Whitefield's Holy Club

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. We have a special Spanish-speaking guest in the studio today, Esteban de Cooley.

Good morning, gentlemen and ladies. How are you? Of course. Don't make that sad face.

Beyond what they could ask or think.

Beyond what they could even bear. I don't know what we're going to talk about today,.

But that's part of the fun. We just push the record button and then we just begin to speak. Yeah, wing it. Okay, so Steve, here's what I'm thinking about today. I've got in front of me, we're going to have to share this.

Holy Club questions. The fellowship group of Wesley and Whitfield. So when Whitley...

When Whitley and Hoosfield...

When Tommy Lasorda and John Wesley used to get together. Did you know Tommy Lasorda was actually the hymnist? It was John Wesley who was the preacher and then his songwriter was actually Tommy Lasorda.

Yeah, well, George Whitfield baptized Tommy Lasorda. Was it a triple dunk?

I actually was thinking about Lasorda because I watched the Rick Monday. He saw the two guys going to burn the flag in the 70s and he ran by and swooped up the American flag at Dodger Stadium.

That was the greatest play Rick Monday ever made. Yeah, that's right. I mean, he was the king of the three strike...

Three swings and a miss strikeout. But we remember him for being patriotic. Yeah. So these Holy Cub... Holy Cub. Holy Cub, Batman. I was in my Piper Cub during my Cub Scouts reign selling... So these are the questions.

We're going to use this as our show today. And I'm going to say the first one and then we'll talk about it. Am I consciously or unconsciously created the impression that I am better than I really am? That's the first question we ask.

Am I coming across as better than I am? And the guys would sit around and talk about it.

Well, I don't know about you, Pastor, but it's not unconsciously on my part.

It reminds me of Brian Regan. When you say, this is you, this is me. This is you, this is me. See the difference? Now I do. Number two, am I honest in all my acts and words or do I exaggerate?

Well, I mean, certainly we want to be honest, but to be perfectly candid, I have never lied in my life.

I mean, and think about it. These guys would sit down with these questions. These are tough. Whitfield, the Calvinist, Wesley, the person who wasn't biblical in his area of soteriology. Soteriology. The Armenian, and they would sit down and this was a Holy Club.

I mean, we've come a long way with the Crips and the Bloods. Yeah.

They have clubs. This was a Christian gang, I guess you could say, the Holy Club. This was the first gang.

And number three, do I confidently pass on to another what was told to me in confidence? Do you have any?

You know, I so hate gossip. Did you hear about, oh, sorry. No, go right ahead.

Oh, funny. Here I was turning to a passage about gossip and slander and Steve was trying to be, you know, he's trying to be tricky. Proverbs chapter six. Lots of times I say to myself, what does God really hate?

And am I to hate like God hates? Is it ever right to hate? Is it wrong not to hate? And when you think about this passage, Steve, it is brutal. There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to Him.

So with poetry language, six things, yes, even seven, meaning that the seventh thing is the worst thing that He hates the most. Haughty eyes, lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and then the final thing that God hates here in Proverbs six that Solomon teaches his son, the one who sows discord among brothers.

Yeah, I mean, it is without question, one of the things that, well, first of all, it undermines the church more than anything else, in my opinion, gossip. But this whole idea of gossiping, I mean, these days it's glorified.

You have to pay money for good gossip, right? I mean, you have to go to, or you can go to a website like TMZ, and that's where you get the real scoop, but the bottom line about gossip is it is ungodly.

God hates it, and yet we just, we would pay money for it. We flock to it, and we delight. I mean, I think ultimately what people as a whole, what they delight in are the troubles of others. We want to know that other people have a worse life than we do.

And then it makes them feel better, and then you think, oh, look at them, and that means it props us up, and you're exactly right. These, was it Queen Latifah in MacArthur's book? John quoted Queen Latifah, I think, in The Vanishing Conscience, talking about pride, a sin.

What idiot came up with that?

