Ephesians Jet Tour Intro

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. My name is

Mike Abendroth, and I, like I say many times, am glad to be your host. I'm even glad when

I get to guest host for Todd Friel on Wretched Radio. The other day, someone gave me a

Wretched Radio t -shirt, kind of a cool black one with red on the front, wretched, something cool on the back.

So I took a picture of it with a weird -looking face and then sent it to Todd. He didn't respond.

Now, normally, I text Todd or email Todd, he responds back quickly, and I think we're friends.

But I think that he didn't somehow like the shirt. Oh, I got an email from Beth today.

Thank you, Beth. I won't mention your last name, but it starts with a V. And she said, Mike, it is flotsam and jetsam.

And so jetsam. That is correct. Although later in the show, I did figure that out. I pray thee.

So anyway, if you don't know the show, we're glad to have you tune in basically Monday to Friday.

And the format used to be Monday. I think this still is the format. It's one of the sermons that I've preached at Bethlehem Bible Church, bbcchurch .org.

I think some of the videos have been updated, by the way. You can see an increase in the receding hairline or a decrease in the hairline.

And that's Monday. Tuesdays, we have Tuesday Guy, Pastor Steve Cooley here. Steve and I go way back,

I think maybe 20 years now, something close to that. And he's going to be starting, I think within the next week or so, recording a

Saturday special podcast only for those subscribers who give large gifts. That's how we should get some money.

You know, that's kind of like White Horse Inn when they have the, you get the normal podcast, but if you give money, you get the extended version.

So see, we could do that. Pastor Steve stuff you have to pay for. That's Tuesday. Then on Wednesday, I like to interview people.

Now, a long time ago, I used to get free books from publishers, but then I was under the gun to read those books and then to interview the authors.

And lots of the authors now are un -interviewable, so you can't interview MacArthur, you can't interview

Deborah, you can't interview some of these folks, Moeller, because they're just too busy. So I don't read that many books, and maybe

I'll interview a friend or something like that on occasion, a pastor or a friend, and that'll be on Wednesdays. Then Thursdays, I try to teach some,

I think we call that Caleb Thursdays, positive, encouraging to teach something in the Bible.

Maybe it's confession, maybe repentance, maybe it's imputation, maybe it's the deity of Christ. Something about God and his word in a positive fashion, just as this is what the

Bible teaches. And then on Friday, it's All Purgatory Breaks Loose Friday, and then

I usually go after people And if you want to think about an elder's responsibility in Titus chapter 1, they are to teach sound doctrine, that is hygienic doctrine, healthy doctrine, and they are to refute those who contradict that, and so an elder has to do both.

And so since there's no compromise radio, I think in general, if Ted did a computer analysis of the shows, what shows were spent time, you know, getting after, taking people to the woodshed, and then what percentage of the shows were, let's talk about what the love of God actually means, sovereign love, uninfluenced love, eternal love, then we would find out.

Probably it tips toward the critique. Hey, it's no compromise radio.

I mean, think about it. This is different than pulpit ministry because I know people switch around the dials,

I know people have to do the podcast, and what do you listen to? There's so many people to listen to, and if it's just straight up Bible teaching,

I say this with all, you know, honesty and frankness, there are many other people who have greater gifts than I do when it comes to pulpit ministry, and so you've got to have an edge somehow.

You've got to have a gimmick, you've got to have a spin, you've got to have a slant. I'm trying to find a word.

You've got to have a flotsam, you've got to have a jetsam, you've got to have an angle. See, I knew eventually

I could get to it. So, welcome to No Compromise Radio, info at nocompromiseradio .com.

Tell your friends, tell your enemies. Today I'd like to do a, it's probably going to be just part one,

I get to go to the Czech Republic and teach pastors how to preach

Ephesians. Now I haven't preached through Ephesians from the pulpit here in several years, and so I'm trying to brush up, and I'm just taken with this glorious gospel of Jesus Christ in the book of Ephesians.

It is awesome. You want homework today? Go home and read through the book of Ephesians. Don't just read the first chapter, don't just read the second chapter, read all of it.

It won't take you that long, or you can go to bible .is on your app and listen to it. It is a great book, and so I remember the time when

I heard MacArthur do a jet tour through Revelation, and so since I heard that message, I've tried to do lots of jet tours.

