The Sound of Silence (Part 2)

Do I jump in a little bit early? Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry.

Mike Apendroth here. How are you today? I wish I had a studio audience and I would look around the room and I'd make eye contact. I would try to, I don't know what I would try to do. Oh, sometimes you just need to start over, but I'm not going to do that today.

Last week I recorded something I so hated I was eight minutes in, I thought, I'm just going to stop. I guess that's why you don't do live radio, even though we've done it in the past. I would take call-ins and questions when I first started the radio show and they would ask me a question.

Then some were nice and I figured out the answer. Sometimes it'd be a bad question or somebody maybe wouldn't argue with me and then I would always lose because even if I would correct them, it sounded like I was just kind of particular or too precise or nitpicky.

Live radio, I haven't done that for a long time. I got my start into radio 14, 15 years ago, Christian radio. I had done punk rock radio back in Lincoln, Nebraska, KZUM 89 .5, community access radio. It wasn't the college station, but it was another kind of pretty much a bunch of organic hippie types had a studio in a house and they had half hour slots for people.

It was like a bunch of NPR people. Then I just did the The show was called Aural Delights, A-U-R-A-L. I didn't want to do it by myself. I think I was probably too high to figure it all out, so I did it with a guy named Bill Stoughton.

I don't know what happened to Bill Stoughton. Bill Stoughton was into synth stuff like Depeche Mode and the Human League and I don't know what other bands are kind of synthy, orchestral maneuvers in the dark.

When's the last time you heard that band name, OMD? And they remember that song they did, Enola Gay. I was more into Clash, Jam, Pistols, that kind of stuff. We just kind of went back and forth. That's where I first got into radio and then got saved later on and started No Compromise Radio 14, 15 years ago.

Tom Krause, I believe, was the guy's name, was a pastor here in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. And he No, there was another town. Who knows where he was? Anyway, he had a live show every day and I was a guest a couple times and then he was going to be gone for two weeks and so I had to do an hour or two hours live for a couple weeks and then after that, the radio station asked me to do a show.

And now we're no longer on that radio station because you have to pay too much money to be on, but I am on. We are on KAGV 1110 AM. That's exciting. In Alaska, 1110 AM, and we're also, thanks to Onstead, we are on Powell, Wyoming's KFGR, Trinity Bible Church.

Before you know it, they're probably going to start playing the Pactam or something by Pat Avendron. My recording time has went from 24 minutes and 30 seconds to more of 30 minutes, so I don't know. I don't know what's going on there, how the radio people figured out.

I used to be exactly 24, 30 because it was a 30 minute slot and now we just talk for as long as we want. I hope you've been enjoying the Steve Meister messages as he was here for a conference. I would suggest that if you need a conference speaker, Steve Meister might be the one to ask.

Luke's Ordered Account Begins With John the Baptist

Well, what are we going to do today on No Compromise Radio? Here's what we're going to do. We are going to talk a little bit more about Luke. Luke has this account, the Gospel of Jesus according to Luke, and he wants to have an orderly account, a delivered account with technical precision in terms of passing on truth, and he wants to do it from the beginning.

So where's the beginning? The beginning is God hasn't said anything for 400 years. Malachi 4 ends with Elijah's going to come someday and then give some bad news. Not Elijah giving bad news, but there's bad news in Malachi.

Malachi chapter 4, matter of fact, I'm just going to pull it up right now. Oh, I just pulled to Amos. I have a grandson named Amos. That's exciting. Malachi, it says, the last words of Malachi, behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes, and he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.

Wow, when? One year? Five years? 20 years? 25 years?

50 years? 100 years? 150 years? 200 years? Oh, maybe the Lord's too busy. Maybe forgot. Maybe Rome is too powerful. Rome's pawn, Herod the Great, he's definitely too powerful, and I don't know if this is ever going to happen.

