Are you happy?

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 coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church. 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 remain with you. In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church.

Why People Think They Do Not Need Jesus

So that's what we want to do. So I don't want you to fall asleep. We�d hate that. No Compromise Radio, that you'd fall asleep. Well, it is still white outside with all the snow. In real time, this is January 3rd in noco time.

I believe this is February 14th. Happy Valentine's Day. I should have got something from my sweetheart a lot earlier. All right, what do we have? I'm still�the reason why I told you what day it was in real time is because I'm cleaning up my office, my study.

And my no compromise area is the worst in terms of mess. And so someone was in today showing me our new website and they said, boy, this area is the messy part because they saw I was cleaning. So I'm trying to clean this up and just like stacks of books and paper and stuff like that.

So kind of a potpourri show again today. If you don't like the first topic, you'll like the second topic or third or whatever it is. I remember I just did a show on intinction and I was reminded of intinction when I was in Manhattan with my wife.

We were just there for just two days and one night staying by Times Square. And she wanted to go to this special macaroon place. There's a place on Madison Avenue. I want to say it's just east of Central Park on about 71st street.

It's a French name deal. I don't know how to say it. And these macaroons are about $2 .50 each and they are flown in from Paris of all places. And when we walked down Madison Avenue, there wasn't a line at the Armani store.

There wasn't a line at the, I don't know what the watches are, special kind of watches, the Rolex stores, but there was a line for these macaroons. So anyway, I got the caramel salt something macaroon.

And so I think we bought like six, it was 25 bucks. And I only got one of them. I think my wife gave them to other macaroon advocates. But then walking back down south on Madison Avenue, there was an espresso shop there, a coffee shop.

And so we stopped in and I had a double espresso. And I'd say normally double espressos around $2 .50. You can travel the world and they're usually about the same. If you're in an airport, maybe three, $3 .50, something like that.

And if you're in Milan, you probably get them for a dollar, you know, a Euro rather. Maybe a double is for two or one Euro 80. But here any guesses on how expensive this Madison Avenue espresso shop was?

I got a Doppio Espresso Campana, a double espresso shot with a little bit of whipped cream. It was $6. That is by far the most money I've ever spent. But since I spent $25 on macaroons, I thought, well, I might as well sit in posh Madison Avenue and enjoy the silence.

Remember Depeche Mode song? Enjoy the silence. Words are very unnecessary. They can only do harm. Add synthesizer in your set. I like when Mike Horton quotes that song. So what am I talking about today?

Well, back to the intinction part. There was the barista that we had, or whatever the shop was called. And he was making the froth on my wife's cappuccino into some pretty flower. What is it like a maple leaf or something?

And so they have the artwork where they bring up the coffee into the froth, steamed milk froth, and then they make it a little design. Well, it's cool because if you're spending $6 for a cappuccino, you want it to be cool.

I think hers was $4 .50. So it was $10 .50 plus tip. Now I saw them work on another one where someone's anniversary, and he was dipping a small, like 10 gauge needle into some chocolate. And then he was writing cursively on top.

So anyway, I just thought this, you know what? The world has theological reference points. And in this particular case, it was intinction. Because intinction, they would have some of the wine put on top of the host.

And whether you're a PCA, Protestant, Episcopalian, Catholic, some of each of those do intinction. And so you could dip the host into the wine, or you can take a special consecrated spoon, an intinction spoon.

There's got to be a name for it. It's probably Latin, sissima verba probably. And then you can make the sign of a cross with the wine on the host. So probably a pre-made host that I remember from the Lutheran days.

And if you put it in your mouth, it sticks to the roof of your mouth. Remember those? Thin wafer. Anyway, so see here I am in Manhattan thinking of intinction. R .C. Sproul wrote an article called, Why Do I Need Jesus?

Now here's the thing about why do people need Jesus? I think we too often, and I'll say now you in preaching mode, if you're not careful, you can meet someone who has a bad marriage and then offer Jesus as the one to fix the marriage.

Now Jesus may or may not fix the marriage. He might make the marriage worse. Well, he may or may not save the person, but if he does, maybe the marriage gets worse. Maybe the marriage is fixed. Maybe God saves both of the people and the marriage is made whole, and now they're operating under Christian principles with the Spirit of God dwelling inside of them.

