Tuesday Musings (2020)

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 to the Show After Surgery, Loss, and Christmas

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. Pastor Steve, let�s just get right to it. Good to see you today. Oh, thanks. Good to see you too. It has been a long time since you�ve been on the show. It�s been a long time since I�ve been on the show.

It�s a little too loud for you? All right. Long time. Lots of things have happened, but we�re back in the NoCo Tuesday Guy Saddle again. Man, it has been a while. When was the last time we did a show?

Maybe a month ago between my surgery and your wife�s surgery and all that stuff. Wow. A lot has happened.

You want to share about anything or no? Well, I mean, it�s been two months since her, two months and half a week, I guess, since her surgery.

Well, after that, I basically just let you alone and let you just kind of tend to your wife and then I had my own surgery and so I think that�s, I think that�s, and Christmas too. Oh, yeah.

It was a great Christmas. It was a great Christmas. This has like been the, it was the most wonderful time of the year this year. I mean, we did like nothing. You know, when your wife�s recovering from lung cancer surgery and your dog dies and you know.

That is a country music song of all time.

It was, it was like, if there�s a Christmas I could like circle and draw an X through, this would be the one.

You had three dogs, right? All kind of coffee stuff, Starbucks, Kona Latte, was that correct? And we�re down to none now. Down to none. And I think when my dog dies, Jetty�s almost 15, we only have the one, I�m not really wanting another dog.

And I think my wife wants another one. I think it�s flipped on your side, right? You want another dog, your wife doesn�t?

Yeah. Yeah. And, and you know, Latte was, he was 16 and you know, we sent him in to get his teeth clean and thought he was going to come home and he wound up not coming home. She said, he�s got cancer, you know, do you want me to bring him out so you can say goodbye to him?

And we�re like.

Ouch. Huh. Well, on that note, but your wife is recovering well. They think they got all the cancer out. Yep. As far as we know. Yeah. All right. Good. Well, my knee surgery, the ACL replacement and meniscus root repair is nothing compared to that.

So while my knee is killing me, I ought not to complain.

Isn�t that a funny thing that we say, my knee is killing me? Well, it�s not really. Okay.

Can we just say. Well, since I got a blood clot, it could have killed me. Yeah. It could have. It�s killing me. Well, for me, it was, and of course, there�s a lot of people listening who have all kinds of debilitating diseases and pains and everything.

It just doesn�t end the knee pain. It was just like this constant annoyance. You know, if I could just move a certain way and then have no pain, then I could have kind of like a mental break. Does that make sense?

Yes, it does. All right. I mean, you�re talking to a guy who has chronic knee pain as well. So I get it.

All right. All right. Anything else going on here with the NoCo listeners? Do we have a lot of special things lined up for this year?

Well, we have our annual NoCo conference, you know, where thousands gather. Hey, yeah.

G3 Summit Observations and the Missing Woke Crowd

Let�s just, okay. This is kind of random. We�ll call it a rando or something. How about G3? What were your thoughts of G3, pro, con? I know a lot of people, probably the best thing about G3 would be the best thing about the Shepard�s Conference, at least to many people, and that is Christian fellowship and camaraderie and one another�s.

You think?

Yeah. There was a lot of that. I mean, I�ve never been to a G3. I think it�d be, you know, kind of interesting to go to one. I�m always hesitant just because of the time of year, you know, when they�re like, �Hey, it�s your chance to register for G3 and I�m going, �Okay, January.

Steve, it�s interesting when you follow on social media some of the folks who go to G3 and then how many flights are canceled and all that stuff, it�s just that time of year.

Yeah. And when you live in the Northeast where you�re like,. �Okay, there�s pretty much about in January, there�s probably about a 70 chance of delay or cancellation. It�s just not my favorite time of year to even think about traveling.

If I need to, fine, but, you know. Yeah.

I had the surgery a couple of weeks ago and then two days after the surgery, I think it was 60 here. I just thought, �Oh, maybe I should have had it the week after when it was five below or something.

Roll the dice. But, you know, getting back to G3, I mean, I�ve never been I really didn�t pay that much attention, except for via social media this year, some of the things that were said about people I know, which was very, very interesting.

