Gary Lozeau Interview

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.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and most of you know the format by now, and if you don�t, let me introduce you to the format.

Five days a week, we�re on Mondays. It�s a recorded sermon at Bethlehem Bible Church, bbcchurch .org.

By the way, there are lots of messages there, including Sunday School messages, Sunday morning messages,

Sunday Night Institute for Biblical Studies, and there�s lots to listen to.

Tuesdays, I have Pastor Steve in the studio, and we talk about pretty much whatever we want to talk about, what�s in the news, evangelical news.

Thursdays, kind of positive, encouraging, K -love, what�s the doctrine of the atonement.

Fridays, we go after false teachers, and Wednesdays, I like to interview people. And that�s what we have today, a

Wednesday show. And sometimes I interview authors, speakers, preachers,

I don�t know, we�ve interviewed everyone from Michael Horton to who else? Thomas Cramner.

Oh, no, he died 400 years ago. What if I did interview

Thomas Cramner? That would have been a good show. That would have been my most well -rated show, highest -rated show.

But today, I have, as I�ve done in the past, I�ve had someone here at the church at Bethlehem Bible Church on because I want him to give his testimony and his background, and we do a lot of home projects together, and so I said, �Hey,

Gary, you should come in and do the radio show with me.� And he, I think there�s a little emoji that signifies �say what ?�

But he said, �Of course I�ll come.� And so, today I have on the show Gary Lozo. Gary, welcome to No Compromise Radio.

Thanks for the invitation. Pass the mic. Gary, I want to get a little of your background because it�s interesting.

Tell me how long you think your wife has been coming to Bethlehem Bible Church, and what you were thinking when you weren�t a

Christian, and when she�d ask you to come, kind of what threw your mind with all that? I believe

Diane was multiple years, six, maybe seven years, and every

Sunday she would ask, �Why don�t you come ?� And me being who

I was, I always told her, �Well, church isn�t my thing, and I have to relate that to 18 years of growing up in Roman Catholic school, and church, and tradition, and all of that, which led me with more questions than answers, and found out that many of it wasn�t even biblical from where I am now, and learning what

I am now. It was a big eye awakening. Yeah, Gary, you are married to Diane, and how long have you been married to her?

28 years. 28 years, wow. And so, would she really invite you every Sunday, �Hey, honey, do you want to go to church today ?�

Is that what she�d say? Every Sunday. Okay. Every Sunday she would go, and then she would take John, our grandson, too, and I knew telling her that it wasn�t my thing, but, �John, you should go.�

I knew it wasn�t right. It was setting a bad example, and it took a long time until basically

God opened my eyes and my heart. Isn�t it interesting? Do you think the Lord used that, or in what way,

Gary, do you think the Lord used that? Not necessarily that you even wanted to learn about God or the Bible or who

Jesus was or sin or anything like that, but you�re thinking, �I have to tell my wife and my grandson, you know what?

You need to go, but Grandpa, he doesn�t need to go.� It was pretty much that, and when you stop and think about what you�re telling young people to do, and by setting an example that doesn�t live up to what you�re telling them, and it weighed on me and weighed on me, and so every once in a while,

I think I came twice in a span of six months, and it was overwhelming, the people, the response, the greetings that you got, and when they asked you how you�re doing and what�s your story, they wouldn�t be like a quick, �How do you do ?�

and walk away. They actually stayed there and wanted to listen, which was kind of a different experience for me, to be honest.

Yeah, so Gary, you grew up as a Roman Catholic, and then, you know, I�m sure you probably went to Mass once in a while for Easter or for Christmas or something like that, some funerals and weddings.

Any time after you left the Catholic school system, till you started attending

Bethlehem Bible Church, did you ever read your Bible at all or say, �You know, I should probably think about God in this way or that way.�

Did you do that at all? Not at all, and to be honest, I didn�t have a

Bible after getting out of school until Diane took me in the morning and started buying one when

I started coming, I believe it was November of 2015. Okay, and so you really didn�t think about that.

Your life was, you know, what was your life like before you were a Christian and you�re just kind of just living your life, things going well, things going not well?

Things were going well, like I think any other day or year you have your ups and downs, but I believe that I wasn�t as bad as some, you know,

I wasn�t that guy, you know, I wasn�t a sinner. I did bad things, but again,

I knew God was there and I could pull that basically get -out -of -hell card out of my wallet and say, you know, �I�ve been going to church,

I�ve been doing these things, I�ve been confessing ,� and to find out whatever it was, was basically worthless.

