-sensitive, run-of-the-mill evangelical church, because that evangelical church is going to give you practical ways to be better in your marriage and communication with your finances, with the community, with this, with that, with the other, how to be less anxious, how to be less bitter, how to be more blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

King James only guy, at least he's going to say at the end, except Jesus in your heart, he died and was rose again, he's coming back, you better get your house in order. At least he'll say something about Jesus, but both services are essentially the same.

It's a P .S., it's a tack-on, or it's at the very beginning, kind of what Haddon Robinson called star-spangled banner preaching, where you read the verse and never go back to it. I mean, we don't sing the star-spangled banner at the beginning of the second quarter, do we?

Half-time, third quarter, at the end of the game? No, no, you sing it and you never return to it. Talk about Jesus at the beginning and never return to him. You talk about the Bible at the beginning and never return to it.

These are bad role models. I do not want you to learn from such people. Well, there's something else that's a role model for hell, and that's the teacher who has no sense of shame. Verse 13, they counted pleasure to revel in the daytime, they are blots and blemishes reveling in their deceptions while they feast with you, and they feast on you.

Hey, what's going on here? These people, they're probably at your communion services, where you have the lunch, when you have the feast, when you have the fellowship, the first Corinthians love feast.

There's no conscience there. In the daytime, in day, in the bright, emphatic in the Greek, they revel. There's no sense of shame. It's not like daily reveling, although that's true, but the text is more.

It's in the daytime. It's on purpose in the daytime. They don't care about the day of judgment. They're just going to go for it. We're not going to hide it at night. You know, a lot of people like to sin at night and their deeds are dark, and so they like to sin at night where nobody can see.

But these spots, these blemishes, these daring, self-willed, audacious, defiant people, you're just getting this up-close picture, this nasty picture. This is just no sense of conscience, no sense of shame, no sense of blushing and embarrassment.

They're with you in your love feast, and sorry to use the language, but a commentator used it years ago, their behavior is unmasked. You know, there's a lot of people you probably don't know what they look like anymore because of our masked society, but now we know.

Run.

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 bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.