Recognizing Apostates 

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Ebendroth. Why is this microphone so tilted? There we go. That's much better. Much, much better. Mike at nocoradio .com, nocompromiseradio .com.

You know, here's a shout out to American Gospel Television and Brandon Kimber. At least his Instagram page and Twitter pages. X pages. Tons of law gospel stuff. No Compromise Radio. I'm thankful for that.

Working on a little law gospel book. Who knows when it'll be out, but probably be out about the time when my parenting book is out. To start the show today, I want to read something that is 23 years old.

You know, normally we read things that are 2 ,300 years old. Okay, 500 years old. But I wanted to read it today to talk about just encouragement, discouragement. Remember, last show I was talking about Jesus, the master encourager.

I'm going through my files here because I need a new table, desk, chairs, etc. And I had a file full of encouraging things. And pastors need that, especially on Mondays. I've had some discouraging Mondays.

Not as many as I thought I would have had, but some. And here's what I found. Subject, A Church of Excellence, June 1st, 2001. And I printed it out to BBC Pastor. Are you ready? I'm convicted for not obeying the command to esteem my leaders very highly, abundantly, out of all bounds, beyond all measure.

Caps, all caps. Even if I did or could, I'm afraid I couldn't do it the way it demands to be done. Since our goal is a church of excellence in Christ our Lord, I want to do all I can on my part to reach that goal.

I wanted to know, I think she means I wanted you to know, how do you think I could serve you in the church better? I don't ever want to bring you to grief, but only great joy. Recently, after discovering in Exodus, poor Moses grieved over the Israelites for their constant disobedience.

It showed me even greater the importance of submitting to my authorities whom God placed over my very soul. I thank God for our church, that you proclaim the truth boldly, without partiality to anyone or any situation.

I thank God for the wisdom he gives you to shepherd our body. Unfortunately, in my opinion, I don't believe you're esteemed as much as you should be. And now I'm utterly convinced of that importance. Thank you so very much for all your guidance, instruction, love, gentleness, and great godly influence in our lives.

And let's not forget the convictions. We love you very much and want to support you the way the Bible commands it. Please let me know what we can do for you. Love, so and so, 1 Peter 5, 4. P .S. We took a pregnancy test and it came back positive.

Now, when you think of 1 Thessalonians 5, encouraging one another, I give that an A+. When you say to yourself, esteem those highly in their work, right, because of their work, esteem those highly because of their work, A+.

Give your elders joy, leaders joy, A+. And I was very encouraged by that email. Wouldn't you be? Wouldn't you be encouraged? Have you ever sent out an email like that to your pastor? Have you ever sent one out to your elders?

Sometimes the pastors get the encouragement. I think October was Pastoral Appreciation Day. I'm not sure. Never got any gifts. Nor do I want them, nor am I asking for them. It's like a hallmark holiday, Pastor's Appreciation.

I think in the past maybe, I don't know, five times or something, the church has done something. I don't need that. They show it in other ways. And I have to dig myself out of that hole that I dug for myself.

The point being, when's the last time you sent a letter like that to one of your elders, pastors? How about the secretary? You know, basically people come up and say to the secretary, here's a typo in the bulletin or something like that.

How about sending a letter of encouragement to people that teach your kids Sunday school? We've got a guy here named Wes. And I think he's taught every one of my children who God is. And I'm very thankful for that.

Very thankful for him. Maybe he needs a letter of encouragement. And letters, I think, are even better than emails. But I'll take this email. No problem. Sad news. Tragic news. Is this same person, years later, ran off, abandoned her husband, and now has no profession of faith, desire for faith.

Oh, maybe since I heard last, maybe something has changed. And if that's the case, great. But if it's not the case, can you imagine? We go from this email to just utter turning your back on the Lord. Now, often and regularly, here we talk about grace and grace for sinners.

And, of course, that's all true. When it comes to Christians who sin. But it's also true that James 2, 1 Corinthians 6, there are people that say they have faith. And it ends up not being saving faith.

Because it doesn't persevere. There's a persevering faith. There's a faith that makes it to the end. And that is true saving faith. That is knowledge, assent, and trust. That is, we know about who the Lord Jesus is in our own sin.

And we affirm that. We agree with that. And we heartily trust in that. If you don't like the word heartily, you can just say trust. It's not an unhearty trust. If you want heartily, I think it's in Heidelberg.