Yeah, it�s interesting to me, I think some Roman Catholics, well, Protestants do it too,

I did it growing up as a Lutheran, we�ve got the get -out -of -hell free card, but I think the

Catholics maybe need a get -out -of -purgatory free card. I think

I�ve told you this before, growing up, I realized that maybe

I wasn�t good enough to get into heaven, but not bad enough for hell, so I�d be hanging out in purgatory for a long time, so I better find a lot of friends so that they could pray me out or buy me out with the treasury of merit stuff, which

I was lost, I was totally lost. Well, today we�re talking to Gary Lozo, my friend here at Bethlehem Bible Church, and Gary and I have gotten to know each other pretty well because when my house basement is flooded in the very cold

New England winter and I�ve got four inches of water everywhere, besides calling to the

Lord, �Oh God, help me, my next call is to Gary.�

And Gary, you may have a blue -collar job and background, but you�re one of the smartest guys

I know, and you can really figure out how to get things done, so I�m thankful for all your ministry, not only to me but other people at the church.

So, you started attending the church because your wife asked you, and the people seemed to be nice.

What were your impressions of the worship service, as an unbeliever even, compared to,

I guess, what you knew in the Roman Catholic Church? What was the difference? What were you thinking? First of all, it was the music, the hymnals.

Of course, the Catholic Church had them, but it wasn�t as, I want to say, pronounced as it was here.

And then, you know, you greet people and you get to know people here.

It�s an amazing thing to see and be part of, and just the people, the

God -honoring, God -loving people, and you want to be a part of it.

And no one is here because they figured they�d show up or whatever.

I truly believe God is drawing people in who He wants, where He wants, because obviously

He�s sovereign. Well, that�s right, and as you were talking, Gary, it made me think of several lessons and wonderful things that come out of this.

For people who are listening, maybe you have an unbelieving spouse, you�re a man, you have a wife who�s not a

Christian, or vice versa. I mean, how many years was she asking you, and then you finally came, and then, you know, the

Lord saved you? So I think to myself, there�s hope, and then there�s also something to be said for when people visit the church that you attend, you should really go out of your way to go find them, be nice to them, and be kind to them.

We know, and Gary�s not saying, that you can become a Christian by having other people be nice to you, right?

But it does, of course, because the text says in Romans 10, �How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed, and how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard?

And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they�re sent? As it is written, �How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.�

Then the text goes on to say, �So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.�

And so we believe that here at No Compromise Radio, and that�s the only way people get saved. But I find it fascinating when

I hear Gary and other people just talk about Christians loving their neighbor, and Christians being kind to people when they come to church services.

So you begin to attend, and then what made you think, �You know what? I�m just going to start attending all the time.� Two times in six or eight years, now you start coming every week.

What was that about? I honestly believe that the life

I led led me here. I have no other explanation for it.

Like I said, I didn�t believe I was a bad person, and I believe

God uses experiences, and He leads you down a road that He wants you to take.

So I was here many years ago when it was being built, and I�ve got an invitation 20 -plus years ago, and I had to come back.

Isn�t that interesting? I�m going to interrupt you just there for a second. So you deal with, you know, lumber construction and building kind of stuff, and that�s your job and your past, and so you got, what, did you get a delivery order to deliver some lumber to this location when this church building was being built?

Yes. I was working for Australian Lumber, which is now out of business, and it was right around the corner.

I delivered it, talked to the people. Again, very friendly people. �Where do you want your stuff ?�

and talked to them for a few minutes. I received a bulletin and an invite, and I�m back.

Five years later, you showed up. Now, you begin to hear the

Word of God preached. When did you start thinking to yourself, �Do you know what? I�m just not a bad person.

I�m just not, you know, kind of a sinner. I�m just, you know, not just better than some other people, but I�m really bad, and I deserve hell.�

When did that kind of sink in? I believe after coming for a little bit and hearing the

Word preached and exposed and broken down, not only from the

Bible but tied into historical events, cultural happenings, and it all kinds of, it just melds together, and you understand that all men, all people are born sinful from the fall, and you can�t work your way out of it.

It�s God�s grace poured out on you to draw you in. That�s what started my road here.

I started hearing the Word from not only the pulpit from you, but Pastor Steve, and the congregation here is so well -versed in biblical theology and doctrine that you can get it from,

I would say, most all the people who come regularly or who have been here for a while.

