I Pray Thee Cotton Mather

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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 divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry.

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Mike Abendroth here, Mike Abendraft, Mike Hafferhorff, Michael, actually my first name has no

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A, M -I -C -H -E -L, and so for years in high school and junior high and elementary school and at university, hi,

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I don't really know how to pronounce names very well, so please forgive me if you can't, if I can't pronounce your name,

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Michelle Abendroth, so it was Michelle for a long time, that was my mother looking at some

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French director's name on TV during the credits and said, ah, let's take the

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A out, ah, why not? Christian History and Biography article published on ChristianityToday .com,

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Seizing Every Moment for Prayer, an excerpt from the Diary of Cotton Mather, February 1684.

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So Cotton Mather, you might want to think about who Cotton was, type in Salem Cotton Mather, and maybe you'll find a little bit, you can go see where he is buried,

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I've seen his tombstone in Boston, and here we have Cotton Mather. I really like what he says when it comes to Seizing Every Moment for Prayer, and thought

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I would do this for No Compromise Radio today, not the whole show, but part of it. When I've been sitting in a room full of people at a funeral, where they take not much liberty for talk, and where yet much time is most unreasonably lost,

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I have usually set my wits a work to contrive agreeable benedictions for each person in the company.

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So here's the point. He is going to try to, since he didn't have an iTouch, an iTunes, iPad,

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Droid, Android, Blackberry, iPhone, he didn't have any of those things, he had to use his mind.

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And so, when he is sitting there at a funeral, or any time when there's a large group of people, and he's not talking, he looks at them and then he prays for them.

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In passing along the street, I have sell myself to bless thousands of persons, now this is

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Old English of course, whoever, excuse me, who never knew that I did it with secret wishes after this manner sent unto heaven for them upon the sight of.

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Now let's just stop there for a second. Now, I don't do this like Cotton Mather did, and I have a long way to go, but sometimes

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I'll see people and then I'll pray for them that God would save them if they're not saved, and if they are saved, that God would bless them, encourage them, comfort them, etc.

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Now these are people that I haven't talked to, nor will I ever talk to them, but I'll just see them and I'll see them in a bind, or I'll just, it just pops in my mind,

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I should just pray for that person. God just tells me, Mike, pray for that person. I'm just kidding.

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And so here this Puritan is trying to make sure that the time is used wisely, and so if he sees these different types of people, this is how he prays, and this is,

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I think, just wise. A tall man, so if he sees a tall man, and this is what he prays,

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Lord, give that man high attainments in Christianity. Let him fear

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God above many. So if somebody's tall, let him really go up the ladder of Christian fruit in light of what

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God has done for him in Christ Jesus. Children at play, how would you, if you see children at play, do you pray for them?

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Cotton Mather said in Seizing Every Moment in his diary, 1684, children at play,

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Lord, let not these children always forget the work which they came into the world upon.

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So they're playing, and he prays that. That was neat. Not me clearing my throat, but that was just neat what he talked about with children.

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A very little man, Lord, bestow great blessings upon that man, and above all, thy

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Christ, the greatest of blessings. I guess pretty much you pray for the tall man and the little man the same way, big and tall man.

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I went to Marshall's the other day. That's where we buy our clothes or TJ Maxx or whatever. And boy, they've got a section in the

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Lemonster, Marshall's, that is for super big and tall people, big and tall and wide.

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Man, what is it these days with like XXXXXXXXXL? Woo, dog.

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All right. How do you pray for a very little man?

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We already did that. A man carrying a burden, maybe laptop or something. Lord, help this man to carry a burdened soul unto his

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Lord and Redeemer. That's a neat prayer. Now, this is harder to do today, but maybe you're an equestrian or something.

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A man on horseback, Lord, thy creatures do serve that man. Help him to serve his maker.

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So as a horse serves the man, Lord, make the man serve you as a response to your grace.

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Young people, Lord, help these persons to remember their Creator in the days of their youth.

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Right. That's Ecclesiastes, isn't it? Excellent advice. Young, gentle women.

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That's exactly what it says. Young, gentle women. Here's the prayer for young, gentle women as Cotton Mather uses time that's unreasonably lost as he sets his wits a work for contrivable, agreeable, no, to contrive agreeable benedictions, contrivable benedictions.

