How does God Speak? (Part 2)

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.

Why Experience Must Not Replace Biblical Truth

Welcome back to No Compromise Radio ministry. It is a great day to be alive, isn't it? The grace of God, His faithfulness, He gives us blessings every single day. He's been faithful while we're sleeping, He's been faithful throughout all the eons, and I am thankful for that.

Well, today I wanna pick up part two as I've been discussing the topic, how does God speak today? Does God still speak today? Should we place a comma where God has put a period? Shall we place a period where God has put a comma?

And all kinds of other slogans. You can always email me, info at nocompromiseradio .com. By the way, although I won't beg for money, I will say this, that if you like the show, you should write the station.

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You might know some of my personality, but you don't know me as a father, you don't know me as a husband, you don't know me as a dad. I guess that's the same as a father, isn't it? You don't know me in any other way.

You probably don't know me, so that's okay. If you'd like to get to know me a little bit better, you can come to Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston on Sunday. We'd love to see you at 1015. Or maybe you've already got a church that you serve in, it's a good Bible teaching church, stay there.

That would be excellent if you continue to stay there and serve. But if you don't have a Friday night service, if you don't have a Sunday night service, and you'd like to come and visit, you can always come and visit.

The first Sunday of the month, we don't have services. The holiday schedule is also one that lets us not, well, we will not have services because of that. But most of the other times, we have services on Sunday night.

The Danger of Subjective Impressions and Private Revelation

What I don't want you to do is to abandon the word of God for feelings and impressions. Remember last time I talked to you about abandoning the North Star for a jack-o'-lantern? Remember, Jonathan Edwards said that.

Here's what happens today in evangelicalism. People follow their own feelings, and then they call those feelings God. God told me that, God led me to do this. And then there's a stamp of authority, there's an air of invincibility, and there's a feeling of obedience when they say, God told me to do something, therefore, I have to do it.

After all, God said it, you know, God, the creator. And I think David Wells, in his book, No Place for Truth, really hits the nail on the head with this kind of modern view of theology that really isn't so modern.

David Wells says this, without the objective existence of truth, theology becomes autobiography. Now, let me say that again. Without the objective existence of truth, theology becomes autobiography. And so, it happened to me, therefore, it's true.

It happened to me, therefore, God is speaking. Who are you to tell me that you didn't hear from God? And I just would say to you, who are you to tell me you did hear from God? You can't prove it at all.

You want me to prove it? Well, you can't prove it either, so let's go back to the Bible. Does God speak outside of the Bible? No, he does not. You can look back in history and see how God is moving. I'm not saying you can't do that.

But I don't want you to try to prove that God is speaking by your own experience. That doesn't prove anything. That is dangerous. That is unreliable. I think, here's Mike's maxim. Here's Mike's maxim.

The importance of doctrine decreases as the importance of experience goes up. So that's my maxim. The importance of doctrine decreases as the importance of experience goes up. And I think the opposite is true as well.

As the importance of experience goes up, doctrine, doctrinal differences, doctrinal precision, doctoral nuances, it goes down. Frederick Bruner, in a theology of the Holy Spirit, published by Eerdmans, subtitled, The Pentecostal Experience and the New Testament Witness, says on page 33, the test of anything calling itself Christian is not its significance or its success or its power, though these make the test more imperative.

The test is truth. The test is truth. Let me say that again, Frederick Bruner. The test of anything calling itself Christian, or God said something to me, is not its significance or its success or its power, though these may make the test more imperative.

The test is truth. Listen to Machin, J. Gresham Machin, in his book, Christianity and Liberalism. You ought to read that book, published by Eerdmans in 1923, of all times. Nothing in this world can take the place of truth.

Nothing can take the place of truth. Even a Pentecostal, even a charismatic, Gordon Fee, Gordon Fee, matter of fact, is a studied Pentecostal. He has written many good things. Here's what Gordon Fee says.

In general, the Pentecostal's experience has preceded their hermeneutics. In a sense, the Pentecostal tends to exegete his experience. For those of you driving who couldn't quite get that, in general, the Pentecostal's experience has preceded their hermeneutics.

In a sense, the Pentecostal tends to exegete his experience. Scripture is not a source for truth. It is the source for truth. It is the source for truth. And Psalm 119, excuse me, Psalm 19, it says it makes the wise.

