Gospel Threats (Part 4)

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 ministry, Michael Lee Abendroth here, reporting for No Compromise Duty. Always biblical, always provocative, always in that order. Let's see, I have a book to give away, Sovereignty and Supremacy of King Jesus.

Hmm. Who wrote that book? I actually agree with everything this guy wrote. It's hard for me to do. Once in a while that happens if I read a book and I say, yes, I agree, amen, so be it, let it be, whisper words of wisdom.

That was for Steve. This one I actually really agree with. Bowing to the Gracious Despot is the subtitle, and it's interesting. Todd Friel writes of this book, you are holding what is destined to be one of the worst-selling books of all time.

So, see, there you go. Thanks, Todd. Anyway, this is the book that I wrote probably, I don't know, five years ago, and then it was published just a couple years ago. Reason why it took me so long to publish it is I thought it had good material, and therefore I tried to get it published by Crossway, Moody, Word, Thomas Nelson, Evangelical Press, Zondervan, Harvest House, you name it, I tried to get it published by them, and they said no.

A lot of them said good topic won't sell, and you know, they were right. It is a great topic, Jesus is king, and since we don't have kings, our kings, we vote out about every eight years, and we have no monarchs here, we serve no monarchs here, we don't understand kings, and if you understand a Near Eastern Oriental monarch, you'd probably understand Jesus better.

So anyway, I'd like to give the book away, I'll send it out to you free. I don't know what we should do to send it out free, how would I determine this? I don't know, I guess the first email I get, then I'll send it out.

If you write and say I listen, I'd be willing to read the book, and I like no-compromise radio in spite of the host, then I'll send you the book. Sovereignty and Supremacy of King Jesus. The rest of you, I'm sure Amazon has a lot, because the publishers got a lot.

The new book, Things That Go Bump in the Church, written with Byron Young, you ought to get his books. He is an excellent writer, Suburbianity, and Well-Driven Nails, and stuff like that. And Clint Archer, he's also an excellent writer, I try to hook my trailer up to excellent writers.

And so anyway, that should be out next year, Harvest House, along with the S. Lewis Johnson Romans Commentary. Initially Zonovan said S. Lewis Johnson with Mike Apendraught, but I didn't really write it.

I mean, I put some words in his mouth. I always think, what would S. Lewis think if I put this word in his mouth? I need a code word. Okay, that's it. You get Sovereignty and Supremacy of King Jesus. If you write to me and tell me, Mike, in the Romans Commentary, this is the code word.

This is not a typical word that would be used by S. Lewis Johnson or regular theologians. So if you insert this word, every one of his books that you turn in, commentaries that you adapt, because it's going to say S. Lewis Johnson, adapted by Mike Apendraught, Adaptation with Broken and Wounded Language.

Don't forget to go to No Compromised 90 YouTube sites. And so, anyway, tell me the word. The rumor had it that Phil Johnson had bogus inserted into the MacArthur things that he has written for John, takes John's material and turns it into books.

Bogus. So I can't say bogus. It has to be something else. Okay? If you give me a good word and I like it, then I'll do two things. I'll insert it into the book, and then I'll also send you the book that I wrote with no one.

The Word of God as the Christian's Offensive Weapon

Mike Apendraught, adapted by Mike Apendraught. All right, so much for that. Today we're continuing our series, Threats to the Gospel. Gospel threats. Now the one offensive weapon in the spiritual warfare section in Ephesians is what?

You'd think it might be casting out demons, slaying people in the spirit, I don't know, curing people with the demonet of post-nasal drip. I don't know what you might have, but here it says, and listen to the language, where God is active and we are passive, finally be strengthened in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of the evil, excuse me, of evil in the heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.

In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication.

To that end, keep alert and with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. So, the offensive weapon that we have as Christians, it's not ecumenical gatherings, it's not million men marches, it is the word of God.

