Debating and Quarreling

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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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
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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.
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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you.
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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
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Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.
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No Compromise Radio ministry. That was a very good suppressed laugh, Pastor Esteban. Thank you very much.
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I hit the laughter suppression button and I�m being suppressed. Yeah. Do you ever laugh at your own jokes?
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I try not to. Usually when I do, it�s before I even utter them. Is, you know, can you hear yourself?
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No. You cannot? No. Okay. You�re my guest right now. Can you hear yourself now?
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Yeah. I think I can. Yeah. Okay. Keep talking. Testing. One, two, three. We just off the air, we were saying,
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I was saying how much I have to defer when it comes to the sound volume because our headphones, I like it a little hotter,
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Steve likes it less hot. Colder. Yeah. So give us an update. What�s going on with you? Well, I drink some
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Diet Pepsi here. Diet Pepsi? How can you drink that? Swill. Not supposed to.
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Well, let�s see. What is going on with me? I don�t know. Preaching Sunday night. Teach Sunday school. Yeah.
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Yeah. Stop for a second. What�s the whole debating thing? We�re supposed to debate stuff? What�s the debate sermon about?
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Well, the thrust of it is from 2 Timothy chapter 23, and it�s, you know, to just kind of�
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Chapter 23? Sorry. That is the debate chapter. See? It all makes sense now.
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Chapter 2 verses 23 to the end of the chapter there, and basically what I want to talk about is how we should conduct ourselves and how we need to view our opponents, right?
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And our opponents being usually unbelievers, but even if they�re believers, you know, if they�re in sin, you know, how should we view them?
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Do we have to win? And if we do win, do we throw up our arms in victory? You know?
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And the point is, ultimately, that God has to grant repentance.
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And sometimes I think we want to force repentance, but that�s not our role.
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Steve, even when it comes to evangelizing, and we want to see people believe in the
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Lord Jesus Christ, that�s a good motive, right? It redounds to the glory of God? It�s a great motive. Yeah. Isn�t it the best?
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And then it�s too easy for us, though, I think. We can slip into that rut of once we get involved in the conversation, then we want to win, right?
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We want to prove that these things are right when only God can do it, and we�re talking about faith in an invisible
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God. Well, I love verse 23, too, because it says, �Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies.
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You know how they breed corals.� I mean, just to give you an idea, the other day I just posted, and I was just being really lighthearted about it.
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Something about, you know, global warming, and I said something like, �Oh, I look forward to planting avocado trees, you know, in the backyard.�
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Well, the unbelievers who follow me on Facebook went ballistic, because there are just some things that, you know,
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I can post pro -Christian themes all day long and all that, but when I attack their God, right, that is to say the
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God of anthropological global climate change, you know, that�s it, man.
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It�s on right there. And so I didn�t even want to debate. I just thought, you know, �Oh, this is funny. Ha, ha, ha. I�ll just post something about avocado trees.�
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And people went, you know, nuts. Were you going to cut them down? No. I mean, I want to put them up in, you know, in Massachusetts.
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You don�t really grow, you know, avocado trees, but I�m just like, �Hey, if the climate�s changing, whoo -hoo.�
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I think maybe, Steve, you should have said, �Well, you�re planting avocado trees.
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You know, if you�re going to have a pope on the table of No Compromise Radio, at least it�s a solar pope.�
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There he is right in front of you. Yeah, that�s right, because he�s helping with the environment by� I mean, you could have a pope that was plugged in, right, and be wasting energy and all that, but this is very� this is� what do you call it?
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Self -sustaining, I think. Yes, yes, yes. Farmed a table. Yeah, perfect. Farmed a table.
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I�ve been calling the pope the incredible shrinking man because he is so�
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I mean, think about it just in general. All right, I could talk about sports and politics and this, that, and the other, but, you know,
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I�m a minister of the gospel, therefore when I get up I should talk about the gospel. While I don�t like his
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Roman Catholicism, you�d think he�d actually be trying to teach what the Bible says in light of Roman Catholic magisterium�s interpretation, but he�s just another talking head.
