Theological Miscellany

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, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and I�d like to confess at the very beginning of this particular show that I don�t have any Isopure, I have no Pete�s Coffee, I have no Starbucks Coffee, I have no, oh, there�s a water here, Big Y Spring Water, that�s about all I have for those of you that think it�s improper for radio hosts to drink liquids on air.

That�s a recording, so, A, that�s not on air, and B, I�m not even on the radio anymore. Well, except in Alaska, so that�s just a podcast, so put it to 1 .5. I wonder what drinking water at 1 .5 speed sounds like, what that sounds like.

Annoying, I know. If you want to write me, mike at nocompromiseradio .com, and you can be put on the Israel list, probably February 19th, 2021, not next year, but the year after, and we, along with Pat Abendroth and Omaha Bible Church, are going to Israel.

Now, maybe you think it�s the Holy Land, you�ll get some special anointing, maybe you think you�ll have a Wesleyan-Kezik sanctification increase if you go. You can still go if you pay the money, I�ll take it.

But I�d rather have you go to see Israel and think history. For instance, when we go to the Mediterranean Sea and we�re at Caesarea by the sea, there�s Caesarea Philippi as well, lots of Caesar stuff, Cesar, Caesar, Caesarea, Caesarea, that it�s interesting that you have a thing they�ve uncovered about Pontius Pilate.

Now, the real one is in the Jewish Museum, but the replica, or as we say here, the replica, is there at the Mediterranean Caesarea. That�s, to me, one of the most interesting finds because, as we know, and as J. Gresham has taught us, Christianity is a historical religion.

Time, space, particles, dust, footprints in the sand. But seriously, there�s no special anointing if you go there. But you get to see places like the Sea of Galilee and you get to look at things like, well, if you�re north of Jerusalem and then it says in the Bible they walked up to Jerusalem, well, you�d think up is more north, but they�re really having to go south.

How can south be up unless it�s really up, right? Because you�re going up the little mountain there. Mountain. So, that kind of stuff is really neat. It�s neat to go to the Galilean Sea, the Sea of Galilee there, and I like to skip a rock and think, you know what?

Jesus not only walked by this sea, this lake, but he walked on it. And to take a boat ride out there and see the sunset, I mean, it�s really, it�s interesting. It is wonderful. And so, we�d love to have you go with us.

You know, when people say it makes the Bible alive, what they�re not saying is now they have more of the Holy Spirit�s illumination. They�re not saying that. But they can just picture places and they can picture things.

And you can be a very mature Christian and never make it to the land of Israel. I almost said holy land. Try not to say that. What is holy about the land? Anyway, we�d love to have you go. I think I�ve got 24 slots.

Pat�s got 24. Pat usually has more. So, between NOCO and Bethlehem Bible Church, we ought to have more people signed up. Last time, it was abysmal. We just had just, but the people that showed up were fun.

But anyway, it�s a good time to spend together. The guide usually will give us a little background, a geographical background. And then Pat or myself will teach a short little Bible message at the spot.

And maybe there�s a camel ride for you as well. I�ve been teaching through the book of Hebrews, as you know. Oops, there goes all the stuff. Okay. And I was talking about hell last time and it was very sobering.

And I was wondering what the message translation says about that section that seems to be one of the most solemn, grave, and sobering sections. When I did a TV show, No Compromise TV, I had a message moment.

And that was every week because I�m just trying to chop up the show so it wasn�t just another person talking about the Bible for 30 or 40 minutes. Here is what Hebrews 10 in Eugene Peterson�s translation says.

I�m hoping it�s good, but I�m not too sure. If we give up and turn our backs on all we�ve learned, all we�ve been given, all the truth we know, we repudiate Christ�s sacrifice and are left on our own to face the judgment, and a mighty fierce judgment it will be.

If the penalty for breaking the law of Moses is physical death, what do you think will happen if you turn on God�s Son, spit on the sacrifice that made you whole, and insult the most gracious spirit? This is no light matter.

God has warned us that He will hold us to account and make us pay. He was quite explicit. Vengeance is mine and I won�t overlook a thing. And God will judge His people. Nobody�s getting by with anything.

