Romans 12 and Square Watermelons

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, my name is Mike Abendroth and I am sitting here in beautiful downtown West Boylston, Massachusetts. There you have it. Before we get into our show today, just thanks to the folks at Help! With No Compromise Radio Ministries.

The other day I was listening to some folks and I forgot Spencer, so Spencer, good job. Thanks for the uploading. We've got lots of activity now on Twitter. For years, nothing except the show's name and the link.

Same thing with Facebook, and now that Ben has taken over, it is crazy. So if you want Steve Lawson quotes, Martin Luther quotes, I send out articles that intrigue me. And he's posting a lot of those on the website as well on Facebook, and you can see that even if you don't have a Facebook account, just type in Facebook, No Compromise Radio and you just can't interact.

So we have that there. And then the YouTube, NoCo90, No Compromise 90. By the time you hear this, we're probably up to about, I don't know, 23 videos or something like that. So probably start advertising pretty soon.

Skip this ad. I don't know how that works. Someone had said on one of their blogs that they love No Compromise Radio. They said it was 22 minutes. Of course, it's 24 and a half, but they said kind of one of the downfalls or downsides of No Compromise Radio is that the shows are taped so early in advance, they're not necessarily, you know, up to date with the latest scoop.

So I don't really know what to do about that though. See, I have a day job, and actually that day job is a night job too because in ministry you're pretty much always on call, and so I just try to record the show when I can.

So just imagine if you'd send in your tithes and offerings, and then I wouldn't have to work for Bethlehem Bible Church anymore. Then I could just, we could have intros, outros, we could have, you know, I'd interview Michael Horton one day, Al Mohler the next day, John MacArthur the next day.

We would have freezer pop giveaways. I could give you dieting advice, coffee tasting advice. We could make the show an hour or two. You know what? We do a two-hour show, and you could see me talking just like with Todd Friel in the Wretched Radio Deal.

How about that? But anyway, I just do what I do. I try to get 30, 35 shows ahead of time just so I can then breathe and live, and then if something happens, there's a catastrophe or there's a pastoral emergency, or I go to California or someplace else, then we're fine.

And so a Europe trip is planned, a minister in the Czech Republic and Poland in 2013, and a South Africa trip is planned for 2014 to minister in South Africa. So see, I need to get all these shows done ahead of time.

And just when I thought, I'm not going to play No Compromise Radio in the fall on WVNE, I like the station, I like the people there, but it is expensive to be on radio. I thought, you know what? We just won't do that anymore.

We have a new couple coming to the church. They said they've been listening to the radio station through WVNE for several years and that they are going to come now and join the church. So see, is it worth just the one?

I'm sure it is. And so I think probably lots of you listen, but you have home churches and you're involved, plugged in, ministering, and as they say in other places in the world, good on you. And so that's what I want.

I want you to minister and use your gift. So anyway, Mike Cavan, Dr. NoCompromiseRadio .com. I'm preaching through the book of Romans now. And so I came to Romans chapter 12, and it's just one of those passages.

I mean, all of chapter 12, all 21 verses, they're just excellent. But the first two verses are the verses that seem to get the most press, if you will, as you were, et cetera. I appeal to you, this is the ESV, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God.

Now, some think this is the appeal in light of chapters 1 through 11. Some think this is the appeal that specifically focuses upon God's sovereign choice in Romans chapter 9. Now, see, when you have the word mercies of God in Romans 12, by the mercies of God, when in the past 11 chapters has he talked about mercy?

And so some will say it refers back to sovereign election. What shall we say then, Romans 9, is there injustice on God's part? By no means. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.

So then it does not depend on human will or exertion, but on God who has, what, mercy. And based on the sovereign mercy of God in election, in grace, sovereign grace, as John Gershwin used to say, sovereign grace, it's a redundancy, but it's a blessed redundancy.

See, because all grace is sovereign. But for our society and even evangelicals, we think we are deserving of something, we think we've earned something, we go on merit in who we are, and is God fair, fair play, all men created equal, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, and so we don't really understand grace.

