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On today's show, Pastor Mike discusses a variety of topics including fast growing and unusual baby names. Also, learn 8 symptoms of false teachers by J.C. Ryle.
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, my name is Mike Abendroth, and I'm sitting here, I think it must be about May 11th real time, but of course it's probably June or July by the time you hear this show. And looking outside, it's snowing, just kidding, just kidding.
It's windy, it's rainy, and I have all kinds of things in front of me here. I actually have a booklet called, 500 Things Your Minister Tried to Tell You, subtitled, but the guy sitting next to you was snoring so loud you couldn't hear.
And when you open it up, it has some Bible verses, and then it's got a bunch of, for the most part, moralistic ditties, pretty much. So once in a while though, there's something good. I'm just going to give you one.
I'm going to try to give you a good one today, 500 Things Your Minister Friend Tried to Tell You. So, this is by, I think it's Nab Depressed, we used to call it that because they had so many books that they published that were all like psychologically related.
Oop, I am wrong, Star Song Publishing Group, a division of Jubilee Communications. So see, there you go, NIV 1984, there you have it, okay, copyrighted in 1993. St. Augustine, there is one case of deathbed repentance recorded, that of the penitent thief, that none should despair, and only one that none should presume.
See, that's good, that's good. I always thought Spurgeon said that, but maybe Spurgeon stole it from Augustine. Now see, I'll open it up again here. He that lives to live forever never fears dying. This is bringing me back to my first concert I ever gave, my recital, a guitar recital I had to sing Leaving on a Jet Plane in 1972, 40 some years ago.
The true recipe for a miserable existence is to quarrel with providence. Now see, I like that, that's written by James Alexander. All right, let's keep going, let's see. How's this going to work today?
Thy way, not mine, O Lord, however dark it be, lead me by thine own hand, choose out the path for me, Horatius Bonhart. See, I like that, I'm so far, maybe I'm biting my own words, I'm eating my own words.
Sorry, Dad. Aye, aye, aye, okay, let's just do one more just to see. This is going really badly, but, hmm, okay, it says Luther, so I'm hoping anyone who is to find Christ must first find the church. How could anyone know where Christ is and what faith in him is unless he knew where his believers are?
See, very, very tasty morsels, and I'm going to put that book away. Where's Steve Cooley, by the way? When is he coming back? I don't know, when is he coming back? I did read this week from Washington, Jacob and Sophia, top baby names in the U .S. in 2012.
So, this is always fascinating, so, you know, a couple years ago in the U .K., the number one name for baby boys used to be Jack, you know, you kind of like that, Jack, and now it's Muhammad, at least it was a couple years ago, and so now we have these out in America, and there are a couple names on the rise.
So here we go. Talk about high expectations for a newborn, the article says. King and Messiah are among the fastest rising baby names for American boys. Now, at least it's not the girls. When I got laid off from my Corporate America job while I was going to Master's Seminary, I decided I needed to do something while the headhunter was trying to find a job for me, so I became a janitor at Grace Community Church, because every pastor needs to be a janitor sometime or another.
I think that's at least what MacArthur said, or somebody. And we had to rearrange the Grace Community Schools classrooms and change them into the Sunday school rooms for the Sunday school on Sunday, and then we'd have to tear down the set and re-then arrange them Sunday night for school that started on Monday.
And we had certain ways to rearrange every room per the teacher of that particular class and that particular grade. And so there's names on the top of some of the desks, and the one that I always thought that was the most amazing was Lord, L-O-R-D.
I mean, I guess you've got to be named King as the dad if you call your kid Lord. Come here, Lord. I thought, well, is that a different language? Is that like Afrikaans or something that means something else?
Now, the Jesus name, I understood that because, you know, Joshua, Jesus. I wouldn't name my own kid Jesus, but okay, maybe they're thinking it's going to remind me of, what would Jesus do, example, Government View of the Atonement.
I don't know, maybe there's something, there was a reason for it. And plus, if you just pronounce it Jesus, then it doesn't seem like you're saying Jesus, see at least to an English speaking person, but if you're Spanish speaking, then of course my theory is out the window.
