Stop defending the Bible (Part 3)

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. My name is Michael Abendroth. I usually don�t say Michael Abendroth, I usually say Michael Lee Abendroth, or when I�m feeling rather erudite, M-L Abendroth. You can write me, Mike at NoCompromiseRadio .com.

We should have �Hey Spencer, we should have an M-L Abendroth at NoCompromiseRadio .com, or M-L-A, or something like that. My initials are M-A, so, you know, you have to fill out all the forms when you go to the doctors, it�s all the forms, the M-A.

I�ve been doing a short series on defending the Bible and evangelism. I think the last show, part two, �Stop Defending the Bible today�s part three, might get me in some trouble. I don�t know, I think, I don�t know, just wondering about it, kind of worried, not.

Hope by the time you hear this, you had a great Thanksgiving, tons of people over. I think NoCo is going to start selling some special super glue, so you can take masks and super glue them to your face, so at night when you sleep and when you�re in the shower and stuff like that, they just stay on.

That�d be a better way to go about it. Crazy world, but it is good to rest in the sovereignty of God. I�ve been talking about defending the Bible, and I don�t want you to defend the Bible, I want you just to proclaim it.

Giving People What They Do Not Want

The first reason is because we are to give people what they don�t want. We�ve been looking at 1 Corinthians 1, yes, you heard me correctly. We are to give people what they don�t want. They want signs, the Jews do.

They want wisdom, that�s the Greeks, but we give them a crucified Messiah. We know that it�s going to be a stumbling block to those Jewish people. They want a sign, we give them a stumbling block, and that�s what Jews want.

The Greeks, they want wisdom, philosophy, and we give them something that�s going to be folly. That�s the power of God, though, the way he works through this message of foolishness through foolish people.

Last time we talked a little bit about verse 20, where�s the one who is wise, where�s the scribe, where�s the debater of this age. If you bring three people that are professional experts and they sit behind the curtain and watch an execution, how will they report it, what will they say, what will be their take on it, right?

And then CNN or Fox News or somebody asks them, �Well, what do you think of that They�re all going to think it�s pretty bad. They�re not going to say, �Salvation. They�re not going to say, �This is wonderful.

This is the way people are reconciled to God. This is the pinnacle of Jesus� obedience. They�re not going to say that at all. Verse 21, �For since the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom, did not come to know God, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

This is not going to be a matter of those three professional folks, analyzing, talking, pontificating, using their intellect and using their rationale and using their minds to figure this out. It�s not going to work that way.

The foolishness of the message preached, you can�t come up with a philosophy and go, �Oh, I don�t really think an unbeliever, without the Spirit of God�s work, I don�t think they�re going to say, �Huh, makes sense to me.

I get that. Of course. This is obvious. Holy God, sinful man, Messiah, dies on a cross, substitute atonement, literal resurrection. No, it�s a foolish thing. So, do you try to convince people of the truth or do you just proclaim it?

You know ahead of time, this is how they�re going to respond. Verse 21, �For since the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom, did not come to know God. It�s not through their own machinations.

�God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. So, you preach that foolish message. And, of course, that message contains law and gospel. That�s certainly true.

Paul�s not saying, �Well, we just preach Christ crucified. The reason he�s crucified is because there�s a bunch of lawbreakers, right? They broke the law. We broke the law. He pays the penalty for lawbreakers by being crucified.

Nobody has ever gotten to heaven by saying, �Hmm, prophecy confirms this, carbon dating, intelligent design, archeological digs, confirmation, yes, Pilate was a real person. Those are good for Christians and I think they strengthen your faith, do they not?

This is not an illogical faith, right? It�s a supernatural faith above natural things, but it�s not inconsistent with, you know, it�s not like 1 plus 0 equals 1 ,000. I was almost going to say something wrong here.

Now, here�s what ends up happening. We end up preaching our personal experience. What�s easier, a Messiah crucified that you�re supposed to go proclaim or Jesus changed my life? Now, do I like it that your life�s changed?

Of course I do, if it�s changed for the better, right? Your status before God has changed, right? That�s called justification. He�s made you alive in Christ Jesus. That�s called regeneration. You�re a new creature in Christ Jesus.

You are given new affections and a new heart and a new mind and new eternity. I understand that. God does something for us, then he does something in us. I understand that, but I don�t know. I quit snorting coke on my own.

Now, I�m sure the Lord is behind all that in some way, even with working in my life before I was saved to get me up to that point of salvation, but my point is personal testimonies are a dime a dozen.

Mormons have them, unbelievers have them, Buddhists have them, everybody�s got a personal testimony. Well, a personal testimony is the one thing you can�t argue against. I know what you�re saying, but I�ll argue against it.

That�s not the point. I can�t argue against it because it�s subjective. If I were to ask you, should you give unbelievers doctrine or personal experience, I know almost all of you are going to know the right answer, but functionally, we do the change experience thing.

