Radically Shame Driven

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.

Returning From South Africa and London

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and it is good to be back in the studio. The gift that keeps on giving. There are how many days in a week? Seven? How many days of No Compromise Radio on?

Five? Five? And you've got to get back in the studio. It's been a month since I've sat here. Last show I recorded was the Parsons, Brick Parsons show. I like that guy. You should follow him on Twitter.

Actually, we're starting to increase the Twitter stuff for No Compromise Radio. So at No Compromise Radio, if you want to follow us, and I send stuff to Ben so he can tweet it, and we are starting to ramp that up.

So if you like us on Facebook, great. If you like us on Twitter account, great. And if you want to go to Israel with us, I'm going to start promoting this more often. We've got some seats available. No Compromise Radio, Bethlehem Bible Church, and Omaha Bible Church are going to Israel February 15th next year with an extension to Jordan, Moab, Petra, if you would like.

Go to NoCompromiseRadio .com, NoCompromiseRadio .com, and there's a little Israel link on there. And just click on that and you sign up. And October 1st, I believe you've got to have your $400 in, copy your passport, et cetera.

Well South Africa and the Shepherds Conference, I just got back from there not that many days ago. I still think I'm on South Africa time. I want to guess that's six hours different. My son Luke and I, he's 17, Lord willing, he'll be going to the Master's College in the fall.

He's been to a couple of Shepherds Conferences in Los Angeles at the Mothership Grace Church, and he's been to the Shepherds Conference that I spoke at in Germany. I always call that the German Shepherds Conference, and it sounds like a dog show, doesn't it?

I used to train dogs once in a while. American Kennel Club, I took the dog for both obedience and show when I was growing up. And there's a 4-H club, little known fact. And so he's been there. He's not been at the Shepherds Conference in India that I spoke at.

And so I brought him along. Different kid gets to go with me each trip. It's usually how I try to do it. And since he's going off to college, I thought this would be a good time to spend together. And so we went to South Africa.

But on the way, we stopped in London for a few days. And that was exciting. We saw all kinds of things. I was going to go see Spurgeon's Tomb and get the anointing, but just didn't make it over there because it was a little farther out of the way to get to the cemetery.

I'm trying to remember the name of that cemetery. Something Hills Field, Sleepy Hollow. But we saw Churchill's Bunkers. Those were really cool. Tower of London. I've been there before, but it was good to take a look.

Saw the nine-day Queen's execution spot, the 15-year-old Lady Jane Grey, for her views of Christ Jesus and the Bible. And she was buried there in that little chapel, one of the few people buried there.

But she was one of the three, I think, queens to lose her head. We saw the little memorial moratorium right there for her. And so that was interesting. She read Psalm 51 before she was executed. And she had something over her head so she couldn't see.

And so she asked the executioner, are you going to cut my head off before I put my head down on the block? Or am I going to put my head down first? You know, you can put your head down first. And she couldn't find the block to get her head in the right spot.

So she asked for help and went into glory. So we went to London for a few days. And then we made our way down the 12-hour flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. And so what happened was, there were three Shepherds Conferences in three different cities.

And so same program, same messages, same format, same three speakers, Scott Maxwell, Karl Hargrove, and myself. I'll have those guys on NOCO Radio sometime. And hosted by Joel James and the elders at Grace Praetoria.

So they were very generous and kind hosts, and they worked us morning, noon, and night. We had general sessions, elective sessions, breakout sessions, main sessions at night anyone could come. And we did that first in Praetoria.

Then we did that in Polokwane at Christ Baptist Church, where the Christ Seminary is. And then we went to Cape Town at an Anglican church, actually, it was the building we used. It's called REACH, I believe now, Reformed Evangelical, no, sorry, Reformed Anglican Church.

Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church, I can't spell, but neither can they with their acronym. I don't know what the H stands for, or maybe it's just REACH. And then I preached at Everglen for my friend Mark Christopher.

Actually, the pastor there, his name's Tiny. There's always a thing going on with anybody named Tiny, you just want to be really careful. And he had served in the Rhodesian Zimbabwean Army or something, and I knew I was right.

You got to be careful. Very kind guy, generous guy. But I wouldn't like to meet him when he was unregenerate. I talked to him about, should I ever have to shoot your gun? Yeah, lots of times. I mean, that was a really dumb question, I guess, to ask.

