Hate Mail and Heaven

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.

Absolutely no compromise. Radio ministry, we were having a good old belly laugh just before then, and after Thanksgiving and Christmas and some 14 feet of snow around here, we've got some big bellies to laugh with, don't we?

That's a real belly laugh. Well, this is No Compromise Radio Ministry, and we are taping the show in West Boylston, beautiful downtown

Burbank, West Boylston, and Steve is in the studio today. Steve, it is great to have you back. Buenos dias, my amigo.

Steve, the Tuesday guy. Yeah, that's me. I think somebody visited the church the other day, and they came to hear some preaching, and they saw you, and did they in fact call you, you're the

Tuesday guy. Well, they made reference to it. Oh yeah, you're on the show, you know, but they were quite delighted, of course, to meet the

Tuesday guy. Well, that's him. I'm sometimes delighted, sometimes disheartened.

Usually disheartened on Wednesdays. That's demazing. Today I'd like to go into our mailbag, and sometimes mailbags are really interesting, and sometimes they're absolutely hilarious.

Yeah, it's rarely dull. And I would say that out of all the emails we get, and by the way, we're getting a slew of them.

We're getting a whole gaggle of them. We're having lots of people write in. What would be another way to say that, Steve?

Billions and billions of emails. Yes, and we have to have a crack team of writers to go ahead and address all these issues, and we're glad you're writing an info at nocompromiseradio .com.

But once in a while, I'd say one out of 20 would not necessarily like the ministry.

That's an amazingly high percentage. You know, that's good. That's pretty good for - 95%. Considering how sweet I am and how pungent you are.

Yeah, well, and you know, 95 % of the Master Sim Rater, that's an A minus. Yeah, that's right.

Here is an email that we received at info at nocompromiseradio .com, and it's one of my all -time favorites.

It's going to go down into the annals of favorites. The email hall of fame.

Yes, and I will read it to you, and you've seen it, haven't you, Steve? Yes, I have. Did you put this in the background screen saver mode on your computer?

I feel like I'm being cross -examined here. Yeah, that's right. I have to say, this is from the writer, and his name is

Jim. I won't tell you his last name. I have to say it's nice to hear someone who has all the answers.

Now, that could be taken either way to start. So, so far, we're good. He could be sincere.

The next one, and he spelled surprise right, so I'm happy for that. In fact, I'm surprised you haven't figured out how to attain world peace.

Well, Mr. Schmotty Wise Guy. Schmotty pants. Yeah, Mr. Uber Schmott Guy.

I have to say that bashing of any faith is not Christ -like. Really? So, when

Jesus was talking to the Pharisees, he'd say, hey, your religion is just as good. Yeah, and I think when

Paul was talking to the Gnostics or the Proto -Gnostics or the Judaizers in Galatians 3, that was pretty bad that he'd say.

Or the idol worshipers in Athens, you know. Yeah, that's correct. And so, the writer goes on to say, especially from a clergy member.

Now, I just got done flying to Florida, and I noticed there was a couple different clergy members on the flight,

Steve, and they had the backwards collar and all that stuff. I didn't do it, but I wanted to say, excuse me, sir,

I know you're a man of the cloth, and I'd like to know how you get to heaven. Good. You know what

I do when I see those guys? You arrest them. I just look at them and I say, you know what?

It's my policy to hug a false teacher every day. Can I give you a hug? Wow, now, see, that'll give you another letter.

See, that kind of smart alec, smart alec Baldwin. I know what you are going to say.

Well, that's pretty good, so. Well, he knows everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then, it's your duty to point out truth and correct individuals who believe false doctrine.

And then does he cite Titus 1 .9? I would probably cite Titus 1 .9, and what is it, maybe 1 .10 too?

But, if I may, of course you may. I'm glad people listen. I'm glad people write. Point out,

I may point out that we, I, you, cannot tell people who walked, are new of people who walk with our

Lord, that their way of looking at doctrine is wrong, and we 2 ,000 plus years later know better."

