Classic Summer 2020: Top Ten Books The Sovereignty of God

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.

The Book That Changed My World

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, my name is Mike Abendroth. And today we're gonna do part two, trying to promote a doctrine of God in a book. And that book, of course, is the Bible, but Sovereignty of God by A .W. Pink is a book that changed my world.

And last time we just were talking about, I don't know, a variety of things. I think it's time for jazz though, don't you? It's kind of good background music. We could replace ska with some, I don't know, Ken Burns jazz or something.

If we want to spice it up a little bit, we can always do that too. Now see, now, this is what we should be doing. Sovereignty of God by A .W. Pink. I think if we had a station like this in Worcester, I would listen to it.

But I wouldn't listen to it in the days that I preferred punk rock. So today at No Compromised Radio, it is iPhone 4S day. Oh, that's funny. My kids always bust my chops because I sit in here in my study in my studio.

There's not another soul in this church building. And here I am laughing, but I'm thinking about you. I'm visualizing the person in the car. You know, if they did an analysis of No Compromised Radio, I wonder what the analysis would be in terms of typical listener, you know, 24 year old male, blue collar, truck driver.

I don't know. What would be our demographic? That would be the good question. Although it probably cost me $60 ,000 to figure that out. And so at No Compromised, we have a budget because you have to have a budget, but our costs are pretty much fixed.

There are no extra costs except if some equipment breaks down or something like that. But we're pretty lean around here. I don't know if we're as lean as we possibly could be, but I think we probably are.

So what's the demographic? Oh, I did get some information the other day about downloads and how many people download the show a day because lots of people listen. We've got a good exposure. We've gotten good exposure through Wretched Radio, et cetera.

And so I think the other day Josh said that about 900 people, I think it was exactly 906 or something, download the show every day and listen. So, you know what? I guess I keep going. If we can minister to the people, maybe minister to the gift of laugh.

If we can minister in that way and 900 people want to listen a day, plus the people here in Worcester. WVNE isn't a large station, but it's the Christian station here in Central Mass. And so we will just keep going.

That's what we'll do. When we run out of topics, then we'll quit. Actually, when we run out of topics, we'll just start over again. So today on No Compromise Radio, we are talking about the sovereignty of God by A .W. Pink.

If you type in sovereignty of God, A .W. Pink, I think you can get the whole book online. And I would encourage you to get the book that's not revised, the unabridged version. The appendices are better.

The book is better. You don't want to get anything abridged. I guess if you're a college student and you don't want to read Bojest and you want to get the Cliff Notes or something, that's one thing. But here with theology, we don't want abridged version.

God has given us a panoply, a veritable panoply, as John Gershwin would say, of information. And he has not condensed it. I'm sure he could give us a lot bigger book, but we have lots of information, lots of different styles of literature, lots of different kinds of writing through, lots of different styles of writing of men.

And we have a lot to learn. And what Pink does is he focuses in on the sovereignty of God, one of my favorite doctrines. You asked me if I've had a second blessing. The answer is yes, when God opened my eyes to the sovereignty of God.

And one of the big ways he used it was through this book. And here's why I can extol this book to such a high degree, because the book is about scripture and scripture is about God and from God. And so if it's just A .W. Pink, philosophically pontificating, then I really can't be bothered.

The other day, somebody said, oh, you've got to read this Nietzsche book and it's really incredible. And I start reading it and I want to be able to say to people, I've read Nietzsche, but I just can't make it.

I can't make it through. I have other things to read. So here we have a chapter called the sovereignty of God and the present day. And it says, throughout Christendom, this is written in 1928, with an almost negligible exception, the theory is held that man determines his fortunes and decides his destiny by his own free will.

That Satan is to be blamed for much of the evil, which is in the world, is freely affirmed by those who, though having much to say about the responsibility of man, often deny their own responsibility by attributing to the devil what in fact proceeds from their own evil hearts.

Mark 7, 21 to 23. Now that right there, you could just have to stop. That's a Selah moment. We're not really sure what Selah means in the Psalms. Dwight Pentecost always taught it that that was a stop and let that sink in moment.

So if he's right, you can study Peter Craigie and the word commentary on the Psalms to get a different idea what Selah could possibly mean, but it means something. And so if in fact it means stop and let that sink in, everybody's talking about man's responsibility, yet they don't own up to it when they're always blaming Satan.

