Warning: Heed God’s Word (Part 2)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.�

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the

Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry�I�m sorry for that last show. So abruptly stopped, right?

I just looked down on my counter here. I have a little digital recorder right now that�s reconnecting.

Writing me, Mike, at NoCompromiseRadio .com, you can do that. If you want to go to our website,

NoCompromiseRadio .com, I think there�s like 2 ,500 shows, maybe 2 ,000 original shows.

You can pull up any time you want, and I think I�ve said before that Luke told me once recently that he�s like, �Well,

Dad, I don�t really listen to your shows now, but if you ever�you know, when you die, I�ll listen to all the shows.�

Thanks. Oh, here�s to NoCo, Jr.

Well, maybe Luke will take over No Compromise Radio, and it�ll actually go somewhere. That would be nice.

I�d appreciate that. I�m in the book of Hebrews, as most of you know. I�ve got it planned out, and I think

I only have four more sermons, maybe five at the most. It just depends on how long

I want to stay in chapter 13. And then what I�m going to do is

I�m going to start preaching through books of the Bible a chapter at a time. Since it�s taken several years to get through the book of Hebrews, and we�ve been going slowly and trying to understand everything properly�and by the way, one of the reasons we did that is because if there�s an

Old Testament quote, we would then go to the Old Testament to study it.

So we actually covered more than 13 chapters, but I�m going to start doing things like James in five weeks,

Colossians in four weeks, Philippians in four weeks, Galatians in six weeks, chapter by chapter.

Actually, when I first got saved, I started going to Calvary Chapel, and they would do that very thing chapter by chapter, unless it was a large chapter or a long chapter in the

Gospels. And just kind of an overview, there�s lots of new people here, and just kind of seeing Paul�s flow of thought in many of his epistles.

So I think we�re going to do that if there is a fall, if there is a later. Here is the message paraphrase, and this is the warning passage in Hebrews chapter 12 that we just got done kind of starting in the last show.

Hebrews 12. I don�t know if this is going to be good or not. If it�s good, I�ll give kudos to Eugene Peterson.

If it�s bad, Vicki said, �Do I do this the same time every Saturday ?� No, I wish

I did. I would just, today I got up, sat and read my

Bible, had a couple cups of coffee with my wife, talked to the kids a little bit.

Sometimes the kids do Instacart to try to make some money, and then we did some stuff around the house, and then

I decided to come in. Then there was two people working here in the office, and we talked about theological issues.

Actually, that was fun. So anyway, I just do it different times. If it�s rainy, I�ll come in or whatever. Here is the message

Bible. So don�t turn a deaf ear to these gracious words. If those who ignored earthly warnings didn�t get away with it, what will happen to us if we turn our backs on heavenly warnings?

His voice that time shook the earth to its foundation. This time, he�s told us this quite plainly, he�ll also rock the heavens.

I thought he was going to say, �Rock the Kasbah.� Sorry. One last shaking from top to bottom, stem to stern.

The phrase �one last shaking� means a thorough house -cleaning, getting rid of all the historical and religious junk,

God don�t make no joke, so that the unshakable essentials stand clear and uncluttered.

Do you not see what we�ve got? An unshakable kingdom. And do you not see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with worship, deeply reverent before God.

For God is not an indifferent bystander. He�s actively cleaning house, touching all that needs to be burnt, and he won�t quit until it�s all cleansed.

God himself is fire. Sorry. Now, if you said to me,

I mean, I know I�m repeating myself, but if you said to me, Eugene Peterson wanted to try to just explain the

Bible a little bit and kind of like tell his kids about what it kind of meant in a way that was not going to try to be accurate to the text, kind of freelancing,

I�d probably give you some more slack. But there are too many liberties with this.

And I think maybe the problem is with people that hold this book, they think it�s the Bible when it�s really a paraphrase.

That�s probably the biggest issue here. But instead of saying our God is consuming fire, he�s actively cleaning house, touching all that needs to burn, and he won�t quit until it�s all cleansed.

God himself is fire. What�s that old rock and roll song, �Fire ?�

I don�t even know who it is. Did Mountain sing fire? Who sang fire?

Some kind of Ozzy Osbourne thing or something, who knows? Anyway, what�s happening in Hebrews?

He says, if you weren�t here for the last show, when God speaks, you better listen.

Because when God spoke through Moses and there was unbelief and disobedience, there was a consequence.

Do you think there would be a lesser consequence or a greater consequence if Jesus himself speaks and there�s unbelief and disobedience?