It was something close to that. Yeah, I mean, people don't think of it that way, but that's exactly right. I mean, we tend to think that it's okay to talk ill of other people or to spread on gossip and rumors and things like that, and it destroys other people, and that's why God hates it.

I mean, it is undermining another image bearer. It's attacking them, but in a kind of slick, offhanded way, backhanded way.

Absolutely, holy club questions. That's easy for me to say.

Can I be trusted? We were just talking about that this morning. I think trustworthiness is so vital in every aspect of life. I mean, think about it in the home. Do you want your kids to be able to trust you?

Do you want your wife to be able to trust you? And for wives, do you want your husband? You have nothing more important than your own integrity.

Lots of times I'll say something to the kids, and I learned early on that if I say something to them, I better be prepared to back it up, because if you say, we're going to do this, then short of an emergency, sorry kids, daddy's got to go to the hospital or something to visit someone, we need to do it.

Can I be trusted? Do I keep my word? I like these questions. Number five, am I a slave to dress, friends, work, or habits? For the record, I've never worn a dress. For the record, I've never worn a habit.

Oh, I take that back. For Halloween, my mother made me a nun outfit. And this was before I was a fire-breathing Protestant. I was unsaved, but in a Lutheran church, so I guess that is Protestant, but I wasn't fire-breathing.

And so I needed a costume. Instead of the typical werewolf, the regular, kind of the crazy clown, she made me a complete nun outfit. We just couldn't find a rosary in the house.

That was a problem. Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay. Well, I mean, look at that. Am I a slave to dress, to fashion? You know, which really says that you want to indulge yourself.

A slave to friends, which again, means you're more concerned about what they think than anything else. Work, man, do I know people who put everything on the back burner except for their job? And then, or habits, you know, those could be, I wouldn't say, I've never met anybody who said, you know what, Pastor, I'm really addicted to studying the Bible.

I've got to join a 12-step group to get rid of that.

Oh, and not Messy's Anonymous, but Bible, believing, reading, we could call that Psalm 1 Anonymous.

I really don't know people like that who are just like, oh, I've got to shake this Bible habit.

Am I, number six, am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying? Steve, I know lots of people who are so self-introspective, and they think they're doing it to try to uncover hidden sins, but it ends up being more focused on self.

You look at others, you get depressed, you look at yourself, you're even worse off with your depression, so you have to look to Christ Jesus. I think sometimes the Puritans did us a disservice by focusing on themselves so much, trying to root out all those sins that they didn't know they had.

Well, I mean, I just think of my own pre-salvation life and how I would get so introspective, and I'll just tell anybody who's listening out there, what hyper-introspection leads to, I think, is depression.

You know, when you just are so involved with yourself that the rest of the world shrinks.

Good point. Number seven, did the Bible live in me today? And these guys who get together, bless you, Steve, because you had a demon coming out of you. I had to bless you so it doesn't enter back in. The demon of Gesundheit.

Holy Club questions, a fellowship group of Wesley and Whitfield, 22 questions that we're just working through today, just interesting questions that you could ask yourself, and are they biblical? How do they help?

Did the Bible live in me today? Well, I guess that assumes that they probably had to read the Bible and then asking God to flesh it out in your life.

That's a good question. Yeah, I mean, so you're not a hypocrite? Well, and isn't it a great way to start the day when you're focused on these issues throughout the day, then it's easier at the end of the day to say, did the Bible live in me today?

Because you started the day with Christ and with the Word of God, and so you can end it that way as well.

I don't know about the listeners out there, but routine and habits are good, especially if they're good habits and a good routine. And so I would say 11 days out of 12, probably maybe 29 out of 30, I'll get up, have a cup of coffee, and I go sit at the exact same spot with my exact same Bible, with the exact same everything, because I'm trying to say to myself, get up in the morning, sit and have a cup of coffee and read my Bible, because that's the best way to start the day.

There you go. All right, what's the next one? I'll let you ask it this time.

Okay, number eight. Do I give it time to speak to me every day? The Bible. That's correct. Do I give the Bible time to speak to me every day?