Simple? No, it makes the simple wise. Skilled in all aspects of holy living. Ability to make the choices in daily conduct. Yes, you need the Bible. You need less of God told me outside of chapter and verse.

If God told you in this chapter and verse, then I applaud that kind of thinking. Listen to what David Martin Lloyd-Jones says in what is an evangelical. In the end, it means that doctrine does not matter at all.

This is, by the way, if you're subjective, you believe in impressions, you have mystic kind of feelings and leadings and God whispers and talks and that kind of thing. In the end, it means that doctrine does not matter at all.

You can believe Roman Catholic doctrine or Methodist or be without any doctrine at all if you like. It does not matter. The great thing is that you have this experience. He is so right. He is so right.

By the way, that is why charismatic Methodists and charismatic Roman Catholics can get along because it's about the experience. Who wants doctrinal differences when you can experience, when you can feel, when you can emote, when you can do those kind of things?

Nobody does. When you want unity, the world says, let's get rid of those kind of doctrines and go up with the experience. When Paul is correcting the church of Corinth in chapter one and two and three and four, in 1 Corinthians, and he wants to try to correct it, he says, you've got to have the right view of doctrine, the right view of wisdom from God through the apostles.

Think properly about it. And he doesn't say, let's get rid of doctrine. He says, no, we keep it and we keep it exalted because it's a word from God, from the living God, and we need to think about it properly.

Scripture, Truth, and the Rejection of Mysticism

So what I don't want you to do is somehow bolt from the word of God, objective word, propositional truth, antithetical truth, black and white truth. Even John Lennon said, give me some truth in one of his solo albums.

I think Henry David Thoreau is right. Rather than love, rather than money, rather than fame, give me truth. And how can I know if it's true truth, as Francis Schaeffer would say, if it is validated only by you internally?

Jesus said, thy word is truth. Think about it. One man said, if we begin to accept as truth what has happened, even to fellow believers, we have no basis for rejecting the truth claims of any other religious doctrine.

That is so right. Then how can you say the Mormons are wrong? Because they've had an experience. How can you say Jehovah's Witnesses are wrong? How can you say Roman Catholics are wrong? How can you say Muslims are wrong?

How can you say New Agers are wrong? How can you say Buddhists are wrong? You can't say they're wrong because they've had an experience. I have a question. When it comes to hearing from God outside the word, this is not to provoke you to be angry.

This is to provoke you to think. Why do those that are the most subjective people, the most mystical, the least objective, truth claimers, seem to know the Bible the least? Why do the people that go around saying, God told me so, seem to know the Bible the least?

Now, you're not saved by how much biblical doctrine you know. If you know the Savior, Jesus Christ, and he has known you, by the way, that is doctrine. You can know a lot of doctrine and not be saved.

I know all the other arguments. But in my travels, those that desire the inner light the most, those that want to be practical Quakers, wanting the internal light that would guide them, those that trust these things more than other people, know their Bibles the least.

They know theology the least. Now, part of it is if they would learn and grow in their theology, they would see that subjective mystical impressions are not good, are not right, are not authoritative, are not infallible, are not to be used as a guide at all whatsoever.

Why is it that people that know the Bible the least do this the most? Well, why bother studying some dusty old book written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek when you can just hear from God directly? Why read a love letter from your wife when she's sitting in the room with you and she can just talk to you?

That's the way they think about it. Listen to what Bruce Waltke said. The reliance on special signs from God is the mark of an immature person. I didn't say it. You can blame Waltke. The reliance on special signs from God is the mark of an immature person, someone who cannot simply believe the truth as presented, but must have a special miraculous sign as the symbol of authority from God.

Be diligent to present yourselves approved to God, a workman, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Now, it might be hard to study the Bible, but there's a great payoff.

There's a great payoff. Isn't it great to think to yourself, it's hard to study the Bible, but now I understand what the author is intending, God himself through the apostle Paul or whatever other apostle or prophet, and now I understand the mind of God.

We have the mind of God. Things that God did not have to tell us before, but he has revealed to us these great things, 1 Corinthians 2, 6 and following. This great wisdom that God decreed long ago, this wisdom that only God knew, and he did not have to tell us, but he told us about who Jesus was, what his mind was like, what was going on in his mind as he planned our salvation in pre-history, before the history of the world.