Moses or Jesus, which one�s worse to disobey? You say, well, it doesn�t really count because Moses spoke the words of God.

The point of the author is simple. Hebrews chapter 1, 1, 2, and 3, in these last days, with finality,

God has spoken through his Son. And of course, his Son has given apostolic messengers, I know that. But there�s a finality because it�s the

Son of God. Do you think if you go back to Moses, you�re going to find relief?

When Moses was pointing to the only relief, Jesus? Do you think if you say to yourself, like the

Jews today, Jesus didn�t really come the first time. Oh, some guy named

Jesus. But it wasn�t really the Messiah. I�m waiting for the Messiah to come later. You think that�s going to offer anything but God�s displeasure?

I think fire was Springsteen. You know, I never really liked

Bruce Springsteen�s music. I mean, he�s probably a fine guy for a flaming liberal.

Maybe he�s not a liberal. I think he must be. Why are artists liberals? Maybe the only artists are liberals because if they become conservative, they�re no longer artists.

Who knows? The writer says in Hebrews chapter 12, �See to it that you do not refuse who is speaking.

For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.�

So, he�s got an argument here. And the argument is Moses, mountain, shaking, quaking, violent, there�s going to be more shaking that�s going to happen.

And at that time, his voice shook the earth, but now he was promised, �Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.�

There�s going to be this shaking that�s going to come. Jesus is going to come back.

And therefore, as he alludes to and quotes part of Haggai chapter 2, verse 6, let me just read that to you, by the way,

Haggai 2, 6 -8, did you know Haggai is in the Bible? For thus says the

Lord of hosts, �Yet once more in a little while I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all nations so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory ,� says the

Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts.

When�s that shaking going to happen? And we know the answer. It�s going to be the second coming of the

Lord Jesus Christ, who has spoken and whose word you should be believing in and then obeying.

Shaking the earth. There�s a future time where not just the earth is going to shake, think

Sinai, but there�s going to be a time where the earth and heavens are going to shake.

It�s one thing when the mountain quakes violently, Sinai, Exodus chapter 19.

It�s another thing with the presence of God, Habakkuk says the mountain saw thee and quaked. This idea of shaking or trembling, you should be thinking when more than just the earth shakes and quakes, that this is judgment, this is the wrath of God, this is

Judges 5 and 2 Samuel 22, Isaiah 13,

Ezekiel 38. There�s shaking. Think about what

Hebrews is saying. Not only the earth, but also the heaven. Judicial shaking, divine shaking.

So what�s the point? You�re like, �Pastor, you�re bogging me down.� I feel it.

I know. I forgot there�s people watching. Listen to God�s Word.

And God�s Word said, �Trust in the Son, rest in Him, rely on Him, receive Him, believe on the

Lord Jesus Christ.� Don�t go back to anything else, because there�s going to be an end. It�s going to be Jesus is going to come back.

He�s warning about the second return of Christ. The Lion of the tribe of Judah is going to come back powerfully, not meekly this next time, not gently this next time, but powerfully.

So you need to be reminded, Sinai was a glimmer of how powerful the Lord is, and it�s going to be earth -shaking, earth -rattling.

And you say, �Well, didn�t Jesus die and then there was an earthquake ?� Yeah, but this is going to be massive.

Listen to what it says in Matthew 24, �Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the

Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send out

His angels with a loud trumpet call and will gather His elect from the four winds, one from one end of the heaven to the other.�

That�s something that we have to be reckoning with. What�s the language of Peter, 2

Peter chapter 3, �But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.�

That�s why you need to be hiding in, resting in the Lord Jesus. Since all these things are to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness?

There�s a consequence to rejecting the words of Jesus. You�re either for Him or you are against Him.

It�s binary. You can�t say, �Well, I kind of believe in some of the things I like about Jesus and His moral teaching, but the whole judgment bit and everything else, or my

God is a God of love and Jesus is a God of love. Moses was a God of anger.� Really?

Is that what you think Hebrews is trying to say? That�s just a figment of your own imagination.

You are on earth, you�re a created being, and you are held accountable to God, and God wants you to perfectly obey.

So, you either trust in the one who did perfectly obey, or you�re going to have to pay for your disobedience. Remember what the book of Hebrews says in chapter 1, �And thou,

Lord, in the beginning did lay the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thy hands. They will perish, but thou remainest.

And they will become old as a garment, and as a mantle you will roll them up. As a garment they�ll be changed.

You are the same, and your years will not come to an end.� So, if you�re going to have to listen, there�s more at stake listening to Jesus than there was even for Moses.

