The Holy Spirit (Part 1)

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's Mike Abendroth and I am your host.

I'm losing my voice. No, my name's Mike Abendroth and it's actually blue skies today.

It was bleak, it was drab, it was a Seattle -like New England day. Call me

Ishmael. And now it's windy, but it's pretty nice. And so I'm thinking, let's see.

Well, I don't know what day it is, but I do have my little iPhone 4S, my brand new one. I went white this year.

I went white, so it's pretty cool. And it says October 20th.

So today's October 20th for taping day, but it's probably not October 20th for the day of the show.

So that's all right. On October 20th, it finally cleared up. We are always biblical. That's our desire.

We are desiring always to be provocative and always in that order.

I want you to be sometimes amused at the show, sometimes befuddled, sometimes demazed.

That's demazing. It's like Amazing Bible Facts or whatever it's called. I think it's on the station on Saturday and they are

Seventh -day Adventists who don't want you to know that. And so if you go on the website, you can't work for them unless you're a

Seventh -day Adventist and so instead of Amazing Bible Facts, that's demazing that here we have sheeps in wolf clothing trying to come across as evangelical.

I think if they were so proud of their Seventh -day Adventism, they should just say it. Hi, this is a ministry of Seventh -day

Adventism and Ellen G. White is a prophet and we believe that we are evangelical, et cetera.

I'd like it a lot better than that. Instead of the cut and jive, second

Peter, Jude kind of thing, sneaking around. So demazing, amazing.

I want to recommend a ministry today. Think on These Things is a little booklet that you can get from Southern View Chapel and Southern View Chapel is pastored by Gary Gilley, G -I -L -L -E -Y and so if you type into Google, Think on These Things, Gary Gilley, you'll come up with this or you can write them to get put on their mailing list and it has a little article by Gary Gilley usually.

This one's called Discernment Ministry, a Biblical Defense, talking about in a pluralistic society and pluralism that snuck into the church, could we be critical about ministries?

Could we be negative about certain other things that call themselves a ministry? If a person that is eating some food that's bad, we want the

FDA to say, you know, that's no longer copacetic. You don't have a seal of approval on there but if a pastor were ever to say, you ought to watch out for Seventh -day

Adventist and evangelical clothes, why do people freak out when we do that?

And so the spiritual health of the body of Christ is very, very important and so he defends discernment ministries.

Now if that's all you do, then that's another thing but he has a good article usually and it's usually biblical and it's usually provocative and it's usually in that order so see, it works out perfectly and here's what he says in the conclusion regarding discernment ministries, a biblical defense and I read it for two reasons.

One, I want you to think, oh yeah, you know what? We should read some of these guys' articles. He has interesting books,

Take Off on Prayer of Jabez, I Only Wanted Some More Land and other things. I think he's

IFCA. What's IFCA stand for again? I Fight Christians Anywhere? No, Independent Fundamental Churches Association.

Before you think I'm slamming too much, I think that's where MacArthur, I don't think, I know, where he got his ordination, ordained by the

Independent Fundamental Churches Association. Some good men on the

IFCA. Kind of wacky ones too, but there's some good ones. So anyway, here's a good one. Gary E.

Gilley, Think on These Things. And so it says here in conclusion, past generations of Christian leaders have seen the importance of defending the faith.

Now see, can't you just get this Jude 3? You know, I sat down to write you kind of like a small book of Romans to encourage you and then the spirit of God impelled me, goaded me, made me write something differently to contend earnestly for the faith, the once delivered faith.

For example, J. Gresham Machen made a great observation at the height of the modernist fundamentalist battles in the early 1900s.

Quote, what is today a matter of academic speculation begins tomorrow to move armies and pull down empires.

End quote. Early church father Irenaeus wrote in Against Heresies.

That's the name of the book, Against Heresies. Error indeed is never set forth in its naked deformity, lest being thus exposed, it should at once be detected, but it is craftily decked out in an attractive dress.

So as by its outward form to make it appear to the inexperienced more true than the truth itself.

And so that's exactly what they do. And Irenaeus, he knew what was happening way, way back in early church days, that this is what they do.

You know, the amazing Bible deal. They don't say we're Seventh -day Adventist and we believe

Ellen G. White's writings are inspired and that she was a true prophet of God and what she said was the real deal.

And if you know about the Sabbath and don't worship it, you have the mark of the beast, like Ellen G. White would say,

Ellen G. White, Jesus wholly unfit for food, for children, blah, blah, blah. What they do is they sneak.

