The Most Hated NoCo of All Time

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. I don't really know how to act. Oh, by the way, my name is Mike Abendroth. I taped or recorded only two shows last week, and I usually try to record about five.

I think I'm about 40 shows ahead, and so when people ask me, what's today's show going to be on? I don't know. I mean, I have my list. I could look it up on a kind of a faux, pseudo Excel spreadsheet list, but anyway, I try to get five ahead, and I only got two, five, so I could get a couple ahead.

I only got two last week, and so I feel rusty. If I felt rustic, that would be different, but I feel rusty, and so I thought I would spice things up a little bit. This may be the show to end all No Compromise shows.

If you like maybe more of the David Jeremiah approach, this show probably isn't for you. I know it isn't for you. If you want more of the Rolf Bernard approach, this show probably is for you, and so I'm not going to tell you exactly where I'm going with this, so you'll have to follow along with me.

For 24 minutes, I think you can pay attention. And here's what we're going to do. We're going to play a little game called Who Am I? Now, typically when you do radio shows, every so often, the host has to say, No Compromise Radio, this is Mike Abendroth, write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com.

They have to say things like that so you know what you're listening to if you just tune in, you just get in the car, and they also need to say, and today we're talking about the Crystal Cathedral and megachurch trouble.

So that's what you have to do on a regular basis, but today I can't do that because I'm going to try to paint a picture so you'll understand the issues in a better way. Now, for many of you, this is going to be an obvious trick or ploy, but for some of the others, it might not be so obvious because I'm trying to make a point, and there will be a theological point at the end.

The Two Roads to Heaven

And I think you will quickly understand who these two people are, and my point is this. What you believe matters. The object of your faith is important. There are two roads to heaven. One road says, two seeming roads to heaven.

One road says heaven, it's the narrow gate, and the other one says heaven, but it's the broad gate. Two roads that seem like they both go to heaven, but one doesn't. And so I want you today to ask yourself the question, are you going to heaven?

When you die one day, and you certainly will, and whether it's an accidental quote-unquote death or it's a gradual, slow death when you're older or if you get a sickness, you will die, and then eternity.

And so I want you to think through these two people today that I talk about, and I want you to get it through your head. I want it to get through your noggin. I want to get it through your skull, your Pelagian, semi-Pelagian skull, Pelagian, you're all born Pelagians, thinking you can work your way to heaven.

And then semi-Pelagians, when you first get saved, you think you, you wouldn't say you cooperated, but you believe that you cooperated. I don't want you to think that way at all. I want you to think like Christ taught.

I want you to think like Paul taught. I want you to think like Augustine taught in this particular subject. I want you to think like John Calvin taught, Martin Luther, that we cannot get to heaven by being good.

You can't be good enough. And then we'll get to the scriptures. After I paint the picture, I have two people. Who am I on No Compromise Radio? And we are going to find out who these people are. And if you know who they are, why don't you shout it out loud right into your radio?

So the first one, American, who am I? American, we could play 20 questions, couldn't we? That'd be fun. No Compromise, 20 questions. Who am I? I'm an American. I don't want to say I am because then the next few things are gross.

And I don't want to say that I'm this, even on the radio, somebody could snip it out. This person, American. This person, serial killer. This person, sex offender. This person murdered 17 people. This person decided to take the people that he's murdered and make them into zombies.

Now, since there could be children listening, some of my kids like to listen to No Compromise Radio, I won't tell you how he did that. This person when arrested had seven skulls in his apartment. This person had a human head found in his freezer.

Trial began January 30th, 1992 after his arrest. And since there was so much evidence against this person, he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Trial lasted two weeks. Court found him sane and guilty on 15 counts of murder, sentenced him to 15 life terms, 957 years in prison.

This person went to prison and because of his crimes, roughed up, beat up, et cetera. But a Wisconsin minister, Roy Ratcliffe, got a phone call from this person and this person said he wanted to be baptized.

