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Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Ebendroth, and I'm glad you've tuned in, both with your ear and some of you with your eyes.

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You see this on YouTube now. Got a new channel on YouTube, No Compromise Radio. Had an old channel, now we've got the new channel.

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And basically, I think what we're going to do is Mondays on NOCO, it's going to be an audio rerun of a sermon from Bethlehem Bible Church that I've preached recently.

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Friday, there'll be audio only, and that'll be a rerun, one of the shows that we've recorded in the past.

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Wednesday's the new show. So that means we're losing Tuesdays and Thursdays for a while just to see how that works.

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After all, how much do you really need to hear from me?

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If you've listened to every show, and I know there's a handful of people that listen to every show, you need some serious help.

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I should pay for you to go to counseling or something. Okay, if you're related to me, fine, or an old high school chum or something like that,

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Christian Harris, there's some folks like that that we'll give a pass to. Today, I want to talk again about listening to sermons.

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Last show or a few weeks ago, we did the one on George Whitefield, how to listen to a sermon. I thought that was some good content that he had for us to all consider since the thing that we do at church the most is listen to a sermon, right?

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That takes up the most amount of time. And of course, it's very important to hear from God's word. As we think about a church service, it goes from revelation, hearing from God, to response, singing, and giving, and praying.

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So today, I want to have you listen carefully about how to listen to a sermon, and here's how we're gonna do it.

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We're gonna look at 2 Timothy 4 that talks about how to preach the word.

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And if the word is to be preached a certain way, then that implies it's to be listened to a certain way.

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So if the preacher has to preach with patience, you ought to listen with patience.

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He's gonna talk about the same things over and over and over, then you ought to listen to the same things over and over and over, that type of thing.

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So we're gonna go to 2 Timothy 4, and as the word is to be preached, it is to be listened to.

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That's the whole thing. So we're gonna take these commands to Timothy, the preacher, and then say, how does this apply to me as I listen to a sermon?

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I agree with Spurgeon when he said, there's no worship of God that is better than the hearing of a sermon.

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Wow, no worship of God that is better than that of hearing a sermon. So when you go to worship, remember most people,

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I know you at NOCO don't believe this. Oh, the worship was really good today. You know what they mean by that, don't you?

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They mean the worship was good, they like the praise songs. Nothing wrong with liking praise songs, but worship is giving.

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So when you say the worship was good today, does that mean you gave sacrificially? Oh, the worship is really good today.

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Does that mean you were praying along with the pastor who's praying, following along with the scripture reading so that you're thinking, oh, this is

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God's word? When you said the worship is really good today, do you mean the listening of a sermon?

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So today on No Compromise Radio, we wanna make sure. I just said gonna, and now

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I just said wanna. We wanna make sure, we're gonna. I mean, the Nebraska, I'm a public school person from Nebraska, and I cannot extract myself from that.

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Mario is just laughing. This is why we're only doing Wednesday shows, because what are we doing?

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And I probably pronounced the word T -O, the preposition ta. We're going ta the store. Don't you hate it when you say that, ta?

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2 Corinthians 3, 18, but we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the

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Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the

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Lord, the Spirit. That is to say, God through a frail servant shows you the word in a sermon preached on Sunday morning, and God wonderfully, mysteriously, supernaturally transforms you into the image of the

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Lord Jesus. It's a big deal. It's important. Don't you wanna sin less, Christian?

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Don't you wanna obey more, Christian? Don't you wanna walk by faith more? Do you know that God uses sermons to do that very thing?

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Preached word to do that very thing. That's why with our family, I never wanted my kids to say, are we going to church today, dad?

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Short of all of us throwing up our nuclear winter. Oh, it might be, where are we going today?

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Because we're in Philadelphia or we're in Miami or we're in some crazy place in Puerto Rican. So many

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Puerto Ricans here at the church. But where are we going?

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No. Sorry, where are we gonna go? Of course we're gonna go.

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That's what one man said. The world is dying for one, not of good preaching, but of good hearing. That's interesting.

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People are like, well, we need better preachers. That's true, I wanna be a better preacher, but we need better hearers.

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So today I wanna talk about listening to a sermon. Another thing that Spurgeon said, we are told men ought not to preach without preparation.