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In other words, you think he would be, I don�t know, Catholic. No, they tried that with the last pope that quit being the pope.
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Yeah, that wasn�t� That didn�t work out so well for him. Yeah, what was it, Eggs Benedict or whatever his name was?
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That was Bela Lugosi? No. He was� Oh, that was it, Pope Benedict the 47th.
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The Arnold. No. No. The Arnold. Yeah, he was the German one.
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Could be. Yeah, he was from Germany. I just interviewed someone the other day, not here on the radio, but doing something else, and he was from the area of Transylvania.
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That really exists. I know, and I just kept thinking about Bela Lugosi. Staying at the high theological plane that you normally inhabit, right?
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I know. I know. I think some people are miffed, and they don�t like it if we give one of these 1970s illustrations about, you know,
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Ed Sullivan or something like that, or Lawrence Welk, when� I�m pretty happy when you get that current. That�s good.
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So, talking a little bit more about 2 Timothy, for that matter, chapter 23, it is interesting that the language there that Paul uses, they breed corals.
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You know, you have some people, and they breed chinchillas, and some people breed, you know, Pomeranians, right?
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And now this is the perfect breeding ground, a hot summer day with tepid water, and that's perfect for mosquitoes.
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This kind of environment is perfect for breeding corals. What should we do instead? What would be a better approach than trying to win and argue and trying to make the people feel bad?
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What�s the better approach? Well, I mean, I think ultimately, and this is what I say, I was going to say all the time, but fairly frequently,
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I don�t debate doctrine with unbelievers, right? I just don�t. They want to debate about creation versus evolution, and I�m like, you know what?
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If I win the debate, what do I win? I win nothing. What I want to do is declare the truth to them, you know, what the
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Bible says, and ultimately, I want to give them the gospel. I want them to tell about the Lord. I want to tell them about the
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Lord Jesus Christ, His life, His death, His resurrection. I want them to understand the substitutionary nature of His work, and, you know, then
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I want them to either laugh and mock and do what mockers do, or I want them to repent, you know?
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And I want the Lord to grant them repentance, so, you know, I don�t understand people who want to debate unbelievers on matters that the
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Bible speaks clearly about. I don�t get it. I just don�t see the point in that, because even if I win,
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I don�t win anything, you know? I mean, I successfully defended the Bible. Well, the Bible could have done that, you know?
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Thanks a lot, Steve. Paul writes in 2 Timothy 2 .14, �Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good but only ruins the hearers.�
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Steve, I think it�s very interesting, because Paul would stand before Peter when it comes to gospel truth, right?
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The gospel�s being attacked, and you have to add circumcision to get these folks to participate in the promises of God, and Paul, he quarrels about the gospel, but when it comes to these unprofitable things, things that don�t matter, things that are, you know,
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I don�t know, maybe more minor, Paul says, �I�m not going to argue about that. I�ve got an agenda, a hierarchy of argument.�
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Well, and you know, which drives me, maybe not you, but it drives me, you know, sometimes people get upset with us.
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I remember the last thing I saw, you know, fan mail for us was not too complimentary, and people were concerned about, you know, our tone and even the topic we were discussing.
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And here�s the thing, yes, 2 Timothy is definitely true. We don�t want to be the cause of people stumbling by our actions, by our attitude or anything else, but Titus 1 .9
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is also true, right? We exhort in sound doctrine. We want to do that, and we also need to refute those who contradict.
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It�s just funny to me. I mean, I don�t know how many times we�ve gone over this, and you�ve probably gone over it too.
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People are like, �Did you go to whatever the false teacher�s name was, you know, in private before you excoriated them over the air ?�
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kind of thing, and I�m like, �Okay, when this person, this woman, I can�t even think of her name right now, when she�s written things, when she�s been on TV saying things, we should go to her in private ?�
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I don�t know. You know, it�s her public ministry, and I think if you commit something to television, if you commit it to print, and then it�s brought to your attention privately, that, you know, no, these are appropriate things to bring up in public, plus it�s not like we have a relationship with that person.