Verse 27, the phrase �yet once more� indicates the removal of things that are shaken. That is, things that have been made in order that things that cannot be shaken may remain.

The world�s going to be over. Then what? I mean, we are so� okay,

I want to be careful. People are freaking out these days.

I�m not saying you shouldn�t be concerned over people. I�m not saying that there are loved ones that maybe some of you have had that have died because of the virus.

I�m not saying any of that. But I am saying there�s a lot of sinful anxiety, a lot of sinful worry, and when the fear of a virus goes up, the fear of the

Lord goes down, and kind of the other way around. Do you fear the virus?

Are you afraid of the virus? You say, �Well, I just don�t want to get it.� Okay, but probably over the next ten years everybody�s going to get it.

So then what? But even more than that, my pontifications about COVID -19, notwithstanding, there�s going to be an end, and you�ll either die and then meet

God, or there�s going to be this happening and then you�ll meet

God. Then what? Then what? I mean, can you imagine 120 years from now, everybody watching this show is going to be dead?

Most of us. A lot sooner. Because I don�t think any newborns are watching this show.

Well maybe, okay, after I die, Luke will end up watching the show. I like the writer of Hebrews because he�ll just go back to the

Old Testament and he�ll bring these truths in about Moses and Haggai chapter 2, verses 6, 7, and 8, and he�ll tell you, �You know what,

Levitical priesthood, why are you trusting in Levitical priesthood? That�s over. The new covenant has come, a priest after the order of Melchizedek.�

You don�t want Old Covenant, you want New Covenant. You don�t want Moses, you want Jesus, Isaiah 13, �Therefore

I shall make the heavens tremble and the earth will be shaken from its place at the fury of the Lord of hosts in the day of His burning anger.�

So you�re going to go back to Judaism, you�re going to go back to works righteousness, you�re going to go back to Roman Catholicism, you�re going to go back to International Church of Christ, you�re going to go back to Buddhism, you�re going to go back to some religion that only will damn.

Think about it. Every religion is due. And that�s damning. Every religion is a covenant of works, you�ve got to obey.

How much do you have to obey? You�ll never obey enough because A. Adam sinned and consequently we�re sinful people.

But religion is doing, doing damns. Not doing damns, but doing damns.

Why don�t you go back to some religion like that? Everything in the Old Testament is pointing to this fact when

Jesus came. And when you think about what�s going to happen with the heavens and the earth, remember

God is going to create new heavens and a new earth, Isaiah 65, Isaiah 66, new heavens and new earth.

What�s that going to do on Earth Day? What about climate change then? Do I believe in climate change?

I do. Climate change. Revelation 21, a new heaven and a new earth.

The first heaven and the first earth passed away, there�s no longer any sea. It�s crazy.

Material forces, Spurgeon said, are not available in our warfare, for we do not wrestle with flesh and blood. The tyrant may burn our martyrs and cast our confessors into prison, but the pure truth of Jesus is neither consumed by fire nor bound with chains.

It has within itself essential immortality and liberty. The doctrine that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners is no more to be wounded by the sword of persecution than is the ocean to be scarred by the knees of navies, or the keels of navies.

When winds may be manacled, when waves be fettered, and when clouds may be shut up in the dungeons, then, not even then, may the word of God be bound.

What�s Spurgeon saying? Hey, Hebrews, what are you going to do? You�re persecuted? You don�t think this is worth it?

What�s worse? Persecuted, and then resting eternally, or I�m going to get away from persecution and then the world�s going to end one day, and I�m going to stand before God one day.

It�s going to be a cataclysmic judgment. I mean, okay,

I don�t want to try to be brood about this, but if you are afraid of COVID -19, really, in comparison to that day, that awful day, that day of judgment, that is unbelievable.

It�s not even a comparison. I�m sorry for the virus. It�s caused a lot of people�s problems, physically, job -wise, everything else.

But something else is coming, so why don�t you listen? See to it that you do. There�s going to be shaking.

There�s a penalty for not believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. There�s a penalty for stiff -arming

Jesus and saying, �I�m going to go back to what I want. I�m going to go back to my old religion. I�m going to go back to Judaism.�

Everything in Judaism was pointing to Jesus. He�s here. He has arrived. Infinite shaking is coming.

Eschatological shaking is coming, and not just the earth, but the heavens. Did you know, dear friend, this world is not meant to last forever?

Creation, as the writers would say in commentaries, is transitory.

