Questions unbelievers ask

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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 king.
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Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, I'm your streamer, I'm your host Mike. In real time,
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Saturday at 10 a .m. and it has been snowing like a banshee.
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Now I think banshees are female, so does that offend any of the audience, any of the No Compromise listeners today?
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Lay people, laymen, laywomen, banshees, banshees. Yeah, what is a banshee?
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It's snowing like one, that's all I know. And I think we're supposed to get another foot or two this week.
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When I first moved to New England, it was April 3rd, 1997, and April 1st in New England, they received 30 inches of snow and Logan was closed.
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I should have taken that as a sign. You know, Cotton Mather inappropriately read
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Providence. He read Providence wrongly. I should have read Providence.
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Just kidding, I am glad I came out here. I know it was the Lord's will.
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Of course I do, now that it's already happened, I know it's God's will, his decreed will. The church celebrated or helped me celebrate.
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My 20th anniversary here at Bethlehem Bible Church. So that's exciting. And they snuck my brother in,
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Pat Abendroth flew him in. He walked into the house and I didn't even notice him.
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I was sitting on my computer. I wasn't sitting literally on my computer. I was sitting and I was looking at my computer and here comes my brother,
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Pat. And the great part was Steve had, Tuesday guy had figured out a way to get him to the house without me knowing.
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Kim earlier in the day was asking me if I had my gun on me. Sometimes I wear a gun, carry a gun.
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It's a fashion accessory. She was asking me, I thought, well, you never asked me that. You know, if we go places that I think
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I need it, I bring it, right? Church and stuff. Actually, sadly, most pastors have experienced people that are crazy or sinful or a little deranged or vindictive.
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And you receive threats of certain kinds. And so maybe sometimes it should be a pastor fashion accessory.
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Maybe that's what Ed Young Jr. needs to do. Pastor fashion. You've got your little gun belt on your hip.
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So anyway, I didn't have the gun on me at the time. And you know, two guys coming in the back door with the lights out,
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I would have been gotten. I would have been had. Anyway, it was a good celebration. Big swanky dinner on Saturday night.
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And then Pat preached 1 Timothy chapter four. It's online, bbcchurch .org, if you'd like to listen to the message.
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I think I'm most thankful for and have the most gratitude for the opportunity to be here for 20 years.
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And then you get to watch people grow. Now, 1 Thessalonians 2 .13 discusses of, you know, the word of God does its work in those who believe.
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And even if there's one pastor after another, after another that stay only the average of three years, those people still grow.
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The congregation grows when they get the Bible. But the pastors don't get to see it if they're always hopping around.
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And this is no diatribe against a pastor if he's listening today and he's had five or six churches. That's not my point.
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I even know one man, maybe he's listening, John Bolger. When I met him here in New England, he, single man, would just go around from one place to the next, to the next.
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And he would, you know, be a pastor. And so anyway,
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I see Steve Cooley pulling up right now. He's gonna come and he thinks I should be on the air, off the air, and he's gonna walk in.
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So I'm gonna have him come in, cold stop into four or five minutes as I push the pause button, but not quite yet.
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Anyway, Bolger just would go from place to place to fill in because that was his ministry and is his ministry.
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Anyway, it was great to be here though for 20 years. Has been great because I get to see people learn and grow.
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Some people were not born when I got here and now they have been born. They have gotten older.
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They've got saved, baptized, doing things with the ministry. I've seen people who used to be, you know, their lives were wrecks and now they're deacons and their lives were charismatic, you know, fringe and now they're elders and the list goes on.
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It was really quite a fun time. Quite a special time as I would just look at all the people and think, you know, like Luther said, the word of God does its work.
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It's powerful. How'd you start the Reformation, Luther? Looking back on it, he said in that second sermon, he said,
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I did nothing. The word did it all. I just went to bed, had a beer and went to bed and the word did it all.
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And that's exactly what's happening here at Bethlehem Bible Church. And lo and behold, magically, with alacrity,
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Steve just appeared in the studio. Five minutes into his show. This is a first, Steve. Special effects. Well, I was wondering, you know,
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I was looking outside and there's so much snow. The Schnee out there is just chaotic.
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You just somehow transported in. Mm -hmm, mm -hmm, yep. As if on Santa's sleigh.
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Steve, you know, this works perfectly because we're such a megachurch here, a megachurch, that we need more holograms for our other campuses because you never know which campus
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Steve is gonna show up at. We have five or six campuses here. And if we put it in the bulletin, then everybody would go to the real
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Steve, not the holographic Steve. So true. What do you think about that? With pastors are preaching at churches, they grow.
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You get these satellite campuses and the pastor, instead of like launching the satellite churches and then giving the reins over to another guy, he just keeps showing up at all those.
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Or worse, you send in the videotape, you know, the live recording so everybody watches the screen instead of having a real guy.
