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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.
I am your host today, glad to be your host, receiving your email. We get emails almost every day from No Compromise Radio listeners, and we�re glad you can go to the website, Facebook, TuneIn Radio, just to my chagrin, I was, well this part isn�t to my chagrin, but I was teaching at a conference, and there were about four or five other pastors at the conference, and I want to say my message was at 10 o�clock, and I preached the message, and it�s on the imputation of Adam�s sin to all those in Adam, and then the imputation of Christ�s righteousness to all those in Christ, Romans chapter 5, 12 and following, and I discharged my duty, and I was thankful that I preached, and then I sat in the very back, not to just leave after I got done preaching to show respect, and I wanted to learn and grow too, and a pastor got up and preached, and he even said something about following a pastor who was also a preaching professor, and that would be me, and how that�s difficult, and I do it at the very back, and it was a Saturday morning, it was hot in the church, it was in the summer, and I got my iPhone out, and I checked my email, and I knew I probably wasn�t supposed to be checking my email, but I have my ESV app on there as well, so, you know, I�m looking at my ESV Bible, and no, not really, I�m just checking my mail.
See if there�s any no-compromise listeners. And I accidentally hit the Tune In Radio button, the app, and I always keep my phone, I�d say unless I�m waiting for a super important call, I always have my phone on silent.
I have it on vibrate, and I think there are some things, like Pandora, it overrides that, and I didn�t know that Tune In Radio overrode it as well. You know, I hate it when people have their phones on in sermons.
I mean, how rude is that? Just check your phone. And here I am, the speaker who gets done, sits in the back, and I don�t know what it was. It reminded me of, I don�t know what channel it was on, I usually don�t listen to Tune In Radio, although I think it should have been tuned to no-compromise radio.
And then some Stevie Wonder superstition. Speaking of songs, I have the Reformation Polka here. If the New Englanders are listening, that�s the Polker, the Reformation Polker by Robert Gebel, G-E-B-E-L.
That�s like Hebel, in Hebrew. Temporary, vanity. And the Reformation Polka is supposed to be sung to the tune of supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, and it goes something like this. Now, I wish I could sing it, but I can�t.
When I was just ein uger man, I studied canon law. While Erfurt was a challenge, it was just to please my paw. Then came the storm, the lightning struck, I called upon St. Anne, I shaved my head, I took my vows, and Augustinian.
Easy for me to say. Oh! Papal bulls, indulgences, and transubstantiation, speak your mind against them, and phasic communication. Now your thesis to the door, let�s start a reformation. When Tetzel came near Wittenberg, St. Peter�s prophets soared.
I wrote a little notice for all the saints� bulletin board. You cannot purchase merits, for we�re justified by grace. Here�s ninety-five more reasons, Brother Tetzel, in your face. Then it is the chorus again.
They loved my tracts, adored my wit, all were exemplar o�er. The pope, however, hauled me up before the emperor. Are these your books, do you recant, King Charles did demand? I will not change my diet, sir, God help me, here I stand.
Oh! And then it goes into papal bulls again. And then lastly, it says, Duke Frederick took the wise approach, capital W, responding to my words, by knighting George as hostage in the kingdom of the birds.
Use Brother Martin�s model, if the languages you seek, stay locked inside a castle with your Hebrew and your Greek. Oh, there�s one more on the other page. Let�s raise our steins and conquered books, I�d say concord, but then I�m moving to New England, it�s concord, while gathered in this place, and spread the word that Catholic is spelled with lowercase.
The word remains unfettered when the spirit gets his chance. So come on, Katie, drop your lute and join us in our dance. Oh, papal bulls, indulgences, and transubstantiation. That is found only on No Compromise Radio.
When D .L. Moody was conducting evangelistic meetings across the country, he frequently faced hecklers who were in rather violent disagreement with his tenants. These were the days where you would just go hear people speak because they were good speakers and there was nothing else to do.
You had no TiVo. I don�t have TiVo. I have the rabbit ears. I bought the super-powered ones where you plug them in and you turn up a knob and all that stuff. I get Channel 2, which is PBS in Boston. I get Channel 62.
I think that�s the Espanol Channel. I once in a while get ABC, which is Channel 5, but it fades in and out. It�s so funny. I have a little larger TV now, but it�s still not that big. Before I had a small computer monitor or something, and we would gather around that and watch Friday night movie night when we could still control all the kids.
