Stop Defending the Bible (Part 1)

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.

Opening the Show and the Problem of Defending the Bible

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. Here we go again. I�m back here in the studio, and I guess we start the show, and I grab the microphone like this, and now it says, �Trying to reconnect. Today is going to be a dual show, a regular show, for No Compromise Radio, one of the thousands, and then it�s also going to be Facebook Live, just for the NoCo group, and I don�t know what the lighting is here, but it makes me look like I�m, I don�t know, Rudy Giuliani at a press conference.

I try not to get caught up in all that stuff, but I turned it on the other day, and I think he needs PR people, some NoCo PR people. All right. If you�d like to write me, info at nocompromiseradio .com.

I�ve done a couple Beza briefings and have had no response to those, so we don�t know if you like those or not. I don�t know if you�re going anywhere for Thanksgiving. You are probably under strict orders, like many of us, to superglue your face masks onto your face, and then make sure you wear your face masks in the shower, too.

Do you remember the days when you, well, maybe you didn�t, but I remember the days when I would fly, and I�d see a few people with masks on. Now the surprising thing is when you see a few people without masks on, I guess you don�t have to fly if you say you have some kind of issue.

Anyway, my name is Mike Havendroth, this is No Compromise Radio Ministry, and we�re going to talk about a topic today, as you see probably in the post, �Stop Defending the Bible. Many of us have gotten into situations with friends and relatives.

I remember back in Gold�s Gym in 1990-ish, and I would run into people at Gold�s Gym, and we would talk, and I�d say something from the Bible, and they would say, �That�s written by men, and men are fallible, and there are errors in the Bible, and I didn�t know really what to think.

It was kind of a cool gym, it was Gold�s Gym, North Hollywood, and who worked out there? Gary Shandling worked out there, Denzel Washington, two of the members of the band, the Sex Pistols, they worked out there, the American Gladiators.

They were all so much bigger than I was. Oh, I�m talking about the girls, they were too. Adrienne Barbeau, she worked out there. Anyway, I would try to evangelize people, and they�d say, �Well, the Bible�s got all these errors and I would end up defending the Bible.

So my purpose today, in our short little show, is for you to stop defending the Bible. That�s all. And if I had to summarize everything, just start quoting the Bible, just start teaching the Bible, and that�s all you have to do.

Okay? So, we�re going to get into why, but first let me read an excellent excerpt from Charles the Haddon Spurgeon, preached in 1888, �It is not mine to improve upon the character of God, but reverence� now Luke is trying to call me, I can�t really take that call, we declined that call because I�m on Facebook Live.

�It is not mine to improve upon the character of Jehovah, but to reverence and adore him as he manifests himself either in judgment or in grace. I, who am less than nothing and vanity, dare not scan his work, nor bring him to my bar, lest I hear a voice saying, �Nay, but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God

What am I that I should be the ultimate judge of truth, or of justice, or of wisdom? Whatever God may be, or speak, or do, that is right. It is not mine to arraign the maker, but to adore him. Extenuations, explanations, and apologies may be produced from the best motives, but too often they suggest to opposers that it is admitted that God�s most holy word contains something in it which is doubtful, or weak, or antiquated.

It looks as though it needed to be defended by human wisdom. Spurgeon goes on to say, �Brethren, the word of the Lord can stand alone, without the propping up which many are giving it. These props come down, and then our adversaries think that the book is down, too.

Here�s Spurgeon�s. This is the punchline. You�ve probably heard this often. �The word of God can take care of itself and will do so if we preach it and cease defending it. Now, I have to pat myself on the back here for a second.

Oh, Susan�s watching. Greetings, Susan. I hope you�re feeling better. I said to myself, �You know what? I�m going to have a sermon. I�m going to have a no-co on Stop Defending the Bible. And then I found this quote after I found the title, so I�m very happy that I match up with Spurgeon.

Cease defending it. Stop defending the Bible. I mean, I say, �Stop defending it. Spurgeon is a little more eloquent, and he says, �Cease defending it. He goes on to say, �See you that lion. I guess he must be pointing to a lion or something.