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What a great opportunity to get to know the pastor. I know. We've talked about it a lot here at No Compromise Radio, but still,
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I just think to myself, while I don't want to do dumb things in front of congregants, when
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I inevitably do, they say, you know what? But he's always talking about Jesus. He talks about the right person, even though he's not perfect.
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Don't we want that? Yes, we do. So yeah, I think it's just a way to kind of go, well, the pastor's human too, you know, and to see them in real life.
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I mean, how do you get to know the pastor's kids or anything else? You know, if all you do is just see him on a TV screen, and in fact, why not just say, hey, stay home?
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Well, yeah, you could just live stream it. Yeah. I think Truman's right when he says presence is important because they always have a live band.
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They don't ship in the band via video. They've got the live band on site. So if presence wasn't important, why would they do that?
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They probably wouldn't. I think, you know, let's flip it around here. For the people who are going, your presence is important.
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Why? Wow, that's Truman -esque.
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Go ahead. Well, I mean, realistically, if you're at a megachurch, your attendance really maybe isn't that important because -
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Well, as long as you donate online. Yeah, because who knows if you're there? Who cares if you're there? You know, I mean, yeah, they don't really, but let's just talk about the real world, the real church.
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It is important to be there because you can't do the one another's, you know, and there are a number of things that don't happen if you don't go to church.
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Excellent. Steve, you just were on a radio show. What show were you on and what'd you talk about?
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Iron Sharpens Iron Radio with Chris Arnson. And we talked about Mormonism, namely my conversion out of Mormonism, but just a lot about Mormon theology.
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Good, I encourage people to listen. What do they do? Just type that in? If they go to ironsharpensironradio .com
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and they look on, was it February 8th or 9th? But anyway, there's an archive there and they can look it up,
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Steve Cooley, and I'm there. He didn't file under the Tuesday guy. I was so disappointed. Well, he needs to have a hashtag,
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Tuesday guy, even though hashtags I heard on the radio the other day are out. Really? They're passe? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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No longer in vogue? We 86ed him. Huh. Steve, since you were doing that show and talking about unbelievers and God's saving you out of Mormonism into union with Christ Jesus, I picked out a book and it's by Barry Wood, W -O -O -D, not
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Leon Wood, not Leon Morris. And not Evelyn Woodhead. Uh -huh.
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Actually, on the back, it says Barry Wood receives his MDiv at Southwestern Seminary, but with his haircut, he looks more like Rick Barry.
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That is a really bad, bad haircut. Doesn't he look like Rick Barry? Hmm. Now, Rick Barry, he could play some basketball and his children, they could too.
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He looks like, well, I don't want to say what he looks like. He kind of resembles Rick Barry, but yeah.
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Just not, maybe not as handsome. All right. Real, real nice.
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Steve just gave me the smirk. You know, Steve is an excellent game player with a variety of these strategy games, you know,
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Stratego on, I was almost saying on Quaaludes. On steroids.
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But his poker face, I don't know how he wins all these championships because his poker face sometimes isn't existent.
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Well, yeah, I'm not really in, you know, diplomacy mode here on the radio, so. Okay, but you can turn it on when you'd like?
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Mm -hmm. See, that's my problem. I don't know how to turn it on and turn it off. I'm afraid if I turned it on, it'd never get turned off.
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Well, you know, for some people, that's a problem. All right, well, in front of me, I have this book. Questions Non -Christians
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Ask. I didn't really know that was a category. Is that like free believers or something? Yeah, you know,
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I'm kind of thinking with that picture too, some of these might be a little dated. Oh, that first one's good though.
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So if I, this is gonna be, if we had a, if we were like Todd Freel and we had a video camera in here, you would all see that I'm opening this up at random.
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Just a random page. I'm gonna ask Steve a question. And I'm gonna punt. Well, this is funny.
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Which prayer book is right? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
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The Bible. Okay, we better try this again. I'll pick a different one. That was not a great question.
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Which prayer book is right? Uh -oh. This is not a question, but it says Jesus and the Gurus. Remember, everybody's thinking, what happened to all those silent years that we know nothing about from when
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Jesus was, down in India and healing birds and people were mean to him, little kids, and he'd make them deaf or mute.
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That's like the Twilight Zone. Sending kids to the field. All the fake stories that,
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I mean, they sound like Twilight Zone stories. Seriously, yeah, yeah. Well, so far, this game is really bombing.
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Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. So now, I'm gonna have to - Hear that sound? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
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That's the sound of thousands of computers all around the country changing to something else. Okay, well, here's one that just popped up.
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Chapter 12, what about those who have never heard of Christ? Well, that's a good question.
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It is a good question. What about those who, and we know that they go to a spirit prison where they get the opportunity to hear the gospel and then their baptisms are done here.