Have you done that? Have you pointed out that people who walked with Jesus didn't know what they were talking Just a closer walk with thee.

I mean, I don't recall that. Are you looking at Titus? I'm guessing it's Titus 1 .10, brother. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also rebuke those who contradict it.

That was 9 or 10? That's 9. Oh, okay. 10. What's 10 say? For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers, and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party.

Don't bash them, though. No, don't. That's circumcision bashing. There's a lot of Catholic bashing around here, and then there's also circumcision bashing.

Yeah, you don't want to be part of that. Okay, back to the letter here. I heard you say you do not believe that communion turns into the body and blood of Christ, but at the same time you believe in a rapture.

Well, first I would say I do not believe that's true. Actually, it'd be a double miracle, turning it into the blood and body of Jesus and then not looking like the body and blood of Jesus.

That would be a double zinger. But I also, I've never taught in this show since I've been doing the show 400 plus times with Steve and without Steve, I've never said anything about the rapture that I know of.

Really? I don't think I have. Not one time? Not one time. Yeah. Well, it's so central to the gospel.

How could you not have? So let me get this right. You believe the

Lord has the power to take you from this earth through the clouds. Oh, I do. Yeah. But he doesn't have the power to turn wine and bread into his body and blood, right?

When did you stop beating your wife? Yeah. I mean, what a nice way to frame the question.

You are entitled to your beliefs. Thank you. Thank you very much, sir. Now, here's the thing, but keep it to yourself and your flock, please.

And we are. Did you know that? We are. Nobody outside of our flock listens to the radio show.

So welcome aboard. What was his name? Jim? Jim, yes. Yeah. Welcome to the flock. Well, you know what?

He probably likes to listen. Yeah. It's kind of, you know, this is a more biblical version of engaging your world.

Oh, with all apologies to Tom. Now but here's the best.

If you're listening now, this is Mike Apendroth with Steve Cooley. No Compromise Radio Ministry, a ministry stemming from Bethlehem Bible Church.

And we would love to see you as a visitor sometime. Just get here early. There's not many parking spaces left. Yeah, especially with the snow.

Throw a snowball at one of the deacons on the way in. That'd be fine. And then they're easy to spot.

They have these orange uniforms on. And here's what we'd like to do.

We are just dealing with this emailer because it's interesting, it's funny, and we can have some Christian comedy and all that stuff.

The very next statement is the funny one. And you know what, Steve? I think

I just lost it. You know what? Is that some kind of bumper sticker theology there? You know, can

I just say, if we're going to talk about John 6, which obviously

Roman Catholics take that literally, that Jesus said, you know, take of this is my body, take of this is my blood.

It's small wonder, if you take that literally, that people were leaving him at the end of the chapter.

But there's no indication of that. There's no indication. I mean, the disciples would have been appalled if he, you know, if Jesus would have been inviting them to some form of cannibalism or if that's what they thought.

Well, think about the Old Testament law, too, about blood drinking. And here, Jesus the Messiah, who's perfectly under the

Mosaic law, is going to say, now I want you to drink my blood. And so we haven't even got to communion yet. That's later.

This is metaphorical. This is figurative language to understand. And you know what happened, Steve, with this email? I pushed the delete button, and I think that was a sign from God.

But I pulled it up again, and I have it. So here's the final thing from Jim, one of our regular listeners.

One of our faithful listeners. And I think he's the largest donor to the— Is he? Yeah, yeah. All right. Well, thanks,

Jim. I would guess that many of your flock are on some form of Prozac and suffer from emotional problems.

Just a guess. Then he said to me, be well, Jim. Well, I'm going to cast out that demon of Prozac.

Well, maybe some of our people are on Prozac, but that'd probably go against my best wishes because I think you could live a

Christian life without Prozac. But when all else fails, like facts, Bible, throw out the ad hominem, and that always works, doesn't it?