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See where this is gonna go? Granted. But we add men ought not to hear without preparation.

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Which do you think needs the most preparation? The sower or the ground? I would have the sower come with clean hands.

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We want the minister to come in a holy way, repentant way. But I would have the ground well plowed, well turned over and the clods broken before the seed comes in.

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It seems to me, Spurgeon said, that there's more preparation needed by the ground than by the sower, more by the hearer than by the preacher.

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Fascinating. So let me read 2 Timothy 4, one and following.

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It's written to the preacher. This is how you preach the word, Paul's last letter before he's beheaded, according to tradition.

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And we'll then say, if it's to be preached a certain way, it's to be listened in a similar way.

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So Mike Ebendroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry, 2 Timothy 4, verse one and following.

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I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom.

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Next three words, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season.

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Reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but willing or wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away from the truth, literally turn their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.

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But you be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

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So that is what Paul writes to Timothy when it comes to preaching. So we can use this as our outline to say, you know what?

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If it's to be preached a certain way, the word is, then it's to be listened to as well. I know you've heard me say that so far many times, but I just want to repeat it.

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So how to listen to God's word. And we'll use alliteration and adverbs.

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Alliteration means every word starts with the same letter and adverb, most of the times end in L -Y.

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So it's like a how -to. We're to do something a certain way, we'll put an L -Y at the end. So number one, dogmatically.

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How do you listen to sermons? Dogmatically. That is to say, when 2

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Timothy 4 .2 says preach the word, that doesn't mean preach book reviews, social issues, political issues, cultural issues, entertainment issues.

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No, the word is to be preached. That's the only thing you preach is the word. You preach the word.

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So how does that affect you, dear listener? You should be saying, the only thing I want my pastor to do is to preach the word.

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I want the word from him. I don't need to know about, you know, second amendment. I don't need to know about a

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Bitcoin. I don't need to know about all these other things. By the way, buy guns and buy

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Bitcoins if you want. That's not my point. But when it comes to sermons, when it comes to worship, when it comes to the proclamation of the word

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Timothy, you preach the word. That implies then you dear listener should not hanker after, desire after, social, current, economic issues, political issues.

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What's pastor think about this, that or the other? By the way, ask me what I think of these things out of the pulpit and I'll give you a direct answer.

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But in the pulpit, I am determined to preach God's word. And in the pew, you should be dogmatic, insisting upon,

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I want the word of God. It's like you give your pastor one pass. He gets up there for a political sermon, he gets one pass.

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And if he repents, he gets to come back. If he doesn't, he's done. I don't have a legacy except with my family.

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I don't desire some big legacy except with my family, just being a good dad and husband.

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But if there is some legacy that a pastor should have, that is he faithfully proclaim the word of God, which centers on the personal work of Jesus.

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The father had sent the son to redeem. The spirit takes that great redemption, applies it to you. And if you have a legacy as a sermon listener, it should be,

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I will only sit under ministries that preach the word. I'm dogmatic about it.

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We're not going, okay, now here we go. I'm gonna move to meddling now. Well, we don't go to that church.

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They've got the best preaching around, but we don't like the music. Did you hear what you just said?

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We have a certain preference of music. And so we won't go to that church because it doesn't fit the way we want it.

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You're a consumer and you pick and choose. I'll just consume this. Listen to whatever music you want at home, in the car, elsewhere.

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If you can find a church that upholds the word of God and preaches it well, and it's got the kind of music you like, fine.

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I'm not against music and preferences and everything else, but it's here to preach the word.

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And you say to yourself, I'm gonna go to where I'm gonna be fed, right? You don't pick a restaurant based on what kind of music they're playing.

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I just thought of that, Mario. That's pretty good. I remember, yeah,

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I think maybe some people do, right? No, you go there for the food. Maybe the illustration breaks down some, but you get the point.

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Preach the word, you herald the word. Henrikson said of proclamation, the earnest proclamation of news initiated by God.

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And with sharp military language, Paul says to Timothy, you preach the word. So the flip side is, you have to listen to God's word.

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That's where you go to hear from God is a local worship service. And they better be preaching the word of God.