Now the problem with the jet tour is, you've got to know the whole book, right? So if you do Revelation, you've got to study the whole book, or a jet tour of Job, you need to know all of Job, because you can't, when you're teaching the

Bible, know the whole story until you know the parts of the story and the minutia, and so it becomes problematic.

If you're just preaching through a book that you've never preached through before, you say, well, I'm just going to chop off this section, kind of like you're chopping off sausages, and you whack it off at this spot, and then you can get your arms around it.

And so since I've taught the book of Ephesians, I thought, you know, let's just do the jet tour, because I'm going to give a jet tour of the book of Ephesians to these men at the first session in the

Czech Republic, so they can get their arms wrapped around the entire corpus, the entire body.

I just learned what habeas corpus was the other day, and I was thinking, oh, it's got corpse in it. I've been studying the resurrection in 1

Corinthians chapter 15, and so corpse, body, you've got to have a body present when it comes to judgment and court, you bring the body.

So there you have it. I pray thee. So let's think about Ephesians' big picture.

Now I might address a few verses here or there, but my goal is, today on the show, is to get you to fall in love with Ephesians, or re -fall in love with Ephesians, or say to yourself,

I get the big picture of Ephesians, now I'll go and read it for myself, and the best thing you can do at the beginning is if you think of the theme.

So one of the things I'm going to do for the preaching class that I'll be teaching in Germany, it's a six -day master's level class on preaching to some of these

German students, with other countries coming in, I think, is I want to, one of their quizzes is going to be, tomorrow morning when you arrive to class,

I want you to write down 1 to 27, the books of the New Testament, so you've got to memorize those, and then a theme sentence for each.

And so you need a theme sentence, and so if I talk about, if I say Matthew, the

Gospel of Jesus according to Matthew, what's the theme sentence? And somewhere in there should be

Messiah, King, you know, Jesus as...it's

got to be in there. If you put Book of Revelation, remember, don't say Revelations, that's not right, the

Book of Revelation, it should say the unfolding of Christ Jesus.

If you want to say something about end times, all right, fine, but this is the unveiling, this is the apocalypse of Jesus Christ.

Well, what is the theme sentence of Ephesians? If you had to summarize

Ephesians in one sentence, and why is it important for you as a listener or those pastors, whenever you open up the

Bible and you address people and teach your kids or teach the Sunday school or teach Awana or teach your spouse or something, when you open up a

Bible verse and you say, well, let's see what Ephesians 2, 8, 9, and 10 say, you should say, we know, as we're turning to the

Book of Ephesians, Paul is writing about this, and then you should say that. So if you're saying, oh, 2

Timothy says, 1 Timothy says, let's look at 1 Timothy chapter 2 about men's roles and women's roles, we know that Paul in 1

Timothy chapter 3 wrote this book so we would know how to address issues in the church, and then we would quote chapter 3, verses 14 and 15.

So that's why we want to do that, and so here is the theme, and so far we're eight minutes in and there's not much jet to this tour, is there?

I pray thee, et cetera. So if I had to summarize the

Book of Ephesians, I would do it in one verse, and that verse would be Ephesians 3 .21,

to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever, amen.

That's why Paul is writing the Book of Ephesians, glory in the church through the person and work of Jesus Christ, that you would have a satisfaction and a joy and an exuberance in your

Christ -centered faith. That's a very important thing, and Paul in the big picture uses the first three chapters in general to—I better stop here for a second, maybe this peach coffee will help—I think that has done it.

I either get the Major Dickinson blend, Dickinson, or I get the house blend.

So there we have it. I think to this day we've had plenty of writers, listeners say that they're going to send some peach coffee in, and not one person has done it.

I think when Todd Friel asks for something, he gets it. I think James White on his show, he puts a little ministering needs there to the side, and he gets computers.

I think he got some cool Mac computer. He gets—I don't know what else he gets—cool manuscripts,

Geneva Bibles. I think I should just put a list up there like James. He should tell me the secret.

Now James, different than Todd, when I email James, he emails me right back. So anyway, first three chapters, doctrine.

Next three chapters, duty. First three chapters, creed, what you believe.

And then the last three chapters, how you respond to that with your conduct.

And so that is a typical Paul thing. That's typical Bible. You have indicatives, and then you have imperatives.

You have who you are in Christ Jesus, the first three chapters, and then living out who you are in the last three.

I'm not saying there are not statements of fact in 4 to 6, nor am

I saying that there are a lack of imperatives in 1 to 3, but generally that's the case.