But if you're insistent, you can put heartily in the sanctification category.

I don't really care.

That's not my point. Such were some of you. And I also think about the parable of the soils. Right? People say they believe. People serve. People want to obey. And all of a sudden, persecution comes up.

Another guy comes up. Hedonism comes up. Another girl comes up. And people will say, you know what? Instead of this life of living underneath, and here's how I think they think of it, God's rules that basically tell me what I can't do.

Instead of looking at God's law as good, since God is good. Kind, since God is kind. Laws that will glorify God and that are good for people and good for society.

Right?

Let's use in the sexual realm. Faithfulness to one's spouse. Longevity with a spouse, if the Lord allows, in terms of health. Not breaking promises. All that reflecting Christ's love for the church. And Jesus won't divorce his bride.

Jesus won't cast out his wife for sin. There is a mystery that is profound, Ephesians chapter 5, as you know the passage. And so I just wanted to say on No Compromise Radio today, of course, once you get saved, you can't lose your salvation.

Of course, once you're saved and you do sin in grievous ways, you don't lose your salvation. You simply earn God's chastening hand because he loves you and you need to be trained in righteousness. Hebrews chapter 10, I believe.

No, no, excuse me, 12. Whenever I think of Hebrews 12, I think of fixing your hope on the Lord Jesus, joy set before him. But of course later it talks about that training. I'm simply saying that if you have a friend, you have somebody in your congregation, you have a spouse, and for one year, five years, I think this was probably, this person maybe five to eight years in, then just said, forget it all.

And I don't know all the reasons. Most of people say forget it all because of they have a wrong view of God, a wrong view of God's law. They abandon Christianity because they know what God requires sexually, that is abstinence before marriage and a solidarity with a wife or a husband in marriage.

That is to say sex only in marriage. And they know what the Bible says about divorce and everything else. There are reasons from the human side why people abandon. And I guess we shouldn't be that surprised when you think of Judas, right?

Judas, Jesus chose Judas, Luke chapter six, many disciples. And then Jesus chooses the 12. Now, if you think about God, the father and God, the son incarnate on earth, not God, the father incarnate, but God, the father and Lord Jesus, he's praying all night.

It seems like the context is for wisdom regarding his choice of the apostles,.

The 12.

I'm sure there's other things he prayed for. It was not a mistake to choose Judas Iscariot, right? It wasn't a mistake. And we know it had to be because there are scriptures to be fulfilled, the son of perdition.

Judas, if he started acting like a traitor initially, everyone would know. If Judas didn't pay attention to Jesus' messages, if he didn't do what Jesus said, I mean, in this regard, he didn't do what Jesus said when he was pilfering from the money bag.

And can you imagine the Lord knew all that the whole time? But anyway, you see my point. What about miracles, right? Jesus in Mark chapter three, to a lesser degree, Luke six, of course, and lesser degree, Matthew 10.

But these men that Jesus called, the 12 that he called out of the many, they were to preach and cast out demons and heal and stuff like that. And so Judas' message was a true message. Judas' preaching was true.

Oh, maybe like anyone else, he makes a mistake in that or whatever. But if Jesus heard him preach, he would correct him like he'd correct Peter. And I'm sure they would change, right? They became better preachers as time went on, as they preach more and more and more, which usually happens to preachers.

This I know. Although even today, after 30 years of preaching, sometimes I just say to myself, biblically, that was a fine sermon. Christologically proper, but homiletically just not very good. This last sermon, I felt, I'm using that word on purpose, good about homiletical delivery.

Two sermons ago, I felt just awful about my homiletical delivery. But it's still God's word, and it's more important that the powerful word does its work versus me and my snazzy outlines. Back to the point.

Judas did miracles, signs, and wonders, and preached about the Messiah who was in the midst of the people in Israel. And Judah. And of course, people from the surrounding regions like Tyre and Sidon and all these other places, maybe up to 100 miles away, coming to hear Jesus.

And when these men preached, and we're going to hear about the 70 later and other things, my point that I'm reiterating again for the second time, Judas did miracles. Judas preached properly. Yet Judas was not elect.

He was not regenerate. He was not born again. Do I believe in hell? The answer is yes, for many reasons. Jesus talked about it more than anyone else. Sin needs to be punished because it's against an eternal, immutable, glorious, triune God.