We want to study the Bible. I want you to study the Bible. 2 Peter 1 tells us that we've got something more sure than our own experience, and that is the Bible. That is the Bible. And if you're one of these people that run around saying, you've got an impression and you follow all the black and be experiencing God stuff that was hot a generation ago and now hot again.

If you're running around now having some inner promptings like Bill Gothard used to teach, you are working under the impression that this is Bible truth as good as Bible truth, but it is fallible. It is an impression and that's all it is.

It's an impression. They're not a new form of revelation. The Bible doesn't give impression some kind of authority for you to function under, not at all. That is a hermeneutical lapse in your thinking.

No, if you want to run around talking about being led by your heart, I'm sure Jonah was led by his heart. You say, well, I've got a real piece about something. Well, I think Jonah had a real piece about something too when he went to the boat to try to run from God.

He found a ship, which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it with them to Tarshish to flee from the presence of the Lord. I'm sure he had a piece about it, but piece about it, that doesn't mean anything.

I remember when I was going to get married, I didn't have a piece about it standing there. I was nervous. If you go evangelizing door to door, you don't have a piece about it. You're nervous. If you've got to confront another believer because you love them enough to point out their sin, you won't have a piece about it.

If you've got to get up and preach a sermon, you might not have a piece about it. But afterwards, after you obey, that's when the peace comes. The Proverbs say, happy is he who keeps the law. You get the peace later.

When Cain did the wrong thing, his countenance fell. You do the right thing, your countenance goes up. That's the peace. We don't want to run around having, I've got a piece about it. No, you should not have a piece about not wanting to study the scriptures for wisdom and for decisions, decision-making.

Friends, emotions are great, but they're not the driving force of your life. They should be the caboose. This all reminds me of that Quaker named Hannah Whitehall Smith, higher life turned into higher life kind of lady in her book, Religious Fanaticism.

I've used this before because it's so fascinating. She talks about a woman who would not get out of bed or put on her clothes without God's guidance. She talks about a woman who was led to steal money from her landlord to teach that landlord an object lesson about worldly possessions.

Feelings, friends, are never the final authority. I'm glad we have feelings. I'm glad Jesus had feelings. But for you, you have fallible feelings. Feelings are unreliable. Your feelings are unstable. Your feelings are governed by pride.

And C .J. Mahaney said, sometimes lies feel like the truth. Lloyd-Jones, very smart man. He said, avoid the mistake of concentrating over much upon your feelings. Above all, avoid the terrible error of making them central.

Luther says, feelings come and feelings go and feelings are deceiving. My warrant is the word of God. Not else is worth believing. Feelings come and feelings go and feelings are deceiving. My warrant is the word of God.

Not else is worth believing. Edwards called people that ran around and said God said all the time, called them incorrigible. I mean, what are you gonna do? Here's a verse. Nope, nope, nope, God told me.

God told me, out of all the people in the universe that God has spoken to, which and then there hasn't been that many who have heard from him directly. You're now one of them? And you've got a carnal life anyway?

No, I think not. I agree with Edwards. Those people are incorrigible. Sam Logan said, however you define guidance, you must resist anything that moves in the direction of new revelation from God. So my name is Mike Abendroth.

Scripture Is the Source, Not Experience

It's No Compromise Radio Ministries here. Info at nocompromiseradio .com. And I'm trying to tell you today that you need to be thankful for your scriptures, study your scriptures, delight in them, and you'll see God prosper you.

And that's Psalm 1. I've had to do this show over and over and over again about mystical impressions because God told me to do it. I've been led of the Lord and a still small voice has told me, kind of like a little butterfly kiss, except in an audible form, that God wants me to talk about this a lot.

No, he didn't do that at all. I just know that there's a problem in evangelicalism and I get emails. Would you please do another show on this topic? And so don't run around saying God told you something, especially, are you listening?

Especially when it comes to prayer. Prayer is you talking to God. Reading the Bible is God talking to you. And never the twain shall meet. Never cross those lines. God does not talk to you in prayer unless the Spirit of God makes you recall verses about God.

Bible verses about God. But he never talks to you. Prayer is not listening to God. I'm just gonna sit and listen. If you'd like to be quiet and meditate and just be silent and think about things, I have no problem with that.

But if you think God's going to speak to you outside of his book, you better quick write those down or somehow accept them as new revelation. That is not true. That is not true. Jack Hayford said, while alone and quiet, listen with your heart.