But now on the rise, just a little bit behind the name Major, M-A-J-J-O-R. By the way, Lee Majors, wasn't he the bionic man, the $6 million man? Jacob is the most popular for boys and Sophia is the top for girls.
14th straight year, Jacob is at top, Jacob. Next were Mason, okay, Ethan, Noah, and William. Liam cracked the top 10 for the first time, coming in at number six. Daniel slipped out of the top 10 for this first time since 1998.
Sophia, second year in a row, was the top for girls, followed by Emma, Isabella, Olivia, and Ava. Now what I'd like to know is why do all the children's names for girls, top 10, start with, excuse me, end with A?
So Sophia, Emma, Isabella, Olivia, and Ava. How about the baby named Wizard? One man said, you don't get a lot of Messiahs, you can have a lot more Majors. So how'd you like to name your kid Messiah or King?
See, I've got a problem with that. I'm very non-legalistic, but there's just something about that. A man named Wattenberg said Americans have long given their name, their children, aggrandizing names.
She noted that Noble and General were on the list of popular boys' names for much of the 20th century, though neither ever cracked the top 100. So you call your kid Noble? Okay. General? We're pretty much running out of presidential names.
All the Jeffersons and Jacksons and Madisons, so we're moving on to the aristocracy, I guess, or to the military. Okay, sometimes people naming their kids Justice or Chastity. All right, so that's dropping off the list here, Chastity.
What else does it say here? John, Mary, still popular. Okay, what else? Gale, G-A-E-L, Jays or Jazz, J-A-S-E, Brantley. Jays Robinson is a character on the reality TV show Doug Dynasty. P .S. Church of Christ, baptismal regeneration, avoid the theology, laugh at the show if you want.
I personally have watched it, but I do not watch it. Right, so past tense, present tense. Okay, who else do we want to name kids after? Mason. Oh, in 1992, Michael was the top name for boys. We're seeing a total revolution in terms of the diversity of naming.
So I thought that was good material, but it obviously wasn't. I was going to share that on Todd Friedel's show, but I try things out on you first. All right, so there's other things that we have here.
J .C. Ryle's Eight Symptoms of False Teaching. Got this from a website, unlockingthebible .org. J .C. Ryle's Eight Symptoms of False Teaching. So today on No Compromise Radio, I'd also like to talk about J .C. Ryle.
God has gifted men and women for the local church, and I think about some of the men who have died and gone to glory, and they're still valuable to read. And so this Anglican bishop—you should read the Thirty-Nine Articles sometime— great writer, very apropos.
And here's the thing. If you preach from the Bible this transchronological book with the truths of the eternally relevant God, I mean, what else could be more relevant than God? Then your messages are always timely and relevant.
And so when I have to go to South Africa to preach, or to Germany, or to the Czech Republic, or anyplace else, India, I still preach the same things. I might not say soccer there. I'll say football. I might not say hockey.
I might say cricket. But besides that, they're applicable in the Orient. They're applicable in Asia. They're applicable in Asia Minor, because it's the eternal relevant word from the eternally relevant God.
And J .C. Ryle, so stuck to the text that he's relevant today. So you ought to read Warnings to My Churches. That book will rock your world. That used to be in my top ten. I think I've read a bunch of other books now, and probably should reread it, but that really influenced me for the good.
Warnings to the Churches, a selection of articles. You can read practical, what's it called? I can't see that far away. I don't know. I'll just call it practical religion. Great stuff. So anyway, J .C. Ryle, Eight Symptoms of False Teaching.
Number one. First, Simpsons. I've never watched one Simpsons show in my life, but the guy who came up with the Simpsons, this is hard to do. I'm tired. He used to have a little comic strip in the LA Weekly when I lived in Los Angeles, and he did have really a funny one once, and it showed a guy with a big thing on his forehead.
It looked like it was scrambled eggs or something slapped on his forehead, and the caption underneath was just a simple caption. Two words. Hash Wednesday. Corned beef. First Simpson. This is so bad. I want to restart the show, but it is what it is.
