Don't Date Unbelievers

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 are called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here is our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Faithfulness, Law and Gospel, and Preaching Christ

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and it is a good day to talk about the faithfulness of God. Great is thy faithfulness. Is there any day not to talk about how faithful God is, especially in light of our current culture, our modern-day culture, in the West, in the East, people are so unfaithful.

I think if we are Bible study teachers, VBS teachers, home group teachers, teaching our children the Bible, evangelists, Bible teachers of any shape, size, or sort, kind, or manner, likeness thereof, we ought to remind people, of course, there is sin in the world, but then let�s talk about the sinless one.

I think if there is one thing that the Lord has shown me in the ministry that He has given me over the last 20 years, instead of just preaching the fire and brimstone thunder of the law, and there is nothing wrong with that, preach the law and the gospel.

So condemn the sin of faithlessness, and then commend people to the faithful Jesus who in Jesus, we have the yes and amens, right? So if you're going to talk about lust, then make sure you talk about the one who forgives lust and the one who never lusted.

It's that kind of preaching methodology. I wish somebody would have grabbed me by the collar and given me a once-over. When I first got here to the church, Bethlehem Bible Church in Massachusetts, they, I thought, needed some law.

I mean, you just knew, you're dumb, stupid, and I thought I'd preach through James. I think my numbers are right on this, about 104 verses, half of those, 52, are imperatives, and, you know, not much on the work of Christ, none on the work of Christ, nothing about the work of Christ.

Oh, you learn about Jesus in chapter 2, about He's this glory, He's, you know, Jesus Christ the glory, and so you don't want to be prejudiced or prideful in your myopic racism. When you compare yourself to Jesus, you're nothing, and so how can you compare yourself to somebody else, right?

And so, partiality and prejudice goes out the window for the Christian when you look to who Jesus is. Well, my problem was, instead of making sure to talk about Jesus in the sermon, although He wasn't in the text particularly, are all Psalms messianic?

No, should you preach Jesus from every Psalm? Yes. And so, if you're preaching, the Lord is my shepherd, I think you can talk about how we know who the Lord is, and we have all the Bible, it's a triune God, and God is a shepherd, and look at John chapter 10, and we connect the dots for people so that we preach Christ.

I've determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Even the crucified Jesus is the one we preach. So, on a side note, let me just make you mad for a second. See how we do that?

See how easy that is? Some people abhor crucifixes, and I understand why, and they'll discuss, well, with the mass and reslaying of Jesus versus the Hebrews 9 and 10, once and for all sacrifice of Jesus, the righteous one.

So, I understand that. And I often go into Catholic hospitals, and I'm actually very grateful for Catholic hospitals because they offer good care, and I have had, let's see, St. Joseph's Burbank is where Haley was born and Luke was born in 1992 and 1996, and that was in Burbank, California, and then my other two children, they were born at St. Vincent's in Massachusetts, and so I'm glad for the care.

All four of those births were attended by wonderful doctors and nurses. By the way, on a side note, the doctor went to the wrong hospital for baby three, Maddie, and instead of going to UMass Memorial, I think he went to UMass University, wherever we were, he wasn't.

So the nurses said, well, there's another, you know, OBGYN on call here, and would you like him to deliver the baby, or do you want a midwife or a nurse, or what do you want? And so I always ask nurses, who do they use?

Because if you ask another doctor for a referral, maybe there's a good old boys, good old girls network, and maybe they don't really know as much because they're so busy being a doctor. So I always ask the nurses.

And so the nurses said, oh, we use this doctor all the time, and he's very good and competent, and we know we trust him. I said, okay, sounds good enough to me, because otherwise, I'm going to have to catch the baby when the baby comes out.

You know, the first child is about 10 hours of labor. Then the next one's about, you know, nine and a half, and then the next one's an hour, right? I think the story was we turned on the TV in the background.

This was in 1999. And it was a Martha Stewart show, you know, living with Martha Stewart or whatever that was in the morning, one hour show. And I think by the time the water was broken, Pitocin was given, the baby was born.