Yeah. I mean, when you don't have the facts on your side, you attack the person. So then

I gave that email—I made a quick response and then gave it over to Ray, and he was going to respond.

And then Jim wrote back—I don't know if you know this, Steve—and Jim said, so now, you know,

Mike's basically too big for his britches to answer me, and if you've got an MDiv, then you're not allowed to stoop low or something.

I don't know the details, but it's all backwards. You are Mr. Smarty Pants. But we do like you listening, and we do like you calling, and I know of other

Catholics who listen to No Compromise Radio, even though they don't really like to. But I guess your dial's just set to 760

AM, and you like Jay Sekulow at 3 o 'clock, and you like—who's on at 4 o 'clock?

R .C. Sproul. Oh, well, what's not to like about that? I saw, Steve, last week with my very own beady eyes, a taping of Ligonier Conference's special video series about the

Shekinah glory of God with R .C. Sproul teaching, and I saw his chalkboard right there at St.

Andrew's, and I saw him write Latin words on his chalkboard. That was really a special moment.

I mean, if there's some kind of Smithsonian Institute for Christian artifacts, his chalkboard should go in.

You know what? I think that'll be there eventually. It'll be kind of like that creation world or that special Bible Rama down in Florida.

It'll be these artifacts, Christian artifacts, these icons that they're not supposed to have because only

Greek Orthodox and Catholics have those, but we have our own version, and then you can have this as a little piece of John Calvin's desk, and here's

R .C. Sproul's chalk. Well, we are 10 minutes into the show, and we basically said nothing, but I've had a good time.

Me too. That's what life is about, having a good time. Enjoy yourself.

It's later than you think. It could very much be later than you think. Let's segue into that very issue on No Compromise Radio.

Let's talk a little bit about death and how to work through death in the family, whether you're a

Christian, not a Christian, whether the person who you love dies if they're a

Christian, if they're not a Christian. It all starts, Steve, when my grandmother -in -law, Evelyn Nichols, she died just a few days ago, and I have her death certificate here in front of me.

We were laughing with encouragement and joy as I read the death certificate. How can you laugh at a death certificate,

Mike? That's terrible. Now, see, I'm going to get an email for that too, probably. Maybe my wife will email me. You just act like you know everything.

So here's the thing. How could someone have a sense of joy when they read a death certificate?

Well, I won't read the whole thing, but I will read this, Steve. Evelyn Catherine Nichols, high school graduate, usual occupation, teacher vocalist.

That's what it says. Kind of business or industry, and you have options, grocery store, road construction, employment agency.

Did she ever do road construction? Do you know what? I think she did, but her wig fell off and got caught in the cement.

In all seriousness, kind of business or industry, religious education. Now here's the wonderful news, and here shows the grace of God in the life of a woman.

She died when she was 98 years old, and it asks on section 19 of the death certificate,

California State, years in occupation, 75. 75 years.

Think about that. You know, 75 years of service to Christ.

I just thought, Steve, that's so wonderful where you think 75 years she was allowed to serve the

Lord who died for her and rose for her, and she gladly did it with joy and with a cheerful heart, with a thankful heart.

And I know if she would have lived another 75 years, it would have been 150 written down here, but then she would have been alive before the flood, when you live longer.

Yeah, I mean, 150 years, I don't think grandma would have been pulling for that, so. When we think of death,

Steve, what kind of advice would you give the listeners if you have a relative who's a Christian and they die, whether they're 15 years old or 98 years old, what kind of advice could you give them pastorally when there's a person that you really know is a

Christian by their life, by their profession, by their possession, by their confession? What do you tell someone?

Well, you know, that it's for that person, the person who's died, that we need to keep in mind that to die is gain.