I�ll never forget the one time we got the little larger TV, and again, compared to these days, it�s not very big. 27 inches, I think it is now. My son Luke said, �Dad, I didn�t know the basketball players in the NBA had all those tattoos because in a small little screen, you couldn�t see it.
Okay, back to D .L. Moody. In the final service of one campaign, an usher handed the famed evangelist a note as he entered the auditorium. Supposing it to be an announcement, Moody quieted the large audience and prepared to read the notice.
He opened it to find a single word, �Fool. But the colorful preacher was equal to the occasion. He said, �This is most unusual. I have just been handed a message, which consists of but one word, the word �Fool.
I repeat, this is most unusual. I have often heard of those who have written letters and forgotten to sign their names, but this is the first time I have ever heard of anyone who has signed his name and forgot to write the letter.
That�s pretty good. All right, what else is happening here on No Compromise Radio? I�m still in the desk cleaning mode, right? I don�t know why this Depeche Mode lyric is up in front of me from �Enjoy the Silence their song.
Words are very unnecessary. They can only do harm. They can only do harm. And so I�m thankful that our listener in Maine, I think it was Christy, did she email? And she said, �Well, you have a dentist named Dr. Harm, or you used to have Dr. Harm.
And she said, �I have a dentist up in Belfast, Maine, and his name is Dr. Slaughter, and his nurse is Nurse Blood. It�s true. My daughter had her wisdom teeth taken out the other day at this oral surgery place, and so I was telling that story to the ladies behind the counter.
I said, �My oral surgeon when I was getting my wisdom teeth extracted in 1978 was Dr. Vap, V-A-P. And I thought that was pretty apropos, fairly onomatopoetic, paoetic, etc. You�re regardless. I know it�s regardless.
And so she said, �I have been in an elevator with Dr. Slaughter. It was in some convention down in Florida for oral surgeons and their staff. So Dr. Harm, Dr. Vap, Dr. Slaughter, and Ms. Blood, Nurse Ratchet, Blood Ratchet.
Crazy around here. No compromise radio. I did read about the Spock Church. Do you know about the Spock Church? I think I�ve talked about this before, but it just came across my desk again. And on the side of the brick building, it looks fairly standard for a church building, a worship building.
And it�s got the hand of Spock with a split between his index, his long finger, middle finger, and his ring finger. And it�s split there. A few miles south of Lynchburg in Campbell County sits a large and attractive octagonal building.
See, everything�s for a reason. You know, a lot of the churches back in the old days, if you take a cross and lay it down, that would be the shape of the church. Founded in 1977, the Spock, as the church is called, is the world�s only church of Star Trek.
Now, when I was at the University of Nebraska in 1979, I got there in �78, but in �79, they started a new class, and it was something like the religion of Star Trek. No, the philosophy of Star Trek. And I wanted to take it, but I never did.
I mean, I did the dumb route, and the dumb route was take all your core classes, your mandatory classes, and get out as soon as you could. My friend would take classes like philosophy of Star Trek, fine food and wines.
And why didn�t I take fine food and wines? I did show up with him one time. He was allowed to bring a guest, and his date couldn�t show up, so he said, �Do you want some fine food and free wine Oh.
So here we have the Spock Church. It promotes beliefs associated with one of the popular characters in the TV series, Mr. Spock, who was from a peace-loving race of aliens known as Vulcans. Now, I would imagine there would be some kind of church out there with Star Wars, some Star Wars worship.
It�s got to be. And you just think about it for a moment here on No Compromise Radio, if I can be serious for a moment. God has revealed his righteousness, Romans chapter 1, in the gospel, right? The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.
It�s from faith from A to Z. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. Well, then it goes on to say that wrath is also revealed against ungodliness and unrighteousness. So people suppress the truth of God that is an obvious fact to them.
What can be known about God is plain to them, Romans 119, because God has shown it to them. And so from your conscience to creation, the world with a megaphone shouts creation is done by the Creator, God.
Your conscience should shout within. There is a God who made you, and you have a conscience to bear witness to that. But people just subvert the truth. They suppress the truth. They know about God, but they don�t want to give him honor.