I mean, there was a whole kind of movement against Grace Fellowship Church in Quad Cities, Iowa, and Mike Reed and some of that stuff, you know, and so all over Facebook, you know, which was good. I mean, I was happy about that, but, you know, the only one I really watched was the Paul Washer message.

And so before we get to that particular message, I probably watched, I don�t know, maybe three or four messages. And I mean, I�m just thinking about I never met Josh. Is it Josh Buice? Buice? I don�t know.

Josh Buice, maybe. Is it? Yeah. And I mean, what a wonderful thing that is. All of a sudden, you just, you know, you�re probably like a small church like ours, and you decide to have a conference, and all of a sudden 5 ,000 people show up.

How does that work?

Good for those guys. Are there any small churches in Atlanta? Well, yeah. Well, that�s true.

That�s true. I think on the positive side, I noticed that there were a lot of missing people there this year, right? Anybody that seemed to be associated with Social Justice Warrior, Woke Stuff, White Privilege Talk, it seemed like a lot of that kind of Dever, Aiken, Duncan, I think that crowd was out.

Is that fair to say? I think that�s very fair to say, yeah. But then in, we have the theonomous Federal Vision, you know, Durbin, Doug Wilson, I guess James White is friends with those guys, there�s all that kind of stuff.

Is that right?

Very, which I find interesting, too. I don�t really understand the whole attraction of all that stuff.

I think it�s because we�ve got the Founders Video, right? The founders of the Southern Baptist Convention, they put the video out. I think it�s produced and or directed something. There�s some connection.

By Idaho. Yeah. And so, I think that�s where we have that. And I�ve noticed the revved up Federal Vision debate that goes on. Clark talks about it a lot.

I just see a lot of, you know, stuff from Doug Wilson. And I will say, you know, I think intellectually, very smart guy, a lot of firepower there. But wisdom, you know, wisdom, wisdom, you know, like you can be a lot more wise than you are intelligent, right?

In other words, you can have kind of a spiritual restraint or constraint to you, you know, and not be all that smart. But you can also be smart and be a real fool. And I think he kind of leans into that category.

Sola Fide, Federal Vision, and the Danger of Muddying the Gospel

I think, Steve, over the years, we�ve kind of had that little paradigm where, or that little litmus test, rather. And that litmus test is, would you have so-and-so come speak at your church or do a conference, right?

So there are some of these folks that when people want to read them are, you know, the authors are witty and clever, or they speak against some of the things we want spoken against. But then would we have them come and preach from the pulpit and or do a conference?

I think that�s really, to me, the litmus test. And of course, I wouldn�t have Doug Wilson, I wouldn�t promote a Doug Wilson book. I wouldn�t have him come, that whole thing.

He could direct cars in our parking lot, you know, where to park and stuff.

Well, Steve, with Sola Fide, especially, you think about federal vision, new perspectives on Paul, initial justification, final justification, there�s a lot of these things that kind of follow the same orbit.

But with Sola Fide, when you�re not clear, I really have a problem. So it�s such a clear doctrine. It�s wonderful, it�s magnificent, but it�s easy, right? You have faith alone, knowledge, assent, and trust in this representative Savior, truly God, truly man, lives the life, dies the death, raised from the dead.

You trust in him, no works, nothing else contributed. You can say it simply, 15 seconds, and once you start adding, well, how many works do you have to have, and what about this, and you�re in by covenantal agreement, but you stand by law, covenant, gnomism, I�m done.

Yep, don�t muddy the gospel, do not do it. And, you know, there are other reasons why I wouldn�t want Doug Wilson on our pulpit. I have no idea what he might say, right? I mean, I read, listen, it�s one thing, if I can�t trust what you write, right, if you�re going to put things that I would never say aloud, or even if I thought them, I would repent, right?

If you�re going to put those kind of things in writing, boy, I don�t want you in the pulpit, you know, no way.

