Quentel Bibles and Reading

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.

Why Bible Reading Matters for Christian Growth

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and today I want to talk a little bit about the Bible. I know there are many best-selling books out there. You have Pilgrim�s Progress.

You have Purpose-Driven Life. I think when Atlas Shrugged is the best-selling novel, is that still true? Ms. Rand, Ayn Rand, I don�t know how to say her first name, actually, A-Y-N, it looks like Ayn Rand, but it�s Ayn Rand.

Lots of best-selling books, but of course the Bible still remains the best-selling book, probably the book that you have that, if you�re not a believer, you don�t read. I remember when I had a crisis in my life.

My father was dying. I wasn�t a Christian, grew up with a Bible background, though. I picked up the Bible for answers as I knew my dad was dying, 54 years old. He was when he got sick, died at 55, and I needed answers.

I just did not have the Holy Spirit to help me understand the Bible, and so it seemed like a closed book. Well, some unbelievers can read it and understand quite a bit, but just Bible reading in general, I�m trying to think about ways to get you to read the Bible more.

Now we have electronics, and sometimes that�s helpful, sometimes that�s hurtful. When it comes to Bibles, I guess I could ask you the question, do you like to read a Bible that�s hardbound, doesn�t have to be hardback, but hardbound, could be calfskin, could be goatskin, could be paperback, or do you like to use electronic versions?

Well, let me tell you my strategy, and then you can do whatever you want, of course. My goal is to get you to read the Bible more. I will say at the outset that there are no shortcuts for the Christian.

When it comes to maturity, the Bible is God�s means, instrument of, if I want to be more technical, sanctification. I think maybe our charismatic friends, they want to divorce the Holy Spirit and the Word.

I think that would be inappropriate. And as I�m turning my Bible here to 1 Peter 2, I know the passage, but I want to make sure I say what�s before it and after it. So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.

Like newborn infants, long for the pure milk, the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow into salvation or in respect to salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. When it comes to growth, when it comes to sanctification, when it comes to maturation, to use Colossians 3, the Word of Christ must dwell in you richly.

There�s no way to get out of it. The Christian life isn�t difficult to figure out, it�s just hard to do. I would admit that from laziness to busyness to all our other excuses. I look over here at my biography section from William Jay to David Livingston to John Calvin to Margaret Peyton to Mary Slessor, see I�m trying to put some ladies in there, to who else is there?

George Whitfield I see, some are small print, William Carey, Adnarm Judson, they all were people and I know there�s the divine side of it and how the Lord makes you want to be revived and refreshed and He�s the one, I don�t want it to be moralism at all, but as we have union in Christ, there is both a desire in the Christian and the command in Scripture to study God�s Word.

You can look at Psalm 19, the first half natural revelation, the second half special revelation. You can look at Psalm 119. You can look at verses 9 and 11 about guarding your heart and storing up and treasuring and hiding God�s Word in your heart so that you don�t sin against God.

God uses His Word to convict, to confront, to encourage, to conform us to who the Lord Jesus Christ is. There are no ways out. You have to read your Bible. If you want to have a shortcut in Christian life, you�re going to have a shortcut in your Christian life.

You can�t fill up on little one-minute devotionals and then expect to go through a massive trial and come out the other side. I was thinking of Richard Cameron, the Scottish Covenanter, and there�s a book called Fair Sunshine you ought to read.

One chapter is on Richard Cameron. His dad, I believe, was in jail and they brought the head and the hands of his son, Richard. They decapitated the son and cut his hands off and gave the dad the son�s hands.

Do you recognize these? He just brought them to his chest and kissed them and he�s like it is the Lord�s will and the Lord is good. I can tell you what. You just don�t do that naturally. It�s a supernatural event and there are disciplines of grace, if you want to use that terminology.

There are sacraments, if you want to use that terminology, word and sacrament, but you�ve got to be a Bible reader. I know that�s why you listen to No Compromise Radio because I�m trying to get you to read the Bible.

If you do not read the Bible regularly, I hope you will start. We have trials in our life that will drive us to the Word and we need to be going to a good Bible teaching church, but you need to read the Bible by yourself on your own on a regular basis.

There are no shortcuts, none. I have a discipleship group of men. I meet with them on Wednesday nights and for two weeks I had them read through the book of Hebrews three times. So for one week, three times, the next week three times, and now I�m going to be gone for a couple of Wednesdays and they have to read every New Testament epistle in the next few weeks except, I think, 2 Corinthians, 1 Thess, 2 Thess, 2 and 3 John and Jude, but read all the rest.