Nah, nah, nah, no, no, no, Jeremiah 17 .9. Hayford said, don't strain your ears for an audible sound. The Bible describes this order of the Lord's communication with us as a still, small voice. Really?

I don't think so. I think that's poor hermeneutics when you go to look in 1 Kings and say, well, whatever happened to Elijah, I think should happen to me. That is bad. But that is exactly what charismatics do.

He said, further expect his voice to come more by impressions, that is by thoughts or ideas which begin to form as you are quiet and worshipful in his presence. Friends, that is Quakerism. That is inner light stuff.

And inner light people, Quaker people, forgot about the fall. They forgot about depravity. They didn't know how the heart, mind, soul, will are corrupt. And even if you're redeemed, you still have a sin issue and you are not glorified with your mind.

You are not perfect in your thinking. When God speaks to you through the Bible, prayer, circumstances of the church or some other way, he has a purpose in mind for your life. That is Blackabee being dead wrong in his book, Experiencing God.

You do not have some kind of spirit of God and divine energy and light in you like the Quakers think, somehow bypassing all the fall. The Quakers believe that and they believe what they experienced inwardly was somehow revealed by God.

No, man is depraved. Women are depraved. You need to be careful of George Fox type of thinking that you've got some kind of teacher within, meaning you. No, we have to go outside of ourselves for truth.

Why isn't there anything in the first epistle to Timothy, the second epistle of Timothy, or the first and only epistle to Titus about how pastors should discern people that go around talking about, God said, God told me.

Why? Because it was never supposed to be that way. Phil Johnson said, to whatever degree you seek private messages outside of his word, you abandon sola scriptura. So don't seek those messages. Don't look forward to them.

Don't try to give me some kind of God opened the door and closed the door, I couldn't go. Maybe God opened the door so you wouldn't go through and you'd use wisdom. Maybe God closed the door so you'd use persistence and energy to try to knock down the door.

Revealed religion is Christianity. Revealed religion is Christianity. You don't need to read Mysticism and Christianity by B .B. Warfield. They're basically two religions in the world. Two religions. One religion, the only religion that's true, Christianity.

We hear from God outside of us. Christianity reveals a message from God. The other religions, it's an internal thing. Oh, they may have scriptures, but combine that with internal things. Did you know the Bible never commands us to tune into any inner voice?

We're commanded to study Bible, read Bible, memorize Bible. John MacArthur said, we're instructed to cultivate wisdom and discernment. We're told to walk wisely and make the most of our time. So I want you to study the Bible.

I don't want you to run around having some kind of mystic kind of, you know, the gods are speaking to me. This is new age. This is pantheism. This is Christian mysticism. It's mysticism, but it's just got some Christian terms to it.

Why don't you do the good, better, or best even? And good, better, best paradigm would say, go for the Bible. Breckenridge said, B .B. Warfield said, there's nothing more important in the age in which we live than to bear constantly in mind that all the Christianity of Christianity rests precisely on external authority.

He's right. He's exactly right. He said, evangelical Christianity interprets all religious experience by the normative revelation of God recorded for us in the Holy Scripture and guides, directs, and corrects it from these scriptures and thus molds it into harmony with what God in his revealed word lays down as the normal Christian life.

The mystic, on the other hand, tends to substitute the religious experience for the objective revelation of God recorded in the written word as the source from which he derives his knowledge of God or at least to subordinate the expressly revealed word as the less direct and convincing source of the knowledge of God to his own religious experience.

The result is that the external revelation is relatively depressed in value, if not totally set aside. It's a lot of big words from a super smart guy. I try reading one of his books, let alone reading one of his quotes.

Who needs the Bible when God just talks to you? So God talks to you through the scripture, so read the Bible. You wanna hear from God today? You want a word from the Lord? Then you need to open up your Bibles and read it.

And so what I'd like to have you do is read Psalm 119 today, Psalm 119. Read that every day for a few days and you'll say, you know what? I think I better read the Bible more. If I read the Bible and this is the effect, this is what the truth is contained, this Bible contains this kind of truth, I better read it.

So no compromise radio ministry, Mike Abendroth here. God told me to tell you to read Psalm 119. He gave me an impression. I feel the burning in my bosom and you need to read Psalm 119. No, he didn't do that at all.

I just think it's a wise thing to do, so I'm telling you based on my wisdom, read Psalm 119, it will increase your love for the word that shows forth Christ Jesus and you will be blessed.

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.