And so, that is the weapon that we have, and so it should not strike us strangely that the enemy should attack that. Oh, we could discuss how the enemy wants to make our view of the Bible less than what it should be, such as the Bible's only errant, it's only written by men, it's only infallible, it's only a guide, it's only, as some of the old liberals would say 30 years ago, the Bible doesn't have any answers, it just has a lot of questions.

Where do you get the answers? Oh, the Holy Spirit, somehow divorcing the Spirit of God from the Bible. I guess you could always get answers from Paul Tillich, too, according to those old liberals. That was Pete's coffee break there for a second.

Threats to the Gospel: Subjectivizing the Message

So, what are some of the threats? We've looked at, so far, things like the church assumes the gospel. What else have we looked at here? Making the gospel about personal appropriation, subjectivizing the gospel.

I don't mind if you talk about your life since God saved you, that's a wonderful testimony, but that's not the gospel. So, this next one here, I don't know what number we're on. I want to say we're on number three, don't you think?

Don't you think we're on number three? Come on. Let's talk about, this is bad when you have radio to do, you can't really do it. Let's talk about the continuing faithfulness in gospel ministers. I think that's where I am.

I think I'm in the middle of all this, and so I'm just going to pick it up here. This is where my notes left off, unless someone snuck into my office here, in the lockdown studios at No Compromise Radio.

You'd be surprised to see the expenses that we have not spared here at No Compromise Radio. Somebody just sent some money in the other day. It's about a once-a-year deal, so maybe, I don't spend money on Pete's coffee here, but you know, maybe I'll get, we need new microphones for the ministry to go forward.

It's a crucial time in our ministry, we need help. If you've benefited by this ministry, then didn't you send in your money? Not. Okay, 1 Corinthians chapter 4 helps us so that we understand once and for all that how other people measure success, we don't measure success that way.

Let's put it in preaching style. Don't measure success the way the world does. Don't measure success the way some Arminian Southern Baptists do. Nickels and noses, attendance, billings, and cash. Don't do that.

I was just reading this morning in First Chronicles, towards the end of First Chronicles, probably 26, 27, 28, and 29, right in that section. I want to say it's 28. David, energized by Satan, counts. Now, it's not always wrong to count something.

We have financial, fiscal responsibilities and budgets, and I understand that. We here are going through the painstaking process of in the last year, we have two services now on Sunday morning because we can't fit those that want to attend into one service.

I hate it. I hate it that I can't see everybody at once. I hate it that it doesn't seem as full. I hate all kinds of things, but if the Lord brings the people, what are you going to do? So how many come to this service?

How many come to that service? I understand that. But Paul, as he writes to the carnal Corinthians, the immature Corinthians, and he gives them baby food. Sometimes we think these are such deep doctrines in First Corinthians.

Oh, church discipline is a deep doctrine. No, it's milk. Did I just say milk? M-E-L-K. I hate it when I do that. M-I-L-K. It's milk. M-I-L-L would be pronounced milk. No, it would be pronounced mill.

And so, milk versus milk. Who was my parents? Was I raised in a barn in Nebraska? I guess I was. Listen to what Paul says in First Corinthians chapter 14, no, chapter 4. Now, Paul is writing to them so he can drive it into their noggins that he is not primarily trying to please people.

It's not his goal to please people. It's his goal to receive what it says in verse 5. Therefore, do not pronounce judgment before the time before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart.

Then each one will receive his commendation from God. Here's what gospel ministry ought to do. It ought to be good stewards of the gospel and honor the one who gave them the gospel, who saved them, who equipped them, who called them.

The list goes on of all the things that God has done. And they just need to be good stewards. Stewards must be found faithful. I don't have to be successful. Do I want personally to be successful? The answer is yes.

I don't want to be unpopular. I would like to be popular. But I know because of the Bible, the world isn't going to like me. I know based on experience that a lot of evangelicals aren't going to like me.

Because a lot of evangelicals don't like it if you say anything negative at all. We want to be known for what we're for, not what we're against. Just rid that from your mind. Read Galatians one time. That'll cure you of that.