So we've got to have somebody to catch this baby. And so the doctor that delivered baby three, Maddie, Madeline, was named Dr., no, that's not surprising, is it? Pharisee. So Pharisee. And then baby four was delivered by Sadducee.

No, I'm just kidding. But it was Dr. Pharisee, not spelled the same way. He did an excellent job, excellent nursing staff. I commend the nurses there at St. V's. Well, back on point. The crucifix, although with Roman Catholic connotations, I understand why Protestants might not like it.

But when Paul's talking in 1 Corinthians 2 about Jesus Christ and him crucified and proclaiming, having a determination, having a resoluteness to his preaching, to know ahead of time, I'm going into this city and I'm going to get it all straight in my mind first what I'm going to do so I don't buckle to pressure, so I don't bow to popular opinion.

I will determine what I'm going to do ahead of time so it's easier for me to do. Because it's the right thing to do, to preach about the Son, Jesus Christ. So when Paul says that in 1 Corinthians 1, and he's talking about the foolishness of the cross and how people who are perishing think of it a certain way and how it's moronic and how it's foolish and it's just dumb, it's stupid.

Paul said, but that's my message. See, I used to think it's Jesus Christ and him crucified. Jesus Christ, his person. Him crucified, his work, which would include his resurrection. Well, of course, Paul does do that, the person and work of Christ.

But here in particular, 1 Corinthians 1, in the middle of all these folks at Corinth, Paul was preaching Jesus Christ, the crucified one, the stick-in-your-eye one, the foolish one in their mind. And so when I see a crucifix, maybe this show should be called Redeeming the Crucifix that's in the hospital room, in the labor delivery room.

I think of 1 Corinthians 2, because this is the Jesus we proclaim, the Messiah who hangs on a tree. That's redemption. How can redemption be found on a Messiah, with a Messiah, from a Messiah, who's hanging on a tree?

And yes, he was raised from the dead. Yes, we avoid some re-sacrificing, any re-sacrificing, but the point is still to be made. If you want to see a crucifix, just redeem it by thinking of 1 Corinthians 2, verse 2.

There, see? Aren't you glad you tuned in today? I don't know when this show's going to play, but we're no longer going to be on WVNE 760 here in the Worcester area, in the Metroplex. It's better with finances.

We have the slogan around here, we don't ask for money and we don't get any. If you ask, you get it, but if you don't ask, you don't get. There's a small donate button on the website, if you ever want to do that, but just it costs money to be on the radio.

Everyone knows it, and so when you get the money, you're on the radio, and when you don't get the money, we take that as a sign that God still speaks, get off the radio. Now, he didn't really speak, but that's how we determine providence.

No, no, no, we don't determine providence. That's how we are understanding God's providential moving. Oh, costs money to be on the radio, and when you get money in, you're on the radio. When you don't get money in anymore, you go off the radio, and by the way, probably for the money we do get in, it'll be for apps and social media things, and I Am Barabbas t-shirts or whatever, a variety of those.

But anyway, thank you again to WV &E. It's been a great five and a half years, I don't know, 1 ,500 shows, 1 ,700 shows, whatever the number might be. We've been talking about the faithfulness of God in an unfaithful culture, and last time we have a little introduction to Malachi chapter 2, where the people back in those days struggled in the same areas where we struggle today.

And so it makes it relevant, it makes it apropos to talk about a book like Malachi, this burden from a prophet, from a messenger. I think his name really was Malachi, even though his name means messenger.

My name's Michael, and it means who's like God. So Malachi was dealing in chapter 2, verses 10 through 16, two areas of unfaithfulness that reflected poorly on the Lord who is faithful. Remember back in Malachi's day, they were going through the motions.

They didn't say they didn't believe. They didn't say, we are atheists, we are agnostics. They were just cutting corners, and they were doing everything they could to have the show on the outside, but no internal desire to honor and please the Lord.

And so instead of loving God with everything, they just went through the motions. And so sadly, I am prone to that, and so are you, and so Malachi is very good, especially when it deals with the exhortation to be faithful in a faithless age.

Marrying Unbelievers as Covenant Unfaithfulness

How were the people back then, in Malachi's day, showing their unfaithfulness? Well, in chapter 2, it was two things. They married unbelievers. You think that's a struggle today? I think it's a struggle today.