You just need to be men and women of the book. Okay, now what�s the mode? Well, you can look online and you can read the Bible online, I assume. You could do that. I don�t usually like to do that. I do online Bible reading for cut-and-paste stuff.

I have an iPhone and that�s really nice now because when I go to the hospital or wherever I go, I can take my ESV app out, take my Bible out and hit the ESV app and with easy-to-scroll it could be dark.

I don�t have to have my glasses and I can pull up the Bible and I do that regularly in hospitals or other times where I just want to, you know, I�ve got the Bible with me all the time. Isn�t that nice?

I mean, you�re going to see that I�m going to try to push having an actual Bible, a physical Bible, but having this phone access, Bible access through phone, it�s a great thing, isn�t it? I mean, just we have no excuse basically.

I�m not trying to guilt you. We just have no excuse for not knowing the Bible. On my iPad, I have the Bible. I preach from the iPad for lots of reasons. We can do that another day on �Should You Teach or Preach from an iPad

I�m just going to give some kind of King James only laugh there. How would you do that? I guess it�s okay if you have the King James translation. So I�m not against electronics. Sometimes if the ESV app, I�ll hit play and just do a favor for Kim.

If I�m going to clean up for her or wash dishes or something, wash them. Then I�ll put that on the background. I like to listen to the Gospel of John in the background and just hear the flow. Sometimes I�ll do that with the book of Hebrews because I�m preaching through Hebrews and want to just hear about Jesus, the high priest.

But I still am old-fashioned enough and I think there are some real reasons why you need to have just a good Bible. Now we�re going to go big picture down to small picture. I think because I�m probably from the MacArthur School, if you have one main Bible that you use to read, that will help you.

Now I have a Bible on the car, a Bible here at church, several. There�s Bibles at home. But I have one main reading Bible. Now I have my Greek Bible because I usually read Hebrews 1 in Greek in the morning, whatever passage I�m going through, and then I read in English as well.

But you should have one main English Bible, or if you�re Greek-speaking, you can have a Greek Bible. And then you become familiar with that Bible. And you and that Bible spend so much time together, you realize 1 John 5, where is that verse?

Oh, it�s on the right-hand column halfway down. Even if you can�t remember, it�s in 1 John. You know somewhere towards the back of your Bible, it�s the right-hand column halfway down. Do you know it�s found in the center?

You know, I don�t remember where that psalm is. Where does it say, �My God, my God, why have you forsaken me But I know it�s three-quarters of the way down in the left-hand column. That will be very helpful to you.

And then you can begin to take notes. I encourage you to take notes in your Bible, and that way you can get to know that thing, and you just keep reading the same Bible over and over and over. I mean, if you go on vacation, I have kind of a travel Bible, vacation Bible, but I think you�ll be helped if you have one main Bible.

So in light of that, if you have one main Bible, I think you should make it a good one. I don�t think it should be paperback. You�re going to make all those notes. It�s going to become a friend, and then you�re going to have to get another Bible.

We have places where you can rebind Bibles, but rebinding paperback, that doesn�t really work. Whatever Bible you pick, I think it should be a good one that you could have. Now, you can get study Bibles.

There�s the MacArthur Study Bible. There�s the Reformation Study Bible. Actually, as I�ve said many times on the show, the ESV Study Bible has lots of good things. Those would be the three study Bibles that pop into my head right away with notes that teach you what the text says and means.

Don�t get a life application Bible or an application-oriented 15-and-a-half-year-old teenage Bibles. There�s all these subsets for people. No, you want to just know what the text says and means.

So forget all the subset stuff, and you should have those study Bibles around. But I don�t use those study Bibles for my main reading. Probably too often I�d look down at the notes, the typeset is too small, the font rather is too small, and I have those to the side.

If you look at my desk at No Compromise World Headquarters here, I have the MacArthur ESV Study Bible to my right. I have the computer in front of me. I�m just looking over there now. To my left, I have my preaching Bible, and I have then the ESV Greek on one side of the page, NANA Nestle-Leylon 27 on the right-hand page, and then I have United Bible Societies Fourth Edition propped up.

Then there�s the Skull, there�s the Judge�s Mallet, and the Heno Cup. That�s what�s on my desk. So I�ve got my study Bible handy. But I don�t like to have for my just regular reading through the Bible in the morning with my coffee when my wife�s sitting there, I just like to have a regular Bible.

No study notes. Now, I can have some cross-references and a few little helps down below. I don�t mean you shouldn�t have anything, but I like it when I just have one main Bible, and it�s just in English, a modern translation, New American Standard.