Believe me. Thus ends the reading for the day. Well, just a few comments on that. I guess he�s teaching, or he thinks that Hebrews is teaching, that you can lose your salvation. That�s what�s going on in this translation.

In the real text, the writer, the good pastor, exhorts people to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, Hebrews 10, 19 -22, with Jewish language of �enter� and Jewish language of �draw near. We say �believe, repent, trust, rest.

You could say �enter� or you could say �draw near. Here we�re thinking about the Day of Atonement and that high priest, except now you have access. So believe. And then he says in verse 23, �Well, keep believing.

Hold fast to confession. Then he says in 24 and 25, �Serve other people. There�s a horizontal relationship when it comes to Christianity. And then he�s going to say, �And by the way, if you turn your back on this Jesus that I�ve been talking about for the first ten chapters, nine and a half chapters, then there�s no hope for you.

So I like it that it says, �What do you think will happen if you turn on God�s Son, spit on the sacrifice? That part�s good. I didn�t like what it says that made you whole. I think there�s a confusion in Christianity between judicial forgiveness and parental forgiveness.

And if you get that straight, dear Christian listener, things are going to be good for you. It�s going to all fall into the categories. Think categories. So there�s two kinds of forgiveness in a family.

I could even use this illustration about familial forgiveness, family forgiveness. How many sins do my children have to commit before I don�t forgive them and kick them out? Really, there�s going to be no limit.

Now I might have to kick them out because they�re going to have to learn some lessons. And if they�re not going to obey dad at home, they�re going to learn what it�s like to have no dad around. And so they�ll have to suffer that way.

But the point is, family forgiveness is once you�re a child, you�re always a child. And therefore, it�s a cleansing. It�s a restoration of fellowship, not a restoration of position or status. And therefore, that�s what Eugene Peterson does in his message translation.

Legally, courtroom language, God takes enemies and he declares them righteous based on God the Son�s law-keeping as the incarnate one. And he does the right thing. And what happens when it comes to laws?

There�s a positive precept to it, do this and live. There�s a penalty if you don�t, death. And so Jesus has both active obedience, keeping the law, doing right things, earning righteousness for others.

And then there�s the penalty side where he accepts the penalty of our sins on himself on the tree 2 ,000 years ago. And we know that transaction worked because God was raised from the dead, right? John 10, 18, a Trinitarian resurrection.

The if you stand before God legally and there�s no condemnation, the verdict of judgment day is already pronounced now in time. We already know what it�s going to be, no condemnation because of justification, legal standing.

That�s position that is legal, that is not family. And what happens is if you�re a Christian, you can�t lose your salvation because you didn�t gain it. Even the sins that Christians commit as Christians, heinous as they may be, awful as they may be, those were also paid for in the great transaction when it comes to Jesus dying on the cross.

And Jesus died for all of our sins 2 ,000 years ago, not just sins that we committed before we were saved, but also after we were saved. So legally we are adopted into the family, we�re declared righteous, we have Christ� right law keeping, merited righteousness because he did the right thing, and that gets credited to our account.

And it gets credited to as many people as believe because it�s an infinite righteousness because God is infinite. The Son is glorious. The Son can have enough righteousness to bestow on all those who would believe because it�s such a grand and glorious righteousness.

Well, that�s the problem here, so it makes it seem like you can lose your salvation. And if you�re a Christian, go to Hebrews 10 .26. Willfully is the first word in the original Greek, deliberately. If you sin deliberately, there�s no more sacrifice of sins for you.

If you think you can do that as a Christian, sin willfully and deliberately so that there�s no more salvation for you, how�s that working out for you? Is it, in fact, now going to be up to you how many of those sins, how sinful, how deliberate, how willful, in comparison to whom, to what?

You need to realize that God expects you to be obedient. And if you�re going to try to stand before him legally in the courtroom, based on what you�ve done, it�s going to have to be sinless. This is in context.

If you see the words before Hebrews 10 .26 and following, you�re going to see that, hey, here�s Jesus. Let�s just cut the �hey� part out. That�s not right. But here�s Jesus. Believe in him. There are not two saviors.