I think what they mean is, did you read it enough so you could get input from God? I think that's what they mean.

Yeah, can I just say a word about, of course I can, the difference between reading and studying, because I think people get too caught up in, I've read the Bible through,.

I got through 38 times this year. I think that was the Evelyn Woodhead speed reading course. But I mean, people do that, right?

That's true. And they read, and then you just ask them a basic question, and they have absolutely no idea, because they haven't taken the time to really dig a little deeper.

Steve, you are sneezing and I'm yawning. I've yawned on the show several times before. What does that say about my own show? What does that say about our show? Steve's in the studio today. Holy Cub, Piper Cub questions.

Yeah, you know, I had that happen once.

I just started a message. I mean, seriously, 30 seconds into a message, and somebody let out an audible yawn. I think it made everybody else yawn. Yeah, I was ready for the taser or something.

You know, if monkeys yawn, other monkeys yawn. See, that's why they're human. Monkey see, monkey do? Yeah, yeah, that's right. Number nine, am I enjoying prayer? Now that is a convicting one. That's a crusher.

For me, it's usually, I need to pray more, I need to pray more, I need to pray more. And the enjoyment I have in prayer, often comes, Steve, and this is probably a self-confession here, is afterwards, I'm thankful I did pray.

Yeah, I mean, there are all kinds of self-justifications for not praying, and it's always, you know, in the rear view mirror where you just go, I'm glad, you know, I went to the Lord, I took these things to the Lord in prayer.

You know, I just think back to how people responded. You remember this class, the prayer class in seminary, and how, I don't know about your class, maybe your class was different, but I just remember all the guys grumbling the first day.

We have to pray for an hour a day, every day. You know, we're busy, we've got seminary classes, we've got jobs, we've got families. An hour a day?

Then we had to write it down. You could break it into groups of 30 minutes, nothing less than 30 minutes, but 30 minute shots at a time. An hour a day? I don't have time for that. Well, I can tell when I think I'm really dependent upon myself and I can do things on my own without the Lord, then that shows that I, shows up with me not praying, and so the flip side is true as well.

Here's a good one, Steve. Number 10, holy club questions, Wesley and Whitfield. When did I last speak to someone else of my faith?

Again, you know, this is something, and I think some people just kind of think, well, you know, I don't have that gift, or I can't, or everyone can. You know, if you're saved, you have the capacity to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It's just, are you willing? Are you looking for, you know, there's a better question. Are you eager for the opportunity?

Are you anticipating it? Are you looking for an opening? Are you praying that God would give you people to talk to? All right, let's go to the next one, number 11. Do I pray about the money I spend? Wow.

You know, I have to confess. I went to Starbucks this morning, and I did not pray before I spent the money. I prayed afterwards for the food, but I didn't pray.

Okay, so you basically chumped out that one. Let me read the next one, because I chumped out the next one. Okay, this one, this next one. Do I go to bed on time and get up on time? So last night, I go to bed pretty much on time.

I go to bed fairly late, not as late as I used to, but then I couldn't sleep. My leg was hurting, and I couldn't find a soft spot in the bed, and my leg was cramping, and all kinds of other things, so I probably fell asleep at five o 'clock, and I overslept my first appointment, or almost did.

Oops. So that one, I guess I compromised the holy club question. Next, do I disobey God in anything? Next. Do I insist, number 14, on doing something about which my conscience is uneasy? Now, that is a great one.

Do I go against my conscience? Now, Bible, number one, rule of the law, rule of law, number two, conscience. And so, of course, sometimes you have to change your conscience with what the Bible and His holy word says, but conscience is big.

We don't want to have people go against our conscience, do we?

Ever, never, never, never. I mean, the whole idea of, I mean, why do we have a conscience? God has placed His law in our hearts, according to Romans 2, so that we will have, you know, that kind of alarm go off when we're going to sin against Him.

And we have that conscience so that we won't, I guess you could say, sin with impunity, so that we'll know that there are right things and wrong things, and so when we ignore our conscience, we eventually learn to shut it off entirely to, the Bible would say, sear it, to burn it,.