Calvary insists the punishment that was upon Jesus, when you think of propitiatory sacrifice, demands that there be an eternal hell. And many other reasons. Paul, John, they all talk about it. And Judas is there.

It's hard to know who's there. That's a good question sometime we could talk about on No Compromise Radio. Who's in hell for sure? Well, I mean, anybody that doesn't believe in Jesus. And if you're thinking about Old Testament stuff, anybody that wasn't believing in the Messiah to come, trusting in God's promises that he'd revealed up to that point, which I think, you know, Genesis 3 .15, that is the Messiah to come.

Okay, Goliath. I think that's a pretty, I'm pretty safe there with Goliath, because he's still defaming God, and then he gets killed in the act of defaming the living God. Judas, Iscariot. Some people think Saul for sure.

Anyone dying, fighting in a battle against Israel.

Who else? Who else?

I mean, I don't know what happens on people's deathbeds. I don't know if somebody's going to get hung from the neck until dead, and they're in the guillotine or something like that, and they call out to God.

I'm not exactly sure. I just know that if you believe in works righteousness, you believe in anyone but the Lord Jesus for salvation, then you don't go to heaven because your sins aren't forgiven. So part of me is encouraged by this, and part of me isn't.

So when I meet people, and they say they're trusting in Jesus, or they just say they believed, the cynic in me might say, we'll see.

Right?

And I think I used to be more cynical when I was younger. Sometimes you get more cynical when you're older. But instead of saying, we'll see if your profession is valid, I never said it out loud, but that's probably what I thought.

The response now is to someone that said, I believe. I would say, wonderful. And then what would my next comment be? Well, my next comment would be, keep believing. And isn't that what we need to keep saying anyway?

I mean, if you look at Luke and why Luke was written and what he was doing in this orderly account, Theophilus, fragmentary descriptions of the life and preaching of Jesus so far, and he puts together something that is far less than fragmentary.

It is complete.

I don't mean it's exhaustive, but it's complete. It's enough to know. Here's all the intricacies about the person and work of Jesus. And if you read it as an unbeliever, you should believe. If you read it as a believer, you should keep believing.

Trials, temptations, our own sins can really wreak havoc on our believing, on our assurance. And so we need to keep believing. If I said to you true or false, that just shall live by faith, you'd say true, because it's in Habakkuk 2.

It's in Romans. It's in Hebrews and it's in Galatians. The just shall live by faith. Of course, that shorthand for the just shall live by faith and the risen son who sought me, bought me with his redeeming love, etc., etc.

But it is true. The just lived by faith when they first got saved. They believed and then that's it. No, no. The just shall live by faith right now, by faith right now. Not by sight, but by faith. So I'm sure you get that part.

Faith that's God given endures to the end. And we ought not to go around telling people, you know, let's just see if you last it through. By the way, when there are big trials in your life and you still keep believing on the other side, do you think that's a good sign or a bad sign?

I think those trials have been given to you by the Lord himself because you're going to keep believing on the other side. Prostate cancer? I still believe. Almost died of COVID? Still believe. Leukemia?

Still believe. And the list could go on and on, right? It's not like I'm like the best of the best in terms of my faith. But if you say to me with a gun to my head, what's your only hope? Jesus, thy blood and righteousness.

Otherwise, it's going to be my blood. But I don't want you to just freak out. If somebody that says they're a believer and then they go AWOL, you can go to 1 John 2, 19 to see a principal there in terms of they left us because they really weren't part of us.

I don't mean if they leave the church and go to a different church. Maybe they have different convictions and they leave your church and go to a Calvary Chapel because they're more Arminian or they want to be with their family or something like that.

There are many, many reasons that people leave churches. But don't freak out when people all of a sudden who are saying to you, thank you, our church, it's excellent. I want to do more. I don't want to give you grief.

I want to give you joy. Matter of fact, I'm going to send this to this person if I can find their address. You can trust the Lord. First chapter of Ephesians, verses 13 and 14. When God saves someone, the spirit is a seal for the day of redemption, protected, owned, sealed, like a seal back in those days.

This is identity. This is ownership. This is protection. And so you can be assured of that. In the London Baptist Confession, 2 London, 1689, it says in chapter 14, Saving Faith, this faith, although it be in different stages and may be weak or strong, yet it is in the least degree of it different in the kind or nature of it, as is all other saving grace, from the faith and common grace of temporary believers.