Reminds me of when blogs first started, right? You didn�t need editors, you didn�t need publishers, you didn�t need anything else, it�s like you just throw it out, I know. You listen to The Washer Thing, and, oh, I think probably the one I like the best is I was listening to Steve Lawson talk about Romans 11, 33 through 36, about the exaltation of God in His glory and sovereign forgiveness.

I thought that was good. Trevor Burrus. He does pretty good work in Romans. Peter T. Leeson. Yeah. The Washer One, I got in a little trouble with in social media because I was critical of Paul, and somebody said, �Well, you don�t think he�s your brother

I said, �He�s obviously my brother. It has nothing to do with that, but I think there�s this level of celebrityism out there that you can�t say anything with constructive criticism and or rebuke or to try to come alongside because I�ve tried the personal come alongside thing.

That didn�t work, but I think if I preach a sermon, it�s fair game for people to critique me.

Trevor Burrus I have to agree with that. There is a way of exhorting or encouraging people and kind of like, you know what, we all fall down and we all get up and, you know, we just need to kind of do better and here�s Paul doing, you know, helping us to kind of pick ourselves up once we failed and think rightly.

And then there�s like, �You people are losers

Peter T. Leeson. Well, as I consider the attraction of legal preaching article by Clark, he�s got something in there about don�t preach in such a way where you act like the people disappoint you or something like that.

So, I�ve kind of coined that myself and it�s so true. I mean, because who are we? We�re part of those people. I mean, you look out when you preach. You preached for me a couple weeks ago. I preached last Sunday.

We look out and we see people that struggle with cancer, brain cancer, lung cancer, their kids are up all night sick with, you know, a diarrhea and all these other things. We are a weak bunch. And of course, I think we should preach to a lot of people and this is what God expects.

But you have to make sure you�ve got the right mixture and that is law, not mixing with gospel, but mixture in the sermon that is law and giving people good news and encouragement that even though they�ve fallen short, here�s the Lord Jesus and when we talk about Him, He doesn�t fall short.

He doesn�t handle trials wrongly. I would love to hear Paul Washer preach a sermon on Zephaniah 3 .17, �Yahweh your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save you. He will rejoice over you with gladness.

He will quiet you by His love. He will exalt over you with loud singing. It�d be good because I just want people to be happy and encouraging. And if you�ve got 5 ,000 people, I mean, all right, let�s do it this way, Steve.

You get asked next year to speak at G3. That would be very nice. You probably get like a five grand honorarium or something.

I doubt that. But actually, they�d probably be like, okay, how do we get back within budget? What about Steve Koolidge?

You could probably get him for free. But this is a fair question though. If you get asked next year, it�s just hypothetical, what kind of message would you preach?

See, I love questions like that. Well, I mean, I guess it depends on the theme, right?

Right. Well, you know, you want to be under their authority and all that stuff. Yeah.

Yeah. I�ll have to pick something that fits within the theme, but I definitely am not going after, you know, you people. You just can�t even preach anything.

You don�t even understand Sola Fide. Well, even if the topic was whatever, right, fill in the blank, whatever theological topic, you still could figure out a way to talk about the Lord Jesus, couldn�t you?

Yes. Because if it�s on the Holy Spirit, how the Holy Spirit attends the Lord Jesus or, you know, in his ministry, I just think part of, and this is if you�re listening today and you�re not a celebrity speaker, but you�re just a dad teaching your children, I think you ought to try to encourage them.

There�s a reason why dads ought to encourage. There�s a reason why when you give people good news, gospel, Jesus did it, people should be encouraged.

Well, every once in a while, you just have to give them a total whack sermon. You know, I remember the goal when they leave church, sometimes, you know, like, let�s say, I don�t know, maybe once a month, is everybody should leave absolutely silently.

There should be no fellowship afterwards, and you shouldn�t even have to open the doors. They should just go right under the door, right out.

Now, I wouldn�t suggest this, but I could get it, I guess, conceptually. If the whole sermon is pretty much whacking with law and discouraging people, showing them where they fall short, and then you close in prayer, and then you transition to the Lord�s Supper, and then you say, �By the way, you�re still able to come, because here�s who Jesus is, and this is what�s done outside of you in salvation.