Christians are marrying unbelievers, and so they water down the requirements of salvation because they need to have that person be a Christian. I've seen it many times in premarital counseling, where there'll be someone who acts like a And then they'll meet somebody, and they are swept away by this particular man or woman, and by their kindness, by their generosity, by their looks, by their politeness, by their manners, by their pocket purse book, wall fold, wallet, bill fold.

That's a new one. That's a wall fold, a no-compromise wall fold. And then they say, well, you know, they don't really follow the Lord, but they are Christians. All for the purpose of getting permission to marry them.

Some kind of missionary dating. Now the other thing is, Christians will unbiblically divorce their spouses. I'm not saying God doesn't forgive either of these faithless things. Of course, God has forgiven unbiblical divorces.

Well, He doesn't forgive a divorce, but He forgives those who commit unbiblical divorce. Christ's atonement, His death. Maybe you want to reserve the atonement as a term specifically for the Old Testament.

I understand that. But His reconciling work forgives sinners. If God can forgive murderers, He can forgive anybody. And so He does forgive all those who will place their trust in Him alone in His Son's finished work.

Well, what about those that have married unbelievers and everything turned out well? They either lived a really nice, happy life. And by the way, if you're married to an unbeliever, you can live a joy-filled life, can't you?

A life filled with love and joy and peace. Of course you can, because you have the Spirit of God. Yes, many hardships, I know. I don't personally know, but I know. And God has blessed people in spite of their unbiblical divorce.

I get all that. I understand all that. But still we have, both in the New Testament and now we see this in the Old Testament, where Christians shouldn't marry, you know, believers shouldn't marry unbelievers.

So we can keep our Old Testament, New Testament paradigm straight here. And believers shouldn't unbiblically divorce their spouses. So, sometimes in Malachi's day, probably, and maybe even today, those were related.

You divorce your spouse who's a believer for an unbeliever. I'm sure that happens today, sadly. And so Malachi 2 .10 -16 is very, I think, you know, I've said it before, I'm trying to think of a synonym, but it's relevant.

It's not God's will for a believer to marry an unbeliever, and it's not God's will to divorce your spouse in an unbiblical fashion. So what Paul does when he talks to the Corinthians is similar to what Malachi does when he talks to those that he addresses.

God as Father, Covenant Faithfulness, and the Meaning of Malachi 2:10-16

Chapter 2, verse 10, Notice the rhetorical questions. Malachi is first going to talk about marrying unbelievers. And so he says, haven't we all one Father? Has not one God created us? Now, today we think of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man as a slogan, as a religious cliche that liberals would use, especially between World War I and World War II.

When it's used here in this context in the Old Testament, it talks about the exclusive relationship that you have with your father. Think about on earth. It's unique. It's exclusive. And here it is an exclusive, unique relationship.

God, by His sovereign creation, makes the nation of Israel. And Israel is like a son. Correct? Israel is a nation by divine decree and sovereign loving kindness. They're a covenantal nation. And so God is their father by His creating them and His electing them.

Today, God's not your father unless you're a son, because of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and your trust in Him. You're a child by adoption, not you're a son by creation, as it would be back in the days of Israel.

And so what Malachi does is he uses the word bara in chapter 2, verse 10, because the God of the heavens, the God of the earth, with God always as the subject. This is Genesis 1 language. God, by His authority, makes Israel.

And so when you look at chapter 1, verse 6, if I'm a father, where's the honor due me? If you look at chapter 3, verse 17, I will spare them just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him. God is a father.

And so if He's a father, then why would you be unfaithful? In light of this faithful father, His children shouldn't be unfaithful, should they? You're in this relationship with God as a covenant nation in Malachi.

And so then if you've got other people in that same nation, their sons and daughters, how do you treat your family? Shouldn't you love your family and care for your family? And it's the same thing now, isn't it?

How do we act toward other people reflects on who God is and what He's done for us. And for these people, why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers? When you do something to one another, it affects God.

The vertical affects, the horizontal affects the vertical. And over and over and over, you'll see in this passage, breaking faith or faithless. It's five times used in Malachi 2 .10 .11 .14 .15 .16. It's only used 43 times in all the Old Testament, but five right here in these short few verses.

