The Gospel of God (Part 1)

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, a ministry.

Housekeeping, Upcoming Projects, and Summer Schedule

Mike Abendroth here. Let�s see, housekeeping, house cleaning. My wife�s been gone, so I�ve been doing a lot of house cleaning, although there�s not much to pick up after. Pretty much use the same plate and the same pan for the eggs every single day, although I do wash them right afterward.

I�m not a clean freak in terms of the details, like a duster, but I don�t like clutter. Theological clutter I don�t like either. The fourth episode of Law Gospel is now out on the American Gospel Television Network, AGTV.

You get a, I think you get three free days if you sign up, so you can watch them even though you might not have an account. Brandon Kimber is a great young man who is excellent when it comes to movies and videos and editing and filming and all that stuff.

You know, I�d read quotes, and then he�s got the cool quotes up there on the graphics and five episodes total, and playing around with how I turn this into a book deal. The last few weeks I�ve really set my mind to finish the S. Lewis Johnson Colossians commentary, and I have, let�s see, I have things like introduction, I have some discussion questions I need to write, and then after that it�s basically how do I format it for the publication of it, so you can probably get it through Amazon.

Hopefully, fall, Discovering Colossians, S. Lewis Johnson, adapted by yours truly. You can always write me, Mike, at NoCompromiseRadio .com. I think we have 30 people signed up for Israel. I don�t know what�s going to happen with the vaccinations right now.

Israel does require VAX passports, which will rule out a lot of people on the trip, so even if you aren�t one of the first 25 and you�re on a waiting list, by the way, I�m going to inform the people about the waiting list here soon, I think you�ll be able to go because who knows if I�m even going.

Pat Ebendroth is going to go with me, but you can register if you go to type in Pilgrim Tours, Bethlehem Bible Church, No Compromise Radio, Omaha Bible Church, et cetera. We at No Compromise Radio, I am going to take a little break here this summer, and beginning toward the end of June, we�ll probably have about six or seven weeks of reruns.

Normally Fridays are reruns for Fred Butler�s sake, but it will be reruns Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and I think probably I�ll have Spencer put Pastor Steve�s sermons on Monday�s show since I�ll be.

I�m going to do a couple preaching seminars, one for my friend Steve Meister up in Sacramento, one for my friend John Benziger in Arizona at Emanuel Church there in Sacramento, and then Redeemer Church in Phoenix.

Preach for my friend Pastor Drew in Santa Cruz and other things. So we�ll be busy, but I�m not going to be recording the shows for the summer. So that�s the scoop on that. I have one Sunday left to preach before I go on holiday, on vacation.

Romans 1:16-17 and the Question of What to Preach

And I thought, well, what do you preach? If you had one topic to talk about, what would it be? You got one shot. I mean, I think I�ll come back, right? I guess I might die during the summer, or maybe there�s a nuclear bomb that explodes this place or something, but just, you know, I�m planning on it.

I know James 4 is true, and if the Lord wills, I�ll do this, that, or the other thing. But if you had one Sunday to fill, what would you fill it with? I guess you could say, well, I�ll fill it with something I�ve already done before, so I don�t have to come up with a bunch of new stuff.

I guess you could do that. And I have done some work on this particular topic and passage. So that wasn�t a factor. I thought to myself, what would be good for the church? Not just kind of my swan song, but important things for the church.

And of course now, by now, if you�ve listened to any NOCO radio shows, you�ll realize that instead of discernment blogging, which, by the way, our ratings were much higher when that�s about all I did was go after people that compromised.

Now we stress the one who never compromised, the Lord Jesus, hence no compromise. I mean, I don�t want to compromise, I know I do. But I have other things. I mean, in the old days, after Beth Moore and Ann Voskamp, and I guess these days, PCA and Southern Baptist Convention, that they just have their new president, you know, is Al Mohler a politician, blah, blah, blah, blah.

We could do all those things, I guess. But today on Positive Encouraging, NOCO-Caleb radio, maybe if I ever left NOCO, I could go to Caleb. I think I�ve got the face. And my voice isn�t too bad until I go into that Nebraska twang idea, washer.

I did say it�s always been a washer. Put that stuff in the wash. I don�t know why people would do that. But anyway, the topic of course on the radio today is the gospel. Get one shot, one shining moment, one opportunity to preach.

What should you preach? What would you preach? And whenever I�d go through trials and troubles, especially in the church here with a church split and a bunch of chaos, somebody told me, �Just forget what passage you�re in in terms of sequential verse-by-verse preaching, and just settle into Romans.