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This is a non -negotiable. Paul said in Acts 20, therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.

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That's the attitude of the preacher. A good preacher is going to say, you know what? And I've had to say this before.

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I'm not saying I'm a good preacher. I'm just saying I've been taught, well, over my dead body, is this pulpit going to turn into a social, cultural, economic, sports -driven time where we just kind of talk and we dialogue and we express feelings and emotions and group thinks and dialogues and to think tanks and everything else.

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No, it's a proclamation of God's word. And so that's what you should desire dogmatically from the pew.

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My name is Mike Havendroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. Subpoint when

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Paul says preach the word, I think it could be argued. While some might say preach the word like in the beginning was the word and the word is talking about Jesus.

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I think he's talking about all the Old Testament because the New Testament hadn't been written yet.

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And I think he was talking about 1 Timothy. That had been written, right? If 2

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Timothy, 2 Timothy, 1 Timothy, right? When we say all scriptures God breathed, all scriptures inspired, 2

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Timothy 3 .16. What's he talking about with all scripture? Well, all the Old Testament and certainly 1

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Timothy. But if I boil all those books down, the Old Testament and 1 Timothy, we're talking about who

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Jesus is. And so preach the word is I'm preaching the eternal word of God and I'm preaching the eternal son of God.

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How to listen to a sermon on No Compromise Radio. Number one, dogmatically. Number two, devotedly.

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Number two, devotedly. Here's what I mean by that. Paul is telling Timothy in 2

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Timothy 4 .2, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season. When people wanna hear

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God's word, when they don't wanna hear God's word. When you, the Christian wanna hear

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God's word and sometimes if you're in sin and you're dealing with something, you don't only wanna hear it.

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So no matter what you are wanting to hear God's word, preach because the preacher is supposed to be preaching the word in season and out of season.

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Literally when he says be ready, it's to stand by. It's to be urgent.

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It's to stage your post as one pastor said. This pastor is gonna get up there and he's gonna proclaim

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God's word in good times and bad times, financial good times, financial bad times, economic good times, economic bad times, spiritual good times, spiritual bad times.

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And so there's an urgency because this is life and death. Sometimes I think to myself, I'm preaching the word and I've got things going on with my family or health or this, that and the other.

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And the words that come out of my mouth from this book, God could use to send somebody to heaven, make them born again from death to life, forgiveness of sins, declared righteous, adopted into the family of God.

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That's crazy, but it's true. And so pastors should say to themselves, whether I feel like it or not, whether the congregation wants this or not, what if I'm talking about giving or something, maybe they might not like it.

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I'm to stand on my post. I've been given the word of God by the great King. And now I'm gonna preach it to you.

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Good times or bad times, you're gonna get the Bible. You're gonna get the word of God. So on the listener's side, if that's true of the pastor, if that's true of the preacher, if that's what he's under, then

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I better come expecting God's word, whether I want it or whether I don't, good days or bad days, whether I'm persecuted or not.

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I am hearing judgment, resurrection, glorification, sin, all these topics that are important, and I need to hear them when it's convenient or when it's inconvenient, whether I want to, whether I don't.

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Let's just keep working through the passage. Number three, how do you listen to a sermon? Not really a stretch when

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I came up with this, but differently. Dogmatically, I want God's word.

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Devotedly, give me God's word no matter what, whether I feel like it or not. Now, number three, differently.

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And what do I mean by differently? Sometimes the pastor is talking about sin and it convicts you.

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And sometimes the pastor is talking about forgiveness and it comforts you.

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There's different things in the Bible. And so here from the text is reprove, rebuke, exhort.

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So preaching is to contain reproof, rebuke, and exhortation. And so what are those things?

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They're different ways to preach God's word. Reprove talks about sin.

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And the spirit of God uses the words to convict of sin and to convince of sin.

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And that's what the word reprove is. Here's what sin is.

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I understand what God's standard is. I understand what sin is. And rebuke is a little different.

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I think, and most scholars, I think would believe the same thing. Reprove is, this is sin.

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Let me show you why it's sin. Rebuke is, if you're doing that, don't. This is you, you're sinning.

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This is a particular sin that you're doing. Whitfield said, it's a poor sermon that gives no offense that neither makes the hearer displeased with himself nor with the preacher.