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Where's Steve when I need him? I was just reading Carl Truman's book the other day, affectionately known as Carl, and his, when fools rush in, and he has something about an

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Elvis Costello line there. So see, I thought he was more hard rock. He has a who line in there too for a chapter title.

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All right. Young, gentle women. Lord, make them wise virgins as the polished stones of thy temple.

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Give these young women wisdom. Okay. A shopkeeper busy in the shop.

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Lord, let not the world cause that person to neglect the one thing that is needful.

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So busy people can end up being busy bodies, of course, but busy people can be so busy they forget the

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Lord. Actually, I think that's very true in the world today. People are so busy and you've got soccer practice and breakfast and school and running hither thither, pell, mell, back and forth, to and fro.

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What are some other words like that? Riff and raff. What's, what's the stuff that comes up on the water in the ocean?

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I can't remember what that is. That's the word I'm thinking about right now. The froth or something. Frither and froth.

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That's not it. What is it? Ebbs and tide. I know that, but there's something else.

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I'm thinking about words that go together and rhyme like that, that go, the world tide goes up and tide goes down and it's to and fro.

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Cannot remember. Steve Cooley, where are you? A man who going by me took no notice of me.

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That's the person that this Cotton Mather Puritan needs to pray for. So he didn't even notice

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Cotton Mather. Lord, help that man to notice me. No, he didn't pray that.

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Lord, froth, something froth. No, no. Froth. What is that?

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What's the one the water kind of comes up and foams and foments?

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Ted, help me. What kind of show is it, by the way, when regular emailers, friends like Ted and regular emails like John, when they email me and Barbara and I call them stalkers.

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What would that mean? The busy man. How do you pray for a busy man? Lord, help that man to take a due notice of the

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Lord Jesus Christ, I pray thee. So help him not be too busy for you. So on No Compromise Radio, Cotton Mather, we had some good reminders here, didn't we?

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So if you see someone, you can always just pray for them. That's a great way to pray without ceasing, is to pray for these people.

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They don't even know it. I wonder what it'll be like when you get to heaven and see some of these answered prayers. All right.

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Presbyterian humor from around the web. Now see, people want to know if I'm Presbyterian or if I'm Baptistic.

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I believe in a Baptistic view of the Lord's Supper that is Zwinglian. I understand the

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Reformed Calvinistic view, but I love my brothers who hold that position. But when

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I see them walk by, I pray thee. So I'd be

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Baptistic when it comes to the Lord's Supper. I'd actually be Baptistic when it comes to baptism. It's strange, isn't it?

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Immersion after belief. And when it comes to polity, I'm not Baptistic.

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I think I'm Scriptural. I'd be a little more Presbyterian in terms of elder, although we have no sessions. The only sessions

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I know of is a surf company. I have a sessions t -shirt. Maybe that would work out well.

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You might be a Presbyterian if... Oh no, here, this is different. This says you might be totally

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Reformed if you first quote the Westminster Confession and then say, oh yeah, the Bible says this somewhere too.

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You might be totally Reformed if you refuse to vote for Jesus as Time Magazine's Person of the

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Year because you don't want an image of Christ on the front cover. That's cute. You might be

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TR if you secretly believe that you have to believe in election to be saved.

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Actually, I got an email from someone a while ago, and he basically said, he was a no -compromise listener, an excellent listener.

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I pray thee. No, I hope he's still listening, that if you don't believe in limited atonement, particular redemption, definite atonement,

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Christ dying only for the elect, then you couldn't be a Christian because you would be believing something about God the

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Son that wasn't correct, or something like that was the argument. So I try to tell him

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I believe in particular redemption, but I don't believe that you have to believe that to go to heaven. All right.

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And I had to kind of cut off things because I couldn't talk to him anymore. He wasn't listening. All right.

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TR if while officially affirming the priesthood of all believers, the only people you really trust to interpret

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Scripture are Calvin and yourself, and you only trust yourself on Thursdays before noon. I didn't get that one as much.

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For you, a Baptist and stupid are the same word. Insert Smoker's Cough here.

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Oh, man, you might be totally Reformed if a Reformed Baptist and a square circle are equally as difficult for you to imagine.

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This is from tatevill .com, PrezHumor. You wonder what the Holy Spirit was up to between the times of Paul and Calvin.

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Oh, that's interesting. That's actually a good question. You can go online to iTunes and pull up Carl Truman Medieval Church and listen to some iTunes.