This person who called that pastor said this later in his life with an interview with Stone Phillips Dateline NBC, November 29th, 1994. If a person doesn't think there is a God to be accountable to, then what's the point of trying to modify your behavior to keep it within acceptable ranges?

That's how I thought anyway. I always believed the theory of evolution as true, that we all just came from the slime. When we died, you know, that was it. There is nothing. And the person I'm talking about said those very things.

Well, Roy Ratcliffe, the pastor, went and heard the testimony of this man and then baptized him. After the baptism, the said pastor began to go to that prison for weekly one hour meetings with this murderer.

I'd like to know this question. Towards the end of this man's life, did he really mean it when he said, I'm so sorry for what I've done, God help me? Did he really mean I feel very, very bad about the crimes I've committed?

In fact, I think I should have been put to death by the state for what I did. I don't know if you heard, but last Sunday I was attacked while I was in chapel, wrote this person. Some guy tried to cut my throat open with the razor, but didn't succeed.

The razor broke and my neck was only slightly scratched. I believe that it was only the protective grace of our great Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that saved me from serious injury or death. That person was attacked again in prison and was killed.

So that's person number one here on No Compromise Radio. See, I told you I have to say that, info at nocompromiseradio .com. That's a person who lived a horrible life, horrible before God, horrible before society, and was killed in prison.

So that's person number one. I'll tell you who this person is at the end, but you probably already know who it is. Now I have person number two behind that door. Door number two, door number three. This person founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, 1950.

This person for 45 years ministered to poor people, sick people, orphaned people, those who are dying. This person won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. This person won India's highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna in 1980 because of all of her humanitarian work.

By the time this lady died, the Missionaries of Charity, her foundation, her charity, was operating 610 missions in 123 countries. She had hospices, homes for people with HIV and AIDS, ministry to people who had tuberculosis, leprosy.

She opened up soup kitchens. She had family counseling programs, orphanages, and schools. By the time she died, there were 4 ,000 nuns helping her in her humanitarian work, which would include help for victims of floods, different epidemics, and famine.

She especially loved lepers, and there's a hospice in Shantinagar which does leprosy work. Let's see, what else could I tell you about this person? This person helped humanitarianly aid victims of Chernobyl, earthquake victims in Armenia.

She helped in her home country, Albania. She has been written about, she has been talked about. This person actually has a hospital named after her in her hometown. This person has roads named after her.

This person has hospitals named after her. This person has a woman's university in Tamil Nadu established by the government of that Indian state, city, country, whatever it's called. This person has a new train named after her in India, August, 2010, to mark her birth centenary.

And this person said, so we've got the tale of two people, the first person we talked about, a male murderer, and now the second person we have is a female humanitarian. The male-female issue doesn't matter.

The first person was the murderer who claimed he believed in Christ Jesus at the end of his life. The second person is a humanitarian by all counts, religious and secular, a person who helped other people.

Now this second person who is the humanitarian, here's some of her quotes. And if you'd like to write to me and want to know where these quotes came from, you can write to me at infoatnocompromise .com, No Compromise Radio.

By the way, if you don't like the show, then you write to nocompromise .com because I don't think it exists. I think it does. I think it's a talk show about politics or something. Some call him Ishwar, some call him Allah, some simply say God, but we have to acknowledge that it is he who made us for greater things to love and be loved.

And I think that's the most important thing What matters is that we love. Make your family one heart full of love, the heart of Jesus through Mary. We gather to thank God for the 40 years of a beautiful work of the United Nations for the good of the people.

No color, no religion, no nationality should come between us. We are all children of God. When we destroy an unborn child, we destroy God. And I can tell you, Christian News, November 11th, 1985, in her speech before the United Nations, October 1985.

This person called AIDS sufferers children of God and said, quote, each one of them is Jesus in a distressing disguise. Time Magazine, June 13th, 1986. This person had a longtime friend and biographer, Naveen Chawla.

He asked her bluntly once, do you convert? This person's response, of course I convert. I convert you to be a better Hindu or a better Muslim or a better Protestant. Once you've found God, it's up to you to decide how to worship him.