Who is regulating affairs on this earth today? Now see, if it's God, then you can tuck yourself under his wing and it will help you with your trust in him. As you look at the world and look how chaotically it is going, if you think Satan is the ultimate ruler, then there's cause for worry, there's cause for panic, there's cause for alarm.

But if God's sovereign over Satan even, and Martin Luther would say that Satan is God's hardest working servant, never sleeps, never slumbers, always doing the will of God, that gives comfort. Attempt to take a serious and comprehensive view of the world.

What a scene of confusion and chaos confronts us on every side. Sin is rampant, lawlessness abounds, evil men and seducers are waxing worse and worse, 2 Timothy 3 .13. Today, everything appears to be out of joint.

Isn't that amazing? I have a little note here, I read this a while ago, Stock Market, 2008. Thrones are creaking and tottering, ancient dynasties are being overturned. Nations are in revolt, civilization is a demonstrated failure.

Half of Christendom was but recently locked together in a death grapple. And now that the titanic conflict is over, by the way, you should read this book even if you don't believe in the sovereignty of God, just for his writing skills.

And then you'll get converted too. Instead of the world having been made safe for democracy, we have discovered that democracy is very unsafe for the world. Unrest, discontent and lawlessness are rife everywhere.

And none can say how soon another great war will be set in motion. Statesmen are perplexed and staggered. Men's hearts are failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth, Luke 21.

But these things look as though, do these things look as though God had full control? So Jesus Christ is Lord, he is King. He regulates affairs today and we can trust in him. And we want to walk, Pink says, by faith, not by sight.

That's what this book will help you do. God is regulating affairs today and we see that in scriptures. And we don't see it maybe in the world, but in fact, it is true because God, Pink would say, is God by name and not just by, you know, he's God by fact, not just by name.

And here it says, one of my favorite lines in all of his books, from every pulpit in the land, it needs to be thundered forth that God still lives, that God still observes, that God still reigns. Here's what Pink said on page 17.

Apply this principle to the present situation. Begin with the world as it is today and try to work back to God. And everything will seem to show that God has no connection with the world at all. But begin with God and work down to the world and light, much light is cast on the problem.

So today we're looking at, on No Compromise Radio, the book by Arthur Pink called The Sovereignty of God. You need to get this book. You owe it to yourself. Or if you want to be sly, buy it for your friend or your spouse or your pastor or somebody else and then when they're done with it, you can read it as well.

God is not alarmed. God is not afraid. God is not fearful. And Pink makes that very clear. Well, he defines the sovereignty of God in the next chapter. And he said that used to be generally understood by most people.

But he said these days, that is not the case. The sovereignty of God, what do we mean by this expression? We mean the supremacy of God, the kingship of God, the godhood of God. To say that God is sovereign is to declare that God is God.

None can stay his hand or say unto him, what hast thou done? Daniel chapter four, verse five. None can defeat his counsels, thwart his purposes or resist his will. Psalm 115, verse three. The governor among the nations, he's called.

Psalm 22, 28. How different is the God of the Bible from the God of modern Christendom? That is very true. The conception of deity, which prevails most widely today, even among those who profess to give heed to the scriptures is a miserable caricature, a pathetic travesty of the truth.

See, you thought I was tough in No Compromise Radio. You thought I was blunt. You just listened to Arthur Pink for a while. And then you realize what real ornery is. That's not bad coffee, but I've had better.

What does it say here? The God of the popular mind is the creature of maudlin sentimentality. I call that the Mother's Day God. The God of many, a present-day pulpit is an object of pity rather than awe-inspiring reverence.

And from the Arminian view of God to the open theism view of God, to Brian McLaren's view of God, to Robert Bell's view of God, this is, their God is a different God than the Bible. You have in the Bible, Pink would say, a Father that's never disappointed, the Son is never dissatisfied, and the Spirit is never defeated.

How about that for the triune God? One in essence. The Father, when it comes to salvation and every other thing, He's never disappointed because every elect person will come. The Son is not ever dissatisfied.

If He dies for someone, they will go to heaven. And the Spirit of God is never defeated. You do not have the will of man that can compromise and overtake and defeat the will of God, the Holy Spirit. There is some kind of grace called, in theologians' talk, irresistible grace, which is better theologically named, effectual calling, effectual grace.