Begin to preach someplace in the book of Romans, or that will steady you, pastor, and it will steady the people in the midst of all kinds of slander and gossip and lies and, you know, behind-the-back stuff.

And that�s what I did. Well, that�s not going on at Bethlehem Bible Church now. By the way, our church is jam-packed because sadly you�ve got a bunch of weak and cowardly pastors that will not open during COVID, and you say, �Well, my pastor didn�t open and he�s not a coward.

Okay, well, that�s your opinion. My opinion is if you�re a pastor, you�re supposed to be preaching the Word and administering the sacraments, and that�s your responsibility, and whoever shows up, show up.

If they�re too afraid to come, fine, but you go there because there are means to grace and that�s your job, and enough of that. Anyway, today we�re going to talk about Romans 1, verses 16 and 17. And you probably know it already, and if I did it off the top of my head without looking at my notes, for I�m not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe, to the Jew first and also the Greek or the Gentile, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, �The just shall live by faith.

One of the fun things about studying a passage, like I get to do before I preach, I�m not intending to memorize the passage, I�m not trying to not memorize it either, but then you just do because you�re just living in it and you�re thinking about it and you�re working through it, and that is a good side benefit.

The Gospel Versus Cultural Strategies for Changing a City

There are lots of people today who say, �Hmm, how do we redeem a city? How do we change a culture? We�ve got urban areas. I guess they don�t sell well because maybe not many people live there, but where are all the �redeeming the jungle� books?

Hey, I watched Tarzan when I was a kid. I mean, I can�t even believe they let Tarzan be around with all this cancel culture. Here�s some white guy in the jungle. What are we doing? Cancel Tarzan. Have you ever been to the city Tarzana?

Guess where it got its name. That would be a cool city to live in. I know right where that is, Tarzana, California, right by Studio City on Ventura Boulevard. What do you do for a jungle, for a country, for suburbans, for urbans, for city, for, I don�t know, how about Rome?

How would you transform a city like Rome? Is there a cultural imperative for the church? We know we have a great commission, a gospel imperative to preach the gospel, but is there a cultural mandate? If so, does that eclipse the great commission?

Does that get tucked underneath the great commission? Is it part of the great commission? You can read all kinds of books, Christ or culture of Christ, and culture of Christ, not culture, etc., etc. I know that what changes a city like Rome, because we�re in Romans 1, it�s not, well, you know what, we need some marketing program, we need a missional living, maybe, hey, you know what might work?

Maybe WWJD bracelets. If we could just get the gladiators to wear those, and maybe a few senators, people in high places, and who knows, maybe we can get them even to pray the prayer of Jabez, right? Maybe that�ll work, or here�s some Bill Gothard Institutes, or Experiencing God, or maybe 40 Days of Purpose.

I don�t know, maybe Calvinistic Reform Biblical Pauline Theology isn�t very good, so I don�t know, maybe we could do like Open Theology, you know, God is kind of engaging us, or maybe this Emergent Church, you know, hipster thing, or maybe we could, I don�t know, like a new perspective on Paul, because, you know, hey, Paul�s in jail, or he�s over at Ephesus, or he�s going to go get his head chopped off.

I mean, oh, maybe what Rome needs, they don�t need pastors or anything, or preachers. Maybe they need some life coaches. Maybe that would be good. Maybe some mentors or something, if we get a bunch of Chick tracts.

I was going to say Promise Keepers maybe, or Weigh Down Workshop, because I looked at a bunch of fads, and Weigh Down Workshop was on there, and I don�t know if you know this or not, but the lady, I think her name was Gwen Shamblin, Beth, Gwen Shamblin maybe, she died in a plane crash somewhere like in Missouri, or Mississippi, or Arkansas, or something like that, which is a tragedy, and I�m sorry that happened.

I hope she didn�t die believing her own books, because it was a Trinity-denying diet, right? Weight loss, Weigh Down. I can never really understand that. But it worked. It helped you lose weight, even though you deny the Trinity.

I�m not laughing at her death, I�m laughing at what a stupid, idiotic idea, and we�re like, �Well, we don�t really care. That�s why, you know, same thing with music in my mind. I would much rather listen to secular music, because you know what?

If it�s really bad, then I�ll just skip that song. But I�m not really worried about theology, right? Because I�m expecting secular people to not have good theology, right? And if I�m listening to Cake, and it�s about, you know, �Sheep go to heaven and goats go to hell.

I know they�re talking theological terms, and they�re not trying to exalt the Lord Jesus and, you know, His return for judgment, to judge the quick and the dead, but it�s just not that big a deal. But if you listen to some song that�s supposedly by Christians, and then it�s got bad theology, that really bugs me.