Read Revelation 2 and 3 sometime with our Lord Jesus as He talks about what He's against in local churches. I'm against sin. I'm against false teachers. I'm against compromise. I'm against all that. So we want to make sure that with our ministries we want to please the Lord.

And so let's just bring the hay down from the loft and put it down in the manger. If you have a ministry and your ministry is being an usher, your ministry is counting money in the local church, if your ministry is the parking lot, if your ministry is mowing, if your ministry is babysitting, if your ministry is the nursery, if your ministry is making copies, if your ministry is teaching the Bible at Sunday school, if your ministry is the junior church, whatever it is, you say, Lord, I want you to be pleased.

And see what that does? That quickly makes you bypass everyone else to say, well, some other people won't like it, but I think the Lord would be pleased, therefore I should do it. I'm not going to intentionally step on toes like that mean guy Mike does on No Compromise Radio, but I'm going to just honestly before the Lord, Lord, help me do this for you.

Help me have wisdom so I can do this with you in mind and your Son's glory, because it must not be about me. Now, if I want to talk about this in a no compromise fashion, what if people don't like me?

Well, who cares? What if I'm not successful? Who cares? That's why when you ask pastors how many people are at their church, it just doesn't...don't ask that. Let's go ask a pastor in the middle of Kansas, and there's about 2 ,000 people in the town that he's at, how many people are at your church?

And Eric says, what? I mean, we don't do that, because sometimes there's a lot of people in churches because the pastor doesn't do what Paul's talking about in 1 Corinthians chapter 4. We have been entrusted with the gospel.

And don't we want, really, at the end of the day and at the end of our lives, we've been given such a great treasure, and we've been stewards, and now we have God's approval? Without getting all shrinky right now in no compromise radio, that wouldn't seem to fit our slogans.

My father was a drunk. My father provided for our family. My father didn't beat me. My father paid the bills. My father paid for my college. My father worked on my cars. My father came home every night.

My father...I don't know, there's all kinds of things my dad did well. He was dependable and trustworthy from a human perspective. He didn't run off on us or anything like that. But he really was the staid, German, Icelandic kind of guy.

And it would be love ya kind of thing. You'd get love ya. You know, there's love ya and then I love you. I think when I moved off to California at 22 and drove off with the U-Haul, I think he cried and said love ya.

That was about it. So, dad, would he be proud of me now in gospel ministry? And his other son, my brother Pat, would he be proud of him? Oh, I think he was generally...he liked it that we were successful and that we were in business and that kind of thing.

But I didn't hear too many times, I'm proud of you. Great job. Atta boy. And even now, I hate to admit it, but it's true, if I thought about that for long enough, I would just break down and cry. Because young men, certainly young ladies as well, they need to be encouraged.

This isn't building up somebody's self-esteem. That's not the point. But people need encouragement. They need encouragement from their elders, from their authorities, from those that are over them by God's providence.

Parents need to encourage their kids, elders need to encourage the church, I mean, the list goes on. And so to hear atta boy, that's why when Dave Jeffries once said to me, if I were your dad, I'd be proud of you, I'd preach a sermon or something like that.

I mean, talk about just weighty. My dad's been dead since 1989, could never hear those words. Dad was sick too, and the cancer affected his voice, and so he just kind of talked like this, and I don't even remember his voice.

I don't have a video or an audio or anything. You think, I can't remember my father's voice. What's that like? And so what do we do? If it means a lot to a young man, and I'm no longer a young man, if it means a lot to some old 53-year-old geezer like me, to say, you know what, my dad's proud of me.

My dad gave me a commendation. My dad gave me an approval. My dad talks about me with his friends, encouraged. Well then, how much more is it important for us to get God the Father's approval? Now, we have approval with God the Father based on Christ's work.

Isn't that a good thing to know, that we stand approved before God? There used to be condemnation, and now there's justification, all based on Christ's work and confirmed by the resurrection. We have a mediator.

We have an advocate. We have the Spirit of God. We have so many things given to us by God because He's a giving God, generously and freely giving at a cost to Himself. So, it's not as if we have to do things to get God's approval.