You know, that with Evie Nichols, all the physical issues that she had, everything is gone and she's absolutely,

I was going to say having the time of her life, but that would be wrong. She's having better than the time of her life. She's in perfection and she's with Christ and, you know, our tendency is to, you know, be overwrought with sorrow, but that's sorrow for ourselves.

Evie is as happy as she could possibly be at the moment. Think about that Philippians 1 passage,

Steve, that you just mentioned, for me to live is Christ, Paul said, to die is gain. There are some pretty spectacular things that can happen to a human being on earth that God gives.

He gives some of these experiences to even pagans and unbelievers, but there are some wonderful things that can happen from good meal to intimacy with a spouse, to the joy of having children and have them run around your house.

You now, Steve, as a grandfather, having a granddaughter over, there are some times in life that are pretty great.

Oh, they're excellent. I mean, when little January is, when she smiles at you, you know, it just kind of erases a lot of things.

Is that gas or smile? No, she smiles. She's smiling. Yeah, she's five months now. What I like is even sometimes when she sees me through a crowd of people, she smiles and I like that.

That's excellent. So to think that to live is Christ and for Grandma, 75 years, she tried to live for the

Lord and she was striving to honor her master. But then when she died, as good as those 75 years were, and she was married and enjoyed her husband,

Doug, as a good husband, as a faithful provider, a good companion, soulmate.

There were some sweet times with her husband, Doug. She had a daughter, Marilyn. She had a granddaughter, Kim, my wife, and a grandson,

Steve, gospel ministry, faithfully serving across the world. But when she died, gain, gain over husband, gain over daughter, gain over granddaughter, gain over four great grandkids, all gain.

Who can take death and turn it into something great except Christ Jesus, the Lord? That's right.

I was mentioning before we went on the air, I was on the sheriff's department for a number of years and I'll just remember forever going to one house.

It was a Korean family and the patriarch of the family had died. And it was obvious by his condition that he had died from cancer, but his body had been ravaged.

I mean, he could not have weighed more than 75 or 80 pounds at the time of death.

And that family was carrying on like he was 17 and had just been killed in a car accident. It was phenomenal.

Well I think it's sad and I understand some of that, Steve, where culture aside, if you have someone who dies in your family and you're fairly convinced that they didn't repent and that they were not believers and that hell is now a reality for them and the lake of fire will be a reality for them,

I can see that kind of emotional mourning, loud screaming to thank death forever has,

I mean, hell forever. I can kind of get that. But for the Christian, let me read Psalm 116 and this has been a favorite verse of ours since grandma has gone to see her master.

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his godly ones. And you think about this great

God and yeah, he's fairly busy controlling the universe and running nations and setting up dictators and putting down dictators and the ecosystem and you know, dealing with global warming and all that stuff.

He's fairly busy. For him to understand the minutiae of every person, especially those that his son has died for and knows him intimately, knows the hairs on their head, knows when they're sad and happy and glad and loves them more than you and I could love our kids.

The text says that is a precious thing when one of his saints die. How else could death be precious?

Death is a hater, an avenger. It's an enemy. Yet God can so overturn sin, death, and the effects of death that it could be precious in God's sight.

Yeah, it's the entryway into his presence forever, into his kingdom. You know, and in that sense, definitely.

See, there's a topic you and I were discussing just off of the air about how people run around with kind of quietistic, pietistic,

Keswick, I just want more of Jesus talk. And we just, of those people, we just want to say,

I just want you to serve Jesus more and quit being so selfish that you want more of Jesus. But on a different point,

Grandma Evie, three days ago, finally got more of Jesus. That's right. The real way.

She no longer has faith. Can you imagine? No faith because now she sees. Even though she hasn't got her eternal body yet, she's still, she's bodyless.

Her body is in California. One day she'll be reunited with that body. But right now she, with eyes of spiritual eyes,

I guess I would call them, she sees God and she finally got more of Jesus. And no matter how well you know scripture, and by the way, that's the key to knowing more about Jesus in this lifetime, all that is just, it's a glimpse, it's a reflection of seeing him face to face as it were.