So anyway, Paul says in chapter 12, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God. I think the NIV 84 is by God's mercies. I've been reading a lot of the NIV 84 because the S. Lewis Johnson commentary that I'm working on, Romans, is based on the NIV 84, and I asked the Zondervan folks if I could do the NIV 94, Zondervan NIV, and S. Lewis did help with the translation of certain parts of the NIV 84.

So they said yes, and I wanted to do that for lots of reasons, but I just much more prefer the NIV 84 than I do the 2011. On a side note, the 2011, it says, instead of Adam knew his wife, I think the NIV 84 is something like he had sexual relations with his wife, because I had to quote this from something else and I was looking it up, and you know, it is actually hard to find the NIV 84.

If you go to Bibla, if you go to online sites to try to find the NIV 1984, Zondervan has pretty much eradicated that. It is very, very difficult to find the NIV 1984 online, at least for free. I do have it on Logos, and that's the only way I have access to it is the NIV 1984.

Well, you have the NIV 1984, then you have the TNIV, then you have kind of a mixture of the two for the NIV 2011, and the 2011 version is Adam made love to his wife. I don't really, I just don't even want to say that on the air.

It just sounds kind of hokey. Well, see, that's a Ness Lewis word. It's kind of hokey. So anyway, NIV 1984 is by God's mercies. See, what happens when you start messing around with the Bible and these dynamic equivalent, focusing more on dynamic than equivalent?

Remember, God foreknows Israel. God foreknows, that's chapter 11 of Romans, God foreknows people. Romans chapter 8, those whom he foreknew, right? He also predestined, and so when you see foreknowledge, instead of defaulting to the English definition, oh, God knows before, you need to have your mind infused.

Here's one time I can say the word infused. Infused with Old Testament, and when Adam knew his wife, oh, that's an intimate knowledge, in fact, he did have relations with her sexually, in fact, he did make love to her, if you want to use a vernacular.

But the idea to foreknow comes from, you know, out of all these nations, Amos quoting God, only Israel have I known, have I intimately known, and there, of course, it's not a sexual context, it is a very intimate context, the sovereign God, covenant-keeping God Yahweh knows Israel.

He knows all the other nations intellectually, if you're going to use the foreknowledge argument. He has knowledge of all the others, but he only knows in an intimate way, in a personal way, to set his love on Israel, to set his love on us, Romans chapter 8.

Well, see how we just diverge from things, but like I said, I have a normal day job, and so this is just, these are the ramblings, the rambling machinations of a crazy man. You know, they said that Paul had maybe epilepsy.

So when Paul was on the Damascus Road and Jesus showed up and there was a bright light that shone all around him, that it was a sun, maybe it was an eclipse, maybe it was a solar deal, and he had an epileptic seizure in light of that.

Now, there's been some very famous epileptics over the years, but I like it when people would say something to the effect like Harry Ironside. It was not the sun, S-U-N, it was the sun, S-O-N, and of course his refulgent glory is much greater than the S-U-N's.

And then Spurgeon, in his own inimitable way, how do you say that word? I don't know, I need, Ted, you got to help me. Let's see, how do I go about that? In his own unique way, Spurgeon said, oh, that more people would have those kind of epileptic fits when they are exposed to the Son of God in the revelation of the Bible.

Romans 12:1–2 and the Mercies of God

Well, here we have Romans chapter 12. See how we come back? The good news is I still haven't forgotten to come back to where we were going. I urge you, Romans 12, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. So, in light of the sovereign mercies of God, whether it's in chapters 1 through 11 or focusing more upon the sovereign mercies of God in 8 and 9, we are to then do what?

Paul is appealing now. We are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. And, of course, the language there, you think about dead sacrifices, you think about don't be conformed to the world. I read online just this last week that if you get the right plexiglass case, you can make, like they do in Japan, watermelons that are, ready for this, no compromise listeners, always biblical, always provocative, always horticulturally correct, square watermelons.

Square watermelons. Isn't that interesting? Now, some of the sites, the Snopes sites and the urban legend sites, track it down and they say, in fact, this is true because if you have a square watermelon, not only is it interesting to look at, it cuts more easily and it stores itself in refrigerators in an easier fashion as well.