Maybe he brought a lion into the Metropolitan Tabernacle. �They have caged him for his preservation. Shut him up behind iron bars to secure him from his foes. See how a band of armed men have gathered together to protect the lion.

What a clatter they make with their swords and spears. These mighty men are intent upon defending a lion. Oh, fools and slow of heart, open that door. Let the Lord of the forest come forth free. Who will dare encounter him?

What does he want with your guardian care? Let the pure gospel go forth in all its lion-like majesty, and it will soon clear its own way and ease itself of its adversaries. Yes, without attempting to apologize even for the severe truths of revelation, seven times a day do we praise the Lord for giving us his judgments, so righteous and so sure.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Even when it comes to what Spurgeon said are the severer truths of revelation, difficult things. Who knows? What do you do with the Canaanites when you inhabit the land? What about the eternal punishment of hell?

What about the doctrine of unconditional election? What about all these issues? Stop defending the Bible. So that's what I'm going to try to appeal to you today, to not defend the Bible anymore. I know everything in you wants to, and people say to you, well, there's so many translations, there's so many errors, there are inconsistencies in the Bible.

I mean, I have done what you've probably done. You know, you then hand them the Bible and say, could you show me a few? Because they just typically say that. But some, though, are knowledgeable and they'll see alleged contradictions in the Bible.

Instead of being on the defensive, instead of being on the defense, I want you to go on the offense. I want you to preach the Bible. I want you to talk about the Lord Jesus. And I want you to know that there is power, not in your words like a Copeland-Hagin false teacher, words are containers that have power.

I don't mean that. I just mean that the gospel has power, even through a frail vessel. And here's going to be the good news for some of you, and so for me as well. What if we were going to meet a Harvard graduate?

What if we had to meet a rocket scientist? I once met a rocket scientist that happened to be a Christian man. But anyway, what if we met somebody who, in our mind, was so smart? Could you evangelize them?

Could you tell them the good news? Or would you have to know about fossil records? Would you have to know about carbon dating? Would you have to know about certain manuscript evidences? Would you have to know about historical issues?

Would you have to be smart and eloquent and know how to debate people? What if you had an IQ of 60? That's probably, some people, some Christians have an IQ of 60, and you're meeting somebody with an IQ of 120.

What do you do? What if you meet somebody in what we call in New England, in Mensa, right? In Mensa. Then how do you evangelize people if you're not smarter than they are? We don't defend the Bible. We proclaim the Bible.

We don't defend lions. They can take care of themselves. And I know this is going to be encouraging to many of you because it has encouraged me, and we prove things at No Compromise Radio with personal anecdotes.

Only when it suits us. I have a purpose, and that purpose for this particular show, our series of shows, is for you to proclaim the Word of God. It's as simple as saying, the Bible says. Oh, you might look stupid, but hey, if the shoe fits.

Speaking of Spurgeon, remember what Spurgeon would say. We've all had our characters attacked and maligned, and some maybe more than others. But what Spurgeon said was, if they knew the real you, there'd be a lot more to malign.

And isn't that true? We are fragile, frail, sinful people, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Thankfully, we don't have our identity based on our sin. We have our identity based on who God is, and we are in Christ, union with Christ.

We are His sons and daughters. I want you to not defend the Bible. I want you to proclaim it. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10, of course, broadly speaking, and it does have a context, but we hear this verse often, so whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God, including evangelism.

Do you know there's a God-centered way to evangelize? Do you know there's a man-centered way? Do you know there's a way to evangelize that's trusting in the promises of God? And there's another way to evangelize that essentially and functionally trusts in your own rationale and your own rationalism and your own set of skills in terms of personal skills and relational skills and talking, debating skills.

And so we want to make sure we do things the right way. So I'm going to give you a series. I have a number, but I might add to this number. So I have to tell you there are several, or a series of reasons that you should defend the Bible by proclaiming it, or if you want to use what I said earlier, stop defending the Bible.

Why? And then I'm going to give you a series of reasons why. But before we do, dear class, I kind of wish I would have, I would have liked to have been a teacher. My favorite teacher was Dan Sanfilippo, fifth grade, Master's Elementary School.

You might be thinking Master's College, no, no. For whatever reason, I went to Master's Elementary School when I was in fifth grade. I was at Laura Dodge, but then they built this new school, the Master's Monarchs.