And anyway, maybe we could drop off a couple of the Shacks. How gullible are Christians? You know, Osgood has called it the �idol of relevance. That�s the problem. So what�s Paul going to do? You parachute Paul behind enemy lines in the city of Rome, and what�s he got?

I mean, he doesn�t look good, he doesn�t speak well, according to some. And so maybe Paul�s got, I don�t know, some new must-read, some kind of sequel. You know, they have those slogans �a sequel that is more than equal.

It�s better than, it�s extra, it�s new, it�s novel, it�s not outdated, it�s not, you know, antique, it�s not stagnant. This is the new way, fad-driven, relevance. Nietzsche called this �herd mentality.

Kierkegaard called it �the age of the crowd. And people want change, and people want something new, and they want fashionable, and they want to be on the cutting edge. Osgood has said, �Feverishness is the condition of an institution that has ceased to be faithful to its origins.

It is then caught up in a relentless, cosmopolitan hunting after new and ever-newer things. I mean, when I read that, I think of evangelicalism, I think of Tim Keller and Redeemer Church. That�s what I think of.

Maybe you think of something else. But we want to, today on No Compromise Radio, not follow the world what�s new, novel, seems to be working, pragmatic. What does the Bible say about what a culture, city, people group of ethnic backgrounds in a city full of sin, what do they need?

What changes a city? What changes a town? What changes an individual person? What changes a human heart? What changes the human soul? And I think you know the answer. And it�s not a what, it�s a who. Who?

The Lord Jesus. That�s what He does. And you say, �Well, the Holy Spirit, He�s the Lord and giver of life. That�s true. The triune God. When you exalt the Son, the Father, and the Spirit, they�re also exalted.

We have one God after all. My subject today is Jesus Christ, the gospel. I like to think of Jesus as the gospel. Good news is about a person. And therefore, if you ever hear about gospel-centered preaching and gospel-centered living and it�s all about the gospel, well, I hope once in a while you say it�s about Jesus.

I want to talk about who Jesus is. There�s a late-night talk show host here on Saturday kind of at the Christian radio station that I used to be on. I think that�s his show name. I mean, it�s a bad show theologically, but I like what he says in this particular regard and up to this point and this point only.

Let�s talk about Jesus. That�s not all bad. I mean, we�ve been in 2 Peter, have we not, here even on the radio show, and everybody thinks it�s about false teachers, but it�s really about Jesus. 2 Peter chapters 1, 2, and 3 is about the Lord Jesus.

Maybe my favorite book in all the world, Romans, certainly about my favorite topic in all the world, and that is the Lord Jesus gospel. If I could pick any passage or sermon, just before I go on an extended vacation, Romans 1 will be my answer.

Is that your final answer? That�s my final answer. And even if you know plenty about the gospel of Jesus, I hope you are a person who said, �Yeah, but I like to know more. The more I can know about my Savior, the better.

I mean, when I began to date Kim, fall in love with Kim, I wanted to know everything about her. And still, I�m even learning these days about something about her personality or her person or what she likes or doesn�t like or what gives her joy or what upsets her or something.

I mean, I want to know about her and how much more on the spiritual level when it comes to the Lord Jesus. We�re never going to know everything about Him, but we�re going to die trying, right? And actually in heaven too, you will have a perfect knowledge for a created being and a resurrected body, but still you�ll be worshiping the infinite God and I think learning forever and ever and ever, soaking in the rich truths about the risen Savior who loved you and died for you and the Father who sent the Son and the Spirit who energized Jesus, as it were, and then applied Christ�s merits to your account.

Romans as the Great Epistle of Righteousness

Mike Ebendorf here, No Compromise Radio. �Romans is called the most profound of all epistles one writer said. Another one said, �the greatest book in the Bible. Coleridge referred it to as �the profoundest piece of writing in existence.

C .A. Fox, �unquestionably the fullest, deepest compendium of all sacred foundation truths. If any minister, one man said, wants to strengthen his people, he can hardly do better than to give them a massive dose of Romans.

William Tyndale, who died for translating the Book of Romans and other books into English, said, �No man verily can read Romans too often or study it too well. For the more it�s studied, the easier it is.

The more it is chewed, the pleasanter it is. And the more groundily it is searched, the preciouser things are found in it. So great treasures of spiritual things lieth hid therein. I watched a 20 -20 or a 48-hours the other day about somebody hid a bunch of gold, and everybody was dying to try to find it, literally.