I'm starting to think, you know, more aptly, more easily, more readily, more conducively. So, anyway, you don't want to have your mind conformed to the world because the world is trying to change your mind.

Whether that's about gay marriage, whether that's about anything else, there's a worldly way to think about it. And I don't mean worldly like a passion pit, which is, you know, dancing, the devil's deck cards, and what else?

I don't know, some kind of booze or something. What do they call that? I don't know, fire water. I don't mean that. I mean a way of thinking and ideologies and 2 Corinthians chapter 10, a battle for the mind.

And so I've just been thinking about 2 Corinthians, excuse me, Romans chapter 12. So I thought I'd look at the message. This all leads me to the message moment. This message moment, why is there a sign, signs everywhere there are signs?

They're blocking up the scenery. So here's what the message translation says. Don't forget now, I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of God. So see, at least you have to be thinking, what are the mercies of God?

And what, when, where have I found the word mercies so far in the last 11 chapters? Then don't be conformed, that's the negative, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So you see what's going on here.

And now let's see if we can figure out any of that in Romans chapter 12, the message. So here's what I want you to do. Well, that doesn't really sound like an appeal to me, but that's okay. That's the best that's in there, at least.

God helping you. God helping you. I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of God. He completely messes it up. God helping you. He could have said God helps those who help themselves, and that would have been just as wrong.

Take your everyday, ordinary life, dash, is that a hyphen or a dash? That's a dash. You are sleeping, eating, going to work, and walking around life, and place it before God as an offering. Now, I think the text says something differently, doesn't it?

Present your bodies, present you. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him. Is that the acceptable to God part? I don't know. Don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.

I guess that's don't be conformed but be transformed. Instead, fix your attention on God. Okay. You'll be changed from the inside out. Oh, see, there's the transformed. Readily recognize what He wants from you and quickly respond to it.

Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down, bringing me down, like Axin Servenka. Always dragging you down to its level of immaturity. God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed immaturity.

Sorry, well-formed maturity in you. Now, that is one of the worst translations. I mean, the other ones that I've read, even though I bag on the message because they sound just so dopey, so hokey, so infantile, so Richard Scarry-like, speaking of which, our publisher for things that go bump in the church is Harvest House.

I really like Harvest House Publishing. Hey, I like any publisher who will publish my stuff. I have three other books that are too done, and the others are close to being done, and nobody wants it. I'm thinking about doing self-publishing.

It'll be no-compromise publishing. Special discount. I'll sell them out of my trunk. Buy one and get two free. Anyway, Harvest House, and they gave us the cover, the first cover, and I'm sure we'll come to a good cover soon enough, but the first cover looked a little like Richard Scarry stuff.

And so, it would have been good for things that go bump in the church for the children, but not for the adults. And so, we're just still working on it, and I'm sure Harvest House, so far, everything they've done, they've done with excellence.

And so, I don't know what they thought we were looking for, but I'm looking more for an Amityville horror kind of house, but it would be a church building, and it would have two windows for eyes, and so it would be a personified building, a church building, personified things that go bump in the church.

And by the way, I have to say, both to my friend Clint Archer in South Africa and my friend Byron Bouillon in NashVegas, I have to say, I'm glad my last name's Abendroth because it beats out Archer, A-R, and it beats out Yawn by a long shot.

So, my name's on the top of the book. Out of the authors, I'm number one, numero uno, see? Okay, so what about this part here in Romans chapter 12, dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you?

That's like when I was riding my bicycle the other day, and I was listening to S. Lewis Johnson, and he was waxing eloquently about Paul and missionary journeys in Acts chapter 22 and following. I was just really absorbed listening to the whole thing and how God used a man like Paul.

And I rode past the Oakdale Methodist Church, and usually there's signs. They're at least not unbiblical. There are things like bean supper, six o 'clock. And so, see, there's nothing unbiblical about a bean supper.

If I was in Kentucky, it would be squirrel boil, 5 .30, free, come one, come all. If you put enough of that nandori sauce on there, the extra hot nandu, nando, nanu nanu sauce, some great sauce. Thank you, Pat Gordon, for giving me some of that sauce, by the way.