My personal testimony versus this historical fact of Jesus� life, death, resurrection, ascension, and of course, in the middle of that, the burial. If you say to yourself, my goal is to get converts, well, no wonder maybe you cut corners.

Take the easy way. If your goal is, want people to like you, well, I understand. What if your goal is, glorify God? Your goal is not even to get people saved? Well, that�s a wonderful byproduct, but that�s not my main goal.

The main goal in evangelism is the glory of God, doing what God tells you to do. And God tells you to give people what they don�t want. What they need is what you give them. For indeed, Jews ask for signs, and Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified to the Jews� stumbling block and to the Gentiles� foolishness.

Of course the Jews want signs, that�s all they want. More signs, more signs, more signs, more signs, more signs. They don�t need any more signs. They are without excuse. Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered Jesus, saying, Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you, Matthew 12.

But he answered them, Are you ready? That�s not what he said, are you ready? But are you ready? No, co-listeners. An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

What do Greeks want? If Jews want signs, and signs are never enough. Then, what do Greeks want? Greeks who had a great language. Greeks who had a wonderful culture and high-brow philosophy. What do you think they wanted?

I was told that there might have been 50 different philosophies, philosophical schools, and they just kept looking, kept looking, kept looking. You know, maybe one of the ways you could think about it today is, when you meet folks today and they�re religious, they would be like the Jews, and you meet folks today that are pagans, they�d be like the Greeks.

And so essentially, you�ve got people that are religious and non-religious. How do we market the cross? How do we adapt it? How do we change it and morph it and make it a little more soft in the corners of the rough edges there?

You don�t do that at all. What do you do? Verse 23, we preach Christ crucified. We know they�re not going to like it. The Jews are going to trip over it. It�s a scandal. It�s an offense. There are scriptures, Deuteronomy 21, �And if a man is committed a sin worthy of death, he is to be put to death, and you hang him on a tree.

His corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day. For he who is hanged is accursed of God, so that you do not defile your land, which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance.

Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. Paul knew that. Paul said in Galatians 3, �Having become a curse for us. That�s what Jesus did. Jesus Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. Jews didn�t like it.

They stumbled over it. Boy, you ever stub your toe? Just splits a throbbing pain that comes within a few moments in the blood. Your heartbeat starts to�you feel it in your toe. It hurts, doesn�t it? It�s a hurts donut.

Why do some things never�? We always remember. �Hey, you want a hurts donut Crazy. Paul knows the Jews will stumble. You can�t have the word �crucified� and �Messiah� without thinking this is all wrong.

And the Jews didn�t think it was right. Look at Acts 17. They�re like, �This is crazy. Somebody said, �The Jews said, �Show me. The Gentiles said, �Let me investigate. When they heard the resurrection of the dead, Acts 17, some mocked.

God, man. God, man. Atonement. We�re not going to argue this. We�re not going to debate this. I�m not going to dispute this or discuss this. I�m going to just proclaim it. And he could have said, �We preach Christ resurrected.

That might take some of the sting off of it. And it�s true. He was resurrected. He was resurrected. But he�s going for the most offensive part here. Because you have to deal with this issue. And as I said last show, it�s the sin-bearing issue.

What happened to Jesus, the sinless Lamb of God, is what should have happened to us. But in our place as a substitute, he took those. Think God acts this way? How does God act? Not like that, is what they would say.

Celsus in 178 AD told us how the Greeks thought about Christianity. Let no cultured person draw near, none wise and none sensible, for all that kind of thing we count evil. But if a man is ignorant, if a man is wanting in sense and culture, if anybody is a fool, let him become a Christian.

Hmm. I�m not going to talk about the cross, said the Jews and Gentiles, because to use our language today sounds like hate speech to me. You mean to tell me I deserve that? I deserve to have that happen to me, what happened to Jesus?

What do you mean, I�m a good person? Do you try to argue with people? Argue them into heaven? Oh, let�s just make it very practical. What do you say? We like practical things here on NOCO Radio, don�t we?

Question mark? You have a husband, and ladies, and your husband�s not a Christian. What do you do? Well, when you evangelize, you�re going to have to tell him the good news, right? But you�re not going to have to berate him, like he�s inferior because he doesn�t believe this.

You�re not going to have to manipulate him. You�re not going to have to be smarter than him. You�re not going to have to say, well, you know what, he�s in the position of leadership and I�m followers, so then what will I do?

How could I ever do this? You don�t have to give him guilt trips in terms of, you know, well, he didn�t come to church today, or whatever. Of course, you pray for your husband, and you win your husband without a word, 1 Peter chapter 3, obviously.

But when it comes to preaching, then you know what to talk about. You�re talking about the sin and the Savior, right? It�s okay. And you don�t have to win any argument, you don�t have to study fossil records and stuff like that.