I mean, God's timing's right, I know, but Lord, would you please come? And 400 years later, God sends his messenger, Gabriel, and we hear the words for the first time from God after those silent centuries, and Gabriel says something to this priest, this godly priest and his wife, Zechariah and Elizabeth, and in a time of Herod's rule and crazy stuff going on with the Roman government controlling Judea and Israel, God sends Gabriel to say something.

And of course, Gabriel says exactly what God would have him say as a messenger, that's what angels means, messenger. And Zechariah, he was a priest and he was chosen by Lot, a very high privilege to go in and burn incense.

The people were outside praying and waiting. He goes inside, it's already scary, it's already thinking probably, he's already thinking thoughts about Nadab and Abihu, and he's going in there and he senses a presence there, and the fog of the incense and smoke, rather not fog, but it would create a fog-like scenario.

Gabriel says something. I mean, Zechariah's already afraid, troubled, fear fell upon him, but the angel said to him, now after 400 years, what's said? And this gives us the explanation of why Luke is talking about from the beginning.

Here's the beginning, different beginning than Matthew, Mark, and John, but here's the beginning. This is amazing. We have 400 years of silence broken, and it's broken with this, do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard and your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son and you shall call his name John, and you, Elizabeth, and Zechariah certainly, will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth.

What's happening here? Of course, you personally, Zechariah, you're going to be excited to have a child, but they're going to be many people who are going to be happy. Well, how could that be? How could that be?

Your prayer's been heard. What was he praying, by the way, Zechariah? Well, certainly to have a child, but certainly as a priest, he's in the temple and he's praying for the people, praying for the kingdom to come, praying for the Messiah to come, praying for Elijah, the forerunner of the king to come.

He knows what Malachi teaches, and now his prayer's been heard. That prayer's been heard because they're one in the same. The son that he's going to have with Elizabeth is going to be the forerunner so that the Messiah does come and can come and will come.

This is amazing to me. This is exciting to me. This is the fruit of just digging down into scripture and passages that if I was told you could preach anything in the Bible you want for one message at this conference, whatever conference might have me, small church conference, which is more than I deserve, that's for certain.

That's a good question we could ask people like in my circle. If you were asked to speak at G3, would you? If you were asked to speak at the Gospel Coalition National Conference, would you? If you were asked to speak at Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, would you?

If you were asked to speak at the Shepherds Conference, would you? Those are good questions to ask. And by the way, I'm not putting them all in the same category. There are different categories, of course, but that's just an interesting question to ask pastors.

And then it's also an interesting question to ask pastors. If there's a theologian that's kind of, they're not heretical, but they've teached some weird stuff, would you have them come, right? Or maybe they're solid.

You say, would I have Steve Meister come and fill the pulpit that I'm supposed to guard and protect and watch over? Well, the answer is yes, because I just did. Would I have Pat Abendroth come and teach from the pulpit?

Yes, because last year I did. Some people maybe that I've had preaching the pulpit in the past, they've gone on to say other things that I might not have them back. Well, that's a good question. When people would, for instance, with John Piper, of course, he said many things that are true, but he said some things about law gospel and final justification and other things that aren't true.

And so what do you do with someone like him? He's not a false teacher. He's not a heretic. He's not some ungodly unbeliever. I would never say that. I would say though, that he's got some things when it comes to sanctification, when it comes to neo-nomism, when it comes to final justification, and you're kind of back to square one once you get the imputed righteousness of Jesus, and now you're kind of on your own with flickers of Rome in there, flickers of federal vision in there.

No wonder they all kind of, you know, they have the same problem at the back end. It's just displayed differently. Would you have John Piper come and preach at your church? The answer is no, I wouldn't.

And so that doesn't mean I think people are heretics. It just means I don't think he'd be healthy for the flock here. Anyway, what does that have to do with anything? Well, your prayer has been answered, Zachariah, your prayer for a son.

And by the way, you've been praying for the kingdom to come and the Messiah would come. Both are related because your son is the forerunner of the Messiah who will soon come after the forerunner. And we'll hear about that supernatural conception and supernatural visitation upon Mary next.