And therefore, though it may be many times assailed and weakened, yet it gets the victory, growing up in many to the attainment of a full assurance through Christ, who is both the author and finisher of our faith.

Make sense? Yes, that makes sense. That is 2 London, chapter 14, Saving Faith, number three, section three. And it says earlier about this faith, the principal acts of saving faith have immediate relation to Christ, accepting, receiving, and resting upon him alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life by the virtue of the covenant of grace.

A-R-R, accepting, resting, receiving. So, dear Christian, going through a trial, you just keep believing, right? Absolutely, you keep believing. And you keep believing in Jesus, even if someone with a prominent name, even if someone that you know well, even if a spouse, even if a child, even if a parent suddenly comes out and deconstructs and says, I don't believe anymore.

I'm doing my own thing. Lots of times if there's a young person at the church or someone that I know from other churches that I attend or help in California, and a young person, 18, 19, 20, 22, says, I don't believe in Christianity anymore.

I'm questioning the Bible. I usually say, if it's a man, I'll say, and it's usually a man, because I don't like counsel ladies. I'll say to the guy, what's her name? Because they're trying to deconstruct because they realize what Christian morality is and the Christian sexual ethic, what that is.

And they know no sex before marriage. And instead of honoring the Lord, they have to somehow deconstruct it. And of course, if they do, and it's a permanent kind of deconstruction, I mean, some people temporarily deconstruct so they can sin and then they repent and all that, but it's just not the way things should be done.

And therefore, when someone gets a driver's license and they're through puberty and they get a little bit older, and then how can they say no to sexual pleasure outside of marriage? I know it's still sin, consequences and all that, but in their mind, they're thinking, you know what?

I can't wait and I don't want to wait. And therefore, how can all this Christian stuff be true? If you know somebody like that, I want you to just keep believing. I don't want your faith to be rocked because someone else's faith was either temporary, false, satanic, diluted, or they're doing something in a crazy sinful way temporarily that's just going to make them lose their mind and go do some sins for a while until the Lord brings them back.

After all, Christians do sin, so that's a possibility. She ends that sentence, the letter with, please let me know what we can do for you. And I think I'm going to write back and say, repent and believe.

I don't think I have the address anymore.

This is so old.

This was actually America Online, BBC Pastor, before I got the church address. That's who I used to be known as, BBC Pastor. Oh, my name is Mike Ebenroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. I found some sermon notes from February 24th, 1974 by Mike Ebenroth.

I handed them in to the pastor and the pastor said, a lot here actually, more than necessary. You listen closely. This was of the transfiguration. Jesus was briefed, transfiguration, top of mountain. Jesus became white, cloud came, listen to him.

They didn't continue in prayer. Transfiguration into this. Jesus needs strength, three disciples. They got a preview. As ministry progresses, so did sin. Jesus needed strength. Appeared two men, Moses and Elijah, to strengthen Jesus for what was coming up.

Elijah was a prince of prophets, the law of the prophets. Briefing time prepares us for a place of prayer. Difficult to talk about prayer. Look for praying people. Prayer is instinctive. Always pray, never lose heart.

That was my sermon. So what do you do with the transfiguration? Well, at least the guy taught the Bible. There's some stuff in there that's true. This is back in the Lutheran Church, Calvary Lutheran Church, that I think has gone kind of seeker, right?

You have like ELCA secret church now. And at least he taught some of the Bible. I wish I would have remembered that part, but I don't think the takeaway of the transfiguration was pray more. Maybe pray more for the second coming.

I guess there could be some application there, but that particular one seemed like it was a stretch. Don't you? Jesus prayed, you pray. Although that's kind of what a lot of evangelical circles do as well.

So I'm not exactly sure.

I declare you are calm and peaceful. You will not let people or circumstances upset you. You will rise above every difficulty.

Knowing that God has given you the power to remain calm. I declare that you choose to live your life happy. You bloom on your planet and you let God fight your battles.

Wow.

Show host, he just turned into a monster right at the end of my own show. This is Mike Havenrod, No Compromise Radio Ministry. He just sits here and laughs at his own jokes. Sounds like he's in a room by himself just talking to himself, inside jokes, poor quality radio.

No Compromise Radio.