They craftily deck themselves out in attractive dress. Then Gilly quotes

Princeton theologian, B .B. Warfield. The chief dangers to Christianity do not come from the anti -Christian systems.

Mohammedism has never made inroads upon Christianity save by the sword.

Nobody fears that Christianity will be swallowed up by Buddhism. It is corrupt forms of Christianity itself, which menace from time to time the life of Christianity.

Why make much of minor points of difference between those who serve the one Christ? Answer Warfield gives us, because a pure gospel is worth preserving.

And it is not only worth preserving, but it is logically the only saving gospel.

And then lastly, Gilly quotes Thomas Oden. Although I concede that there are other tasks more important than the exposure of heresy,

I warn, if there is no immune system to resist heresy, there will soon be nothing but the teeming infestation of heresy.

Friends, that is why pastors, elders must, it's part of their job description, and if your pastor elder doesn't do it, he's no real pastor elder, must do two things when it comes to this regard.

Teach sound doctrine. That is patiently, regularly, always teach sound doctrine.

Hygienic doctrine. Doctrine about God, doctrine about man. Doctrine about Christ. Doctrine, truth, what's doctrine?

Just a truth about God, truth. And refute those who contradict.

That's exactly right. You have to teach the good stuff and say no to the bad stuff. And so I think

Gary Gilly did a good job, and it reminds me of why I like his ministry. I think he's probably four -point

Calvinist, if my thinking's right. And I still love the guy. See, see how we can all get along?

That's no friendly fire. I just appreciate his ministry. And when he says something, I usually pay attention because he, at the end, has quotes.

Let's see what I can do. Charles Spurgeon. If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies.

If they perish, let them perish with our arms around their knees. Our arms around their knees. Let no one go there unwarned and unprayed for.

And at the very back, he's got book reviews. And this particular one, it's When Sinners Say I Do. Actually, it's a good book by Dave Harvey.

When People Are About Ready to Get Married. What to Say of When Sinners Say I Do.

And let's see what else is in here. Books available. Is That You, Lord? Hearing the

Voice of the Lord. The Little Church That Stayed Home. The Little Church That Went to Market. I Just Wanted More Land. Jabez, The Christian and Psychology.

Bibliology. Dispensationalism. Reformed or Conforming.

Oh, he just did chapters in that. So, anyway, I just want to encourage you for other ministries. So if I say no to Dave Hunsbury and call, then

I want to say yes, since we have this, say no to this and say yes to that.

So, no compromise radio. I hope you're saying yes to that. We're kind of becoming, hopefully, a fixture here in the plain of New England.

I don't think this is the Appalachians. It's maybe closer to the Adirondacks, I think would be more like it.

But anyway, you're probably getting used to me. And so, get this for an analysis on no compromise radio.

We've been on for two years and two months. So that would be what?

26 months we've been on the air. Five days a week. 26 months. How many shows is that?

I don't know. 500? 600? In the beginning of the show, we got all kinds of emailers.

And some of them said, hey, great. Glad to have you on. The people who were on at 3 .30 before. Let's see,

Jay Sekulow's on at 3 to 3 .30 on VNE. And then at 3 .30,

there was some, I don't know, some finance show. Some diet show.

I don't know. Speaking of diet, let's see. February, since I was really sick, I gave up aspartame.

So I haven't had any aspartame since February. I don't know when. Let's say the 15th. So March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October.

Eight months, no aspartame. But I have found Diet Coke that has Splenda in it. And so I hate to admit to my listeners that occasionally

I'll go buy a 12 -pack of Diet Coke with Splenda and have some.

But lately I'm doing the whole juicer deal. And so it's juice only. Fruit juice with a little,

I mean a vegetable juice with a little fruit maybe in it. My home juicer. My Breville juicer.

And then lunch juice with any kind of vegetable or fruit.

Then dinner, kind of regular dinner. And try not to snack too much.

Maybe some nuts or something at night. So, but anyway, it's two in the afternoon and I'm starving.

I've had a grapefruit, I've had a banana, and I've had juice. Yow! Yeah, I watched that show on Hulu, Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead.

I don't know if every word on it's correct for a theological audience. But if you're fat, sick, and nearly dead, or you just like to eat more healthily, and you've got some more vegetables in your system through watching that show, that'd probably be a good thing.

So anyway, what am I doing? I'm speaking of health. I'm speaking of, oh, so back to no compromise in the audience.

So at the beginning I had all kinds of emailers. And most of them were positive. But there were, and even talking to Manny and Dave down at WV &E, people would call, maybe they still do.

