Pastor Andrew Smith Interview

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.

The No Compromise Radio Format and Weekly Programming

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and as you know, there�s a format to NoCoRadio. By the way, you can catch us at NoCoRadio, that�s the Twitter feed. You can go to the No Compromise YouTube site.

There�s a variety of different videos there, some by James White and Carl Truman and Phil Johnson, some I did, and then you can go to iTunes and every other place, and the format is Monday. It�s a recorded sermon at Bethlehem Bible Church here in Lancaster, Massachusetts, Lancaster.

Tuesday, I talk to Tuesday Guy, that is Pastor Steve Cooley, about church issues, ecclesiastical matters, how do we function in God�s church. Thursdays, I like to talk about something positive, you know, we call it Positive, Encouraging Caleb Thursday.

What�s the Bible teach on imputation? And then Friday, we usually critique things so that you can learn to discern what the Bible teaches about certain things. Certainly, the Bereans were commended for their discernment, and we are commanded to discern 1 Thessalonians 5.

But on Wednesdays, I like to talk to authors, pastors, preachers, missionaries, those God has called to ministry. I think of Ephesians chapter 4, where he�s captured enemies and then regenerated them, given them spiritual gifts, and then given them to the church.

Instead of slaughtering them, he equips them and helps them serve the church. So my guest today, I know he�ll admit that he should have been slaughtered because of his sin, but now he�s been equipped for gospel ministry.

Andrew Smith, welcome to No Compromise Radio.

Thank you, Mike. Thank you for being gracious enough to have me. I�ve enjoyed following your ministry and look up to you as a preacher, and just counted a real privilege to be able to share this time with you.

Have you ever been introduced? As you know, it�s kind of Psalm 69, Ephesians 4, �You deserve to be slaughtered, but now you�re a preacher.

I can honestly say I�ve never been given an introduction. Quite so nice as that, and very true, too.

So amen and amen to that. Now for the listeners we have here in NOCO, there is an Andrew Smith who is a member of Bethlehem Bible Church, and actually I saw him probably before he was saved, and he would attend the church, and God saved him, gave him new life, and now he�s a wonderful husband and dad and a Bible teacher.

We send him to local churches to preach. And so today we�re talking to a different preacher, Andrew Smith, not the BBC�s Andrew Smith. And so, Andrew, tell us a little bit about yourself. Maybe we should start with how God saved you, and then we�ll work into calling and ministry later.

Sure. Well, the biblical answer to how God saved me would be only by His grace and for His glory, completely undeserving of His grace through salvation, through the substitutionary atonement of God�s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

That�s biblically. Personally, the Lord was pleased to save me at a very young age. I grew up in church my whole life. I descend from several generations of Christians, many of which were in the ministry and were pastors, and so I never remember a time not being in church.

But I do remember a specific day where I heard the gospel for the first time where it actually made sense to me in my own soul. And it was actually on a TV program in the early morning hours of the day.

I was about five years old, and my sister was at school, my little brother was a baby, and my dad was at work. So it was just me and my mom sitting there, and for the first time, I don�t know who the speaker was, who the preacher was on television, but I clearly heard the gospel as a five-year-old.

And so I just turned to my mother and asked her to explain in more detail. And just in a very motherly, simple, yet very biblical way, she explained to me in more detail that Christ died for sinners, and I knew I was a sinner, I knew only God could save me.

And I cried out for mercy and for grace and for Him to save me right there in the living room of our little home. And then a few weeks later, my dad stood with me in the waters of baptism to be baptized in a church, the church that my parents were a member of, that actually two of my great-great-grandfathers had pastored years before.

And of course, at that point, I didn�t know the special quality of that moment, but as I look back on that, that�s just a gracious thing the Lord allowed to happen and a special thing, and I�m very grateful just for God�s grace every single day.

Parenting, Family Worship, and the Example of Godliness

Andrew, tell our listening parents, if you would, maybe a little inside our wisdom, how do we, as we continue to proclaim the truth of the gospel to our children, is there a proper way to go ahead and preach versus we preach and then we push too much and we are trying to close the deal ourselves versus the Holy Spirit?

What kind of wisdom would you give some parents who have young children who are like you when they got saved, pastorally speaking, what would you say?