Generally you have mostly indicatives in 1 to 3, and mostly imperatives in 4 to 6.

And so you have the glory of God, the triune God, highlighted in the personal work of Christ Jesus in the church.

And so when you see what God has done for you, then you respond to what

God has done. Martin Lloyd -Jones said, much of the trouble in the church today is due to the fact that we are so subjective, so interested in ourselves, so egocentric.

That is a peculiar error of this present century. Having forgotten God and having become so interested in ourselves, we become miserable and wretched, and spend our time in shallows and in miseries.

The message of the Bible from beginning to end is designed to bring us back to God, to humble us before God, and to enable us to see our true relationship to Him.

And that is the great theme of this epistle, Ephesians. And then I highlighted this in my notes, and I want to highlight this in your mind.

It holds us to the fact that we are—it holds us fact—see now

I've misspelled this. Isn't that bad? This is a big climactic thing. It holds us face -to -face with God and what

God is and what God has done. It emphasizes throughout the glory and the greatness of God—God the

Eternal One, God the Everlasting, God overall, and the indescribable glory of God—Martin Lloyd Jones.

Isn't that exactly what we need in our society today? We want to be told too often when we're thinking wrongly about the greatness of mankind and the greatness of people who can skydive from how many miles up, 20 -some miles up.

We can put people on the moon—technology, science, computers.

I want to be told about the greatness and majesty of God. Just to think about God for a while.

Think about the eternal God. Now, how do you get your mind wrapped around the eternal nature of God?

How do you get your mind wrapped around the infinite nature of God? How do you get your mind wrapped around God never changes—essentially,

He never changes? How about before creation? We have to use words of—Calvin would say,

God -lisping, God -stooping down to speak to us, baby talk, because we can't grasp things.

So God uses language like, before the foundations of the world—well, before Genesis 1 -1 and before creation, where was

God? Well, there was nowhere. Can you imagine that?

Where was God before the foundation of the world? Where was God pre -Genesis 1 -1?

Well, there was no place ever—there's no created place—before

Genesis 1 -1, and so God wasn't anywhere because there was nowhere.

See, just thinking about who God is like this. So far, not much yet in this tour,

I know, but thinking about that, thinking about time before Genesis 1.

What kind of time was it before Genesis 1? How long was

God existing before He created the world? And you ask questions like that.

Well, there was no time before Genesis 1. There's no place.

There's no where. God simply existed. You say,

I can't quite figure that out. Yeah, that's the point. That's the point. First of all, we are finite and we're fallen.

Our minds are limited. We are creatures, right? Now let's think about God.

Before Genesis 1, there's no where. Before Genesis 1 -1, there's no when.

That is unbelievable. To wrap our minds around that, the unchanging, eternal

God. So in this book of Ephesians, I shouldn't have titled this the

Jet Tour, I can tell, because I just want to talk about who the Lord is. It starts with Paul, Ephesians 1 -1, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.

And so if you're not a Calvinist, you ought to be, because everything in it pushes you God is sovereign, and we are not.

Yes, we have a responsibility to obey. Yes, God doesn't believe for you, but God is sovereign.

And Paul is an apostle by the will of God. The divine call in Romans 1, a divine command in 1

Timothy, directly chosen by Christ, Acts chapter 9. The divine will.

And that is really the theme here of the book of Ephesians, God. It's God's will and God's will alone, that he works through the person of Christ Jesus for his own glory.

Paul didn't try to get this office by earning it, by perspiration, by a mail order seminary.

It was by God's will alone. And he writes this book in prison, and he says to the saints who are at Ephesus, we're not really positive that the best manuscripts have at Ephesus, so it's just at, you know, fill in the blank.

We call that a circular letter. And then he gives the greeting that's so Pauline, grace to you, very

Greek greeting there, grace, and peace.

There's the Shalom, which would be the Hebrew equivalent, Jewish greeting from God our

Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And right there, you get grace and peace from God the

Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. And everywhere you look, Paul is Trinitarian, and many times he doesn't try to substantiate the

Trinity, try to prove the Trinity. He just knows that the Trinity exists, and we have God the Father equal to and equivalent to by nature the

Lord Jesus Christ. And then we are off to the races. Then we are really hitting the jet tour.

This is all just a setup, and since this is a Positive Encouraging Caleb Thursday, we can do this here on No Compromise Radio.

The very next few verses are world -changing. They are to rock your world.

They are to make you sit and think if you're a Christian. This is unbelievable that the God of the universe would do this.