Who's that guy? Why is he saying something bad about Roman Catholics? Who does he think he is? Et cetera.

But we got a lot of emailers. And the emails that were negative, I tried to discuss with them.

And if they're gonna be nice about it, then we can sit down and be nice and talk. If they're gonna be jerky, then

I still tried to answer, but I'm not gonna go back and forth and do some kind of, you know,

I'm anonymous and now let's talk. I think that any coward can be anonymous and talk.

Just tell me who you are. And I'm not gonna send you anything or put you on any mailing list or anything like that. But here's my point.

Since we've been on now for 26 months, I think people had realized, you know what? They're not going away. And so instead of writing and complaining, they're probably just, you know, coming to grips with the fact that we're going to stay on the air, one.

And number two, maybe some of you have changed your mind. Maybe some of you have realized that I'm not as crazy as you thought

I first was. Maybe you thought, you know what? We're kind of getting in the flow. He fits perfectly in the

New England strata of evangelicalism because New Englanders like it blunt.

They like it bold. They want to be told straight on. They don't like a little behind the back passes and deviousness.

They want to be just told. So here we are. Here's the truth. Like it or leave it, that kind of thing.

So anyway, if you're listening, I am really thankful. We have lots of people who listen through Facebook and all that.

And it's just amazing to me that anybody would listen. I am a sinner. And the more I realize in my maturity what

Christ has done, the more I realize how bad I really not only was, but am.

And so I'm very, very thankful to the Lord. Praise be the Lord that He would use someone like me in the life of anyone who would listen to try to spur you on to godliness and to live in light of the cross.

So we are No Compromise Radio Ministry, and you can write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com.

And today I'd like to continue a little bit after my rambling to talk about the Holy Spirit. Remember last time

I was talking about the Holy Spirit, people think Bethlehem Bible Church, that we don't believe in the Holy Spirit.

Translation, we don't have a lot of rock music and we don't do speaking in tongues and other kind of things.

And so they thought the same thing when I was a member at Grace Community Church in California with John MacArthur as the pastor.

And so you'd go down the street to church on the way, way, way, with Jack Hayford, or you could go like I did down to,

I went both there and to the Anaheim Vineyard when John Wimber was still alive and kind of get a taste of what's going on elsewhere in evangelicalism, or you could just turn on your

TV and get a good dose of that. And so the question is really, what about the Holy Spirit?

And we learned last time that He is a person. It is not a force.

It is not, because it's not an it. He is a person. And so it is wrong to use.

It would be right to use grammatically for the Holy Spirit, but the

Spirit Himself as He is inspiring authors, did inspire authors, never used it to refer to Himself.

Even though Spirit is neuter, it comes with a personal pronoun of He. So we learned through the

Holy Spirit that He is a person, God in three persons, the Trinity, and that He testifies of Christ Jesus.

You can always tell of a church that's very, very Christ -centered, gospel -centered.

You know, there's this gospel -centeredness that's going around. The gospel coalition together for the gospel, the gospel network.

There's all kinds of gospel stuff. And so when there's gospel that's truly gospel -centered, we will see the

Spirit of God pushing that agenda, pushing Christ Jesus, because as some theologians discuss the

Holy Spirit as the gentleman who points to Christ. That's what He does.

He could point to Himself, but His unique role in the Trinity of pointing to Christ Jesus is what you'll notice if you go to a church that is

Spirit -filled. And if you have a church that's focused on the Father or focused on the Holy Spirit or focused on anything or anyone else besides Christ Jesus, you'll know that church isn't

Spirit -filled. You can speak in tongues all day long. You can bark like a dog. You can throw up in the Spirit.

You can have your gold tooth capped. You can have your leg lengthened. You can throw the crutches away.

You can throw the wheelchairs away. You can speak in tongues.

You can get slain in the Spirit. You can get zapped with Clorox. You can get anything you want, but if the focus is not on Christ Jesus, that church is not

Spirit -filled. So how about them apples? Speaking of apples,

I've had enough juice from the apples to last me for a year. What else does the Holy Spirit do?

What does He do? The Holy Spirit keeps our salvation.

Now, if we somehow at Bethlehem Bible Church could get rid of the Holy Spirit, and if we would really live out what people ignorantly say about us, that is, they don't believe in the

Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit's not welcome there. You're not welcome. Then what would happen?

Well, if we really could get rid of the Holy Spirit, and again, it's only theoretical, it's only hypothetical, we would lose our salvation.

That instant that the Spirit of God would leave, we would lose our salvation because He's the one that keeps our salvation.