But right now, well, Luke wants to start at the beginning and people are going to have joy and gladness and they're going to be excited. This is language of Isaiah 35 that certainly Zachariah knew. The wilderness and the desert will be glad and the Ereba will rejoice and blossom like the crocus.

It will blossom profusely and rejoice with rejoicing and a shout of joy. And the ransom of the Lord will return and come with joyful shouting to Zion with everlasting joy upon their heads. They will find gladness and joy and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

He specially set apart this young man, even in the womb, the spirit fills him in the womb and he is to be filled and influenced by the Holy Spirit, not wine or strong drink. This isn't truly a Nazarite vow, but it's along the same lines.

Did the baby ask for this? Did Zachariah force God to do this? Just in the back of your mind, just keep it flowing through your mind all the time that God is free. God is sovereign. God decrees things.

God's purposes will come to pass. We can even call it singularly. God's purpose will come to pass. And Calvin said regarding all that, let us learn by this example that from the earliest infancy to the latest old age, the operation of the Holy Spirit in men is free.

That's why God does whatever he wants. As many as were appointed to eternal life, believe. Acts 13, 48. And what is this forerunner going to do? Well, literally forerunners to kings would show up early and they would say, well, this is a better path for the king to take as they're carrying him on poles kind of thing with a little temporary throne and seat.

And we need to make sure that ditch is filled in Arnold Schwarzenegger style, that pothole. We need to make sure that it's safe. We need to make sure that it's through the good part of town. You know, all these kinds of things that the forerunner would do.

Well, what does a forerunner do in a spiritual sense? Instead of turning over stones to make things smooth, it says in verse 16 of chapter one, and he will turn many of the children of Israel to their Lord, their God, and he will go before him, forerunner, in the spirit and power of Elijah, prophesied by Malachi, to turn the hearts of the fathers to children.

That seemed to be a big problem back in Malachi's day. My children, they couldn't say Valentine's day early on. So it was always what? Valentine's. Happy Valentine's. No, it's Malachim. Malachim. I'm on day 155 of Duolingo Hebrew, modern Hebrew.

So I'm trying to figure this out and it's not too bad. I'm finally getting, okay, easy to read from right to left. I kind of recognize things. When I had to learn biblical Hebrew, there's all kinds of dots, vowel pointing, we would call them.

And it was a little harder to figure that all out. But you kind of get it because you've got the vowels. Now it seems almost even harder because there's no vowels, vowel pointing. Sometimes there's a letter in the word, above in the word, and that functions like a vowel, but an aleph functions like a vowel too sometimes, even though it's silent.

But I'm up to 155. So my name in Duolingo Hebrew was Michael Ace, A-C-E. And that stems from when we used to play video games and you could enter in your initials, M-L-A. But I didn't want to do that.

I just wanted to put in Ace. Ace is at the top, Donkey Kong. My wife and I went to a little place here in Worcester a week and a half ago, two weeks ago. And it's kind of a, it's a game room slash bar.

We didn't have anything to drink there. We didn't order any pizza there. But you pay $10 cover. And then it has skeeball. It has machine gun kind of simulated games. There's two guns and you're shooting aliens.

There are motorcycle games where you're like on the real kind of, kind of a motorcycle seat and you can bend back and forth. And pinball machines and all the old video games, not as far back as Pong, but Asteroids, Pac-Man, Robotron, Galaga, Galaxy.

But we played a bunch of pinball and then just, there's just, there's a thousand games. So you can just play as many as you want. You don't have to put in any money and off you go playing the games. What does that have to do with anything?

I have no idea what this has to do with anything. I'm just talking because if I don't change things up, you're probably going to tune out and ADD for radio host actually is a good thing. Allegedly. You want answers?

I think I'm entitled. You want answers? I want the truth. You can't handle the truth. Oh, well, they have to rescue yourself somehow. This forerunner, John the Baptist, instead of literally making rough places smooth, he's going to preach so that the people will turn, turn verse 16, turn verse 17, so that they will repent.