So he ministered in those three cities, preached at other churches, Midrand, Randburg. I've been everywhere, man. I preached everywhere, man. So anyway, that was a 17-day journey, and we are back here.

Steve Cooley will do some Tuesday shows with himself alone, he himself and himself, for some shows. Maybe we'll have some guest features here, there, the other. If you want to go to Israel with us, there's some spots open.

October 1st is the deadline, $400 in. You can go to NoCompromiseRadio .com, and you will see a little Israel link at the top. You've got Twitter, you've got Facebook, you've got all kinds of other links, NoCoEver, and then you've got Israel.

And so it's February 15th, Omaha Bible Church is going to go with us, NoCoRadio, Bethlehem Bible Church, and we'll spend nine days there. This will be, I think, my fourth time, third time leading a group.

And we will go to Moab and Petra, Jordan, at the end, if you'd like to do that. But you should register. You need your passport sent in, your registration, and a $400 deposit. And we'd love to have you go.

The prices are out of Boston. You can either meet us over there at Tel Aviv. It's saying Tel Aviv and by Madashiahu, or you can meet us in Boston. So we'd love to have you. If you'd like more information, you can email me, info at NoCompromisedRadio .com.

By the way, we have folks in South Africa listening. There were some students in Polokwane, and they would say, we listen to you at No Compromised Radio, and some in Pretoria-Joburg area, too. So that's kind of fun.

That's fun to go around the world and have people listen to No Compromised Radio. So thank you for praying. Great opportunity for ministry. I have kind of a collective sigh of relief because so busy over there, and so busy preparing, and then you get back and you think, wow, I only have to preach now on Sundays.

You know, back in the day, and of course it is the pinnacle of my life and my week, but it seemed like that was the biggest thing to do, let alone have to go preach basically a Sunday morning sermon probably three days a week.

I mean, three times a day. And so we'd wake up. I think, I know I'm going to teach the Bible today. Don't know to whom. I don't know what I'm going to say, but let's go. And then off we would go. Very good response.

I was encouraged by the ministry over there that I saw. Not the what I did, but what I saw. And so you have lots of men who, you know, I would go over there, and they'd want to talk about the Tulin-Chevetchin controversy with law, antinomianism, legalism, hyper-grace, looking back, justification alone for your sanctification.

However, we didn't want to turn this debate. I was encouraged because they know those issues there too. And so the pastors were keen. The pastors were receptive. And most of the time I thought to myself, I don't know what I'm doing being the speaker.

Those other men could teach me so much more, but in God's providence and goodness to me, I was the speaker. So went to Plonsburg and saw the animals there, saw hyenas, giraffes. What else did we see? Rhinos, hippos.

Did not see any predators like a jaguar, cheetahs, or lions. Although one night I came home to our host family, Bob and Yvonne, and then they said, we're having cheater lasagna. And so, you know, they put the R's at the end of their words occasionally too.

Cheater lasagna. I was going to say, man, that is good. Because they had taken us out to a restaurant and I had warthog carpaccio. That was excellent. Phil Johnson would have been proud of me. And I also had springbok.

That's kind of like a deer impella. And ostrich. So I thought, man, this is going to be good cheater lasagna. Although that's probably kind of illegal, like the rhino horn stuff. Anyway, it was cheater lasagna.

It was like a crockpot lasagna. Actually, it was really good. So great time ministering there. I was encouraged by what the Lord is doing in South Africa, in spite of all the tension that's there, and issues with government and safety, and a hangover from the Dutch Reformed Church that gives people a bad taste in their mouth for doctrines of grace.

Very encouraging. And probably some stories will slip in here, there, and elsewhere, as I talk about the Lord is good and does good through people, ministries. And so, anyway, just a quick update. What else do I have here in front of me?

N.T. Wright, Imputation, and Penal Substitution

I have here in front of me the Christianity Today. This is June 2014. And the May copy had N .T. Wright, I believe, on the cover, or someplace close, prominent article, Surprised by Wright, W-R-I-G-H-T.

So everywhere you go, you see N .T. Wright. And I think his doctrines, in my opinion, are very dangerous. He is smart. He is insightful. He is prolific with his pen, probably more so now that he's been retired.

And so, some people said some comments about the article that was written by or about him, and then N .T. Wright wrote in. And so you can reply all with comments. And he wrote and said, I'm grateful for the flattering account of my work, etc.