Yes, there's more of those times used in Proverbs and in Jeremiah. But jammed in here, breaking a covenant given by God, maybe with a little background with faithless. I think that the noun of this means to cover or to cloak.

So you do something undercover, literally. This is the language of Hosea 6. Like Adam, they have broken the covenant. They were unfaithful to me. That's what was happening. And Judah is guilty of betraying the marriage covenant.

We don't want to do that. God has instituted the nation of Israel, given them the Mosaic covenant as well. Solomon called it in 1 Kings 8, the covenant of the Lord that he made with our fathers when he brought them out of Egypt.

And so I don't think Calvin's right when he says this is the Abrahamic covenant. I think this is more the father of God, referring to God as a father in the sense of creation, in the sense of 1 Malachi 1 .6 and 3 as well.

And so if you're a father, if your father treats you a certain way, what's the response? Are we to betray one another? We find each other unfaithful, faithless to one another. God is a father. Shouldn't you act like a son?

That's the point. That's the point. God, you're the father. You should not abuse what it means to be a son. This is treachery. This is profaning the covenant. Don't do that. Walt Kaiser said, Malachi's day may have been no different from our own.

Many ministers and teachers are intimidated to the point of silence on issues regarding sexual practices of single people, extramarital affairs of believers and unbelievers, and divorce. And then just add in homosexual marriage.

Now, Kaiser goes on to talk about the leadership magazine where there's a pastor, appears before his congregation in a full panoply of knight's armor. He lifts the hatch over his mouth and says, my subject today is divorce.

Well, the same would be for gay marriage. And then Malachi goes into those two issues. Don't marry unbelievers and then avoid unbiblical divorce. Stay away from both of those. Why? Because God is faithful.

Because you're a son or a daughter, he says to the people of Israel. And of course, the applications for us today, we in a much more intimate sense, as individual sons and daughters, as adopted children, Ephesians 1, we want to be faithful to what God says.

We don't want to marry unbelievers. Here's how it's put in Malachi 2. Judah has been faithless and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. Excuse me. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves and has married the daughter of a foreign God.

Mixed marriages. And there is a purity issue for Israel. This has been reported in Ezra 9, forbidden in Exodus 34, Deuteronomy 7, 1 Kings 11 with Solomon. Remember those ladies turning Solomon's heart away.

And it says that this is an abomination committed. Now that word abomination, think about it for a second. Hate. Abhor. That's where we get the root word. It's used for the worst evils under the sun. It's used for prostitution.

It's used for witchcraft. It's used for child sacrifice. It's used for homosexuality. A term reserved for some of the worst evils in the land. And it's used here for marrying an unbeliever. It's like witchcraft.

It's like prostitution. Faithlessness as a son or as a daughter for these people marrying outside the covenant community. And you only have to read the Old Testament in a cursory fashion to realize how bad it was spiritually for the people for them to marry non-Israelites, to marry pagans, to marry unbelievers.

And so today it's the same thing when it comes to unbelievers, people marrying unbelievers. And there are differences between the Old Testament, New Testament, Old Covenant, New Covenant. But the similarity is there's a lot of bad things that'll happen when you marry an unbeliever.

And so I would say dads, be involved in the life of your children. This is not a decision your children should make in a bubble, in a vacuum. They should be helped by you, the dad. Helped by you, the mom.

The church should help other Christians make sure they marry Christians so they don't just see someone for their attractiveness externally, their attractiveness internally without thinking about the spiritual aspect.

Repentance for Dating Unbelievers and a Warning Against Unbiblical Marriage

And so my name is Mike Avendroth. This is NoCompromiseRadio .com. If you're dating an unbeliever now and you're a Christian, stop it. Repent. Don't do it. Don't go through with it. I don't care if the invitations have already gone out and it's this Sunday, Saturday, you're supposed to get married.

Stop it. God's faithful so you be faithful. You don't want to fall into this trap. And then next time we'll talk a little bit about what biblical divorce is and how Christians should avoid that. You can pick us up now online.

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No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Avendroth 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 10 .15 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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