Well, I think the things that you just mentioned are helpful in terms of obviously speaking the truth. If you don�t have the foundation of, let�s say, speaking the truth through family worship hour or a Bible time that you do before you put the kids to bed, if they�re not being brought to church and being taught by other adults who also believe this truth, then I think it�s going to be very difficult to raise your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

But the best advice I�ve ever been given, and it is not original with me, but I think it�s so good that it�s worth quoting, a pastor friend of mine, a mentor of mine told me that the greatest sermon that a parent will ever preach, and really the first sermon that a child ever hears, will be the life of godliness that his parents live.

And the interaction between mom and dad at home and how the father is tender and loving and caring to the wife, and how the wife is submissive and respectful to the husband, to me is like a loud sermon in the ears of a child.

That they will hear that, they will see that, and then as they hear the truth of the word of God, they�ll see that this is legitimate and that the gospel is true because it changes lives. And it makes a difference in how mom and dad relate to one another and how mom and dad discipline me because they�re concerned about bringing honor and glory to Christ above all things.

What to Look for in a Pastor: Doctrine, Integrity, and Text-Driven Preaching

Today on No Compromise Radio, we�re talking to Pastor Andrew Smith. I met Andrew because he�s one of my students, a Master�s Seminary, has a couple different degrees, a variety of degrees, and one is the D-Min.

Now Andrew, when I got my D-Min at Southern, I know you got your MDiv there, people thought the D-Min was like a demon, D-E-M-O-N or something, how do you get the demon at school? A doctorate of ministry designed to help preachers just become better preachers, and so I had to watch Andrew preach, and then we talked over Skype for a critique and that kind of thing.

But Andrew, I liked you, I liked you because you were a preacher about Christ and you want to be faithful to the text and authorial intent and still talk about who Jesus was. I thought, that�s the kind of preaching I like, that�s the kind of preachers that I want to help.

And so, in light of that, tell our listeners when they�re sitting there listening to preaching, what should they look for? How do you gauge preachers, and I know we�re not supposed to grade them, we�re supposed to be graded by the Word, but what do we look for when it comes to a preacher these days?

Do we look for a good CEO, an administrator, somebody that can raise some money, nice guy, likes to go fishing? What must a church look for and demand in a preacher today?

Sure. Well, the first thing that I would say would be in regard to the actual content of his sermon. So, I�m assuming that every, when you say preacher, you�re speaking about a pastor in a local church who is shepherding a group of people, of which he has a platform every Lord�s Day, perhaps twice every Lord�s Day, and maybe even a midweek service in there, a platform where he stands behind a pulpit and actually claims that what he is saying is something important for people to hear.

The first thing to look for would be, is his message deeply rooted in the Scriptures, or is it rooted in his own opinions, or some hidden agenda that he has? And are his sermons, the point of his sermons, driven by the text of Scripture, or are they driven by some method of ministry or creativity of man, some technique that he has come up with to manipulate people or to get people to do what he wants to do?

And so, if he is a man of God, he is going to preach directly from the Scriptures, and the point of his sermons are going to be the point of the particular text that he is preaching. So, I would say that�s first and foremost, number one.

And then the second thing I think people would need to look for is the man�s life. So, is he a man of integrity, is he a man of truth, does he love his family, is he an honest man, is he a sincere man?

And usually, if the message is correct, then the integrity will be there. Sometimes, at least, Mike, in my experience, I�ve often seen men who had great integrity, but they weren�t the best preachers.

And I would say, in that case, it�s better to follow a man who has great integrity, who is a Christian, who does love the Lord, and there�s no question about that. Even if he�s not good at preaching, it�s better to sit under that man�s ministry than to sit under the ministry of a man who is a great communicator.

But A, he�s either not communicating according to God�s Word, a message that�s consistent with that, or B, even worse, he just doesn�t have the godly life that matches that.

Doctrine, Godliness, and the Danger of False Teaching

Andrew, I think you bring some important points to bear. I think about the recent fallings of a couple of hyper-grace preachers, and I first thought well, it�s their doctrine that then influences them regarding their lifestyle, and that explains what�s going on.

Then I thought to myself, well, maybe they already had a lifestyle like that or some chinks in the armor ahead of time, so they adopted a methodology and a philosophy and a theology that would accommodate those chinks in the armor.

Any particular take on your analysis? Is the first one right? The second one right?

Or option three? Well, the first verse that comes to mind is the verse in Titus where Paul tells Titus that we have a doctrine that conforms to godliness. So I would say on the one hand that getting your doctrine right is absolutely critical if you�re ever going to live a godly life.