He's the one that made us born again. He's the one that made us alive, to use

John 3 and then Colossians 2 language, Ephesians 2 language. He's the one that caused us to be born again, 1

Peter 1. We didn't save ourselves. We don't keep ourselves.

When God the Spirit grants us eternal life, we have eternal life. He gives us a faith that endures to the very end.

And we are kept, and Ephesians 1, verses 13 and 14 are very, very clear.

Listen to the Spirit's work in our salvation. In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the

Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory.

So when God saves you, He saves you to the very end. God doesn't change

His mind. His ways are not immutable. He doesn't change.

I'm the Lord, your God, and I change not. And in today's theological circles, people believe you could lose your salvation.

And it's an indictment on the Holy Spirit's work and word, both work and word.

Catholics, they think you can lose your salvation. Church of Christ, Nazarene, most

Pentecostal churches. Isn't that interesting? That most charismatic churches believe you can lose your salvation.

Now that's true for a lot of reasons, but just for the one today. If the Holy Spirit's work is keeping us to the end,

Ephesians 1, 13 and 14, sealing us to the day of redemption, then if they're really so Holy Spirit -filled, then why do they teach you can lose your salvation, which is an indictment on the

Spirit of God's work? Why would they do that? Methodists, you lose your salvation, no assurance of salvation.

Listen, think of the Trinity. The Father in eternity past chooses some.

They're called the elect. At Calvary, the Son dies for those elect.

And then in time, the Spirit regenerates those elect, but kind of drops a few.

Fumble, remember Nebraska football, the fumble ruski, quarterback had the ball snapped not to his hands, but the center snapped it kind of to the ground and everybody ran one way and a lineman came up and picked it and ran it the other way.

Steinkuhler maybe, Mr. Steinkuhler. Fumble, no. The Son dies for those that were given to him by the

Father. And the Spirit of God applies that great death of Christ Jesus to those

Christians, to those people, make some Christians. And he's not going to lose one.

The Father starts it, the Son accomplishes it, and the Spirit of God applies that accomplished work that the

Father planned and the Son achieved. In the Trinity, we're thinking how the

Trinity is broken up sometimes by function or stress. The Father as the architect, the

Son as the accomplisher, and the Spirit as the one who makes this happen, faithful, reliable.

That is what the Spirit is. That is who the Spirit is, a faithful and true witness.

The reliability of God, the point of Ephesians 1 is that what God promises,

He is able to perform. God is faithful and His faithfulness does not depend upon you.

And so if you want to use eternal security, maybe you could say security that is eternal because it's

Holy Spirit driven. Maybe you could say perseverance of the saints because if God saves you, He'll give you a faith that perseveres to the end.

Maybe you want to say preservation by God because if God calls you and makes you born again,

He'll preserve you to the end. However you want to say it with man -centered, God -centered, explain it whichever way you like, understanding that what the

Spirit does, He does with finality and completeness is critical for a proper understanding about God.

It's important. If you believe you can lose your salvation, you are undermining in your mind the work of the

Holy Spirit. Robert Morey said, assurance is not just a theoretical issue in Christian doctrine, but it is one of the most important issues of the

Christian life. Until a believer possesses true assurance, he can really, can he really feel worship?

Can he really worship God as his Father with all his heart while doubting his salvation at the same time?

Great point. When God the Son dies for you at Calvary, then in time, the

Spirit of God applies that great death and makes you born again. And He seals you. Part of the word seal, it means you're inaccessible, you're sealed.

Remember those old seals? There's the wax and then the seal signet ring. It means you are sealed and not accessible.

You are inaccessible. You are guarded. You have the intruders that will be kept out and Satan can't get to you.

Luther said, God's decrees of predestination, God's decree of predestination is firm and certain.

And the necessity resulting from it is in like manner, immovable and cannot but take place.

For we ourselves are so feeble that if the matter were left in our hands, very few or rather none would be saved, but Satan would come overcome us all.

So today on No Compromise Radio Ministry, we talked about the Holy Spirit and why

He's important in church life. He's important in church life because He focuses our attention upon Jesus through the preaching and through the word primarily.

And also He seals us to the end and we're kept.

And so without the Spirit of God, we would have no hope of keeping our salvation. So if you'd like to write me, it's info at nocompromiseradio .com.

Don't forget about Gary Gilley's ministry. Don't forget about the new book that's on our website, nocompromiseradio .com.

Or you could pull up some of my old shows on Wretched Radio at wretchedradio .com. We will see you tomorrow.

Lord willing, God bless you. 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.