I prefer R-E-S-V, and then you can just get to know that. Of course, you can have your resources close by. This is Mike Abendroth with No Compromise Radio. We�re talking about Bible reading today, something super simple, but I�m going to try to encourage you to go read your Bible.

If you�re in my discipleship class, you have about five chapters a night, you�re just forced to read or you have to do burpees, Gospel burpees. Well, a while ago, I was thinking about, �I�d like to have a new Bible.

I have an ESV that�s pretty nice, and I have a Cambridge Bible that�s nice, NAS, but I thought, �You know what? I want something a little bigger and I began shopping online and didn�t know really where to go.

I started with Cambridge because I knew that was a good quality Bible because I want a Bible that will last and something that�s weighty and it�s got good font and it�s easy to read. So I went on a search, kind of quality Bibles, and what I found surprised me in a wonderful way, and it is found from evangelicalbible .com.

Now, you know, it�s No Compromise Radio, so I have to tell you, I didn�t get the Bible free. I got a little discount, not a big discount, but a little discount, and I said, �I love your stuff so much.

I�m glad to talk about it and try to promote it because I think it�ll help the people, and it�s such a quality product. Evangelicalbible .com there�s all kinds of Bibles, but the one I got, it�s about a five-pound Holy Bible, New American Standard, and it�s the Schuyler, S-C-H-U-Y-L-E-R, and it�s called the Quintel, Q-U-E-N-T-E-L Bible, Natural Grain, Goatskin.

I probably should have gotten the red one, it looks cool, but I got the black, and this Bible, when it says evangelicalbible .com, fine-crafted Bibles, I mean, it is deluxe. I thought to myself a while ago, because I�ve made mention of this Bible in passing a couple times in the show in the last couple months, �Okay, house is burning.

What do you get in your house I hope I�m not very materialistic. I�m sure I struggle. Carbon fiber bikes. Did I just say that? I think I need to put on something on No Compromised Radio, this is for the millionaires and billionaires who listen, this would help me.

I would do my work, my studying on this special new carbon fiber 58-centimeter bike. But if I had to, you know, if my wife�s out of the house, my kids are out of the house, and of course I don�t elevate this dog to my kids, but I care for my dog and it�s a living being.

So, if my dog was out of the house and I could make one trip, where would I go? Would I go into the kitchen for Chipotle almonds? Would I go into the living room for that special painting of my wife�s that she got from her grandma?

Oh, maybe I would, maybe she�d say, �Go do that. But if it was only me and I just was like frantically thinking, I would run into my bedroom and there where I set my keys and phone and my wallet, I would grab my 12-gauge shotgun.

I have my Bible, this particular Bible, this Quintel series Bible. On top of that, I have my Nestle Eland 27, Greek New Testament, I�d grab those two things. I do have a few special books that mean a lot to me in my sock drawer.

Now, maybe you don�t put special books in your sock drawer, I don�t have any room, I have books everywhere. My wife and I, you know, we need marriage counseling because when I bring home books, it�s like, �Uh-oh, here we go again.

I have nowhere to put them, so I put them in my clothes drawers. Every clothes drawer I have has books in them, every one. But I would grab this Bible in my New Testament Greek and run. That�s pretty much what I would do.

Maybe I�d grab a coat if it was cold outside. It�s just such a great Bible. The way it�s put together, this is going to last me really the rest of my life. It�s going to be pricey, it�s over $200, but you�re going to spend $60, $70 on a regular Bible anyway.

The way it�s printed, the way I can read it, the way it feels in your hands, it is great. I mean, the typesetting format, what it�s made out of. You can get an ESV if you want or maybe New King James, but I�m using the New American Standard.

And if you just go to evangelicalbible .com, you can take a look at it. And if you want to look at the Oxford maps, you can. If you want to look at how it�s Smith sewn, S-M-Y-T-H sewn, you can. But I can�t really tell you tactilely the experience you have when you have this Bible.

The pages are bright. I like it that the typesetting, so here if it says, �The Sons of Joel were�, on the other side it says, �The Sons of Reuben and� so you can�t see through it. The Sons of and the Sons of on the other side are the exact same spot, so you�re not trying to say, �Oh, I can see through that thing.

On the other side, it�s not that at all. It is really, you know, if you think goatskin, that might not thrill you, but just the way it feels in your hands with a full leather lining, it�s really good.

I mean, it�s got some notes at the bottom, it�s got some cross-references, but it�s just the text. Easy to read, high quality. And you know what? Here�s what I like. I guess this is more subjective than anything else.