And then he said, but precisely in this courtroom context, it makes no sense to see God's righteousness as something that the judge imputes to the prisoner in the dock. And so what Wright was doing is he was saying, I do believe in substitution.

I believe in penal substitution. His quote is, I have always stressed that Paul taught a penal substitutionary atonement, Romans 8, 1 -3. But, precisely in the courtroom context, it makes no sense to see God's righteousness as something that the judge imputes to the prisoner in the dock.

When the judge finds in favor of a prisoner, thus declaring that they are in the right, the righteous status that the prisoner then has is not the same as the judge's own righteousness, which consists of hearing the case impartially, being true to the law, dealing properly with evil, and vindicating the helpless.

So, that's one of the reasons why I think N .T. Wright is dangerous. His theology is dangerous because he'll say these things, well, I believe in penal substitution, substitutionary atonement, but I don't believe that Christ's righteousness is imputed to the account of the believers because, see, this is courtroom, and see what would happen in a courtroom, and then using the courtroom model, placing it over Scripture, then he comes up with what he comes up with, versus other verses in the Bible that teach something.

I don't have to make the courtroom model run on all fours, or stand on all fours, or, how do I phrase that? I think I need monster drinks is what I need. They have monster drinks in South Africa. Actually, speaking of which, there's so much powdered instant coffee in South Africa.

Now, occasionally we'd go out for some espresso, and there's a lot of powdered coffee. And some with chicory in it. So the church functions. And, you know, I don't blame the churches, because what are you going to do?

Serve espresso pods to every person. But a lot of the public meetings would have instant coffee. I've drank and so much. I've drunk and so much. I have consumed so much instant coffee. Nomas. Nomas. They're selling books, IVP, here in Christianity Today.

And you can get the flavor of what's going on. The Church for the Fatherless, Mark E. Strong, a ministry model for society's most pressing problem. Is that society's most pressing problem? Fatherless kids?

I don't think so. I think that's a good way to sell books. But that's a problem, of course, but that's not society's main problem. In the new S. Lewis Johnson Romans commentary that's coming out this fall, Lewis basically says, Rome, these are the problems that they had socially, and what does Paul give them?

Paul says, you know what? The problem is sin, and the solution is the gospel. And so this is very, you know, the topic says in this IVP section, church, culture, mission. I mean, the other book that you get 30 off is The Heart of Racial Justice, written by Brenda Salter McNeil and Rick Richardson.

How about Making Neighbors Whole by Wayne Gordon and John M. Perkins. I mean, I guess there's some good IVP books. I guess I'm not, you know, I'm not trying to be mad or mean because they didn't publish my stuff.

But this drift towards social, kind of Kellerian, fatherless, racial justice stuff, I don't know, it's barking up the wrong tree. For instance, you cannot run from it. Christianity Today, MissionLeadersConference .com, Mission Leaders Conference, Atlanta, 2014.

The movement of people brings with it new cultures, ideas, beliefs, and their hearts are more open to the gospel. Okay, really? What does that say for depravity? Hmm, Jeremiah, our hearts are desperately wicked, deceitful above all else.

Who can know? Okay, so let's just, let's just get a group of Barna survey people and I'll pay their way to go around the world and survey and find and examine the most deceitful things. Any kind of deceitful thing that they find, you just get a list of them.

Here are the top 100 deceitful things in all the world. And over one year they can put their findings together, but I want them to reserve the spot at number one. Leave that blank, please. Because Jeremiah 17 says, deceitful above all else.

So we have a missions conference and movement of people into new cultures, ideas, and beliefs, and now that opens up their hearts more? I don't think so. It is an opportunity for the church if we will open our eyes.

Really. Now these are the topics. Immigration and migration. I mean, what? Globalization. See above. Urbanization and exploitation. Now, who would go to this? You can do some more learning and networking for globally engaged churches, diasporal ethnic ministries, executive leadership, short-term mission, missiology today, and mission finance and administration.

I mean, just what an illustration of what not to do, of where not to go. And I'm the mean one because I say these things. No, save your money. I'm trying to be nice. This is not the mandate of the church.

Read Romans and try to figure out what the mandate of the church is. Now, individually, if you, a church member, want to go help people in urban settings or soup kitchens or racial equality issues, you can do whatever you want.