He's going to herald that the Messiah is coming. The long expected one, the Lamb of God, who's going to take away the sin of the world. He's on his way. The forerunner. I will send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me.

And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight. Behold, he is coming. Malachi 3 .1. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes, and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers.

Malachi 4. I'm certain that Zachariah knew these. Everybody was waiting. We're waiting for ultimate salvation, not just from the yoke of Rome, but from that and more. If the son is the forerunner, fulfillment is on its way.

Jesus is on his way. People are acting ignorantly, and John the Baptist is going to help them turn to think rightly, to think about true biblical knowledge. They're not caring about anything. He's going to make sure that instead of being careless, they're thinking about things properly.

God is going to show up soon. He has not forgotten his promise. He has not forgotten his covenant with his people, and he, God, is going to show up. And what do you do before God shows up? You prepare the way.

What do you do before relatives come to your house or guests come to your house? You get the house ready. We understand that. Dad's out of town, and he's going to come back after a long work week, and you clean your room, and you do your chores if you're a child.

You get that all set up, and the spirit and power of Elijah is going to be seen in John the Baptist. What's the spirit and power of Elijah? Power, proclamation, prophetic office, boldness, courage, speaking for the Lord, all that together.

And it's going to work out well because there's mixed marriages in Malachi 2 that was a problem. Divorces were easy to get in Malachi 2. That's a problem. And so, things are going to be fixed and proclaimed, and the Baptist is going to turn people to even simple things like parents and children and their relationship.

John the Baptist is going to go before Jesus, and John 1 explains that. There came a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify about the light so that all might believe through him.

John testified about him and cried out, saying, This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me, right? I'm the forerunner, so the one that comes after me has a higher rank than I, for he existed before me.

Even though Jesus' human nature was younger than John the Baptist's nature, there's one who divinely, eternally existed. Of course, we have Jesus, the God-man. And he said, I am a voice of the one crying in the wilderness, John the Baptist said.

Make straight the way of the Lord as the prophet Isaiah said. The people are being disobedient? No, certainly not all of them. But now let's call through the preaching of the law and the prophets and Moses, call people back to obedience.

I'm glad Gabriel shows up. Now, what do you think the response is going to be by Zechariah? Well, you probably already know the story. What was his response? While Mary believed when the angel showed up, the same angel, and talked to her, she just didn't know how it was going to happen.

Zechariah, the priest, who just was praying, just heard from Gabriel, his response was wrong and sinful and one of unbelief, and he was chastened for it. And before we think too poorly of Zechariah, just think about yourself.

I'll think about myself and how many times we fail and don't do the right thing. And unbelief is a sin. Unbelief is the original sin and always is a sin. It's not good to doubt God's word. It's not good to doubt God's messenger.

It's not good to doubt the Bible. Zechariah said to the angel, verse 18, how shall I know this? He wants a sign, for I'm an old man and my wife has advanced in years. The angel answered him, I'm Gabriel.

I stand in the presence of God. He has divine authority because he sent from God. And I was sent to speak to you and bring you this good news. Believe the good news. Embrace the good news. Don't ask me how, just believe.

And behold, when you see that behold there, okay, it's going to be serious. You want a sign? You'll be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place. Because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.

Gabriel's words are, of course, God's words. And the people were waiting for Zechariah and they were wondering, it is delaying the temple. And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them. And they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple.

And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home. After this, these days, his wife, Elizabeth conceived. And for five months, she kept herself hidden, saying, thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked upon me to take away my reproach among people.

What an account. This is exciting. Back to Zechariah, though. What do you think his response should have been? I believe. Just tell me the way you're going to do it. That would have been fine. I believe.

Amen. Those all would have been fine. God's word says something. We say, amen. I take you at your word. I've studied the Old Testament as a priest, and these things are all true. And I know what Malachi says, and I believe you.