Associated Press, September 7th, 1997. In the book about this person, Be Holy, page 74, one day she, a girl working in Calcutta, came putting her arms around me and saying, I have found Jesus. And just what were you doing when you found him, I ask.

She answered that after 15 years, she had finally gone to confession and received holy communion from the hands of a priest. Her face was changed and she was smiling. She was a different person because that priest had given her Jesus.

In the same book, page 112, we must bring Jesus back into these homes by consecrating them to his sacred heart. By bringing prayer into the people's lives and teaching them to say the rosary. Priests always used to do this before and they have to start doing these things again so that these families can have peace and joy and holiness through their consecration to the sacred heart of Jesus.

This person also said, Mary is our patroness and our mother, capital M, and she is always leading us to Jesus. In this person's book, Life in the Spirit, Reflections, Meditations, and Prayers, this person says, we never try to convert those who receive aid from the missionaries of charity to Christianity, but in our work, we bear witness to the love of God's presence.

And if Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists, or agnostics become for this better man, simply better, we will be satisfied. It matters to the individual what church he belongs to. If that individual thinks and believes that this is the only way to God for her or him, that is the way God comes into their life, his life.

If he does not know any other way, and if he has no doubt so that he does not need to search, then this is his way to salvation. Page 81 and 82. When Christian News interviewed this person regarding the work with Hindus, quote, this person said, these people are waiting to die.

What are you going to tell them to prepare for death and eternity? She was asked this, rather, and she replied, we tell them to pray to their Bhagwan, to their gods. Hey, yay, yay, yay, yay. All is God, Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, all have access to the same God.

Now, I'm doing my very best not to make any theological comment about one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ, Jesus, et cetera. I'm just trying to tell you, there are two people. One person is a convicted murderer and said they believed in Jesus Christ and free grace when they died.

The other person is a, the world would say, is a very good person, helping people, and we would all say that would be true, yet does not understand salvation, does not understand who Jesus is, does not understand how to get to heaven when you die.

The Offense of the Cross

Now, here's the offensive part. Here comes the offense of the cross. If you'd like to go to 1 Corinthians 1 and talk about why the cross is foolishness and moronic to the unbeliever and offensive, this is the offense of the cross.

Here comes the offense. If Jeffrey Dahmer really believed in Christ Jesus, the person and work of Christ Jesus, his substitutionary atonement, his perfect life, the virgin birth, his literal death, his literal resurrection, and if it was a true saving faith, not just assent, not just emotional attachment, but if it was truly from the will, what would the Bible would say?

Believe unto the Lord Jesus Christ. It wasn't just knowledge assent. It was true trusting. Then, if that is true, like the thief on the cross, Jeffrey Dahmer is in heaven. Now, that is a pretty amazing thing to think about.

That is offensive to many people because in society, what was he good for? Now, he was a murderer, 17 men and boys, and the things he did were unmentionable. Yet, if in fact, and no one knows if this is true or not, no one on earth, if in fact, that was real faith, and if he confessed Jesus as Lord, then we know he's in heaven.

If that is true, he's in heaven because Christ's death covers all kinds of heinous sins. By the way, if you're listening today, aren't you glad for that? All kinds of sins. And then Christ's perfect righteousness gets credited to, reckoned to, imputed to the account of the believer.

And when God the Father sees Jeffrey Dahmer, if his faith was salvific, saving faith, he sees Jeffrey Dahmer in Christ Jesus. And can you imagine Christ Jesus bearing the punishment of the sins of Jeffrey Dahmer at Calvary if in fact Dahmer is or was born again?

That's offensive. And then to think you have other people who do good works. I believe that this lady did a lot of good works. I don't necessarily think they're all motivated by perfect motivations. And you have some people who are wondering and who would criticize her for certain things.

But anyway, she did good things, humanly. But can you believe that if this person believed what she said she believed on her deathbed, if this person believed what her Roman Catholic church taught her, if this person believed on her deathbed what I just quoted you, then Mother Teresa is not in heaven.