He�s the way, the truth, and the life. And by the way, if you�re going to reject him, you�ll have to pay for your own sins. You won�t have a high priest. You will be the sacrifice. That�s what he�s saying.

You need to have categories. For the Christian, if you think 1 John, if we confess our sins, what? He�s faithful just to forgive us. And you say to yourself, well, I�m a Christian, and as Peter didn�t need to be dunked completely because he was already one of the lords.

He just needed to have his feet cleaned. We just need a good foot washing. It�s a great picture of how we need to have our sins forgiven as children, not as legal requirements. Does that make sense? And then it says here, God has warned us that he�ll hold us to account and make us pay.

Now, if that�s true for the Christian, he�s going to make you pay in terms of discipline, in terms of Hebrews 12, verses 5 and following, as sons. Then fine, but I don�t think that�s what he means here.

What would a Christian have to pay if Jesus paid it all? What kind of double jeopardy would it be? What kind of God would it be if double jeopardy were true? And then it says, nobody�s getting by with anything, believe me.

That�s really a bad translation of it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. Don�t you think? Nobody�s getting by with anything, believe me, or it�s a terrifying thing to fall into, to be in the power of.

That�s what that word means, to fall into. If you fall into the hands of the enemy, they have power over you and they do what they want and they might rip your tongue out and they might skin you alive.

They might crucify you. Nobody�s getting by with anything. Of course, nobody�s getting by with anything, but the language isn�t very helpful there. So, that�s my little message moment. So, we�ve had a little Israel update.

We�ve had a message moment. And what else do we have? People are texting me, but we can�t read text on the show, can we? Reply. I didn�t really read. I didn�t read. For those of you who are wondering where we are, we�re in the central Mass district.

We�re in the central part of Massachusetts. And if you call me and say, where�s a good church in Boston, are you that church? I could recommend a few churches, but we�re about one hour. We are about 80K.

We�re about 60 miles outside of Boston. 50. 50, sorry. Not 60. 50. That would be 90-some K. What else do we have here? I�m trying to think of something else to do before I fill up the time with something else.

All right. So, let�s just pull this out right here. I have a little book, and this little book here is not one that I�ve written, although I thought about updating a book, the King one. Here we have the Wesley Grace.

John Wesley composed Grace. You know, you say Grace at supper time. At least people used to. It�s funny. In Arkansas, in the Midwest, in the South, even in California, if you pray at a restaurant, people do two things.

They say, well, they�re not going to be good tippers. And they also say, oh, they�re praying. But here in New England, if you have your head bowed and you�re praying, they�re like, what are you looking for?

You�ll lose your contact. That�s crazy. He had this prayer before meals, and he usually sang it to the tune, the old hundredth, that the Protestants know. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Be present at our table, Lord, be here and everywhere adored.

These mercies bless and grant that we may feast in fellowship with thee. I�m no Wesleyan, but that seems to be pretty nice. Be present at our table, Lord, be here and everywhere adored. These mercies bless and grant that we may feast in fellowship with thee.

That�s not a bad little song. Now, just ignore that I sang it, but that would be something good for you to do. Be present at our table, Lord, be here and everywhere adored. These mercies bless and grant that we may fellowship with thee.

In this little book that I have in front of me, A Theological Miscellany by T .J. McTavish, it is published not by a big publisher. It�s published by MJF Books New York, the W Publishing Group. Now, I don�t know if that�s a word.

I think it must be. Thomas Nelson, yes. It�s kind of in that vein. Listen to 10 words or phrases not found in the Bible. Accepting Christ. Now, you think this would be some kind of, who knows what, some kind of Calvinistic deal, but even they know that.

Glossolalia. It says these words or phrases can�t be found in the Bible. Well, why would they do that? Why would they put that in when it�s like there�s no Greek words for languages in there? I think they�re wrong there.

Personal Savior. Now, I think the words Depeche and Mode might be in there, but going to heaven. This is weird. Who wrote this? Inerrancy, infallibility, second coming, eternal security, theology, and trinity.