I mean, that�s as close as I could get.

Their foot shall slip in due time.

You even try to do the Max thing. So, anyway, I know people love Paul Washer. I know people, you know, somebody said to me, �He�s been used by the Lord to convert thousands and millions of people and all these things.

Okay, well, I don�t really know about any of that. I just know that me personally, since I was a scolder for all too long, I can see it in other people, and I just think there�s a different way to go about it, and that is, my appeal to Paul would be just even half, half scolding and half encouraging.

That would be a good directional change. Pete. Well, what�s the goal of all preaching? You know, why do we preach?

We want to see transformation in people, right? And do we do that by whacking them? Well, maybe a little bit, but mostly it�s by reminding them of who their Savior is. If we say, essentially, we are great sinners and we have a greater Savior, well, that�s good news.

If we say, you are the worst of all sinners, and I just can�t say that enough, let me. You think you understand this whole scripture? You don�t understand anything.

Peter. Well, it�s this whole �enough� preaching, right? Have you prayed enough? Have you studied enough? Have you evangelized enough? Have you gone to enough conferences? Have you memorized the Bible enough?

Have you had your quiet time enough? Have you done your coloring journal enough? Enough, enough, enough, enough? And the answer is, of course, no, but don�t we then give them the relief when Jesus says to the Father, �I always do the things that are pleasing to the Father.

And the Father says, �This is my beloved Son in whom I�m well pleased. I just was listening to Matthew 8 yesterday on the way to a hospital in Boston. By the way, I saw a big poster, a huge poster, like a five-foot by six-foot poster on what to do if you hear Islamophobic talk on the streets of Boston, and it gave you like four little cartoon things with people with head coverings and other things, and what to do.

Petey Yeah, what do you do? Call 1 -800-ISLAMOPHOBIA? Joel. Actually, I think something about it, engage in conversation, deflect, distract, or something like that. I don�t think you can call and get people arrested because you still have free speech.

Of course, you don�t want anybody harmed. Joel. Well, that�s true, yeah. But I was listening. How about this? �When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him, and behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, �Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.

And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, �I will be clean. It�s just such a great passage. That leper knew, you know what? I know he�s got the power. I just don�t know if it�s in his sovereign will.

Here comes the compassionate Savior, and he sovereignly, wonderfully heals the guy. And I thought, �I could just ponder this for hours, this leprous guy kind of gargling with the words because his throat, his voice box is all messed up, �The way you saved me, the way you healed me.

It�s just a great passage.

Pete You know, I think I have a new thing I�d like to apply to instead of law preaching. Joel Law preaching. Pete Yeah. What if we just say that, essentially, all those other sermons are, �You foolish Galatian people.

It�s always looking to add, you know, just pile burdens on people, just stack them up.

Joel. Well, just remember, if you�re preaching, dear Christian, you want to make sure you don�t just tell people about their sins and what God expects of them. You want to make sure you talk about who Jesus is.

Is that not 1 Corinthians 2 .2, Colossians 1 .28, 1 Corinthians 15. 3 -4. Regularly, I say to myself, �Steve, if Jesus.

Pete. You say to yourself, �Steve right?

Joel I say to myself, �Steve regularly I say to myself, �If I want to emulate a preacher, I probably should emulate the Lord Jesus, right? Is he the Prince of Preachers? Pete That would be the way to go.

Joel That would be a good book. Pete Yeah. Joel I should have written that now instead of then when I didn�t know what I was doing.

Pete But see, he was always whacking the Pharisees. Joel Yeah. Pete Yeah.

That�s true. But this is also true, �A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench. Where�s that kind of preaching? To the Christian people. I think probably what�s happened, Steve, in my mind, we come out of a background where there�s a bunch of unbelievers mixed in with the church, and you�ve got to drive them to the cross or drive them out the door, right?

Okay. Well, it�s true. But even Lord Jesus, when he�s talking about it, I think that�s is that like the angel�s job at the very end of time to separate the sheep from the goats?