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If that person was a member of the Church here, we�d probably go to them privately. Yes, absolutely. But when you just throw things out in a public forum, and, you know, it�s like the guy who goes up in the airplane, the biplane, and he does a bunch of skywriting, and he says, you know, �Jesus isn�t
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God ,� and I guess I have to go privately talk to him first before I�m able to go say that�s really bogus.
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Track him down, whoever he was, you know, go do an investigation like some kind of private detective.
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Okay, who rented a plane? Oh, you�re not going to release those records? Well, I�m going to go, you know, get a FOIA, you know, and step by step, you know, we�re going to track this down.
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And Steve, I think it goes for you as well. For me, on the radio, if I say something dumb or wrong, or if I have a book that�s published and somebody wants to challenge it, if I�ve got enough gumption to throw my voice out on radio with you or in print, then
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I should be a big boy and take any criticism. Get your big boy britches on, yeah. I mean, you know, just the other day
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I said to somebody, I said, �Look, I don�t have any authority past what the Scripture says.� And they said, �Well,
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I like that about you.� And I�m going, �Well, you know, I try to restrain myself because I don�t.�
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I mean, I can tell people, I think this is wise. If I were you, this is how
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I would think about this situation. But I�m always going to, you know, put a little asterisk there and just say, �I don�t know how a verse says that.�
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You know, I�m just giving you my millions of years of experience. It feels like millions of years. It�s a day age.
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Yeah. Yeah, it�s close. Steve, reading here the next verse in 2
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Timothy chapter 2, �Do your best, spadazzo, to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.�
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It�s fascinating to me because he says, �Okay, don�t argue a bunch.�
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You know, it�s like I�m quarreling with this person, and then to use our earlier example, I want to win, and I want to basically show this person that I�m right.
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But in chapter 2 verse 14, �before God ,� and then also in chapter 2 verse 15, �Present yourself to God as one approved.�
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How would the Lord want you to do this? Because you�re really trying to live in light of what He wants versus, �I want the other person to know that I�m smarter, and I�m a better arguer, and I�m the best debater, and I win.�
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It�s really the theme of this chapter. You know, it has like up there the title, �A good soldier of Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus.�
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And again and again, as a servant, as a bondservant, you know, reminding you again and again of your place, right, where you rightly belong, and how you need to enter into these sorts of discussions with people that are going to be opposed to you.
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So yeah, I think that�s� it�s really important to think of ourselves as not contenders with people, but as servants of the
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Lord, and therefore guardians of His truth and presenters of His truth, and that�s why we need to work hard at rightly understanding it and presenting it.
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Often at No Compromise Radio, we try to discern, discern things, and maybe people call us a discernment ministry.
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I don�t know. I don�t really think we are, but we�re involved in that area. Maybe some people, though, if they take this to the wrong extreme, and they do it wrongly, incorrectly, ungodly, maybe they�re the quarreling ministry, right?
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That would be bad. Doesn�t He say twice in this chapter about quarreling? It�s just fighting. Isn�t there a point to calling out some error so that you can teach the truth?
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I think the answer should be yes, not just quarreling. Right. I mean, quarreling, what does
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He say? It�s pointless, right? Which does no good. Not to quarrel about words, which does no good.
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Again, I just� I can�t be bothered, you know, arguing with people who want to even�
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I have a cousin who�s a Mormon, wants to debate about free will, and I�m like, why would
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I want to debate you about free will when you don�t even understand the gospel? Let me just tell you the, you know�
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I�ll tell you the gospel, and you can tell me all about free will, you know?
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One of the things about this chapter, 2 Timothy chapter 2, it�s got the greatest language, just vivid words.
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Not only does it talk about breeding quarrels. It says in verse 16, �But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene.�
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And then he lists a couple people there, Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth, saying the resurrection has already happened.