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Well, that spirit prison, they're held in chains, and so that's the veritable chain match.
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Yeah, a better answer, though, is found in Romans chapter one. As you're turning there, he does say there's some basic laws you have to remember.
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God is love, God is just, and everyone who desires salvation shall find it.
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Oh, and the verses for, well, I mean, God is love, right? But it is, here's the underlying tone of his comment there.
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God is love only. Well, here's to what he says, too, because that clarifies it.
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The Bible clearly states that God is a loving father who desires all men to have fellowship with him.
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He wills that all men be saved. Well, I know why he doesn't say here next God is powerful, because if he's powerful and he desires all to be saved, won't all be saved?
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Then they would be saved, right? What does Romans one say? Romans one says, for the wrath of God is revealed in verse 18.
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For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
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For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made.
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And here's the key. So they are without excuse. People who have not heard the gospel do not have an excuse.
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Yeah, but I don't want Adam sin credited me, said one unbeliever. Oh, okay, well,
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I mean, you might as well say, let's see, I don't want gravity to affect me.
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I don't want the IRS to come after me if I don't pay taxes. I don't want, I don't want. There are a lot of things in life we don't want.
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You know what? I wish donuts were chock full of vitamins and minerals, you know, and the only thing that we needed to sustain life, that would be wonderful.
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And they were fat free and, you know, et cetera, et cetera. At least we have mangoes.
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Those are good for you and you can eat as much as you want pretty much. Donuts, mangoes. Let me think about that.
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Now, mango donuts, that might have even. Oh, you know what? We could do that. What's that place we went to in Boston that you took me to those artesian donuts?
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I don't know. They were like delish donuts. I can't remember the name of it. Kate's, Kate's Kelps.
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Kale. Kate's Kelps. What if you had kale donuts? I think kale's overrated. It's just the next big thing.
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Kale's nasty. So Steve, I, we go back to this all the time and I think of this.
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If you don't understand the fall, or maybe I'll pose it in the form of a question since this is radio. What kind of problems can you run into if you forget about the totality and the effect of Adam's sin, i .e.
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the fall? Well, you run into a myriad of problems. You can't explain evil at all, right? Why does evil exist?
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Why is there disease? Why is there, you know, I, because Adam's fall affects everything, everything around us, the whole world, you know, is infected by the presence and power, ultimately the corrupting power of sin.
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We forget how men are dead in their sins and trespasses, that they don't have the capacity to come to Christ of their own volition.
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We can also presume that, you know, basically this is an additional add -on to that, that by solo bootstraps up, people can come to not only faith in their own, but they can earn their way into heaven.
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Even the Mormons believe that Jesus died for their sins, but the righteousness isn't imputed to people so that they can earn their, you know, their righteousness that they need to get to heaven.
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And there are probably many other problems with. Absolutely. Well, when
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I think of how the sin in the garden and then indwelling sin has affected mind, soul, body, and strength in a total fashion, in a complete fashion, a whole fashion, then it makes me realize if salvation is going to occur, it has to be all of God.
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That's a basic thing. That's why if you look at TULIP, the five points of Calvinism, and you go back to total depravity, the
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T, the spiritual inability, as R .C. Sproul says, if you don't understand that one, you cannot pass
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GO, you can't pass T. Yeah, there's a reason it's not PULIT, right? Partial depravity.
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No, I was going with preservation first. Oh. And then, you know. See, I didn't know that. See, I was thinking about.
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And then back up to, you know, total depravity. That's smart. Well, I think he tips his hand here. Or as I used to say, tips his hat.
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Yeah, I'm so glad you don't do that. That's good. Acts 20, excuse me, Acts 8, 26, and following verses describe an
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African eunuch who is reading Isaiah 53, but could not understand its meaning. He's so far so good.
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He was a sincere pagan, seeking to know the truth. Here's a great biblical principle.
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No one has ever remained lost and without Christ who really wanted to be found. Here's a great biblical principle.
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No one seeks after God, Romans 3. I mean, you can either go with the logic there of the semi -Pelagian or, you know, maybe
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Pelagian, or you can go with the logic of Paul, who says there's no one who seeks after God.
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And, you know, there's no one who does good, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah, that Ethiopian eunuch was sincere, all right, but he was sincere because the
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Holy Spirit was at work in him. Well, I think this brings us to a point here on No Compromise Radio, where you must say to yourself,
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I have to think biblically, and I have to frame my thoughts and my theology by scripture and not what
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I see or what I experience because those things aren't always correct.
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It says here in this book, the book entitled Questions Non -Christians Ask by Barry Wood.
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Who publishes this? Fleming H. Revelle. Revelle, they made slot cars.
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We had one of those sets at home when I was a kid. That's good. It says,
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God will bring a Philip into every seeker's life. And it'd be so much easier if he just said, listen,
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God is a God who's sovereign, and he is a God who's loving and just, and he chooses people, and those elect people, he will bring evangelists into their lives.