Steve McLaughlin Interesting, Gary. I remember an old article that was written about Grace Community Church 45 years ago where John MacArthur pastors, and I think somebody from CBS or NBC came by, or LA Times or someone, and they called it the

Church with 600 Pastors or something like that, and only 600 people were there. And the point was almost everybody knew the

Word well because they had sat underneath a ministry that just went verse by verse, talked about biblical theology, historical theology, systematic theology, the context of everything, and so then you begin to learn and begin to grow.

And you�ve told me before with your background, you weren�t a reader, were you? You didn�t hardly read.

Steve McLaughlin I�ve probably read two books since graduating high school. How old are you now?

Fifty -seven. Okay. So from 18 to 57, 40 years, give or take, you read two books.

What were those two books? Steve McLaughlin They were on mountaineering, Everest. Oh, okay.

Well, at least you picked good books. Okay. So now you�re thinking differently about sin, and it�s not something other people do, you do it.

When did you begin to start thinking differently about who Jesus was and being impressed by the person and work of Jesus?

When did that all start happening? Or just tell us how you thought through that. Steve McLaughlin Again, since coming here and being exposed to the

Word, not five ways to make your life easier on different sermons. It was all ritual from my earliest years up until I graduated high school.

And since coming to BBC, it�s an eye -opening experience, and that�s contributed nothing

I did. It�s all on God�s part. And it�s opened up so many new avenues and a thirst for knowledge, basically, to get to know

God better, Jesus better, and to realize that He came to seek and save the lost, which, you know,

I can relate to Paul, not knowledge, but if he can work that kind of a miracle through Paul, I believe all of us stand a chance.

Mark Devereux Yeah. Well, what you can�t see is Gary is getting emotional, and you can probably hear it in his voice a little bit.

Here�s the wild thing for me. Gary�s a man�s man. He�s a tough guy, and he�s, you know, when the nail goes through his thumb all the way, he doesn�t really say anything except, �Can

I have a Band -Aid ?� And yet, you know, like Paul, here�s

Paul, tough guy, on the road to Damascus going to go kill some more Christians and put them in jail. And the church is encouraged because this

Christian persecutor is humbled by the Lord Jesus. You pick the toughest guy in the world, and when he meets the

Lord Jesus, or to be biblical, Jesus meets him. And then we�re just, we�re captured, we�re submissive, we�re humbled, and we�re different people.

And so, I like that, you know, when we think, all right, I didn�t deserve to get saved and to go to heaven, but God interrupted me on my way to wherever you were going.

Yeah. Yeah, it was, again, I didn�t think I was a bad person. You know, I could basically get in from the good things

I�ve done, and going to Mass, and confessing my sins. Like, when you went to confession, like, what did you confess?

Like, I just, I stole something, you know, I stole a pencil at work. What was your confession? It was basically that, and sometimes,

I think, and I may not be alone on this, sometimes when you just couldn�t think of anything, you made up something so, you know, you could get the blessing of the, whatever it was, and then you go out and, you know, you do your

Stations of the Cross, you pray the Rosary, and it just seemed all meaningless.

If you had to pray the Rosary by heart now, could you do it? I couldn�t get started. I couldn�t get started.

Talking to Gary Lozo today on No Compromise Radio. It is very neat for me to see someone like Diane patiently,

I mean, it must be difficult to be married. It�s hard to be married to anyone, because it�s just marriage is difficult, and then to be married to a man who�s not a believer, and then see that man get saved.

And now, after you have professed faith in Christ, believed in the Lord Jesus, give me some things in your life that are different.

I mean, you�re still married to the same woman, same grandkid, grandchild, same job, but what has changed?

I honestly believe my outlook on so much has changed. How you deal with people, how you treat people, how you talk to them, and it seems like you look for the good, or you try to,

I don�t know how to put it, bring out the good in others, if that�s even a term.

But you learn so much, and I�ve told Diane a few times, you know, the fruit of the

Spirit, some days I would grow an orchard, the next day I would cut them down. And you know, you have your ups and downs, but your faith doesn�t waver.

Your faithfulness to the Word may, but it seems like the more you know, and the more you adjust, it gets easier to deal with life as it comes at you, because you know this isn�t it.

It can�t be. Gary, you are encouraging me in lots of different ways, and here�s one.