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Interesting. Grinnell, if men will be bold in sin, ministers must be bold to reprove.

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That's true. Spurgeon, if you always enjoy sermons, the minister is not a good steward.

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God's people need that the word should be, at times, medicine to them. Now, in the old days, I thought, you know what?

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I'm gonna slay people. I'm gonna be like Jeremiah. I'm gonna just get after people, John the Baptist. And you know what?

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I'm just gonna make sure that they hate their sin. They're gonna be confronted in their sin. They're gonna be convicted of their sin.

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Okay, reprove, rebuke. I'm all for that. But you don't leave people there.

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Let me give you an illustration. If you're a decent dad, not perfect dad, but a decent dad, and you correct your children, you discipline your children, what do you do after?

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I hope that you're kind to them and you make up with them and they ask for forgiveness and you grant it and you kiss them and you hug them and you love them and say,

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I love you to death. And let's just make sure when these situations come up again, you don't do this and let's do this instead.

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And you're there for them. I bet you do that. I'm a sinful dad and I even did that.

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I bet you do that as well. So if you're going to reprove and rebuke as a pastor, don't you think you should do the other thing as well?

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So good pastors talk about sin, of course, but then they talk about forgiveness. They talk about the sin bearer.

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They talk about adoption. They talk about chastisement. They talk about other things. And so that's actually what

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Paul goes on to say. Reprove, rebuke, and what's the next one? Exhort. Now you almost want to think of, oh, come on, let's go.

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Let's not do those sins. I think that's included. But the word is to come alongside. The word is like the

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Holy Spirit is the paraclete, the one that comes alongside. And so that's what pastors need to do.

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Pastors should use the word to expose sin and come alongside and say, you know what? I know you're weak because I'm weak.

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I know you're a bruised reed because I'm a bruised reed. I know you've had a hard week and you've had all kinds of things happen to you this week.

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And so let me remind you who the Lord Jesus is. And He's a friend that sticks closer than a brother, that He's someone that you know what?

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While I might try to afflict the comfortable, now I'm trying to comfort the afflicted, to use pastor's language.

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John Newton said, my grand point in preaching is to break the hard heart and to heal the broken one. So you come thinking, pastor's gonna talk about sin.

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I'm gonna get convicted about those sins. And then he's gonna give me the balm of the gospel after to say, you're still forgiven.

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You're still a child. Your obedience doesn't determine your salvation. And God is working in you.

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You're sealed to the day of redemption. God loves you because He disciplines you. Hebrews chapter 12, and the list goes on and on and on.

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So you come to the word knowing that the pastor is gonna talk about reproof, rebuke and exhortation.

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And so you expect that. It's not just Joe Osteen and it's not just fire breathing

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John the Baptist only. It's both. How do you listen to a sermon? Today on No Compromise Radio, we're using some adverbs that all start with the letter

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D. Dogmatically, give me God's word. That's all I want. Devotedly, even when

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I don't want it, give it to me. Even when I do want it, give it to me. Differently, there's gonna be different things.

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He's gonna talk about sin redemption. He's gonna talk about trespasses and justification. He's gonna talk about reproof, rebuke, exhort.

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And then number four, diligently. Diligently. Well, where'd

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I come up with that? It's just right from the text. Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season. Reproof, rebuke, exhort.

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Now here's the diligent part, with great patience. The word of God is to be preached with patience.

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And so when it comes to farming, when it comes to seeds, when it comes to growing, it helps us because just like with Jesus in Luke chapter eight, farming analogies, you gotta be patient, takes a long time.

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Don't see growth right away. Am I growing? Your kids say when you get measured them against the wall, am

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I growing? Here, the pastors are supposed to teach with patience, with long suffering.

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I'm not going to stop. I'm just gonna keep preaching these same things over and over and over.

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The congregation says, you know what? I'd like something new. I'd like something novel. I'd like something that I've never heard of before.

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You know, sadly, I used to think sermons were good back in the day if I learned something new.

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Now, it's still good to learn something new. Where you're like, I don't even, never even thought of that before.

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That's a new thought, wow. Or the context, I never saw the context. Man, this is really exciting.