And Dan Sanfilippo was my teacher. Matter of fact, I looked him up via the internet, oh, probably about a year ago now, and found somebody that was about the right age, in the right town, with the right name.

And I got the phone number, and I called him. And I said, Mr. Sanfilippo, this is Mike Abendroth, I was one of your students in the fifth grade at Master's Elementary School, and then whatever the year was, how old are you if you're in fifth grade?

And I just want you to know that out of all the teachers I've had, you know, in school, public school, by the way, for you homeschoolers, public school is where you ship your kids off to get socialized and become indoctrinated with Maoist fascism.

And I said, you're my all-time favorite teacher. And he said, well, thank you very much, Mike, I really appreciate that. I believe you had a sister, Marcy, and a brother, Pat, how are they doing? That's why he was such a great teacher.

Christ in Luke 24 and the Bible’s Main Theme

Anyway, today on No Compromise Radio, before we get to defending the Bible by proclaiming it, let me talk to you a little bit about Luke 24. And so Luke 24, our Lord Jesus is going to tell us what the Bible's about.

If you had to tell me what the Bible was about, its theme, its message, I wonder what you would say. Some theologians have tried to describe the Bible with one sentence, right? The main message of the Bible is, and then what might you say?

Well, the backdrop to everything that I'm saying today will be found through the lens of Luke 24, where Jesus is going to say the Old Testament is about me, the Lord Jesus. And if you get that down, then it's going to be, I think, much easier for you to proclaim the Bible because you'll be proclaiming who Jesus is.

In other words, stop defending the Bible and start talking about who Jesus is. That's where I'm going. The Bible, of course, has two words, law and gospel, commands and promises. And I know, of course, that there are laws in the Old Testament.

But overall, those laws will drive us, at least for the first use of the law, will drive us to see the need for the Lord Jesus. They're like a mirror to let us see ourselves so we realize how we have fallen short and will not fare well on judgment day.

So if the Old Testament talks about law, then it certainly talks about the Lord Jesus and gospel incarnate. If you look at Luke 24, and I'll just read a couple of verses so we can understand what's going on.

Jesus said, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. So Luke is telling us about Jesus, who's on the road to Emmaus, the Emmaus Road, almost a Damascus Road, Kelly Square.

Only the Worcester people will know what Kelly Square is. And Jesus is telling those men that in general, as a whole, the Old Testament promises, pictures, types, shadows, symbols, all look forward to fulfillment, consummation, accomplishment of salvation found in the person of Jesus Christ.

Ever do radio show and just feel like you're getting bogged down? Now from a word from our sponsors, if you ever get bogged down, you just go to have a little message moment here. So let's, let's see what the message says in Luke 24.

That might be interesting. You know, you have to kind of keep this thing going. You go down from three watchers to one watcher really quick. I just turned to the message in Luke 24, and this is not in the text, but it's just like a headline.

And it says, a ghost doesn't have muscle and bone. That's right there. What does that have to do with anything? All right. Oh, they thought they were seeing a ghost and were scared half to death. He continued with them.

Don't be upset. And don't let all these doubting questions take over. Look at my hands. Look at my feet. A ghost doesn't have muscle and bone like this. Oh, okay. Back on track. Then he said, everything I told you while I was with you comes to this, all things written about me in the law and the prophets and in the prophets and in the Psalms have to be fulfilled.

He went on to open their understanding of the word of God, showing them how to read their Bibles this way. Okay. So we're going to defend the Bible by proclaiming the Bible. And my point is simply, you could have said this better, Mike, earlier, and so I'll say it better now.

If you talk about the Bible, it has a theme and that theme is the Lord Jesus. So we'll make sure not to put this bad section in the sermon. Don't forget if you order Sexual Fidelity and order it online, we'll send you things that go bump in the church for no cost.

Give Unbelievers What They Need, Not What They Want

All right. Number one reason why you shouldn't defend the Bible, our number one reason why you should proclaim the Bible is that you are under a divine mandate to give unbelievers what they don't want.