God, Pink says, is not trying to do His best, trying to save all mankind. No, because mankind's not all going to get saved and God is sovereign. So God's sovereignty even shows you that the elect are the people who are going to be saved.

And Pink says, you know what? God is not accountable to give any reason for what He does. He's under no obligation to give His account, to give an account of His matters to any, page 22. And so God is a great God.

And if you'd like to have a book that makes you think grand thoughts about the transcendent nature of God, this is a good book. Sovereignty of God in Creation is another one of His chapters. And I like this chapter because it initially made me really think through a lot of why questions.

Sovereignty in Creation

So think about the heavens and the skies. Pink says, but why should they? Why should the sun be more glorious in magnitude than the others? Why such an amazing inequality? Why should there be shooting stars, falling stars, wandering stars?

The only possible answer is for thy pleasure. They are and were created, Revelation chapter four. Why should two thirds of the surface be covered in water? And why should its remaining third be unfit for human civilization or habitation?

Why should there be vast stretches of marshes, deserts, and ice fields? Why should one country be so inferior topographically to another? Why should one be so fertile and almost another barren? Why should one be rich in minerals and another produce none?

Why should the climate of one be congenial and healthy and another the reverse? Why should one abound in rivers and lakes and almost another be devoid of them? Why should one be instantly troubled with earthquakes and another almost completely free from them?

Why? Because thus it pleased the creator and upholder of all things. Talks about how different vegetables grow, animal kingdom, whatsoever the Lord pleased that he did in heaven and in the earth and in the seas and all the deep places, Psalm 135, six.

Now that is a great God to worship. That is a God that you could lay your life down for. By the way, when you get the sovereignty of God, you'll see men serving the church. You'll see men serving the bride of Christ because Christ is worthy of honor and duty and loyalty and gratitude and laying down your life.

Show me a church that men don't serve and I'll show you a place there's no expository preaching and there's nothing to be said except in passing about the transcendent holiness of God, the transcendent sovereignty of God.

These great doctrines attract men. So where are the men? I'm working on a book right now regarding that very subject and one of the ways that you get men in the church is not Holy Ghost back rubs at promise keepers events.

I have news for you, if I ever go to one of those events, of course the movement is dead because movements like that that try to redo laws and give us seven new laws to keep never work, especially when the laws are flawed.

But anyway, we have enough law when it comes to scripture and we're under the law of Christ alone as New Testament Christians. But anyway, I don't want Holy Ghost back rubs and I don't want feminine expressions of spirituality sitting in circles, hugging each other, crying and sharing.

Now the only time I wanna do that is when I'm at my mother's funeral where I'll cry and share and do that stuff. There's a time, I guess, to do it but not as you motivate men for ministry in general. That's not how you do it.

I don't think that's how they do it at West Point although there's so much psychology these days. I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case. But when it comes to men in the church, real regenerate men, you walk into a church and it's all women.

Well, maybe you're on an island someplace by Greenland and all the men had to go to war. But typically if you see a place full of women, I'll tell you that it could be a liberal church because why would a guy go for some liberal gobbledygook?

But if it's an evangelical church, it's because there's no transcendent preaching, preaching of the transcendent. Holy, holy, holy, what inspires service? What can take a man and turn him into a servant of God?

Well, certainly God can. And if you read Isaiah chapter six, you're quickly going to find out that what made Isaiah into who Isaiah was was Christ Jesus sitting on the throne, angels flying around like hummingbirds saying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty.

The whole earth is a launching pad for his glory. So here, when you study the sovereignty of God, it takes men who are lazy and want their wives to lead in spiritual matters and it flips them right side up.

It turns men who went to coast and have hobbies of music and guns and hunting and sports and other things that take precedent over spiritual things. And it sets then everything in the right order. Hobbies are good, especially if they're bicycle riding and coffee connoisseuring.

But that's not the main thing. That's not the main thing in life. You see Paul, the apostle, he was a man's man. I don't think he looked like the Marlboro man. Remember the Corinthians? They said, you know, you don't talk, the false teachers there said he doesn't talk well and he doesn't look good.

And as MacArthur would say, it'd be one thing if you could talk well, but you didn't look good. It'd be another thing if you looked good, but you didn't talk well, at least you have something to look at.

But when they say you can't talk and you don't look good, you're in big, big trouble. So the transcendence of God, the sovereignty of God and his holiness. That's why one of my next books that I'm gonna review here, or encourage you to read rather, is the Chosen by God by R .C. Sproul.