They don�t want to give Jesus thanks. And so God dims their mind. They became foolish or futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. And so do you ever see those dimmer switches?
We have some dimmer switches in our kitchen. And so you can just slowly turn off the lights. And so you can just imagine God slowly turning off their minds, and their foolish hearts are getting darkened.
They say, of course, oh, we�re wise, but the Bible says they�re foolish. And then they have to say, well, there�s an eternal God. There�s an immortal God. There�s an undying God. There�s a transcendent God who made all these things.
He�s not part of the creation. He made the creation. He�s separate from the creation. And we will have to worship something. And so now let�s start worshiping images resembling mortal man, and birds, and animals, and creeping things, and then anything else, and then Star Wars, Star Trek aliens.
Now, don�t get me wrong. Don�t take me wrongly. I like Spock. I thought that was a good show. I was in a restaurant in 1984 in Los Angeles. It was called Gorky�s. It was an avant-garde Russian bistro kind of thing.
You can go in there at 3 in the morning in the art district and get yourself a really good omelet with some caviar and sour cream on top. And you would take your plate across, the tray across, rather, in typical cafeteria style.
And I heard a guy next to me, and he said, could you please pass the cream? Because I was by the coffee area, and the line had stopped because the cashier was, you know, checking out the last person, the next person.
And I knew that voice, and I turned around and handed the cream over to Leonard Nimoy of all people, Mr. Spock. And I did, I have to confess, I did look at his ear. And it was normal. And I don�t know what it is with the whole Star Trek ear deal and earwigs and all those kind of things, but remember Wrath of Khan, Star Trek, the second movie, Walter Koenig, who is the person who played Chekhov, Kandanian Singh, Wrath of Khan, he attacked, he got off the island and he wanted to attack the Enterprise and pay back Kirk and all that stuff.
And so he put some special truth-telling earwig bug thing into his ear, into Chekhov�s ear. There�s a close-up on the camera. And so when I saw Chekhov at Disneyland, I was taking a group of, I was a camp counselor, and I was taking a group of students to Disneyland, I saw Chekhov.
And so I looked at his ear too. Oh, what has the world come to? I did notice that it says here that they have a holy mind meld. And if you�re a member, you can do that. They do put on stick-on-pointed ears so they look like him.
And they did notice that one member has his ears surgically altered. And it says here, but with disastrous results requiring extensive corrective surgery. Well, people will worship, and your friends will worship, and you will worship.
And aren�t you glad if you�re a Christian that you are graced so that you are able to worship the great triune God. And the only access you, or for that matter me, or anyone else has to God is through Christ Jesus the righteous.
Don�t you like how John calls him that in 1 John 2, verse 1? Jesus Christ the righteous. And that is his name, this great righteous one. We have no righteousness. We need God�s righteousness revealed.
And ultimately, it is revealed in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lastly, it says here, despite dissent, the SPOC boasts a membership today of over 120 and actively campaigns for new members at the area fan conventions and at Star Trek movie showings and local theaters.
Leonard Nimoy, the actor who played Mr. SPOC in Star Trek, has refused to comment on the SPOC. That was so good I�m going to have to put that on maybe my wretched radio guest hosting. Kurt Daniels, Kurt Daniel rather, has a wonderful book called The History and Theology of Calvinism, and it has all kinds of things.
You want to know what an Amaraldian is. You�d like to know who Coxinius is. You�d like to know what covenant theology is. You�d like to know the different views of the Lord�s Supper. There�s a lot of stuff in there.
Predestination, superlapsarianism versus infra, really an excellent resource. I think you have to buy it now. And I was just going through my copy of Kurt Daniels stuff, Kurt Daniels. It�s kind of like Keith Richards, right?
It was first Keith Richards, then it was Keith Richard, then it was Little Richard, then it was Cliff Richard. That was for Pastor Steve. So the guitarist of the Rolling Stones first was named Keith Richards, then Keith Richard, then Little Richard, then Cliff Richard.
Cliff Richard, I believe, is a professing Christian. Devil Woman was that song that he was popular for, and then a few other songs, more popular in England than in America. And so Kurt Daniels, Kurt Daniels, Little Daniels, Cliff Daniels.
And he gives something called cheap objections to predestination. He lists them. He doesn�t believe them. He gives the retort. He gives the rejoinder. The rejoinder, as Jonathan Gershner would say. And so these are some cheap objections to predestination.