But that's not the church. That's not the church's responsibility. And, like D .L. Moody would say, when the church brings the Bible in one hand and bread in the other, the people want the bread and they leave the Bible alone.

You ought to pull up the Master's Seminary Journal and read Joel James and Brian Biederbach's article on social justice in the gospel. I forgot the name of it, but I read it and it was just brilliant.

You ought to read Gary Gilley, Social Gospel, Social Justice. I can't remember what it's called. Same thing. You ought to be reminded that we have a mandate and the most important thing is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and to tell people about who the Lord is.

Marketing Christianity as Cultural Influence

Well, what else do I have here on Christianity Today? Don't forget, you can write me at info at nocompromisedradio .com. Okay, how would you market your university? If you're Liberty University, the subtitle is Training Champions for Christ Since 1971.

Well, what if I'm not really a champion? I mean, I want to be a champion. I want to be a Joseph. I want to be a Daniel. I want to have the influence of other people, but I'm just little old me, Mike Ebendroth, sitting here in West Boylston, Massachusetts, population 5 ,800.

Here I sit just to be a champion. Training champions to influence culture. I don't want to influence culture. I don't want to redeem culture as a preacher. That's not what I'm after. I want to proclaim the truth and people get saved and we can do some kind of, you know, two-culture kind of discussion another time, but I'm not here to influence culture.

And so they've got Toby Mack. He's the person here with, he's got the hat and the glasses on, Liberty University, and he's the one who's helping train champions or maybe he is the champion. We are the champions, my friend Toby Mack.

Just see how people advertise, you know, training champions. Yeah, but what if I'm not a champion? That's why Anthony Bradley's World Magazine article is so good. It's May 4th, 2013. Anthony Bradley has an article called The New Legalism, and to lead the article off, he quotes 1 Thessalonians 4.

Is Paul's urging to live quietly, mind your own affairs, and work with your hands, only for losers? So he's quoting 1 Thessalonians 4 and then turning it into a question. And let's see, I believe that's Marvin Olasky actually quoting that.

Here's a Twitter from Anthony Bradley. Being a radical, missional Christian is slowly becoming the new legalism. We need more ordinary God and people lovers, Matthew 22. So what do you do? You feel shame that you just are a mom raising some kids?

You're just a dad and you go to work and you're an architectural folk. You're a designer. You're a photographer. You're something like that. Boy, you need to do something. You've got to influence culture.

You've got to be a champion. You weren't trained to champion, and I think you need to get motivated. I read this kind of stuff and you've got to go out and do all these wild things and radical. I know David Platt's a nice guy and everything, but his book started off well, but he needed to just end it with a blog post instead of turning it into an entire book.

Radical. And are you created for more than just the American dream and having radical risks? Right, really? Radical risk and promises radical reward. And Anthony in this article says that's well-intentioned, but it heaps up shame on people.

Missional narcissism is a paragraph title he's got. I find it fascinating. Fascinating. I can't talk, of course. Anthony Bradley. Getting married and having children early, getting a job, saving and investing, being a good citizen, loving one's neighbor, and the like, no longer qualifies virtuous.

One has to be involved in arts and social justice activities, even if justice is pursued without sound economics or social teaching. I actually know of a couple who are being so missional they decided to not procreate for the sake of taking care of orphans.

And he hits the nail on the head. Shame-driven new legalism. You've got to be radical. You've got to be missional. You've got to be exceptional. You've got to be, to use the Liberty Deal, a champion.

You've got to be in the city. God loves the city. Go for the city. I think Anthony Bradley is on to something. He's Associate Professor of Theology and Ethics at the King's College in New York. Okay, we'll hold that against him.

I think I might have even interviewed him a few years ago on No Compromise Radio. Anyway, my name's Mike Abendroth, and today was just kind of a little desk cleaning for NoCo Radio, and a little update on Africa.

Thank you for praying. You know, I don't say this very often. We don't ask for money at No Compromise Radio, but I don't even really ask for people to pray. So would you pray for the ministry? Would you pray for the ministry to be faithful, Christ-centered, that it would run, the Word of God would run into the hearts of people?

Pray for the ministry. I would appreciate that. I often forget that, so forget that often. And you can go to the Facebook. You can go to Twitter. Twitter's updated often now as well. 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 bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WV &E, its staff, or management.