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Great picturesque language. I mean, would you want your words to be described as gangrene? Yeah. And just think about having gangrene.
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All of a sudden, you think, you know, there�s a weird odor in the house. And what�s the odor? You know, you spray a few deodorant things and deodorizers and Febreze or whatever you use.
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Is that for fabric or? You know, I don�t even know. I don�t keep track anymore.
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And then you go, you know what? It�s my foot. That would be bad. That would be extremely bad, especially if you�re going to have to lop it off, right?
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See? That�s the kind of language of 2 Timothy 2, lopping, right? Chopping.
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Anything else that you�re going to talk about this Sunday night that�s interesting for radio? I think that�s probably about enough.
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I mean, ultimately, you know, I�m going to talk about repentance and what it is and what it isn�t.
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You know, people think that just by saying, �I�m sorry ,� or, you know, like we used to teach our kids, say, �Please forgive me ,� you know, that that�s repentance.
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Well, it�s not because repentance has to include certain things like understanding that our sin is against God.
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I mean, when you look at Psalm 32 and Psalm 51 and you just see David�s overall conduct, you know, he recognizes that his sin is against God and repentance needs to be
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Godward. And you know, the fact that it is only granted by God is something for us to keep in mind when we�re preaching the gospel to somebody or when we�re, you know, contending with someone over some important doctrine.
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I was just going to say, you know, again, I just think it�s important to think only God can illumine the eyes of somebody who doesn�t believe rightly.
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You can�t, you know, your best arguments, and that�s why, you know, we don�t have to be salesmen. We�re just presenters of the truth, and the
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Holy Spirit does His work. And isn�t it great that if we meet someone who�s smarter than we are, a better debater, a higher
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IQ, more education, better grasp of the English language, it doesn�t matter because I�m not trying to overcome any of those obstacles that are basically impossible for me to overcome.
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I have the truth of the gospel. I present that and proclaim it and urge them to believe, and when
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God so sees fit, He changes people. Well, I mean, as an illustration,
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I mean, I�m just using my family here as an illustration to say, I have an uncle who is literally a genius and, you know, has degrees in math and all this other stuff, and I mean, he�ll start talking about math, and I don�t even understand some of the things he says, right?
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Which is fine because I don�t need to. He has the ability to do that. The question is, does he have the capacity to understand what
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Scripture says? And the answer is, not apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, so I just keep preaching that and hoping the
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Lord will illumine his mind, and that�s, you know, that�s what we�re to do. We�re just truth presenters. I don�t, you know, you don�t have to be, like you said, you don�t have to be smarter, you just have to be faithful.
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You don�t have to be slick, you just have to be a trustworthy presenter of the truth.
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When Paul writes, �Correcting his opponents with gentleness ,�
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Steve, can you give us, since you�re kind of looking at this passage this week, can you give us any kind of practical hints on how that might take place?
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And maybe that�s over Twitter or over Facebook or some other social media.
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You can tell we�re older, right, because I�m not seeing Instagram or whatever or Snapchat. How do we go about correcting people with gentleness?
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What�s the best way to do that? That�s a good question. I think what
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I try to do is, first of all, I just remind myself no matter how inflammatory they get,
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I just kind of, sometimes I�ll make a comment about it, you know, that might not be your best argument, you know, to tear me down or whatever, but ultimately
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I always want to go back to Scripture. I want to present that, and eventually, at some point, you know,
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I�ll just call the thing off. If it�s clear that the other person just wants to argue against me or call me an idiot or whatever, there really is no point in continuing on, and it�s not a matter of pride.
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It�s a matter of, well, how far do I go in trying to present the truth to somebody who just wants to blast me over and over again?
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Yeah. Steve, when you�re evangelizing someone, isn�t it interesting, you know, you�re proclaiming the gospel and you�re trying to tell them about, yes, in fact,
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Jesus is God, and if you could simultaneously talk and think and pray at the same time, it would be very good to preach the gospel, here�s what the
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Bible says about Jesus being God, and then simultaneously praying for those people, God, please open their eyes.