See the offense there? See the offense? If you had to pick somebody to go to heaven, you would gladly choose Mother Teresa over Jeffrey Dahmer. But the problem is this. And again, I'll have to say this disclaimer one more time.

I don't know what she believed at the end of her life. I actually hope she was told about the Bible and the biblical view of salvation and grace alone through faith alone through Christ alone. I hope she believed that.

I hope I see Mother Teresa in heaven. And I actually hope I see Jeffrey Dahmer in heaven as well. But this is very, very tough to handle. On the internet, I read this. It is the sickest part of Christian belief that their God will forgive and not send to hell a monster like Dahmer, but will burn my loving, kind, harmless, sweet grandmother eternally because she was an agnostic.

See, that's the offense of the cross. The man who went to preach to Dahmer had a congregant and he said, the congregant said, if Jeffrey Dahmer is going to heaven, then I don't want to be there. That is amazing.

That is amazing. You need to read about the thief on the cross. You need to read about Paul, who gave hearty assent to the killing of Stephen and probably a lot of other people as well. Here's my point, No Compromise radio listeners.

The point is not necessarily God can save you on your deathbed, although that's true. Spurgeon said, don't be presumptuous though. We have hope because there is one person in the Bible who is saved on his deathbed, as it were, that is the thief on the cross.

But we only have one so that you don't remain presumptuous. But listen to Galatians chapter three. For those who think you do good to get to heaven, and that is everyone pretty much thinks that, especially if you've been affected by the fall and that means everyone, especially if you have been given credit for Adam's sin, that is everyone except Christ.

You think you get to heaven by being good. That's just the way you naturally do it because your nature is bent and evil and God's way is through faith alone, not trusting in yourselves, but looking away from yourself to the work and greatness of another.

So if you'd like to get to heaven by being good, you're all mad that Mother Teresa might not be in heaven. And again, I hope she is, but if she died believing what she taught and what she said and what her church taught, she doesn't understand salvation.

I remember MacArthur saying he was over talking to Mother Teresa in Calcutta and she could not articulate the gospel. She doesn't understand the gospel. Listen to Galatians 3, verse 10, for all who rely on the works of the law, that is being good to get to heaven, doing good things, are under a curse.

For it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them. So here's the problem. We can't be perfect in and of ourselves. We can't do enough. We can't say I'm perfect, I've never sinned and for the next 50 years of my life, I will never sin.

I will always keep the law. I will always do the right thing. We can't do it. That's why we need a savior. That's why we need Christ Jesus. Verse 13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.

There's substitution, penal substitution. For as it is written, cursed it is everyone who is hanged on a tree. So here's the dilemma. The dilemma is you think you want to get to heaven by being good, you're under a curse.

And so you have to look away from that and say, the only way I can get to heaven is by the perfect works of another Jesus Christ who was a man. And since he was a man, he can be my substitute. He can be my representative.

He can be my mediator as a man, fully man, the eternal God cloaking himself with humanity. And then he also dies as fully God, not just fully man, but fully God as well, because then his righteousness has an infinite amount of merit.

It is infinitely great. So he can bestow that to all those who would believe. And God the Father was pleased by that by raising him from the dead. And so the problem isn't Dahmer. The problem isn't Mother Teresa.

The problem is how are you going to get to heaven? And if you think it's by the works of the law, friends, you are accursed. Don't get mad at me about the Mother Teresa deal. You need to stand before God.

And if you're a Christian, you say thank you for the righteous robes of Christ Jesus. Thank you that he took my sin, even though he didn't sin. Thank you that I got his righteousness, even though I'm unrighteous.

Thank you for the resurrection that confirms it all. God, you're great. And if you're an unbeliever, you need to not get mad at me about Mother Teresa. You are going to die one day. And if you outperform Mother Teresa, but sin one time, you're not going to heaven.

So we have something in the Christian vocabulary called grace and grace alone. And God demonstrates his love for us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Look and live. 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 bbchurch .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.