From the pulpit, I�ve been trying to tell people the difference between faith and faithfulness, and I�ve been trying to tell that to the radio audience as well, because we make one into the other.

We make them both the same. And so, faith is shorthand for faith in the Lord Jesus. And so, when we�re having a weak faith or a struggling faith or a faith that�s going up and down, the object of our faith,

Jesus, He�s still strong, and His faith, I mean, His person and who He is doesn�t waver.

So, you can have a weak faith in a strong Savior, and you�re okay. And then the difference between faith and faithfulness, well, faithfulness is how we respond to things in life and how we act as Christians, but we�re not saved by our faithfulness, because we�d still be lost people, but we�re saved by who

Jesus is, and we�re just trusting in what He�s done, so that you�ve made the difference between the two,

I�m very happy. Thank you. How much have you learned? And this has nothing to do with me, just any expository ministry.

You�ve learned a lot in the last couple years, haven�t you? I mean, from a guy that�s never hardly read a book in his life, to now trying to understand theology and listening to sermons and reading, it�s probably a whole new world for you, isn�t it?

It�s very eye -opening, and to realize that all this is a gift, there�s nothing

I did to earn it, is just, it�s beyond me why and how and now

God would reach out. But I have to understand, it�s in His time, not mine, and just, we are asked to walk by faith, so you�ve got to trust that God backs up His promises,

He doesn�t leave you hanging, and whatever He says, He does, otherwise He wouldn�t be

God. So you have to realize that sometimes the struggle is there to have you learn something, or maybe some kind of chastisement, or most of the time

I believe you have to walk through a trial to understand His purpose.

And sometimes you can�t see the light at the end of the tunnel, but you know it�s there, because God doesn�t leave you.

Jesus never does. That�s right. I know the text, it says, �I will never leave you nor forsake you.�

Gary, one of the things that changes in people�s hearts when they become a Christian, when God makes them born again, is they start to look at other people who aren�t

Christians as lost people, as people that if they�re not going to be believers in Christ, to be damned people and going to hell people.

How do you look at the lost now, and whether you pray for them or evangelize them, what�s on your heart when it comes to these folks now?

Well, it�s hard for me to understand, and Diane will say this too, because being saved and having your eyes opened and your heart changed from stone to flesh, you have a greater,

I don�t know, awareness of things, and your heart goes out to people that aren�t.

And you realize that all you can do is bring them the gospel and tell them there�s hope, and realize that�s,

I believe, all you can do. It�s up to the Holy Spirit and God to work on these people if He so determines to do so.

How about just some random questions, because the time is fleeting? Favorite book of the

Bible, do you have one? I�ve always been interested in Job. The story is just unbelievable how a man can lose everything and still say,

I believe God gives and takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. You know, he�s everything, 10 kids, everything he owns is gone, and then he�s sitting with sores and basically a dump with pouring ash on him.

Yeah. I know that my Redeemer lives. That�s pretty amazing. How about, I know you like to listen to Christian music, and since you had kind of a different background with other music, who do you like to listen to in the

Christian spheres? My all -time favorite is Casting Crowns.

I think you�ve got a sweatshirt on right now too, don�t you? Okay, what do people do when they see that? Here�s this kind of big bulk of a man in this big, like, blue collar guy.

You�re the kind of guy that if anybody�s ever going to try to hurt me, I want you right by my side. And they see this sweatshirt, then what do they do?

You get various reactions. I�ve had people ask, you know, what is that? And you explain to them, and I believe sweatshirts, t -shirts, if they�re,

I don�t want to say biblically correct, but will open up doors that may not be there if people just see you walking in, you know, regular t -shirts.

Like the one I have on right now, are you telling me I don�t care about the lost? No, no, it�s just, it�s my way of opening up the door because I�m not biblically proficient in knowledge of books and theology.

Oh yeah, but you�ve already talked faith, faithfulness, sovereignty of God, drawing, and all that stuff. Although, since you�ve got the

New England accent, you said drawing. Yeah, God the Father draws. All right, well, that was the fastest 24 minutes and 30 seconds maybe in No Compromise history.

Gary, thanks for your ministry to the local body here, to Elizabeth, other folks, myself and my family.

And it�s just been a joy as pastor for me to see you learn and grow. And we will see you on Sunday morning, worshiping together.

You usually sit right behind me or two rows behind me. Thanks again, Gary Lozo, for being on No Compromise Radio.

Thanks for the invite. 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 6. 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.