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You know, it�s kind of like an alt -tab dual thing, you know what I mean? Yeah, that�s the ultimate preach -pray, right? In a sense, you do that, because what do you do?
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While you�re telling them the truth, and then when they�re responding, you know, that�s when you start, you just go,
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Lord, please open his eyes, you know, give him a new heart, let him see the truth that I�m presenting right now, not because of me but because of him.
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My concern is not for me, it�s for the person that I�m talking to, it�s his soul or her soul that I�m concerned about.
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So Steve, we�ve done quite a few shows together over the last eight years, and sometimes you�ve been very kind and sometimes very inflammatory.
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If there�s anybody out there who remembers one of Steve�s inflammatory comments and would like to correct him with gentleness, the number to call is
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BR -519. The first thing I want to do is just send out a generic, you know, here�s another example of what repentance is not.
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If I�ve offended anyone over the last eight years, I�m sorry that you were offended.
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If anybody out there is so weak and so� that my just general comments have affected you in some way that they shouldn�t have, then
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I�m sorry for you. No, that�s really bad. That�s not repentance at all. Well, let�s talk a little bit about repentance.
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We�ve got a few minutes left in the show, and it talks about God granting them repentance. Repentance essentially means to do an act of penance, like in 15 and 16.
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No, it means to change your mind. Will a change of your mind lead then to a change of actions?
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Is that tied together? How does that all work? You change your mind. Well, it should lead to a broken heart and a contrite spirit, right?
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A broken heart and a contrite spirit you will not despise. And what happens, I mean, I think
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David is a great example. Why? Because when it�s revealed, his sins are revealed, he�s crushed.
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When he has that �you are the man� moment, when Nathan�s pointing his old spindly finger at him, I don�t know why I think it�s old and spindly, but, you know, and he says, �You are the man.�
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It should be that the crushing weight of sin just lands on you.
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The reality of how you�ve sinned against God and against others should literally, if it�s genuine repentance, should be just an immeasurable weight.
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And it�s, you know, ultimately when you recognize that Christ paid for that and you think about his death and what you put him through, you know, now you�re on the road to repentance, not penance where you�re, you know, crawling across broken glass or saying �Exnor of Hail Marys� or �Our
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Fathers�, but actual change of mind, change of heart. That�s repentance. Mike Abendroth with Steve Cooley today on No Compromise Radio.
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You can write us, info at nocompromiseradio .com. Steve, this even applies in a marriage, for instance.
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Let�s say the husband�s not a believer and the wife is, and does she need to argue him into the kingdom or nag him in or win in some kind of debate, 1
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Peter 3 is clear, she with her godly behavior can win her husband, it says, without a word.
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And even there, that�s a tactic that I think goes so against the normal, natural person.
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In other words, I�d want to win an argument and I�m sure the wife would too when it comes to Jesus as God.
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I mean, as we have now seen it spiritually with our eyes as God has opened our eyes, it�s obvious, it�s wonderful, it�s joy -filled.
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And we want our spouse to experience that too, but there�s a different tact which is a silent tact.
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But no spouse has ever, you know, husband or wife has ever kind of healed their marriage, brought the two of them closer together by, you know, giving some really great argument and then, you know, going, �Booyah !�
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You didn�t see that coming, did you? Well, you know, I guess the advice to give to wives about evangelism to put those, you buy the edible paper and then you write like little
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Bible verses on the paper and put it in the man�s sandwich as he goes off to work.
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That�s slick. That�s slick. Man. I feel like, you know, I�m so anti -PC because, you know, that a woman would make a sandwich for a man to go off to work.
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Boy, that�d be bad. Yeah. She�s, he�s lucky if he gets his Lunchables in there.
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You�ve got a bunch of grandkids. If you�ve got questions for us or comments or if you�d like to respond to Steve�s negativity and you want to be gentle, you can quarrel at info at nocompromiseradio .com.
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No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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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.
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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.
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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.