I don't want to try to come across and do that, and say that, and teach that. I think I taught that for too many years. So, what about getting approval now? Well, in light of all that God has done for us, sanctification-wise, not justification, but sanctification-wise, don't you want to respond in such a way to the grace of God, knowing that you're in union with Christ, to have the Father be pleased with you and just answer to Him?

Therefore, Paul is saying, I don't care what kind of tribunal you put me before. Throw me in front of the bema seat there at Corinth. It's an inadequate judge. It's an inadequate court. It's an inadequate tribunal.

The only thing I'm after is, is God the Father pleased that by the Spirit's power I've responded to the one who's made me approved and the one who's put me into gospel ministry. I've said it before, and I think it's effective, but it's true more than it's effective.

Leaders are supposed to lead, and when leaders take temperatures and barometer settings that are in the local church before they act, that's not leadership. They're letting the congregation then act. So in all honesty, years ago when we got here, 16-plus years ago now, this is the biblical philosophy of ministry.

This is who God is. This is what His Word is. This is the charge. This is what I believe. This is what the Bible clearly teaches, but those two in other order, reverse order. And if this place shuts down, it shuts down.

God has done that before with gospel preaching, and if it grows to be 1 ,000 here in the middle of nowheresville, West Boylston, okay, that grows to be 1 ,000. If it grows slowly, if it grows quickly, it's all dependent upon the grace of God who grants the growth.

Read Acts quickly, and you'll see. It's the God of the universe who adds to the local church. No one else adds to the church, so we want to please the Lord. I don't want people here because they like me.

I don't want people here because they like No Compromise Radio. I don't want people here because they like my wife. I don't want people here because they like the elders and their wives, and that's not why I want people here.

I want people here that will say, well, in spite of the weaknesses and failings of the elders here, the elders point us to the one who's not weak, the one who's not ever failing, the one who's always faithful, immutably faithful, immutably holy and faithful, pointing us to the triune God.

These men point us to Yahweh, and we don't have a lot of strength, but Yahweh does. We can't forgive our sins, but Yahweh did. That's what we're after. And so if the church grows and blows up and the ministry skyrockets, okay, it does.

That's all the Lord's doing. And on a personal note, I'm thankful, as I look back in ministry, that there's not a thousand, two thousand, five thousand people here, because that would do a number on my brain.

Literally, number, pun intended. Because who's built for that? Maybe some other more mature people could handle it. If there were 5 ,000 people coming and going here on a Sunday, and the giving, and the budget, and the staff, and everything else, I don't know if I could live with myself.

Although my wife, she has a wonderful ministry to me. It includes her looking at me like, oh, other people might think you're some radio host, but take out the trash. No, she doesn't order me to take out the trash.

I've delegated that to Luke. Luke does that trash ministry in our house. So what about you? Seek the Lord's approval in your ministry as a response to how God has already given you the not guilty verdict.

That's what we want. This doesn't mean we, I don't care what people think. You know, there's that attitude today, secular, sacred, both. I don't care what people think of me, I'm my own person. No, we should be kind to people, but we should love our neighbor after we've loved the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And what I'm really after here is if you have a gospel ministry, and you're ministering in response to the gospel, even if it's helps, and moving stuff, and moving ministry, and people don't like what you do, and they say certain things, you don't have to take that so much to heart.

You can say the relationship that I have with others is secondary to the relationship I have with the Lord. I don't have to be so concerned with other people's opinions, I can be mainly concerned with the opinion.

This is done for God's approval, and so if you disprove my ministry, then okay. If everybody leaves because of the gospel ministry here, nobody listens to the radio show, then nobody listens. It'll just be myself, and my wife, and my kids, and the elders, and their kids.

That's it. I don't even judge myself. This is what God commands in light of the gospel of grace. This is what we will do. Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio. Info at No Compromise Radio or NoCo90 on the YouTube channel.

You can check us out there. 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.