What a delightful time that is and what we look forward to.

If you're listening today on No Compromise Radio, we are not saying that you shouldn't mourn and that you shouldn't cry.

We're just saying you should mourn and grieve and cry like one who has hope. That's right.

From First Thessalonians chapter four, Jesus, of course, when he goes to see

Lazarus and remember that he purposely delayed it so his glory would be seen more as he raised

Lazarus from the dead. But when they got to Jesus, when he arrived,

Jesus said to them, Lazarus is dead because remember they thought he was mistaken, that he had only fallen asleep.

And what happened with Jesus? When he gets there, he's sad and the son of God is crying and weeping.

And we're not saying you shouldn't weep and cry. We should just say to you, weep and cry, not for the loved one who died.

Grandma Evie would say with Matthew Henry, weep not for me. We should weep for ourselves that we've lost somebody that we love and that's a good thing.

Even the son of God did that very thing. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with human emotions, but I, you know, again,

I feel with Evie, you know, obviously compassion for Kim and for the kids and for Steve.

But the joy for Evie, you know, being released from really what it essentially, as we get older, really is a body of decay, a body of death, as Paul describes it, and to be set free and to know, how about this,

Evie never has to worry about sinning ever again. She is a perfect theologian, you know, she was a lady who had pretty good theology.

We differed here, there, the other. And now I'm glad grandma believes like I do. Well, because you know everything.

Mr. Know -it -all. Grandma, I mean, I think the text sometimes,

Steve, doesn't tell us a lot of, well, the text doesn't say much about heaven. What it does say, it's wonderful, but it's almost so indescribable.

To me, it reminds me of when Paul returned from going to heaven and he just couldn't describe these things.

They are inexpressible. And the weight and the glory of heaven cannot be put into human terms.

We cannot understand it until the other side. And I believe exactly what the Bible teaches. Absent from the body, present with the

Lord. And Evie is rejoicing now with her family, I'm sure, but she's more focused on who

Christ is and saying, you know, you have been a faithful Savior all the way to the end.

It was worth it. Preach it. I mean, I'm just, I was looking and I'm going, well,

I'm just thinking about Evie and I'm just thinking about how much joy she has, all the things that she believed during her life and her hope that she held to and fixed her eyes upon Christ her whole life.

And now these aren't just figurative things, but the reality is there. And having lived, you know, finished the race well, run everything in its course.

And what a great testimony to the power of God to keep Evie faithful for so many years.

Whenever I went over there, she just wanted to tell people about Jesus and she'd get in the car, Steve, and she'd say, I've got to drive down to the supermarket because I need to tell somebody about Jesus.

And, you know, if you're a grandma, you can just corner a produce guy and start talking and he can't get mad at you.

So sweet. I mean, so sweet. I don't I don't know how anybody could ever have gotten mad at Grandma Evie.

Now, me, they could get mad at. But Evie, no. First time I met her, she gave me a book. I wasn't even dating

Kim yet. I wanted to date her, but I was over at the house and she gave me a book, something like the nature of God in plain language.

You need to understand this. And she was dissecting my liberal Lutheranism in a nice way, in a Grandma Evie way.

And we here in No Compromise Radio Ministry want to say this. Number one, we know everything.

Yeah. And that's the that's that's definitely number one. But number two, you can know everything

God wants you to know about heaven. Now, you get to know that some things he hasn't told us, but you get to know everything he's told us.

And you can read John chapter 14 in Revelation 21 and 22 about the eternal state, which is coming up later for Evie and all those who have died.

But you can know a lot about heaven. And so we want you to mourn. But we want you to mourn with hope for those of you who have family members who are

Christians. God has given us everything pertaining to life and godliness. And part of that life and godliness is death and the hope after death.

We can know all that. Well, Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even if he dies.

Do you believe this? That's the question for you at No Compromise Radio. 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.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.