It�s not democratic. Well, and then Daniel says, who says it has to be? God is a king, not a president. Isn�t that good? So when you read Ephesians chapter 1 or 2 Timothy chapter 1 or Acts 13, 48, you think, you know, what about that?
But my church doesn�t teach predestination. Comment? Then your church needs to. All the best preachers I know don�t believe in predestination. Then they are not the best preachers, for a good preacher will preach the Bible.
It won�t preach. If it is in the Bible, then it can and must be preached. Read Acts 20 verse 27. Remember, Paul doesn�t shrink from declaring to you the partial counsel. No, the full counsel. It�s not practical enough, Daniel.
The question should rather be, is it true? Not, is it practical? It is true, and therefore it has enormous practical implications. If it�s too irrelevant, then you need to reorder your priorities according to the Bible.
Rather than being a trivial issue, it is a major one. Gee, it�s too dour and serious. Kurt says quite the opposite. Without predestination, we have no hope. Without hope, no joy. Predestination alone can bring true joy.
And then two more, two more cheap objections with Kurt Daniel. His response, is it rejoinder? I always remember Jonathan Gershner, and then he answered with a grim rejoinder. It sounds too deep and complicated.
Then you need to study it more. It is too deep for anyone to fully understand, but obvious enough for anyone to grasp. Its depth should inspire awe, not abhorrence. I always found it fascinating that Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4, talking about election and eternity past, just as God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.
And then it talks about predestination. I always found it fascinating that Paul doesn�t say to the church at Ephesus and the other churches that he was writing to, oh by the way, you know, this is the secondary stuff.
You get this on Wednesday night Bible studies. No, he leads with it. He shows them that first. You want to inspire joy and hope and awe, then you talk about God�s sovereign choice. That�s exactly what you do.
It�s not too deep. It�s not too complicated for people. It is deep. It is complicated, but it�s not too deep so that the human being who�s regenerate doesn�t know what to do. You do know what to do. That if God chose you, it�s fascinating that He would choose you.
It�s awesome that He�d choose you. That was one of the greatest second blessings of my life. It wasn�t speaking in tongues or getting slain in the Spirit. It was understanding to a greater degree the doctrine of unconditional election, sovereign, distinguishing mercy.
That God, not in and of myself, not because of me, not anything in me, but God decided to choose me because it would give Him the most glory to choose anyone, well, to choose someones, to choose me in particular along with the rest of the elect.
Having nothing to do with me, you go back to the whole issue of modern-day total makeovers, the people who are the cosmopolitanists, cosmeticians, they�re called something, the makeover artist. They pick ugly people.
So afterwards, when the ugly people are now pretty people, the ugly person is now a pretty person or a handsome person, then you say, boy, they are really good at what they do, just like with the home improvement shows.
We all admire the skill of these people taking dumps and turning them into, what�s a word that starts with D here? It�s a Baptist show, of course, into, I�m trying to think, what�s a word with a D? Deluxe houses.
Kurt Daniel, cheap objections to election. Lastly, well, nobody really knows the truth of these things. We can only guess. Really? Oh, Kurt didn�t say really, I did. Kurt said, no, for the Bible is God�s Word.
God knows the truth and has told it to us. So, today on No Compromise Radio, we�ve talked about a variety of things that were just on my plate, and I was glad to do so. And if you�d like to write us, you can.
Hopefully, by the time you listen to this, NoCoEver part two will be out. So, you can go to NoCoEver, and then you can watch the second installment where I�m interviewing Carl Truman, James White, and Phil Johnson.
And they are getting asked questions by me about mysticism and evangelicalism and guidance in evangelicalism, and I think it�ll be edifying to you. I think for some, here�s the best part about the NoCoEver series.
It makes you think you�re not alone. When you hear from people over and over and over that you�re the weird one, and all the evangelicalism seems to be going in a certain direction, and you don�t go that direction, you feel weird, you feel odd, you feel lonely, and I want to help your loneliness.
But in all seriousness, it does make you think. There are some men like James and Carl and Phil who will stand up and tell the truth about the Lord and His Word, focused on the God-man, Jesus Christ.
Mike Abendroth here, NoCompromiseRadio .com.
Transcription by CastingWords.