The Bible is dear to me because it reveals the Lord Jesus, and the quality that goes along with it, the style matches the substance. Okay, does that make sense if you�re talking about aesthetics and sometimes we go substance over style?

I mean, if you could pick a really good binding, but it�s, you know, the Message Bible, that doesn�t work there. Something�s wrong. It doesn�t go together. But since it�s such a good translation, the NAS is, and of course the topic of the Bible, that is the Lord Jesus, it just makes sense to have something go along with it.

The design and production of the Bible match because we�re talking about the quality of the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. It has, like a good Bible should, straight across reading for narrative, that is the there.

And then when you come to the Psalms, you can tell, it�s a different genre. You see the indentations, I�m just opening up here to Psalm 51, �Be gracious to me, O God, according to your lovingkindness, according to the greatness of your compassion, blot out my transgressions.

And it will be indented so you could figure it out. The typeset is easy to read. I like it that the NAS shows all caps, for instance, for Yahweh. The paper, when I write on it with pencil, I never write on a Bible with ink or with a highlighter, but with pencil, it�s just nice.

It�s just one of those things, you know, as I�m looking at the Bible, I think the word is for �ghosting. The ghosting isn�t too, you know, there shouldn�t be ghosting in your Bible, unless it�s the Holy Ghost.

Now, if you want to carry this Bible around and travel with it, it�s going to be too heavy. I mean, it literally could be a doorstop because it�s heavier. But for your reading every single day, the quality of the Bible, the paper, I don�t know what quintile actually means, that just happens to be the type.

If I had to do it over again, I think I would get the red one, but I have the black one here. I just default to black Bibles. I don�t really know why, but for margins and for reading, I think it�s going to encourage you to read.

This would be good also if you wanted to get a gift and you don�t really know what to give people for a gift. Here we have my favorite Bible. It�s true. It�s my all-time favorite Bible that I�ve ever had.

And I just think, you know what, it reminds me of the day when I would tell my children at the dinner table, �Daddy loves the Bible. And I would put the Bible to my chest and then I would kiss the Bible and I�d say, �I love the Bible.

So if you�re going to get a good Bible, I�d say get the best. If you want to get Cambridge or anything else, I think maybe actually this website actually sells Cambridges as well, but I like the quintile.

And it�s called NAS Schuller Quintile Bible, New American Standard Natural Grain Goat Skin. And it�s from EvangelicalBible .com. Now I don�t know why some of you listeners didn�t send me one of these as a gift, but now I�ve already got one so you can send your other pastor.

I�m your internet pastor. You can send your other pastor one of these things. Excellent Bible. Good job to EvangelicalBible .com. If you want to get a nice review, you can go to BibleDesignBlog .com. BibleDesignBlog .com.

This all goes back to you could have an expensive Bible. You can have elegant layout. You can have opaque paper. You can have sewn bindings. But if you don�t read it, it doesn�t really matter. What�s that old saying that people who have a Bible that�s falling apart usually have a life that�s not?

But what if you just got your Bible rebound? I hope this one lasts me. Now my dad died at 55 and I�m 55, so this might be my last Bible that I ever bought. But I�m telling you, it�s just nice. The maps are nice.

I mean, I just sound like a homer probably. There�s a little topical index in the back that you do have. But when I� and let�s see how many, one, two, three little ribbons there. But just the binding, man, it�s just so nice.

I just think to myself, okay, this is it. I got my last Bible. But I probably would pick the fire brick red goatskin next time. So there you have it. What are you going to do about it? That�s the question.

The Bible as a Christ-Centered, Spirit-Written Book

When it comes to reading the Bible, what�s your plan? If you got to read through the Bible in your plan, great. If not, try to read about 10 chapters a day and watch how fast you can get through the Bible and have the attitude that this is not a regular book.

This is a book that the Spirit of God has written, and it transforms, it convicts, it is sufficient, it is authoritative, it is Christ-centered, as Jesus would even say in John 5 and in Luke 24. And it�s one of those books that you cannot just dismiss.

You say to yourself, the God of this book, He knows me. And then to think that He loves me anyway and has proven that by sending the Lord Jesus to die and then to be raised from the dead, I can just now respond with faith, respond with repentance, and to understand who God is and then understand who man is.

And that will be found in the book of the Bible. So I want you to read the Bible. Of course, you can read other books that teach you about the Bible. Don�t fall into the error that some charismatics do.

It�s just the Bible and me, because in the Bible it says God has gifted us, gifted us the church with men who have spiritual gifts, pastor-teachers. Anyway, my name is Mike Abendroth, this is No Compromise Radio, info at nocompromiseradio .com.

Closing Station Identification and Church Information

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.