That was excellent. Pour enough nando, extra hot sauce on squirrel. It still tastes good, don't you think? The tail's a little bushy and brushy, but I see my share of dead squirrels on the road as I pedal my bicycle, and I don't think I'm wanting any squirrel at the moment.

So, usually the Methodist Church, and there's usually a woman pastor sign there, and she picks a lot of things. And again, I have to say, most of them aren't anti-biblical. Most of them aren't biblical either, but there's a difference, of course, between the two.

But the one that really got my goat, how do you get the goat of Pastor Mike? How do you get somebody's goat? Well, you say Jesus wasn't a prophet, like in Greece—I'll tell you that story maybe in a minute—or you write this on your sign.

We have a sign out front, and so we try to say the sign out this last week was, Can Israel lose their salvation? Because Paul's point in Israel's restoration, Romans chapter 11, is that if the promises of God to Israel are secure, they're secure to you as well.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. And so, yeah, but what about the Jew? Didn't they lose their salvation? No, they're being disobedient for the time period. But Paul says, some Jews are still getting saved, like me, the apostle.

There's a remnant, remember back in Elisha's day, the 7 ,000 who had not bowed their knee to Ba 'al, Ba 'al, Ba 'al, and there'll be a future restoration for Israel. So, anyway, I saw the sign, and it said, I'm not perfect.

And so, see, so far so good. I'm listening in between S. Lewis Johnson points, and I'm not perfect, okay? But Jesus thinks I'm to die for. Now, when you're a bicyclist and you get a flat tire, you often remember where you got your flat tires.

Now, I've had so many flats that I don't really remember. I try to get some nice Keflon coated on the underside of the tire so it's more resistant to pieces of glass and other things. And so, it's a real bummer.

Your time allows you only to go ride an hour and a half, and you're 28 minutes into it, and you get a flat tire, and then you have to cut your time because it's going to take you 15 minutes to do everything and pump it up and all that.

So, anyway, I had a flat tire the other day. My back tire blew out. It was about a seven-inch rip in the tube, and I thought it was going to blow out the tire as well. It was the back, and so I'm wobbling and weebling, but not falling down, of course.

And then I had a patch it, and so if I had a flat, it should have been in front of that Methodist church at the time. I'm not perfect, but Jesus thinks I'm to die for. Just how bad is that? When you think of Romans chapter 5 and you just look at the results of justification, how wonderful they are because of Christ, our Savior, our Messiah, Christ the King, prophet, priest, and you think to yourself, you know, it talks about sinner, ungodly, enemy, and helpless.

That's Romans chapter 5. And so Jesus died for me in that state. And then it goes on to say in Romans chapter 5, if He died for us while we were enemies of God, what's He going to do now that we're friends?

See, how much more? But to think that we're to die for, we're so lovely that He'd want to die for us. First of all, that's stupid. That's kooky. That's irrational. That's not logical at all. And how does that work?

We're so good, Jesus is going to die for us. What? Why did Jesus die? Well, that's a very complex question. He died because He pleased the Father. He died because it was planned in eternity past. He died because He needed to be the just and justifier, and how do you save ungodly people?

He died not to assuage God's wrath. He died to fulfill Old Testament prophecy. And see how the list can go on and on and on? But He did not—mark this—He did not die because we were lovable. That's so lame.

I'm not perfect, I'm just to die for. That's more lame than the Message Bible. So I just want you to go back to read your real Bibles. And you know what? If it's the NIV 1984, then that would be fine by me.

Because whether it's by the mercies of God or God's mercies, both will teach you the truth. And so get your ESV out, get your NAS out, get your NIV out, whatever you want to get, and read, and then you'll be amazed by the God of the universe who's sovereign over everything, and who is sovereign over the cross and sovereign over even today.

And so, my name is Mike Abendroth, this is No Compromise Radio. You can write me at info at nocompromiseradio .com, and I will respond. If it's a long theological treatise, I'll have Ray probably respond.

But other than that, write us, info at nocompromiseradio .com.

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.