They're out there. He'd give hints, and then they would, you know, be dehydrated or something like that. Martin Luther, �Romans is worthy not only that every Christian should know it word for word by heart, but occupy himself with it every day as the daily bread of the soul.

It can never be read or pondered too much or talked about on no-compromise radio. Hey, Luther was before his time. �And the more it is dealt with, the more precious it becomes and the better it tastes.

I said, �Well, it's kind of a long book, 16 chapters. It's got some hard sections in it, chapter 9. It seems logical to me. Is it devotional? Can you imagine how chapter 11 ends? It's so great. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God.

How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been His counselor or who has given a gift to Him that He might be repaid for from Him and through Him and to Him are what?

All things to Him be glory forever. Amen. Now, if you had to summarize the book of Romans, because we're all getting ready here for the context of Romans 1, 16 and 17, and what can help a city, a jungle, a person, a soul, a grandpa, a mom, a child.

If you had to summarize the book with one word, it'd be righteousness. Righteousness in the first few chapters, He's establishing the fact that we don't have a righteousness and we're going to need it.

You're going to need a righteousness that's perfect to withstand the holy God of the universe. Who created you and will be a judge if you won't trust in the Savior. He then talks about how Christ's righteousness that Christ earned doing the right thing because He unlike us was not a sinner and He earned righteousness and He gives righteousness through faith alone to people.

And He then takes your unrighteousness and He dies on the cross. So we have this double imputation. We get His righteousness. He gets our sin. God treats Him as if He sinned. God treats us as if we have been righteous.

It's confirmed by the resurrection and so there's a righteousness bestowed in the end of chapter 3, 4, and 5. It's talked about that. Well, how's a righteous person judicially righteous? How does he live or how does she live?

Well, they live out their position and so there's a righteousness in what we call as the Spirit of God sanctifies us when it comes to holy living. That righteousness and that's chapter 6 and 7. That righteousness is secured.

It's safe because it's held in God's hand and God is strong and God is immutable and God doesn't change His mind and that's secured. And then it is controlled in every way, shape, and form in a sovereign way.

Righteousness controlled versus chapter 9 through 11 and then we have all kinds of gratitude for our righteousness and that's found in chapters 12 through 15 and then it ends in 16. We're not righteous.

God earns righteousness, the Son does. He provides it freely and by grace and in light of our righteous standing we want to live righteously. If you want to say, well, it's a book about God's righteousness revealed, vindicated, and applied, that's how some theologians would call it, that's true.

And there's kind of a doctrinal section in the first 11 chapters and then practical. That's typically the way it's taught. It's fine if you teach it that way. I believe that. I also believe that all doctrine is practical and all practice is doctrinal.

Paul, Tertius, and the Purpose of Romans

Paul writes the book of Romans from Corinth and he is at the end of his third missionary journey and he dictates this to his secretary. Not the first, not the second, but the third. That's what his secretary was named, Tertius the third.

And he's been wanting to go to Rome, not to correct them like first Corinthians, you know, correcting the Corinthians or the churches at Galatia to correct them, but he wants to visit them and he wants to encourage them and wants to build up their faith.

And maybe that's where we're going to have our base of operations for Paul and the rest of his cohorts. Maybe that's where he needed to go because there's so much false teaching there and he's going to go into the belly of the beast and the heart of the monster.

Why and all the particular details, it doesn't really matter. What matters is we have Paul's magnum opus and he is, as he's writing, anticipating kind of a question from the person receiving the letter.

So lots of times he's anticipating questions that people have and he's giving answers to them. Sometimes an answer form and sometimes just in the way he writes back and forth. So you say to yourself, oh, he's anticipating my objection.

He read my mind. Well, because Paul is a human, so he knows how humans think. It's like a lawyer. He knows how lawyers think. And the spirit of God is moving him to write exactly what he, the spirit of God wants him to write.

So that's another factor, which is the most important factor. And therefore, we're going to have a little outline today and tomorrow and the next day about kind of this question and answer format about the gospel.

What is the gospel to remind you so you grasp the gospel by faith and keep grasping it and understand that when Paul went to a city, what did they need? They needed the gospel. They needed the truth about who Jesus is.

No cutting, no pasting, no additions, no subtractions, no ashamed of the gospel. No way. Not for Paul. Anyway, this is kind of a little introduction. I said a good introduction because I want it to be good.

You can be the judge. You get what you pay for. And you can always write me, Mike, at NoCompromiseRadio .com. We have a Patreon page. We have old audios. We have a YouTube page. We'll put some more YouTubes on there.

God bless you. 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.