Somebody said a good subtitle for this section would be how not to talk to an angel. At the end of the day, Zechariah is told by God's messenger, Gabriel, this is what's going to happen. And Zechariah, the priest, the Holy One, walking blameless, upright, obeying the commandments, remember chapter one, essentially says, I don't believe you.

Weren't there promises? Weren't there supernatural things, rather, in the Old Testament about Abraham and Sarah having a son in their old age? What about Hannah? What about the parents of Samson? This is not a good look.

The priest gets a sign, and the sign is not the one you wanted. You're going to be mute. He put his eyes on his old age and his wife's old age, and he wasn't believing in the supernatural power of God.

As Machen said, there's two religions in the world, one that believes in the supernatural power of God and the other one that doesn't. He had been praying for the Messiah to come. He'd been praying for the kingdom to come.

He'd been praying for a son, and this son is going to be the forerunner for this very Messiah. J .C. Ryle, the holiest actions of the holiest saint that ever lived are all the more or less full of defects and imperfections.

They're either wrong in their motive or defective in their performance, and in themselves are nothing more than splendid sins deserving God's wrath and condemnation. Another writer said, Ryle has told the truth about the best of us and the rest of us.

This side of heaven, we're a pretty sorry lot, but that's where God's grace comes in. No one will be saved by what they do. Our only hope of heaven is to run to the cross and lay hold of Jesus Christ, and we won't even do that unless God helps us to do it.

I'd phrase it a little more overt, and even then, He must give us strength to hang on and to keep believing. There's a bunch of people these days saying that doubt is good, doubt is powerful. People in Christian churches, doubt is good.

No, unbelief is never good. Doubt is never good, and when we have a lack of faith and we have doubt, we ought to confess that as what it is, sin. God, of course, is very gracious to His children, is He not?

The spirit and power of Elijah, finishing the work of Elijah and having the people return to the Lord. People are outside praying, shouldn't take this long, maybe Zechariah's dead. I mean, the Talmud would say you light the incense and leave it on the altar as fast as you can, because otherwise you might do something stupid.

They said profane the temple, but I say stupid. Stupid. You're supposed to come out, you're supposed to do your duty, light the incense, come out of the great doors of the temple, and then you're supposed to give the number six, the Lord bless you, the Lord keep you, the Lord make His face shine upon you.

And then the people, tradition said, would respond by saying, blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting. But when He comes out, He can't talk. He can't give the benediction.

But you know what? To his credit, he finishes the job. He doesn't say, I'm sorry, I can't talk. I can't finish my priestly job. He waits till the service time has ended and he went to his home. And when he went to his home, well, then his wife gets pregnant.

So he goes home and now his wife becomes pregnant. And what I like here is if the threat of you're not going to be able to talk until your son is born is true, then the threat of the promised child is true as well.

And she conceived and for five months, she kept it hidden. We're not really told why. Well, my name is Mike Abedroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. And here's my main point that I want to bring forth today.

They waited for the promise of the first coming, even though they had, it didn't look good. So they took God at His word. And isn't that the same for us when it comes to 2 Peter chapter three, that we, in spite of everything that the world is offering and showing us and what we see with our eyes and hear with our ears, Jesus has promised to come back.

The Bible promises that the Lord has come back. And so what's really the difference? I don't want to respond like Zachariah. I don't know if this is going to happen or not. I could respond like Mary. I take you at your word.

I just don't know how it's going to happen, but I know the Lord is going to come back. Well, this has been kind of fun to just walk through Luke chapter one. I'm preaching it on Sundays here. And just like to kind of hear myself talk about what is really Luke one about.

And I think if you tie in the end of Malachi to the beginning of Luke, because Luke wants to start from the beginning, everything will open up. And you'll say, Oh, I now get this. I see it with my very own eyes in the words of scripture.

My name is Mike Ebenroth. This is No Compromise Radio. Make sure you go to our Twitter account at NoCoRadio. We have Instagram now. I don't post much, but we do have some. And then Facebook as well. God bless you.