And so, verses 3 through 14 in chapter 1 are all one sentence in the

Greek language. I want to say 203, although that might be and cannot be in the hymnal that we have here.

Maybe 206 words in the Greek language, somewhere close, around 200 words that all are with one main point, and this is

Paul's praise of God. Ephesians 1 .3,

blessed, that's the key. When you do diagramming in school, if you were to diagram this

Greek sentence, actually there isn't really a verb, it's implied, and it is blessed be.

Be isn't even in there, but it's implied, and so God is to be blessed. Blessed be the

God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love.

He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself according to the kind intention of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved.

Paul is modeling praise. The sentence goes on, but we'll stop there for a second. Paul is praising

God the Father for the work of Christ Jesus, and particularly he starts off with this praise, and you'll see there's a stanza that's common here, and it's to the praise of the glory of his grace, verse 6, to the praise of his glory, verse 12, to the praise of his glory, verse 14.

So Paul praises the Father for election, verses 4 through 6, and he praises the

Son for redemption, verses 7 to 12, and he praises the Spirit for his sealing ministry, verses 13 to 14.

So you have three sections of praise, praising the Father for his election, praising the

Father for his Son's work of redemption, praising the Father for the Holy Spirit's ministry of sealing.

And so we have a triune praise, if you will, and we have a praise that is done because of Christ.

In Christ, verse 3, in him, verse 4, through Jesus Christ, verse 5, in the beloved, verse 6.

Let's see, in him, verse 7, in him, verse 9, in Christ, verse 10, in him, verse 10, in him, verse 11, in Christ, verse 12, in him, verse 13, in him, verse 13.

So we have a God who deserves praise, and he deserves praise because of what

Christ has done, and this is all planned out. Everything about it is planned.

It's before the foundation of the world that he chose us. He predestined us to adoption by the kind intention of his will, freely bestowed on us in the beloved.

So let's put those three together and see the theme expanded in the book of Ephesians.

So if the theme is the glory of Christ Jesus in the church, now you have kind of three sub -points to that.

If Ephesians 3 .21 is a good summary of the book, this is a good sub -point summary of the book.

And so here it is. And this is awesome. If you get this down, you'll get Ephesians down, believe me.

God has a plan. That's the first sub -point. God has a plan. Second sub -point.

God's plan works itself out in the person of Christ Jesus. Point three.

He works out his plan through the personal work of Christ Jesus to the praise of his glory.

Okay, God has a plan. That plan is in Christ, and it is to the praise of his glory.

So now when you think of the book of Ephesians, everything falls underneath that template. So think about it.

How are Jews and Gentiles put together in one new man, chapter two? How can the Jews and Gentiles come together?

Well, God had a plan that wasn't new. He worked out that plan in and through the person of Christ Jesus, and he did it to the praise of his glory.

Wow, okay, I get it. How about chapter three? Now we have Paul, an apostle of the

Gentiles. How'd that happen? Well, God had a plan for that. God worked out that plan in and through the person of Christ Jesus, and he did it to the praise of his glory.

I get it. All right, how about husbands and wives? How do they work together?

Well, do you know what? God had a plan for that. God worked out that plan in and through the person of Christ Jesus, and he did it to the praise of his glory.

Well, what about slaves and masters? What about employers and employees? Well, God had a plan.

He worked out that plan in and through the person of Christ Jesus, and he did it to the praise of his glory. So when you think of Ephesians, you should think about the glory of Christ Jesus in the church.

That's what you should think about if you have one sentence. If you want to think about another sentence that expands that,

God has a plan. He worked that plan in and through the person of Christ Jesus, and he did it to the praise of his glory.

And God deserves praise. He is the living God. He isn't a dead God. We don't have to move him around like idols.

We don't have to fashion him with hands like idols. He's not like an idol that has eyes that cannot see, ears that cannot hear.

He is not that kind of God at all. He's the living God. God is spirit. And this great God, who was nowhere before time was, and he always existed before time was, and he never began.

He just is the I Am, the eternal God. I Am who I Am. I always exist. This God deserves our praise.

And if you read Ephesians, your praise meter will be responding to this great and glorious God.

First in what you believe, first three chapters, and then your conduct. My name is Mike Abendroth. This is

No Compromise Radio Ministry. Info at NoCompromiseRadio .com. Stay tuned for next

Thursday with more positive, encouraging Ephesians, K -Love, 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 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.