You know, to be done with it. I think most people aren't really concerned about their own conscience these days, Steve, is they're trying to get other people to have their consciences placed in them, that is to say, we want other people to do what we think is right and wrong, and we don't want to let them do what their own conscience decides for them, and so these are good.

What would you call that? I'd say that's, that sounds like legalism to me.

It sounds like we should do a show on legalisms in the Church of Baker's dozen of legalisms. Okay. I think we've done that. If we do it again, though,.

I think we could probably do a better job. Well, or come up with a better list, maybe.

Well, that's true, but I think you came up with a list. Oh, so it must have been really bad. It was exceedingly bad. Do I, let's see, Constance, number 15, holy club questions of the Fellowship Group of Whistley and Whitfield.

Whistley, the Whistler's Mountain, Whistler. Am I defeated in any part of my life? I am undefeated. Now, see, this is kind of just, it's almost too introspective, yeah. 16, am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy, or distrustful?

Yes, Dave. Am I alive?

And you know what, here's a good question. You know, sometimes you might find yourself, and I don't mean to improve on Whistley or Whitfield, but sometimes you might find yourself becoming irritated when you know that you really shouldn't be, when there's no reason for you to be as irritated as you are.

I think it's always good to take a pause when you're doing that and just think, okay, why am I responding like this? Why am I even thinking like this? And to think, well, it's because I haven't been sleeping enough.

Well, I need to go to sleep earlier, you know, to correct the situation. And also think, I better watch what I say because right now, I'm not thinking rightly.

That's right, and when it comes to irritability, I think to myself, Steve, about when am I irritable? And lots of times my irritability comes out when something doesn't go my way. There's traffic, some slow guy is in front of me.

Something happens, like the kids last night, we went to my daughter's jazz concert and then we swung by the grocery store on the way home, and then when we got home, the door went open, the milk gallon slipped out of the car, hit the floor, and then just burst, and it's leaking all over, we're holding it upside down, the dog's out licking the milk, and I was irritable.

Things didn't go my way.

Yeah, that's unfortunate, that's not a good thing. Well, and it's true, and so sometimes we just kinda, you know, at those moments, we just have to take a step back, put things in perspective. I mean, in the big scheme of things.

Don't cry over spilled milk. Yeah, excellent, and I mean, it's not a disaster.

Well, I notice that when it comes to the weather, Steve, the Lord has been good to teach me through Pink's book, through the Word of God and Pink's book, The Sovereignty of God, that to complain about the weather is to complain about God's providence.

He's the one that sends the weather, but I still haven't learned the lesson like I want to learn it when it comes to interruptions, when it comes to roadblocks and bridges out and milk's being spilled, because that's under God's providential care, too, isn't it?

Yes, it is. And how about when people, Jesus was on his way someplace, and then he gets interrupted so rudely by that woman who's been bleeding all her life.

Yeah, and did Jesus get upset? For sure, I know he didn't. Yeah, for sure, he didn't, because that would be sin, and that's what we do, and that's why I'm just saying, sometimes we just have to check ourselves,.

Just think for a moment, so. A number 17, here's a big one, Steve. Do I, how do I spend my spare time? I thought it said, do I have a spare tire around my waist?

Wow, well, that'd be great for Whitfield and Wesley to be so forward thinking that they're like, do you have a spare tire?

If you don't, you could always use one. Oh, those tires were quite the invention when rubber came from India. How do I spend my spare time? Any, I mean, we have spare time. Do you know, when they wrote this, I don't think they had a lot of spare time.

Not as much as we have now, because, you know, they were preoccupied with eating, strangely enough, and getting sustenance and. Staying warm. Yeah, staying warm.

Isn't it interesting now with kids, something that they go through that generations ago never went through, and that was, we're bored. Yeah. We don't have anything to do. And so by the time you work on the farm and help your dad and do this and do that and chop wood, and you think, well, I don't have any time.