So he got a bad job. Here's Jesus. He'll fix it. You are lonely. You're depressed. Here's Jesus. He'll fix it. Now I think we probably, at least we who listen to WVNE 760, we probably say, and he forgives your sins too, but I would say if you are not careful with this kind of evangelism strategy, someday, if in fact it's not already happened, you will meet someone who has a really good life.

They have their health. They have money. They're faithful to their spouse. They like their spouse. They have a good marriage. You know, the kids are decent and they serve the community. They are in civil service.

They are in the military. And so what do you offer someone who really has it all? Some people seem to have it all. Now you could say, well, they're lonely on the inside or something like that. But R .C. Sproul's article, you could just Google it, Why Do I Need Jesus? is a nice little, short, concise article that addresses this to help us when we evangelize.

I'm happy with my life. Why do I need Jesus? I hear that a lot from a lot of folks. They say to me, I just don't feel the need for Christ. And if Christianity were something that were packaged and sold through Madison Avenue, what do you know?

See the confluence, the congruence today? That what we're trying to communicate to people is here's something that's going to make you feel good, and everybody needs a little of this in their closet or in the refrigerator, as if it were some commodity that's going to add a dash of happiness to our lives.

R .C. says, if the only reason a human being ever needed Jesus was to be happy and a person is already happy without Jesus, then they certainly don't need Jesus. The New Testament indicates, however, that there's another reason you or somebody else needs Jesus.

There's a God who is altogether holy, who is altogether perfect and just, and who declares that he is going to judge the world and hold every human being accountable for their life. As a perfectly holy and just God, he requires from each one of us a life of perfect obedience and of perfect justice.

I have to rip this page because I can't see this page too. If there is such a God, and if you have lived a life of perfect justice and obedience, that is, if you're perfect, then you certainly don't need Jesus.

You don't need a Savior because only unjust people have a problem. The problem is simply this. If God is just and requires perfection from me, and I come short of that perfection, and he is going to deal with me according to justice, then I am looking at future punishment at the hands of a holy God.

The only way I can escape punishment is through a Savior, and if I want to escape that, then I need a Savior. Some people will say that we're just trying to preach Jesus as a ticket out of hell, as a way of escape in eternal punishment.

That's not the only reason I would recommend Jesus to people, but that is one of the reasons. Final paragraph. I think that many people in today's culture don't really believe that God is going to hold them accountable for their lives, that God does not really require righteousness.

When we take that view, we don't feel the weight of the threat of judgment. If you're not afraid to deal with God's punishment, then be happy as a clam if you want. I would be living in terrible fear and trembling at the prospect of falling into the hands of a holy God.

R .C. Sproul. So today on No Compromise Radio, we're just talking about a variety of things, including Mr. Spurgeon's comments. His comments about Jesus Christ being the center of ministry. I wonder at your church, the church that you attend.

I know the church isn't a building, but with the people that you attend and you have a meeting, a worship service, who's the star? Who is the one talked about? Who is the one who is on the proverbial stage?

I hate the stage name. I just call it the platform. Spurgeon says, shall he, Jesus, not be also the center of our ministry? What should we preach about Christ? Take that subject away from me, and I have done.

I think it's supposed to be, and I am done. These many years have I preached nothing else but that dear name, and if that is to be dishonored, all my spiritual wealth is gone. I have no bread for the hungry, no water for the faint.

After all these years, my speech has become like a harp of Anevron, which would resound love alone. He wished to sing of Atreus and of Kadmon, but his harp resounded love alone. It is so with my ministry, with Christ and Christ alone am I at home.

Progressive theology, no spring of my soul will vibrate to its touch. New divinity, evolution, modern thought, my harp is silent to these strange fingers, but to Christ and Christ alone. It answers with all the music of which it is capable.

Beloved, is it so with you? Friends, if you're listening today, and you're a Sunday school teacher, and Spurgeon were to set in, wonder what he'd hear. Of course, we know that God hears. Don't you want to talk much of Christ?

Don't you want to be determined to know nothing among you, like Paul in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 2, except Jesus Christ, even him crucified, the crucified Savior? He is the one. And so, that's a great way to avoid moralistic deism, therapeutic moralistic deism.

What's the guy's name who said that? Christopher Smith? Is he the one that coined that? Let's see what else we have here in No Compromise Radio. Okay, there it is. I got all these things. How about something from John Bunyan?