The good news is, if you�re resting in the Lord, you�re safe. I like that. It�s too good to be true.

You ever thought about that? It�s too good to be true. You mean to tell me if I simply trust in, rest in, have knowledge assent and trust in the

Lord Jesus Christ, I�m safe eternally? God�s pleased union with Christ forever, justified, not condemned, forgiven every one of my trespasses, every one of my transgressions, every bit of my iniquity, all my perversity, all my bad thoughts, all the things that I was supposed to do but didn�t do?

You mean to tell me that God simply forgives by trusting in His Son?

It�s too good to be true. I�ve got to do something. What do you want me to do? Carry a cross around?

Go up the Scala Sancta in Rome on my knees, the stairs? I tried that once, as a

Christian even. My knees hurt too bad and there was too many people just kneeling around, there was no fast lane,

I couldn�t navigate it, so I finally stood up and walked back down. It�s too good to be true. This whole earth is going to be done, and then what?

I�m not afraid. I mean, I don�t really want to go through it, but I�m not afraid. I know it�s going to happen, right?

I don�t really think about deathbed experiences are going to be so wonderful, but I�m not worried.

So what should I be? And you know what the text gives for the Christian? Two things. Be thankful and worship. Knowing that all this is going to happen and that you�re safe, what�s the response?

To be thankful and worship. That�s what the text says. Do you see it? Verse 28, �Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that can�t be shaken.�

How thankful are you, Christian? How thankful? You say, �Well, you know, there�s a lot of things

I don�t have.� But what do you have? How thankful must you be? How grateful must you be?

Can you imagine? When�s the last time you said to the Lord, �Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you for your Son. Thank you for eternal life. Thank you for forgiveness. Thank you that you�re sovereign even in the middle of all this stuff.�

How about thanking God for even the trials? That�s not the point of the passage here, but the same thing.

Thank you for all the stuff that�s going on, because I know you�re working in me. I know you�re doing something in me.

Gratitude. Christian, guess what? Your name�s written in heaven.

It's written in the book, the book of eternal life. How about that? Yeah, I need some other kind of gift.

I need toilet paper and Burrell. That would help. Is not the inexpressible gift the

Lord Jesus Himself? Say, �I could be thankful.� Okay, let�s put it this way.

If Jesus was right here right now, what would you do? Complain to Him?

Criticize Him? I don�t really understand how sovereignty and human responsibility work.

Are you the author of evil? Do I believe in antinomies, concurrence, compatibilism?

I got some stuff that I need to know. Who wrote Hebrews? What would you do?

Christian, I know what you�d do. Here�s what we should do. Thank you.

I don�t know how I could repay you. I�ve got like some ointment here or something.

Could I put it on your feet? Could I serve you? Thank you.

That�s what you do. That�s what I would do. I don�t usually cry on the radio. I don�t think

I�ve cried at Facebook Live for quite some time. I deserve to be shaken.

I deserve to be damned. I deserve all this consuming fire. I deserve to be with the apostates.

I�m a Judas. I�m a Saul. I�m a Goliath. And worse, but if the

Lord was here, I know what you�d say. You�d say, �Thank you.� Is there anything I could do? You wouldn�t say, �How much do

I have to do in order to still be your child ?� You wouldn�t say that, but it would be grace, gratitude, and you�d say, �You know what?

Thank you very much. I appreciate what you�ve done. I don�t deserve it.

I�m speechless, but I want to say, �Thank you.� Thank you.�

Now, when I was a kid, we were always told to say, �Thank you ,� because it didn�t really cost much, right? If somebody did something for you, you could say, �Thankful.�

Here we receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Everybody else that owns everything, this whole world, and they own, and the

Chinese own this, and rich people own that, they don�t really own anything. Christians own something.

They own something beyond what we can see on this earth. We have to be thankful for that.

We have to have an agenda of thanks. I mean, if you�re at BBC, I don�t want this, but if you�re at a different church and you have a pastor that teaches the

Bible, when was the last time you told him, �Thank you ?� Yeah, he�s just a sinful dope like everybody else, but why don�t it be, �Thank you.

Thank you for serving.� Why don�t you look at the nursery people at the church. Thank you. The YouTube people, and the filmers, and behind the scenes, and all that.

Thank you. We can thank other people because we can be thankful for the Lord, and thank you,

Lord, that you saved other people and not just me. Well, my name is Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio. I�m looking forward to preaching to the camera tomorrow, but soon enough, soon and very soon, we�ll be preaching to live people.

You can write me, Mike, at NoCompromiseRadio .com. 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.