First symptom. There is an undeniable zeal in some teachers of error. Their earnestness makes many people think they must be right. Hmm. Interesting. Two. There is a great appearance of learning and theological knowledge.
Many think that such clever and intellectual men must surely be safe to listen to. See, before JC's time, he didn't really know you could go get all kinds of online degrees. Three. There is a general tendency to completely free and independent thinking today.
Many like to prove their independence of judgment by believing the newest ideas, which are nothing but novelties. Four. There is a widespread desire to appear kind, loving, and open-minded. Many seem half ashamed to say that anybody can be wrong or is a false teacher.
Five. There is always a portion of half-truth taught by modern false teachers. They are always using scriptural words and phrases, but without scriptural meaning. See, that's the best one. I was working my way up.
I was thinking JC's Ryle has kind of let me down a little bit here. So far, I think I could have made a better list myself. But now we come to the good stuff. JC Ryle. A symptom of a false teacher. And this happens all the time.
I'll never forget the time my grandmother, Erna, Erna Hedwig Klassen, Avro, she said, well, you know, the Mormons believe in Jesus too. Why criticize the Mormons? Well, it's the wrong Jesus. Right? There are wrong Jesus's even talked about in the Bible.
Another Jesus, another gospel. So, it's got to be the one that is in the Bible. After all, it might be Jesus. Right? There's a guy named Jesus. What does he say? What does the Bible say about Jesus? And so, when you talk to false teachers, when you talk to cults who come to the door, peddling their cyanide, what happens?
Well, what do you mean by sin? What do you mean by Jesus? And for the Jehovah's Witnesses and for the Mormons, they don't believe that He's the eternal God, that He's the eternal Son. And so, we're talking about the wrong Jesus.
And a sincere belief in a wrong Jesus, a Jesus who doesn't save, a Jesus who doesn't redeem, a Jesus who doesn't have enough righteousness to bestow on all those who will believe, will not save. Be careful.
Six. There is public craving for more sensational and entertaining worship. People are impatient with the more inward and invisible work of God within the hearts of men. Boy, that is so true today, even for seeker-sensitive churches.
And I'm not trying to say every seeker-sensitive pastor is a false teacher. But you just have to have more and more and more and more. What are you going to do if you just preach the Bible? What are you going to get next week?
And by the way, once you start down that path of craziness, what will make you stop? Because you realize, you know what, people are coming for these spectacular things, and I've got to get them to keep coming, so I've got to keep coming up with more spectacular.
I'd much rather say, well, you know what, tonight we're going to sing some songs about Jesus, we're going to hear some Scripture reading about Him, and then we're going to hear preaching about Him, and then next week we'll do the same.
I like to end my Sunday morning announcements just before the benediction. The announcements on Sunday morning are first given before the service, and then I preach, then we sing a hymn, and then I stand up to basically say, tonight is this message, tonight we're going to do X, Y, and Z here at the church.
Just before that announcement about Sunday night worship and inviting the people back, I like to say, there's more to tell about Jesus. There's more to say about Jesus and His Word, and we'll do that tonight.
That's about the best I can offer people, because it is the best, see? Number seven, J .C. Ryle, symptom of false teaching. Number seven, there is a superficial readiness all around to believe anyone who talks cleverly, lovingly, and earnestly, and verbally, sorry, forgetting that Satan often masquerades himself as an angel of light.
And then, number eight, there is a widespread ignorance among professing Christians. Every heretic who speaks well is surely believed, and anyone who doubts him is called narrow-minded and unloving. Very, very common today, people want to be known for what they're for now, don't they?
Not what they're against. It's that kind of mentality that has a difficult time with church discipline, and that has a difficult time with what? Telling false teachers no. Keeping those false doctrines out of the church, because we need to love, we need to embrace.
There's a reason why the New Testament says that Christ's church should be led by and shepherded by older men. Why is that? Well, they've seen these things come and go, so they can easily spot it. There's a plurality of older men, because what one man's good at, maybe another man isn't, and they can help unify and shore up their weaknesses with this mutuality of strength.
And they're men, not ladies, because ladies excel men in many areas. But what men are better at, men can see false teaching for what it is and then stand up against it. I'm just talking generally. There are some ladies that are, of course, better than men at this.