In other words, godliness is impossible, really, without the right doctrine. And there can be varying levels, I mean, not everyone has 100 pure doctrine because we�re all sinners, our minds are not completely sanctified yet, and so there�s going to be errors, there�s going to be flaws in certain areas of our theology.

So I�m not saying we have to be perfect, but if we�re not orthodox in our doctrine, it is pretty much a hopeless thing that we�ll ever be godly. But to the other point, I think that we can be right all day long about our doctrine, and even be able to communicate it very articulately, but if it doesn�t impact our hearts and impact our souls, if it�s just in our heads, then godliness is going to be very difficult to come by.

And then if you add on to that false teaching, I think Paul says, you know that, where he says that false teachers create converts that serve their own appetite? That�s right. You know, so a false teaching or a false theology can lead to ungodly, self-absorbed, self-indulgent living where you�re just feeding your own appetite, feeding your own feelings, your own opinions, your own desires, living your best life now, and it�s because your theology is warped.

So I do think there�s a connection there. I guess I would want to be so cautious to say, you know, because every situation would be different. What we have to look out for is to never become disillusioned when someone does have the right doctrine, and they do articulate it well, and then they fall into sin.

It doesn�t make the doctrine for naught. You know, it doesn�t negate the truth of the doctrine, because we�re all sinners and we�re all prone to wonder, �Lord, I feel prone to leave the God I love.

Daily Bible Reading, Morning Devotions, and Guarding the Heart

Talking to Andrew Smith today, Pastor Andrew Smith, you know what I was thinking, Andrew, as we were discussing these things, maybe it�d be a good reminder for some of our listeners to just hear from you, what are some of the things you do to protect yourself in that area?

For instance, I think of myself, I�d say 9 days out of 10, 95 days out of 100. It�s pretty similar for me. I get up, and the first thing I do after I make some coffee, maybe that�s the wrong thing to do first, but I make some coffee, French press, dark roast, grind up the beans, and then I sit down with my Bible, and I try to read my Bible for an extended time period because I want to have a soft heart unto the Lord, and I don�t want to have a hard heart.

I want to have my mind thinking biblical things to start the day so I can say no to self and yes to serve my wife, and I want to stay pure through just reflecting on God�s Word. Then I have a wife who holds me accountable, and elders.

How important is it for Christians, and of course pastors as well, to just be men and women who read their Bible regularly, not for just a minute here or a one-minute Bible verse there?

Absolutely. Well, I think the thing that you said at the beginning, Mike, was critical when you mentioned what you do in the mornings. I�m a firm believer, and I don�t think this is just a personal thing.

I think that it is actually a biblical thing because the psalmist speaks about early in the morning meditating on the truths of God�s Word, and this idea of devotions to the Lord in the morning. Someone once said that if you run from God in the morning, you will never run to Him during the day, and so I know that�s true in my life, brother, that if I wake up and I start the day off bad, getting up out of bed thinking, �What can I do today that will serve me

If I start the day out that way, it�s going to be a pretty bad day and a pretty worthless day in terms of the quality of Kingdom living and what I�m doing for the Lord. So I think what you said is perfect.

In the morning, I use my mornings for the Lord, for prayer, for Bible study, and then I give my afternoons to the people of my church that I minister to, and then I give my evenings to my family. And not everyone is a pastor, so they can�t give their entire morning to the Lord like I try to do through the reading of the Word of God and through prayer, because not everyone is preparing messages, but I think everyone can take 15 -20 minutes in the morning to begin their day right, running to the Lord instead of running away from the Lord, so that the rest of the day they�re drawn to Him through every circumstance and through every trial and obstacle that might come their way from the enemy.

Church Planting, Christ Building His Church, and Ministry Transition

Andrew is a preacher, and I would love to have you, No Compromised listeners, listen to him. He is very, may I say, mild-mannered now on the radio, and he�s just talking at a proper pitch and pace and all those things.

But I�ll tell you, when he gets in the pulpit, get ready. I mean, it is �hold on to the pew chair� because the truth of God is being proclaimed through the personality that God has sovereignly given him.

Andrew, tell us about your ministry now. I know you�re in a transition, but if people want to know about where you are, where they can listen to some of your sermons, how can they kind of check you out online and see what you�re doing and listen to you?

Sure. Yeah, we are in the midst of transition. I currently pastor a church in North Florida, and this is the fourth church that I�ve been blessed and privileged to pastor during my ministry experience.