Thankfully, there�s a positive response when God�s working to save. But to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Those who are being drawn are, of course, the called, the effectually called by the grace of God.

And you might say no to the preacher�s call, but you�re not going to say no to the Holy Spirit�s call. This word that goes forward, it�s wonderful, is it not? No wonder Paul goes on to say, �I decided to know nothing among you Corinthians, �except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

I don�t have to be a smooth talker, I don�t have to have lofty speech or wisdom, I just have a message. It�s a man with a message, or it�s a woman with a message. Well, my name�s Mike Abenroth, this is I Am, We All Are, No Compromise Radio.

Are we all No Compromise Radio? Looking outside, it�s starting to get dark. It is 410 p .m. on November 20th, Friday. Starting to get darker out. What do we do when it comes to preaching the gospel? First thing we do, stop defending it, just proclaim it.

And give them exactly what they don�t want. Secondly, I want you to proclaim the Bible because you can�t even convince yourself that the Bible�s true. The second reason why you should stop defending the Bible is that you can�t even prove the Bible to be true with anything less than the Bible.

If the Bible doesn�t prove to people that this is true, well, what else will? Your own logic, kind of creation, answers in Genesis, irreducible minimums. What about the miracles? I mean, we don�t need to prove the Bible to be true.

And if you remember Luke 16 with the rich man and Lazarus, remember what happened? I mean, if somebody comes back from the dead, does that convince you that the Bible�s true? No, no. The Bible convinces the truth.

There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man�s table.

Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham�s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.

�Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame. I mean, this rich guy still bossing people around even here.

Now here comes the issue here, and this is why I don�t defend the Bible. I simply proclaim the Bible because I can�t use anything less than the Bible to prove that the Bible is true. And here�s my text.

Abraham said, �Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things, and now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you is a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.

And he said, �I beg you, Father, to send him to my father�s house, for I have five brothers so that they may warn him lest they also come into this place of torment. Now here we go. How do we prove the Bible to be true?

What do we need? Do we need miracles and signs and wonders? Abraham said, �They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. I mean, that�s pretty amazing. They have the Bible, in other words. That's all they need.

No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent. But he said, �If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.

It's scripture is what they need. Not any amount of signs. Even the real Lazarus. Remember the real Lazarus? Jesus causes him to be raised from the dead, and what happens? This man performs many signs.

If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation. You can't even prove the Bible with miracles. You shouldn't try to attempt to do it by any other evidence.

So just proclaim the Bible. Just preach the Bible. It's the Word that exposes man. It's the Word that judges man. Don't let man try to judge the Bible. I mean, they'll try to, but that's why I'm going to get the sword out of its scabbard, the powerful Word of God.

Well, my name is Mike Ebendroth. This is No Compromise Radio. My friend just called me, and I just answered the phone and kept talking while I was on No Compromise Radio so he would have to listen a little bit.

You know, you think about the powerful Word of God. Remember the man named Luke Short. A tall tale of Luke Short. No, no. Just Luke Short. John Flavel was preaching in England on 1 Corinthians 16, verse 22, if anyone does not love the Lord, a curse be on him.

And he was talking to the people at the congregation in England in the 1600s that they should be trusting in the Lord Jesus. And there was a man there, 15 years old, young boy. Luke Short was his name.

Luke Short moves to the New World, to New England, and he is now 100 years old. It's 85 years later, and he's working on the fields throughout his life, and he sits down where he used to work and thought about his long life, and a sermon popped into his mind that he heard in Dartmouth, England as a boy.

And he did not want to die under the curse of sin because he knew death was soon and hell was forever. Robert Murray McShane tells about this American immigrant and how he remembered that sermon. The Spirit of God brings those verses to his mind.

And he believed in the Lord Jesus Christ 85 years later. The account reads, 85 years after hearing Flavel preach on the horror of dying under God's curse, the Spirit of God effectually converted him at the age of 100 as he meditated on that sermon.

Eighty-five years later, 1 Samuel 3, verse 19, a sermon, God let none of his words fall to the ground. Sitting on the field, thinking about the sermon popped into his mind. That's amazing. On his gravestone, the epitaph reads, he lies a babe in grace, age three years, who died according to nature, age 106.

So he lived three more years. And amazing story. It's just the Word, right? It's the Word that does its work. And we plant, we give some seeds, God brings in the harvest. Dear Christian, on No Compromise Radio, stop defending the Bible.

We're not supposed to. No, glorify God in the way you evangelize. And you don't have to have all kinds of evidences. You just say, well, I'm just going to talk about the crucified Savior who died for sinners.

And I'm not going to prove the Bible by anything less than the Bible, because even miracles won't prove anything. So I need to just stick to the Bible. You can write me, Mike, at NoCompromiseRadio .com, or if you want something from Spencer, you want a sticker or something, we still have a few of those left, Spencer, or info at 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.