But women by nature are affirming and loving. And I know my kids, out of my four kids, even as they're older now, if they're sick in the night and they come into the bedroom, they don't come to my side of the bed, because I'll just tell them to quit coughing so loud and go back to bed.
But my wife will be kind and generous, and women are made by God to do that very thing, to be open and receiving and loving and affectionate. But that's not good to do with false teachers. You need men who say, you know what?
That's wrong. These people are wrong. And even though they're nice, they look like grandpas, they look like grandmas, they're false teaching, lying, heretic dogs, and we need to run. Run! They're wrong.
They're divisive. That's not loving. All right, what else do we have here? Mike Abendroth here, NoCompromiseRadio .com. Share the Gospel Even If You Do It Poorly, a blog post written by Mark Altrogi. This is liberating when we share the gospel with our children, friends, and relatives.
It's not our brilliant articulation that saves anyone. It's the power of the Word of God and of the Holy Spirit. Of course, we want to express God's truth as clearly as we can. But even if we stumble and share the gospel imperfectly, it is the power of God that saves.
Great little article. And think about it. The Spirit of God must attend our words. It is the Spirit of God who works, and He saves, and the power of the gospel can save. And so we preach the Bible, and we try to do it as best as we can.
But just think about how much better now you can preach the gospel than you could when you were first saved. It's not your eloquence. It's not pronouncing all the words correctly. I'm thankful even for this show.
I don't have to say everything perfectly to get my point across. What liberation we have. And here, Altrogi talks about that in his May 1, 2013 post. We can just get up and preach the power of the gospel, because God is powerful.
And then he gives the story of when Spurgeon stumbled into church when he was unsaved, and the text was, Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, Isaiah 45, 22. Spurgeon says he did not even pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter.
There was, I thought, a glimmer of hope for me in that text. The preacher began thus. This is a very simple text indeed. It says, Look. Now, look and don't take a great deal of pain. It ain't lifting your finger.
It's just look. Well, a man needn't go to college to learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. A man needn't be worth a thousand a year to look. Anyone can look. Even a child can look.
But then the text says, Look unto me. I, he said in broad Essex, many on ye are looking to yourselves, but it's no use looking there. You'll never find any comfort in yourselves. Some say, Look to God the Father.
No, look to Him by and by Jesus Christ. Look to me. Some on ye say, We must wait for the Spirit's working. You have no business with that just now. Look to Christ. The text says, Look to me. Spurgeon then said,.
Then the good man followed up his text in this way, Look unto me. I am sweating great drops of blood. Look unto me. I am hanging on the cross. Look unto me. I am dead and buried. Look unto me. I rise again.
Look unto me. I ascend to heaven. Look unto me. I am sitting at the Father's right hand. O poor sinner, look unto me. Look unto me. Spurgeon then said,. When he had managed to spin out about ten minutes or so, he was at the end of his tether.
Then he looked at me under the gallery, and dare say I, with so few present, he knew me to be a stranger. Young man, you look very miserable. And you will always be miserable. Miserable in life and miserable in death if you don't obey my text.
But if you obey now this moment, you will be saved. Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look, look, look. You have nothing to do but look and live. Spurgeon said, I saw at once the way of salvation. I know not what else he said.
I did not take much notice of it. I was so possessed with that one thought. I had been waiting to do fifty things, but when I heard that word look, what a charming word it seemed to me. Oh, I looked until I could almost have looked my eyes away.
There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun. And I could have risen that interest and sung with the most enthusiastic of them of the precious blood of Christ and the simple faith which looks alone to him.
Oh, that somebody had told me this before. Trust Christ and you shall be saved. Even if you give the gospel truth poorly, the gospel, when energized by the Sovereign Spirit, saves. So if you'd like to have more preaching opportunities, don't hide behind your lack of eloquence.
It doesn't matter. And by the way, if I've proved anything on No Compromise Radio, it's that you don't need proper and excellent diction to communicate your point. Well, my name's Mike Abendroth,.
NoCompromiseRadio .com. 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 bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.
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