These are all books that magnify the Lord, that basically show you what the text says about him. Of course, we want a God who's close to us. And when we think about the incarnation, we see that by God's will, he became close to us.

The incarnation, the son cloaking himself with humanity. How close can you get? The spirit of God dwelling inside of us. How close can you get? But that's a commonly taught thing today in evangelicalism.

The eminence of God with an A. Not the soon return of Christ, although that should be taught, but the eminence. That is, he's close to us. That he's with us. That's God Emmanuel. God with us. So that has to be taught.

And by the way, if you teach verse by verse, sequential exposition, you'll have the right proportion of transcendence and eminence. But when transcendence of God and who he is goes out the door, the men never show up.

And if the men are there, they leave too, because men need the drama of redemption. Men need to serve a king. Men need a righteous King Arthur type character who is worthy of service and worthy of sweat and toil and self-sacrifice and laying down your life to serve this higher cause because that cause is God and his kingdom.

So who needs notes when you're on No Compromise Radio? Today, we're looking at A .W. Pink's Sovereignty of God. Where are the men? Well, let's read these books, men, and then we'll see what happens. By the way, at Bethlehem Bible Church, we have more men than women.

And so I don't know why that is, but I think part of it is because men here are given a view of God that is worth laying their lives down for. I'm not sure the women really like my style. Matter of fact, if we look at No Compromise Radio demographically, as we talked about before, I think probably more men would like this show.

I always tell people that weak ladies don't like my teaching because I'm not gonna pander to your flesh and to your felt needs and the oohs and the ahs and all that stuff, and I'm not a woman. And I don't try to converse like a woman.

I don't try to act like a woman. Now, once in a while, you'll see Paul as he writes to the Thessalonians, and there's a gentle, loving, like a mother would love the children. Well, that needs to be there.

And if you could see me in a hospital when someone's dying, you probably would see a very soft side to Mike Abendroth, believe it or not, for the glory of God, it's true. But in general, I'm a man, well, in general, I'm a man.

I am a man, and I generally act like a man. 1 Corinthians 16, verse 13, act like men. That's what we're supposed to do. And our society today is neutering men is basically what they're doing. And when you watch TV shows, when you watch or listen to other things, the men are always the dopes, the mom are always, well, lots of times moms are the dopes too, and the kids are the ones who win.

It's this whole Captain Nemo deal or finding Nemo. Captain Nemo, you can tell where my mind is in some 1960s Jules Verne movie. We have a style here at No Compromise Radio. It's a masculine style. And if you're a maturing or mature woman, you'll like my style because you will like masculine preaching, because preaching is done through men and men are men, and therefore it's a masculine heralding, a masculine proclamation, a masculinity that oozes through the church in leadership, in pulpit ministry.

That's just what happens. It doesn't mean that men can't be gentle, or kind, or hospitable. Of course they can be, and of course leadership must be. But when it comes to the public proclamation, I don't share things.

And if I speak improperly, I might call it sharing, but my job is not to share. I don't share the gospel. I don't share on No Compromise Radio ministry. I don't share from the pulpit. These are my struggles.

This is how I don't measure up. If you know me well enough, you'll realize I don't measure up. That's why I have a representative who measured up for me. Do this and live. I couldn't, therefore I need a savior who did that and lived.

And so I'm just not going to do that. I'm not going to share and do a moat and some Joyce Behar kind of the view deal. This is just not going to happen. If that means I get fewer listeners, well, that means I get fewer listeners.

But what happens to men, I've experienced it. That doesn't make it true, but it has given me insight now as I relate to other men. If you get the sovereignty of God down and the holiness of God down, and you understand what Christ did for you, even though when you were a sinner, he demonstrates his love for us, that he died for us.

When you get these things down, substitutionary atonement, deity of Christ, holiness of God, when you get these things down, you want to forget about being the next Joe Weider and you want to go live for the kingdom.

Where are those kinds of men? You're not going to find them in churches that share and do book reviews and sit around and give Holy Ghost back rubs. You're not going to find them. So no compromise radio today.

Sovereignty of God by A .W. Pink. I think you'll like it. I think you'll be encouraged. And I think if you're a man, you'd really like this book. Wives, if you've got a weak man, if you've got a strong man, this is a good book to get them.

Sovereignty of God by A .W. Pink. 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 six. 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.