Pete. Well, and the truth is, you know, unbelievers, let�s say, you know, week after week, I could hear somebody complaining, �Mike, you talk about Jesus so much, but you don�t talk enough about hell.

You don�t talk enough about, you know, damnation. You don�t talk enough about, you know, you better repent. I mean, why don�t we just have, like, weeks on end about repent, repent, repent, repent, repent, repent, repent?

And I�m like, well, okay. Or you can give people the gospel, and if they�re sitting there unbelieving and they come week after week after week after week, maybe, I don�t know, call me old-fashioned, but the Holy Spirit can use that to save people.

Pete. Are we not Calvinists, right? Do we not believe in the sovereignty of God, where if I�m preaching about the object of everyone�s faith, at least should be the object of their faith, can I trust that these unbelievers, when they hear law and then they hear gospel, that when the Holy Spirit is pleased to convict and to quicken, that He won�t do that through the Word?

I mean, He will do that.

I don�t have to do any of that. Pete. But if you don�t berate people and abuse them and yell at them and, you know, tell them how scummy they are, then nobody will come forward at the end of the service.

Paul. Now, here�s a bigger question, Steve. Why do Christians love law sermons so much? Steve. That�s really what I think is going on, if I ever criticize Paul Washer, that they love sermons like that, and when they go back and listen, yeah, they go back and listen, and they say, �You know what?

Yeah, there wasn�t much about Jesus, and even when he talked about Him, He seemed pretty Pete Mad. Steve. Pretty mad. Yeah. Let�s just be honest about it. There�s that tincture that Thomas Boston talked about with the gospel flavor, the dye of the gospel, and Ferguson highlights that in his book, The Little Christ.

I know probably people think I�m getting soft or something or antinomian or something, but there�s just a different way to go about it.

Pete. Well, and, you know, who is it that works out our sanctification of the Holy Spirit through the Word and everything, but, you know, the question is, how many law sermons do we need in light of, or if we�re already saved, do we need to hear the law repeatedly?

I don�t know, you know, but I know we need to hear the gospel all the time because we need to just think,. �It�s true. I am a sinner, and Jesus Christ is a great Savior, and, you know, I need to trust in Him more and me less, right?

But just telling me what a loser I am is not going to really push me one way or the other. Actually, what it does, I think, for a lot of people, is just discourage them. You know, you�re right. I have no business preaching.

I have no business telling anybody about Jesus. I�m just going to sit down and shut up.

And, of course, I think we should preach law all the time, but with the right proportion and with gospel in the message, too. Steve, when you said it just discourages people, we, I think, both agree that if it�s law predominant and law only sermons given to Christian congregations, you�ve got two options.

Despair slash discouragement or self-righteousness. I know which one I tend toward. I tend toward thinking I actually can do these things, lessening, actually, the severity of the law and the integrity of the law, because I think I can do it kind of in a Roman Catholic way that if I�m sincere enough in my half-hearted obedience, it�s okay.

Well, I�d like to have a nickel for every time I�ve heard a law sermon and somebody say to me, you know, I think so-and-so needs to hear this, right? I know somebody that this would really work on, and I�m like, okay.

Because you�re right. A lot of times we hear those things, and we just think, yeah, I�m okay. I check enough of these boxes, but so-and-so, boy, this person, this guy. Especially my spouse. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Oh, I wish my wife was here today. Yeah. Well, last week in Hebrews 11, 16, and I�m going to talk a little bit more about it tomorrow, he�s not ashamed to be called our God. These people were struggling.

The recipients of this letter were not doing everything great all the time, and he still wasn�t ashamed. Which is amazing. I mean� I�m embarrassed by myself. God�s not embarrassed to be called my God?

Yeah. Just as I�m, you know, even reading through the Old Testament, I�m like, there were a lot of times when, you know, God would have had every reason to say, you know what? I�m pretty ashamed to be the God of these people.

That�s enough.

All right. Mike Cavendroth here. Steve Cooley. Steve, glad to have you back in the studio. 2020. First show is 2020. Woo-hoo! I know. You can write us info at nocompromiseradio .com or at pastorsteve at winamillion .org.

Yes.

That�s� 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.