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But I would agree with him. He'll bring a Philip into every seeker's life. There are no seekers, therefore there's no problem.
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What's that old song? They call me the seeker. That's a who song. Yeah. The who sang, those
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Pelagian people. I think it was about heat -seeking missiles. I think it was. So it's better to think this way.
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I almost said congregation. And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord.
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And as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. That's Acts 13, 48.
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You know, sometimes I think we immediately tell people, well, Acts, it's just this transitionary book, and you can't have any doctrine in Acts, and that's usually in the context of charismatic stuff.
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But there's a good doctrinal statement right there for you in the book of Acts. And excellence. If you've got someone in your life, and they begin to ask you questions, and they begin to read their
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Bible and all those things, if they come to faith, we will be able to say, see, that's
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John six, the father drawing those people to himself. Is that a better way to look at it?
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Yes, it is. Now, I almost said drawing, because that's just so embedded into my mind now in New England.
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Yeah, you're getting there. 20 years, it's starting to wear on you. I'm getting there. Yeah, one of these days, you'll be able to say, you know,
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I've been in Massachusetts longer than I've lived anywhere else. That'll be a scary day, won't it? That's coming up,
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I think, in one year. I know, Steve, I thought, you know, growing up in the
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Midwest, then moving out to Los Angeles, then moving out to the Boston area, my thought next stop is
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Northwest or Southeast. So far, I'm still here. Yeah, well, the good news for me is
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I'll have to live in my 80s to be able to say, I've lived here longer than I've lived.
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What city were you born in, West Covina? No, Canoga Park. Seriously, Canoga Park Hospital?
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Yeah. Okay, I've been there. Yeah, it doesn't even exist anymore, does it? Well, it did in the 80s when
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I was selling medical supplies, but it was a small one. It was almost like the movie star, a little hospitalette out there in Camarillo.
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So I probably shared the little baby ward with, you know, movie stars.
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Probably you shared like a little bassinet with Brad Pitt or somebody. Yeah, I probably did.
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Maybe a rock star. Yeah, maybe. Maybe Iggy Pop. Yeah, I hope not.
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Anyway, when you have thoughts about this person is coming on their own to salvation, you just have to remember depravity, and you say, well,
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I'm watching someone read their Bible and wanting to come to church. They're still not a believer yet, but they're asking the right questions.
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You're thinking, Lord, yes, please draw them to yourself. And if the people become a Christian, well, we'll know they're part of the elect.
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Is that the only way we can know? How can we know if someone's an elect person? Well, you know, they do have the
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E. I'm gonna swallow their back. No, it's, yeah.
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I mean, how can you know? It's when somebody responds, and then, you know, over time, they show that they are, in fact, a believer.
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How can you know if somebody's elect? It really bugs me when people ask me that question.
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How can I know if I'm elect? Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to bug you today.
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I just thought we'd just, like, throw you a softball. I don't mean to bug you. Am I bugging you?
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Yeah. How do I know if I'm one of the elect? That's just the wrong question, and usually, that stems from somebody who wants to kind of downgrade
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God's sovereignty. You know, usually, that's the. Well, that would almost be this guy here, because when he asked the question, how do you leave room for man's free will to accept or reject
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God's call, his answer is, we must admit, this is a difficult thing to understand. I leave room for the free will of man to reject
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God all the time. What if we said this? God has a will, and man has a will, but one thing's for sure.
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God's will is holy and untainted. Man's will is tainted, and God's will is greater than man's will.
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Could we solve it that way? We could. I think, though, the free will folks just refuse.
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You know, it's the whole God is too much of a gentleman to. It's not love, if you make me love you.
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I just, you know, I had flashbacks of Hank Hanegraaff when you said that. I should have said to Kim when we were dating and about ready to get engaged.
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Do you know, the way you treat me, the way your eyes look, the way, you know, we talk along the beach, you're wooing me, you're winning me, and you ought not to do that.
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That's influencing my will to respond and to agree with my thoughts about you. Quit that.
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Yeah, don't overcome my free will. I must decide alone.
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You must be in a vacuum. Terrible, terrible theology. Well, I don't know when this show is going to air.
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When should we let it air? Like April -ish or something? By the way, do you want to just do shows for the, you know, several months when
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I'm gone, or should we do the reruns? What are we gonna do? I don't know.
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Let me think about that. Yeah, reruns. Maybe we could have that Twitter poll that people do. Oh, good idea.
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Yeah, yeah. I think if we said, do you listen to Wretched Radio or Dividing Line or No Compromise, I don't think we'd be up there.
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I think we'd be way up there. Way up there. Top of the pack. Info at nocompromiseradio .com
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or Heno at No Compromise Radio. Heno. 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 six. 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.