Words not found in the Bible. Well, I�ve got news for you, T .J. McTavish. There are no words, there are no English words in the Bible. How about that? It reminds me of Richard Baxter who was with John Owen trying to figure out some theological statement of faith and things they could agree upon.

Of course, Baxter having the funky view of justification by faith and then Owen taking him to task for it. Those two could never come up with a theological confession or an agreement or statement because Baxter, the biblicist, couldn�t even use the word trinity because that wasn�t found in the Bible.

Isn�t that weird? Who wrote these songs? All the Way My Savior Leads Me. The same person wrote all these. Blessed assurance Jesus is mine. Jesus is tenderly calling. Jesus keep me near the cross. Praise him, praise him.

Redeemed how I love to proclaim it. Take the world but give me Jesus. To God be the glory. Who wrote all those? Well, this person was born in 1823 and at six weeks of age she lost her sight. Wrote a lot of poetry.

Went to the New York City Institution for the Blind. Married a blind musician. By the time she died, she had 2 ,000 hymns published. It says here in this little book, �Purists do not consider her work to be of high poetic quality, but the simplicity and earnestness of her verse have endeared her songs to Christian worshipers in North America.

These are some of her most used hymns. And her name was Frances Jane Van Alstyne, and you know her as Fanny Crosby. Was she a feminist? She just kept her maiden name. I�m wondering about all that. All right.

How many men in the Bible were named Joshua? This is riveting radio. Every good pastor knows, never play Bible trivia with people at the church. You can�t win, because if you win, they expect it, and if you lose, you shouldn�t be losing.

Joshua, son of Nun. Joshua of Beth Shemesh, on whose land the ark halted. Joshua, son of Uzziah, 1 Chronicles 27. Governor of Jerusalem, Joshua 2 Kings 23. There�s lots of Joshuas. Jeshua, Yahshua, Hosea, Hoshea, Jesus called Justice.

And it actually gets this right. Jesus Barabbas, it says. Several manuscripts in the New Testament support the possibility Barabbas�s name was Jesus Barabbas. Bar-rabbi, son of the Father. Bar-abba.

Bar-abba. Bar-mitzvah. Okay. IHS symbol. Sometimes you see that. What�s that symbol? IHS. You go to liturgical services, Lutheran and Catholic and some others, Episcopalian, Anglican, and you see this kind of IH transposed over an S, and lots of you might be thinking, �Well, I wonder what that fish symbol sounds like.

What�s that for? �Ikthus. Jesus Christ, God�s son, Savior. But what about that IHS? What would that stand for? Well, I�m here to tell you on No Compromise Radio. This symbol is often found in churches, especially those built with more traditional architecture.

It is sometimes said to stand for �In His Service. All right, but is that enough? It originates, however, in the first three letters of the Greek name for Jesus. I-E-S-O-U-S, transliterated. It is perhaps more correctly written in Greek small capitals as I-H-C, so it doesn�t really mean a whole lot.

He doesn�t really mean a whole lot. Oh, they even have the church bloopers in here. How did these get in here? Oh, that�s amazing. Thursday night potluck supper, prayer and medication to follow. There you have it.

Today�s sermon, how much can a man drink with hymns from a full choir? For those of you who have nursery and don�t know it, we have a nursery downstairs. I�m so tired today that everything�s funny. You know how that works?

Oh, the sermon in the morning, Jesus walks on water. PM service, searching for Jesus. The Reverend Mary Weathers spoke briefly, much to the delight of his audience. Barbara C. remains in the hospital and needs blood donors for more transfusions.

She�s also having trouble sleeping and requests tapes of Pastor Jack�s sermon. At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be, what is hell? Come early and listen to our choir practice. Weight watchers will meet at 7pm at the First Presbyterian Church.

Please use a large double door at the side entrance. I was here with Larry McLaughlin a couple days ago to record a show. Maybe some of you have listened to Larry. He�s a dear man and he has some bad brain cancer.

Anyway, he said, �Now I know why when you sit and do shows you just laugh, because it�s easy to just sit here in the show and laugh. That�s true. My name is Mike Abendroth, NoCompromiseRadio .com. 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.