I'm just trying to get rid of this list. Here it says, the initiative of God in saving sinful men. Let's talk about this for a moment. Is there someone in your life who you would like to see saved? Who you would like to see forgiven?

Who you would like to see adopted in the family of God, born again to become a Christian? Well, of course, we all have those people, and we have the privilege, yes, the duty of bringing the gospel of good news about Jesus Christ's life, death, resurrection, how he died for sinners, was raised from the dead.

We have a great privilege to tell people about who Christ is, and God saves through the means of preaching, doesn't he? Through the word, as we proclaim the word. You can look at Romans 10 about the preacher and good news and glad tidings that this preacher has, and gives a message about Christ Jesus, and God saves at his good pleasure and his goodwill through the preaching of the gospel whenever he wants to.

I mean, he only saves through the preaching of the gospel, but he saves according to his goodwill as the gospel is preached. Well, if you've got somebody who seems too hard for the gospel, too smart for the gospel, too smart for you to preach to, I think we've all run into those things before where you meet someone, and they're just so, so, so smart, and they have a fuselage of comments about Nietzsche and Foucault and Bertrand Russell, whoever they're studying, and they can talk about, well, what do we do with evil, and how do we approach these issues, and you don't really know what to do.

Maybe you've got an unbelieving spouse, you've tried, you've prayed, and you've cried. It is good to be reminded that salvation is an initiative of God, and God, when he starts something, he finishes it, and if God wants to save someone, is it someone too powerful for God, too wise for God, too smart for God?

John Bunyan said in his article, Saved by Grace, it is expected among men that he which giveth the offense should be first in seeking peace. Right? So, if I offend you, I should probably go to you first.

But sinner betwixt God and man, it is not so. So, isn't it interesting? God didn't offend man, but man has offended God. If you're an unbeliever today, you have offended God. If you're a Christian today, in the past, you had offended God, so you should have gone.

Right? It's your duty to go, except there's something called the fall, something called original sin, imputation of Adam's sin, consequently sin by nature. Not that we loved God, Bunyan said. Not that we chose God, but God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.

And there he quotes 2 Corinthians, I believe. God is the first that seeketh peace. So, he's the one. So, if you've got unbelievers, of course you preach the gospel of them. But no, when God decides to do something, he takes the initiative.

What sayest thou now, sinner? Is not this God rich in mercy? I mean, if God...man should go, but God goes. Don't you think then that shows God's rich mercy? Hath not this God great love for sinners? Doesn't that show the love of God because he initiates, he seeks, he saves, he's the author, he's the pioneer of salvation?

Nay, further, that thou mayest not have any ground to doubt that all this is but complimenting. Thou hast also here declared that God hath made his Christ to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, 2 Corinthians 5 .21.

If God would have struck at anything, he would have struck at the death of his son, but he delivered him up for us freely. How shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Romans 8 .32. But this is not all.

God doth not only beseech thee to be reconciled to him, but further, for thy encouragement he hath pronounced in thy hearing exceeding great and precious promises, and hath confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for a refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.

Hebrews 6 .18 -19, Isaiah 1 .18, Isaiah 55 verses 6 and 7, and Jeremiah 51 verse 5. John Bunyan, Saved by Grace, Works, Volume 1, page 350. Isn't that good? That is rich for the soul, and good to be reminded of that we should have gone to God since we offended him, yet he's rich in mercy, and yet he has great love for us.

Both coming right from Ephesians chapter 2, verse 4, and then verse 5. And now we understand when we say it's by grace that we've been saved, right? Nothing of ourselves, not even of our faith or anything else.

It's totally the gift of God. And so today on No Compromise Radio, it is clearing off the desk day. Clearing off the desk day. Now I think I quoted Spurgeon a little bit earlier, but I'm just going to quote him one more time because it's just, hey, it's cleanup day.

Spurgeon's sermon, Overwhelming Obligations. How did you serve Satan before you were converted, not sparing body or soul to enjoy the pleasures of sin? Oh, with what zest, with what fervor and force and vehemence did many of you dance to the tune of the devil's music?

I wish you would serve God half as well as some of the devil's servants serve him. What? Now you have a new friend, a new husband. Shall he ever look you in the face and say, you do not love me so well as you did love the world.

You were never weary of serving the world, but you soon get weary of serving me. Spurgeon says, oh, my poor heart, wake up, wake up. What are you doing to have served sin at such a rate and then to serve Christ so little?