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Ask Carl if you want to go to iTunes. Write a book together. I wonder what the answer is going to be. By now, you'll already know the answer is no.

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He'd like to sell some books. At some point in your life, you honestly believe that the only people who are saved are you and your buddy who thinks just like you, and then you have to wonder about him because he does not think just like you.

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No, because he does think just like you. See, that one's not as good. It can't all be great on No Compromise Radio.

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You think any church that has more than 200 people is probably apostate. No, that's TR. You are personally repulsed by Campus Crusade for Christ.

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Now, see, I didn't write these. I did not write these. All right.

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You keep telling yourself that Willow Creek has to be a really bad dream. You're considering stoning someone.

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Man, that's not as funny. You've seriously thought about lighting up a cigarette in church. You think that the

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Pope is the Antichrist. Thinks he'd never been taken out of the confession. Your favorite Bible. This is a funny one.

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Only those in the know will know this. If I could read it, find it.

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Your favorite Bible is the authorized Bonson version. Craig Bonson, the animus.

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All right. Let's see. Okay. Anything else? Oh, that one

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I can't even read. You think John Gershner was an Arminian? Who knows better now? That's TR for sure.

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You might be barely reformed if, okay, this is BR, barely reformed. This is Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio.

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We're digging to the bottom of the barrel here. This is the bottom of the barrel reformed. I pray thee.

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Let me go back to Mather here for a second. I've usually set my wits to work to contrive agreeable benedictions, allegedly.

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By the way, with Jonathan Gershner, you need to pull up some of Gershner's stuff. He's got the best stuff. That book called Theology for Every Person, I think, for everybody.

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And that would be good to listen to. R .C. Sproul's mentor, Jonathan Gershner. It's with the

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Lord now. You might be barely reformed if you change the name of your church from Knox Reform Presbyterian to Grace Community Fellowship.

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You might be barely reformed if you've ever seriously considered going to Pensacola or Toronto to bring back the fire.

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You think the church needs another revival, not another reformation. You've ever done an infant dedication service.

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You've ever cut a service short because of Super Bowl Sunday. You've switched to using overhead so people would have their hands free to just really worship

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God. You believe the greatest work on apologetics ever written was more than a carpenter.

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Oh, this is cutting too close to the bone. You have a worship team.

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You're barely reformed. The most common logo on your casual clothing is

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P .K., Promise Keepers. You nod your head when someone says doctrine divides.

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You could sell your copy of the Confession in like new condition. You think that the

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PCUSA went liberal because people just really stopped loving Jesus. You don't own anything by Charles Hodge, Archibald Alexander, or B .B.

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Warfield. The words relevant, contemporary, and cutting edge cause you to salivate excessively.

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So there you have it on No Compromise Radio. What else is going on? Well, we've talked about Malcolm McLaren.

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Sorry, there I go again. Let me try to promote a book.

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Let's do something positive here today, right? Speaking of B .B. Warfield, I have in front of me The Plan of Salvation.

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So that is the book that I'd like to promote right now. Erdman's Publishing. I don't know if it's still on Erdman's or not, or they're too busy publishing books on Mormonism, I'm not sure, but it's called

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The Plan of Salvation by Benjamin B. Warfield, late professor in Princeton Theological Seminary.

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This is the revised edition, Erdman's, and they've taken some of his writings, and these are the chapters underneath the title of The Plan of Salvation.

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The Differing Conceptions, Autosotirism. Now, see, these are words that you just have to know.

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You're not even barely, barely reformed, I pray thee, if you don't know these words.

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So how about autosotirism? How about if you don't even know how to pronounce it and you have the radio show?

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Autoself or person. Soter is to save, to save yourself. That's what people end up believing in.

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So B .B., of course. M .L., of course. Autosotirism.

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Sacerdotalism. You just have to say that with a certain, if you rolled R's, this is you slide your

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S's, sacer, sacer. It's a sacerdotalist.

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Universalism. Calvinism. And then notes, notes.

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I'm still trying to think of the word that I want. Flotsam and jetsam.

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That's it. Is that the way to say it? Flotsam and jetsam. The Jetsons.

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Meet George Jetson. Okay. So this book talks about differing conceptions. First of all, in the first chapter of salvation, the line of division here is whether in the matter of salvation of man,

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God has planned simply to leave men with more or less completeness to save themselves or whether he has planned himself to intervene to save them.