But the Lord is transitioning us out of our current pastorate to start a church. And I never say that I�m starting a church, because Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 16 that he would build the church and the gates of Hades would not prevail against it.

But he has called us to preach the gospel in an evangelistic method and style to people in the community, a certain area of the community, with the desire to hopefully have a local church. And so currently we are in that transitional state.

My sermons are all archived on the internet, and they can be found at fbcgraygables .com. Fbcgraygables .com, and gray is spelled with an A, not an E. But I�m not for sure how much longer they will be on there, since this coming Sunday will be my last Sunday at the church.

And so we�re working on getting a new website up that will at least contain some of my messages, probably not all of them, but at least some of them, so that if anyone wants to listen, they would be able to do so.

Pope Francis, Roman Catholicism, and a Different Gospel

All right, thank you for that. But if I just throw out some names and you give me a word response up to a 60-second response, I think that�s always kind of fun radio. I like to do that. So this is recorded toward the end of September in real time, in no-code time.

It�s probably late October before this is aired in 2015. If I throw out the word �Pope what are your comments regarding Pope Pius?

Well, I would say in reality he�s probably not that pious. The first word that came to my mind actually was �heretic. Now, I don�t know the man�s heart, but I know that what I do know is Roman Catholic doctrine, and I know that if the pope in his heart holds to Roman Catholic doctrine, then he would be a heretic.

And I would agree with the Reformers who called him quite regularly �an Antichrist. And I think some of them even called him �the Antichrist. I actually, because I was in the process of moving, because where we�re starting the church is about an hour south of where we currently are in North Florida.

We�re going to be in the St. Augustine area, just north of St. Augustine and just south of Jacksonville. My cable guy wasn�t due to come until the day after the pope arrived. So I jokingly on Facebook said that I was glad the cable guy was not coming until tomorrow so I wouldn�t have to watch all this stuff on the news about the pope.

I mean, to me, it�s just clear that the Catholic Church preaches a different gospel. And so Paul says in Galatians, �anathema to anyone who preaches another gospel. So it�s very hard for me to get warm and fuzzy feelings about the pope.

Again, I�ve never met him, I don�t know his heart, but if he holds to Roman Catholic traditional teaching, then he holds to a different gospel, which would make him a heretic.

I thought it was interesting, Andrew, when the pope was criticizing and scolding America for being so narcissistic and then there was a picture of him getting kissed. His ring was getting kissed by someone.

Yeah, there�s no inconsistency there whatsoever. Nor is there inconsistency with him talking about the importance of protecting the environment as if that is more important than protecting human life in a womb.

That, to me, and again, I have not read or seen the speech that he gave to Congress and I�m not sure exactly what his remarks were about abortion. I know he was going to speak to it, but I just know he�s been playing this, beating this drum of the environment and protecting the environment.

And I�m sitting here thinking, we need to protect human life, not plant life. It just, to me, seems a little bit inconsistent.

I know. Well, of course, we are pro-life and we want to protect those little babies in the womb. I hate abortion. I know it�s a forgivable sin. But I also think, what about Rome, who aborts free grace, free sovereign grace in the gospel?

And Paul says, those kind of people are anathema. And I don�t see how the Pope can teach Roman Catholic doctrine without believing it. So, let�s do another one here. We�ve got a couple minutes left. How about Sinclair Ferguson?

Sinclair Ferguson. He�s a Scottish god.

Now, here we go. Galatians 1 again.

Yeah. No, Sinclair Ferguson, I would call him the best systematic expositor today. And when I say systematic, I mean like systematic theological expositor. He�s the best at theological exposition, where he works through verses or works through a verse.

But his ability to bring out the depth of truth, the depth of theology in one word or one phrase or one verse or one text, in my opinion, is better than anyone alive today.

Well, thank you, Andrew. The time goes by so fast. It�s already 24 minutes. That means we�ve got about 30 seconds to wrap things up. Give us your website again one more time where the old messages hopefully are still stored.

Sure. It�s www .sbcgraygables .com. And gray is spelled with an A, not an E.

And what city are you planting the church in?

The city will be St. Augustine, Florida.

All right. Thank you so much for being a guest at No Compromise Radio on the radio show. May God bless your ministry and give you much fruit.

Thank you so much for having me, Mike. I really enjoyed this.

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 10 .15 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 WV &E, its staff or management.