I know you aren't supposed to give the unbeliever what they want. But you're supposed to give them what God tells them they need. He's like, what? What's going on here? The Shekinah glory must be somehow fading your intellect, your dim wit, Pastor Mike.

You're to give people what they don't want when it comes to evangelism. Oh, they may want, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. They may want, you know, you want a better marriage. They may want, I'd like to spend more time with your kids.

Once I was in Rome, and whenever I'm in Rome and the Pope is speaking, hey, why not? So we went to St. Peter's Square and Circle, what's it called? It's St. Peter's Square. See, it's not a square though.

That's the thing. We went to St. Peter's and the Pope was talking, 60 ,000 people there, all the pilgrims from across the world. And then there was Kim, myself, the kids. And the Pope hushes the crowd, Papa, Papa, Papa.

They're all yelling. And he opens up his notes and he said, Christian people, you shouldn't be on social media so much. Which I was kidding. Now, I'm not the smartest, brightest guy, smartest, brightest guy, but I know what to do.

And I'm not going to talk about social media. You can get that anywhere. If you're going to open up your mouth for real evangelism, and evangelizing means good newsing. Okay, think about that, evangelism, it means good newsing.

I have some good news for you. What's the good news? You can have a better marriage. I guess that's pretty good news. But can't other people give you that news? You can have a better retirement home. Well, that's probably good news, but can I get that elsewhere?

What's the greatest news? What could be the best news ever? There's a holy God, he's angry with sin, he's angry with you, and you're going to pay on judgment day. You're going to die and stand before God, and then what?

But there's an advocate, there's one who loves sinners, there's one that will forgive sins. So you say, well, I still don't understand, what do you mean you're supposed to give them what they don't want?

1 Corinthians 1 answers that question. For the word of the cross is to those, 1 Corinthians 1 .18, to those who are perishing, foolishness. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. So, the word of the cross, and cross is shorthand, not just for a piece of wood, but a symbol of death, torture, a symbol of, for us as Christians, atonement, where substitutionary atonement took place, where penalty that we deserved was exacted on another.

The word of the cross, the doctrine of the cross, the systematic theology of the cross. To unbelievers, it's foolishness, it's nonsense, Paul says, it doesn't make any sense at all. It's moria, it's moronic.

It doesn't please me in any way, shape, or form. Even as a Christian, to think, okay, I'm going to see somebody naked, crucified, 2 ,000 years ago, so in and of itself, it's not pleasing. And then to think that the God-man, the innocent Lamb of God, is on that cross, bearing sins from noon until three, the wrath of God is poured out.

How can that make any sense? How can that be somehow salvific? If I was an unbeliever, here's what I would say, and I'm not saying this, this is what they would say, I don't mean me. I'd say, that dude can't even save himself, how's he going to save me?

He's up on a cross, he can't even come down. Saved others, you can't save yourself, right? That's even what one of the thieves said. One man wrote that one man could die on a piece of wood on a nondescript hill in a nondescript part of the world, and thereby determine the destiny of every person who's ever lived seems stupid.

It's outlandish. It's weird. It's quaint, maybe, for a grandma. It's freakish for somebody that's got any sense of propriety. I thought they put criminals up on that cross. And what Paul is going to go on to say, because I'm running out of time, but this is what we're supposed to tell them.

First Corinthians chapter one goes on to say, for Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. In other words, they want something.

We don't give them what they want. Rule number one, at least on No Compromise Radio, when it comes to evangelism, is simple. You don't give the people what they want. You give them what God tells to give them, even though it seems moronic, stupid, foolish, odd, idiosyncratic, strange, weird, and kooky.

You give them that anyway. I don't have to know anything about carbon dating and fossil records. I give them Jesus Christ and the text says we preach Christ the Messiah crucified. Not just Jesus crucified, although that's true, speaking of his humanity, there's a man on the cross who dies, but now this is the Messiah.

This is the Messiah that's going to come and maybe take over because Rome's got you. It just seems weird, but that's what we're supposed to do. So I've got to wrap it up. We'll do one more Facebook live as well.

My name is Mike Abendroth, this is No Compromise Radio Ministry. How can you evangelize for the glory of God? Number one, and we'll talk about this a little more next time, don't give people what they want.

Give people what God wants them to know.

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 six. 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.