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The issue between the naturalist and the supernaturalist is thus the eminently simple, but quite obvious one.

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Does man save himself or does God save him? That's the issue of the book.

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And that's why we need to read books like this today, because although most people will deny that they saved themselves, they will attribute faith as the cause of salvation instead of the non -meritorious instrumental means with God's love as the cause.

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This confession in direct opposition to naturalism declares with emphasis that it is God the

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Lord and not man himself who saves the soul and that no mistake may be made.

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It does not shrink from the complete assertion and affirms with full understanding of the issue precisely that all the power exerted in saving the soul is from God.

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Now that is a long sentence, but that is one sentence. Here then,

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Warfield says, is the knife edge which separates the two parties. The supernaturalist is not content to say that some of the power which is exerted in saving the soul, that most of the power that is exerted in saving the soul is from God.

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So not some, not most. He asserts that all the power that is exerted in saving the soul is from God, that whatever part man plays in the saving process is subsidiary, is itself the effect of the divine operation and that it is

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God and God alone who saves the soul. And the supernaturalist in this sense is the entirely organized church in the whole stretch of its official testimony.

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That is what the church believes. That is what the church should believe.

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And so B .B. Warfield wants to root out any human works that would denigrate the great crosswork of Christ Jesus.

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From this consistent universalism, however, the great mass of evangelical universalists have always drawn back, compelled by the clearness and emphasis of the scriptural declaration that in point of fact all men are not saved.

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They have found themselves therefore face to face with a great problem and various efforts have been made by them to construe the activities of God, looking to salvation as all universalistic and the issues as nevertheless particularistic.

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While yet the fundamental evangelical principle is preserved that it is by grace of God alone which saves the soul.

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Then B .B. Warfield talks like this, and I wonder if you believe this way, that God discriminates between men.

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He saves some and not others. God discriminates between men.

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Warfield said, page 26, we cannot speak of a decree discriminating between men with reference to salvation and punishment, therefore, without positing the contemplation of men as sinners as its logical prius,

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P -R -I -U -S. So this book is really, really good because it roots out, like I said, any kind of merit of our own.

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You're not saved because of your faith. You're not saved due to your faith.

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You're saved because God is gracious and loving and kind and merciful, and you are saved through your merit, non -meritorious faith.

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There is a nice order of decrees here in the book that's a good little chart. And then it says here, what's the other quote that I'm looking for?

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Okay, I'm going to have to just flip forward to this a little bit. Christ did not die in the sinner's stead, it seems, to bear his penalties and purchase for him eternal life.

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He rather died to make the salvation of sinners possible, to open the way of salvation to sinners, to remove all the obstacles in the way of salvation of sinners.

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But what obstacle stands in the way of the salvation of sinners except just their sin?

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And if this obstacle, their sin, is removed, are they not saved? So he's critiquing that position that we're not made savable.

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Some other obstacles must be invented, therefore, which Christ may be said to have removed, since he cannot be said to have removed the obstacle of sin, that some function may be left to him, and some kind of effect be attributed to his sacrificial death.

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So what B .B. Warfield is saying is this, that you wound

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Christianity at its heart when you give any credit to men for their salvation, and you take away even a little smidgen,

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Romans 11, 6, from God. Warfield said on page 96, Let it be understood once for all that the completest recognition of the sovereignty of God does not suffice to make one a good

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Calvinist. Otherwise, we should have to recognize every Mohammedan as a good Calvinist.

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There can be no Calvinism without a hearty confession of the sovereignty of God. But the acknowledgement of the sovereignty of God itself goes only a very little way toward Calvinism.

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And so what Warfield is going to say is there's a personal nature to God's sovereignty. It's not just fatalism.

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God is a person. God is one essence, rather, three persons, and that he is personally involved in the life of his people, sovereignly choosing.

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And so today on No Compromise Radio, what do we do? Seizing every moment, my wits,

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I set my wits to work, with a little bit of Presbyterianism, humor, and then B .B.

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Warfield, the plan of salvation, a classic study of the basic and essential differences between various interpretations of the

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Christian religion. Erdmans, NoCompromiseRadio .com. Write us at info at NoCompromiseRadio .com,

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and we will see you tomorrow. 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 10 .15 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.

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The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.