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Or a theological concept, God is simple. He doesn't have parts. You mean

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He's not like part love, part goodness, part holiness, part this, part that.

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No, God is one and God is simple. He's not made up of parts like us. And when we think about His holiness and His goodness and His kindness and all these other things, it's just who

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God is. All that is in God is God. And you're just like, oh, wait a second.

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And His holiness is loving and His loving is good. And you're like, wow, this concept that God is simple.

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He's not made of parts. I'm made of parts and hands and body and soul and this, that, and the other. God just is.

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Like, wow, that's new. Well, what's my point? What if you're a seasoned saint?

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What if you know a lot of theology? Sermons then become no good just because you didn't learn anything.

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And by the way, we are forgetful people. And that's why every week we need to hear law and gospel. That's why every week we need to be reminded that your sanctification does not determine your justification.

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That your lack of holy living this week doesn't kick you out of the family of God. That your good works do not contribute to your standing before God.

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All these things over and over and over. So I picked the word diligently because really that ties in with patience.

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I could say patiently, but hey, I needed the D's. What am I gonna do?

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It's a radio show. You get what you pay for. I am old enough, Mario, to remember when ministries, evangelical ministries, good ministries, big ministries charged for cassettes.

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Charged for downloads when you could download them on. And I think it was

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John Piper that opened up the floodgates of desiring God and said, hey, it's all free. Now I'm not some big

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John Piper fan. I really appreciated his book let on Don't Waste Your Cancer.

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I thought that was great. I have huge problems with his future grace. I have huge problems with his justification stuff, but I'll give him props for opening up the floodgates free.

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So no compromise. It's always been free. Not that I deep down didn't wanna charge you all.

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If I could charge you, I would. Diligently with great patience, remaining under, hearing the same things over and over.

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One of the things you could do is if you're hearing a truth from the pulpit that the pastor is always talking about or that you know, you should say to yourself, hmm,

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I should be loving my neighbor. This is probably good for someone else. And I don't mean the sermons on submission.

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So you're elbowing your wife. It's good for someone else. I don't mean that. I mean, you're thinking, yes,

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I know this truth. I'm glad to know it. And I first learned the truth. I was so excited. There are probably other people in the congregation that are learning it for the first time and it's good for them.

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We're a church body and we are going to trust God for his promises. One man said, the object of preaching is constantly to remind mankind of what mankind is constantly forgetting.

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And so that's why it's diligent over and over and over. That's all that guy talks about is

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Jesus. That's all he talks about is law and gospel. That's all he talks about is Christ for pardon, Christ for power.

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That's all he talks about is holy living is a response to God's sanctifying work. That's all he talks about.

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Okay, hammering over and over. I'm to preach with patience, thinking to myself, you know what?

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Why don't they grow faster? What's going on? What are they doing? I'm not to do that. I'm just to keep preaching over and over and over.

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And my job is to not nourish the seed, plant the seed or anything else.

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My job is just to preach and God has the growth. Well, I've got other things, wonderful things

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I think in my mind because they're right from the text, but we're done with the show. Mario gave me this and I don't know if that means he embraces the five solos of the

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Reformation. I don't know if that means he's a five point Calvinist. I don't know if it means like when

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I pray, the Lord is my shepherd and I need to be reminded. I don't know if that means he will never leave me.

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He will never leave me. That's how we do it. I don't know what that means. I think it means five minutes to go. So how many minutes do

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I have now? Two minutes. What can I say for two minutes? Well, I could say, you can write me, mike at nocompromisedradio .com.

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I could also say, if you're watching this YouTube channel, why don't you send it to your friend and say, did you know NoCo's YouTube channel is back up and live?

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And Wednesdays now are both audio and visual. Send the link, send it out.

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You could say, Mike Ebendroth's got that shirt on today that looks like the background of Larry King's old set.

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That's what it is. This is my Larry King shirt. I used to go to Shepherd's conferences when they allowed me to go and I would wear things like this.

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And I think MacArthur once said it looked like I shopped at Forever 21. I think they're closing by the way, because I don't shop there anymore.

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And by the way, I never did. But you could find me in New York City at Zara. I would shop at Zara. Zara is cool.