For Call of Duty 19. Well, I mean, there's so many things that happen nowadays that never would happen when I was a kid. You know, like, there really weren't that many heavy kids. Why? Because we were always playing.

We were always. Hey, you're outside. Yeah, nowadays, the parents don't send them out, and the school won't let them do anything, you know, because somebody might get their feelings hurt, so.

Number 19, holy club questions. Do I thank God I'm not as other people, especially like Pharisees, who despise the publican? That's on their list. It really says that.

Isn't that interesting? Isn't that funny? I mean, you know, I thank you, Lord, that I'm not like other people, you know. That's it, that's it. I mean, it's easy to fall into that trap, right? You see somebody do something, you know, even at church, and you just go, wow, I'm thankful.

I don't, you know, I don't have that guy's problems. Well, what about helping him, you know? What about serving him in some way?

That's correct. I do say this, though, Steve, in my mind. When I was younger, I wanted to always be someone else. You know, I wanted to be Magic Johnson, or I wanted to be Jerry West, or maybe like them or something.

Maybe I didn't want to be them. But in the last, I don't know, 20 years or so, I think to myself, I wouldn't want to be anyone else. I'm thankful God made me, and I want to excel in his kingdom, and I'm really glad I'm me.

I have a lot of blessings from God, from salvation to I get to have a wife who's a Christian. I have kids, I have a ministry, and so I'm happy about that.

Yeah, I mean, I like to be a holier me, a more, you know, more devoted me, but yeah, I mean, and it really gets back to contentment. You know, am I content with what the Lord has provided, and do I understand myself rightly, you know, and where I am and how the Lord's blessed me?

Sometimes I get choked up just thinking about all that the Lord has done on my behalf, and that's the way we ought to think about things.

You know, but you can't see Steve on a regular basis out there in No Compromise Radio land, and you can't even see him now on the radio.

And if you can, please write us at No Compromise. That's right, you've installed.

Some kind of video camera around here. But Steve, in all seriousness, is a very sweet, tender man, and he, well, most of the time, there's a tender side of Steve. I think that's better to say. And oftentimes, over the last 20 years, Steve, I've seen you cry and be teary-eyed when it comes to either excellent things or things that make you sad, and so I just appreciate that about you.

Sometimes it's menu choices, but, you know. Well, that's true.

Is there anyone whom I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold a resentment toward, or disregard? If so, what am I doing about it? I think that leads to, you know, as much as possible, be at peace with all men.

Well, we were just, you know, sort of talking about this right before we came on the air, the general topic about not holding on to bitterness and to, you know, forgiveness and these things. I mean, there is great power in forgiveness because as long as you hold on to, you know, the bitterness and the anger and the things that, the sins that people commit against you, you can't be very happy.

Number 21, we have two questions left, and we have an hour, we have, excuse me.

We have an hour left, so just strap in, get ready.

Do I grumble or complain constantly? I would like to say, do I grumble or complain at all? Yeah, and just leave it there, right? Boy, that's talking about the weather and everything else, just grumbling against the sovereign, providential hand of God.

But, you know, we know people like that, and I don't want to mention their names.

Because I would be gossiping. I think they have a ministry of grumbling and complaining. Yeah, what's your ministry?

My ministry is grumbling and disputing.

And there are some people like that at Bethlehem Bible Church, I'm sad to say, but I hope they learn, I hope they grow, I hope they repent. And I hope they just look at themselves because if we wanted to have a grumbling contest about other people, I think I could win when I look at them.

Well, you know, I would just go back to this. If you are saved, what do you have to grumble about?

What do you have to complain about? Amen, not one thing. Nope. Last question, is Christ real to me? Is it just not, it's not just knowledge, it's just a real, true trust.

Well, if he's not, then you're no more a Christian than the millions of other people who say that they're Christians, but don't pay any attention to Christ.

Holy Club Questions, a fellowship group of Wesley and Whitfield, came up with these 22 interesting questions. If you'd like a copy, you can write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com.

Okay, and have a great day, and by the way, 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 six. 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.

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