Dear friends, how do you think such service as you have rendered will look when you come to see it by the light of eternity? Oh, nothing of life will be worth having lived when we come to die, except that part of which was devoted and consecrated to Christ.

Live then with your deathbeds in immediate prospect. Live in the light of the next world so that your pulse will be quickened and your heart excited in the master's service. Spurgeon, overwhelming obligations.

I know that's true for me. I know it's true that before I was saved, it was service of Satan. You know, people say, what's the rock band Kiss stand for? Kids in service of Satan. I don't know if that's true or not.

Sadly, that was my first concert in 1976. Why would my mother ever let me go to the Omaha Civic Auditorium to see Uriah Heep open up for Kiss? I don't know what she was thinking. I had no idea. See what's happened?

But I do know for 29 years, it was pretty much an all-out assault, how to live for self. Oh, I think there were a few years tempered with God using His word to stop me from certain sins as an unregenerate person, and I'm thankful for that.

But once you get saved, then what? Then you just say, well, I've got some hell insurance, and so now I can go on my merry way because I've accepted Jesus in my heart. See, after all He's done for you?

That reminds me of the story when my grandfather pulls my grandmother out of the car that's crashed on the bridge, and the train's coming. I don't know how it all happened. The story probably gets more fantastic as the years go on.

When he looked down after rescuing her, his foot was barely on. It was basically almost cut off, and so I always wondered why grandpa never could walk very far because they sewed the foot back on. It was always a weird kind of color and grayish, and it didn't have good circulation.

Eventually, he had to amputate the foot. Well, what if you would have been rescued out of the car and at his own peril, at his own cost? An elderly gentleman rescued you, and he saved you. Wouldn't you want to respond with whatever he needs?

And what if you'd find him in the rest home years later, and he had no money, or he was homeless and didn't have a meal? Would you serve him a meal? Would you give him a meal? So, I think the point is clear.

We've been saved from a lot greater problem than we're in a car wreck on a bridge by a train. We have sinned against holy God, and we have done it with a high hand, and yet God, because he's rich in mercy and because he has great love, has sent his son, demonstrated it quite conspicuously, his great love as Jesus died for sinful people like us, was raised from the dead.

And so since God has saved you, then you should respond with love and duty and gratitude and thanks and all-out service. Because now you actually can, right? Because the Spirit of God dwells in you, and you're able to do these things by the grace of God working through you, to be strengthened by grace.

So, if you are the kind of person who's listening today, and you have lowest common denominator Christianity, I don't want to go to hell, so I'll give Jesus a little bit of my time. And that's it. Then I want to try to shake you from such a stupor.

If you go to church on Sunday, and that's all you do. Sadly, I know people like that. They come to this church. They go to a lot of different churches. They go on Sunday. That's it. Rarely read the Bible, rarely serve, rarely think about how they could minister to the folks that Christ has purchased, and it's just Sunday only Christianity.

I don't think you served yourself and served the world with such a lackadaisical attitude. And so, the good news is what? That God loves repentance. And so, today would be a good day to repent of that very thing.

My name is Mike Avendroth. This is No Compromise Radio. Just tried to clear off a few things off the desk today. I didn't get it all done, but that's okay. That's why we have other shows for 24 and a half minutes.

That's why we can talk about intinction, and lattes, and espressos. You can write me at info at nocompromiseradio .com. That would be good. And you can also write Steve at Tuesdayguy at nocompromiseradio .com.

If you'd like to go, I think by now the new website's up for the church, bbcchurch .org, if you'd like to go there. And interestingly now, when you go to the home site without even asking, it starts playing the latest sermon from Sunday morning at Bethlehem Bible Church.

It's kind of scary. I clicked on it the other day. I go, that's me. You know what it makes me want to do? It makes me want to have better introductions to my sermons. So Patrick Sliman, if you're listening, see?

It makes me want to have better introductions. What else do we have here going on? I don't think there's really anything else. We'll talk a little bit about S. Lewis Johnson and a book project that's coming up.

And to get some of S. Lewis Johnson's material in your hands, you need to go to SLJ Institute and pull up some of his notes. And I would recommend that you start with eight most important truths, the eight most essential important truths of Christianity.

And it's an eight-part series that you'll like from S. Lewis Johnson. 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 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.