Classic: What I Wish People Told Me (Part 1) (2015)

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.

The Need for Bible Truth Over Mere Religious Vocabulary

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. I�ve already had to push play, record, pause three times because I didn�t like the way I just started the show, and then I X�d it out, and then I did it again, did it again, did it again.

So, I don�t know why I have an In-N-Out Burger sticker right here on my radio equipment, on my JK Audio machine. I�m not getting any free In-N-Out Burgers from them. I wish I would. I do like that place because they have quality food, and on the bottom of their cups, soda cups, they have John 3, 16.

Bottom of their malts, their shakes, they have Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Well, that�s not what I want to talk about today. I�d like to talk about truth, Bible truth. I want to talk today about truths that I wish someone would have told me a long, long time ago.

Somebody would have come along and said, �You know, you believe a lot of information, or you believe seemingly certain things about the Bible, but since you�re acting like you�re unregenerate, there are some truths that you need.

When I grew up, I grew up in a Christian system. That is to say, it wasn�t Muslim, it wasn�t Jewish, it wasn�t Baha 'i, it wasn�t Mormon, it wasn�t Jehovah�s Witness. It was Lutheran, but it was not a good Lutheran church.

Luther would not have liked this particular Lutheran church. It was a liberal church, and it was a church where we had the right vocabulary, but the wrong meaning. And so today, in light of that, since many of you are Roman Catholic, many of you are Lutherans, maybe Methodist, maybe Episcopalian, maybe a lot of other things, I want to be the one to tell you what I wish somebody would have told me.

If you�re a Christian today listening, you�ve probably got someone in mind that you could send this link to. Someone that you should say, �Oh, I�ve got to send them this particular message. These are truths that I wish someone would have told me a long, long time ago.

These are obvious truths, but our society today, in general, would be oblivious to these things. People are proverbially fat, dumb, and happy as they rush towards their doom, as they are on their way to hell happily, it seems.

Full of entertainment, consuming things, full of the good life now, and I wish someone would have come along earlier, although I know my salvation was in God�s perfect time. But I wish I would have known earlier some of the truths I needed to have my world rocked.

And so if you�re a Christian and Easter, Christmas and Easter Christian, a CEO, Christmas and Easter only Christian, this is for you. If you are a Christian who�s going to hope that being good is going to get you to heaven, this is for you.

If you�re a again, these are all quote-unquote �Christian� who thinks baptism is going to save you, this is for you. Truths that I wish someone would have told me, and so now I will tell you. It�s not going to really be maybe the most pleasant sermon to hear, because you say to yourself, �I don�t want to hear these things.

Faith in Facts Alone Cannot Save

I don�t like these truths. It means that my particular view is wrong. But that�s okay. The first truth that I wish someone would have told me a long, long time ago is this. It is not enough to believe in facts alone about Jesus to go to heaven.

That is to say, you can know all kinds of facts. You can memorize the Bible, and that�s not enough to get you to heaven. Salvation is not through knowledge and through wisdom, that is human wisdom, human knowledge, the acquiring of facts and the encyclopedic recall of those facts.

I think of John chapter 3 with Jesus. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. And here is this man who is a member of the Sanhedrin, and I�m sure he was quite smart.

I�m sure he knew the Old Testament very well. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, �Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.

And so he goes at night and he sneaks there at nighttime and asks Jesus the question. And Jesus answered and said to him, �Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

He didn�t answer the question, but he answered him. And he now bluntly, boldly, rightly says, �Unless you�re born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. This man called Jesus, �Rabbi. That was the right way to introduce yourself.

You�re from God. He didn�t say, �You�re a false prophet. You�re satanic. You�re sinful. You�re from the world system. No, you�re a prophet from God. And I know you�re from God because rumors out from the earlier chapter, chapter 2 in John, where Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, many believed in his name, beholding his signs, which he was doing.

Nicodemus knew that Jesus did miraculous, supernatural signs. Nicodemus had respect for Jesus and the signs that he did. Nicodemus had respect for the Old Testament, the Bible at that time. And so, here, for us, the implication is the same.

You can know about Jesus. You can know about Jesus being fully God and fully man, fully virgin conceived and virgin born, that Jesus was the perfect sacrifice for sins. You can believe that God wrote the Bible, and you cannot go to heaven.

Boy, there is something called false assurance, and I hate it when people have false assurance, probably for lots of reasons, because it�s so deadly, it�s so damning. It tricks people into not getting right with God, not calling out for mercy and grace and forgiveness.

And it also strikes me because that was me. I got saved in 1989. I was 29 years old. I�m 50 now. So, for 21 years of my life, I know the sweetness and joy and the wonderful relationship that I have now as friend because of Christ�s work.

I had a personal relationship with Jesus before. He was my arch enemy, and now he�s my friend. Bunyan said there�s a porthole to hell at the gates of heaven. How dreadful. And for the longest time, until I was 29 years old, I believed that I could know the facts and have a faith, a creedal faith, an intellectual faith, a facts kind of faith only, and that when I died, I was going to go straight to heaven.

John 6 .66, as a result of this, many of his disciples, Jesus� disciples, withdrew and were not walking with him anymore. Nicodemus believed that Jesus was a rabbi. He believed that Jesus did miracles.

He believed that he was from God. But he wasn�t saved, and Jesus says, �You better be born again. You need to get saved. That�s not enough. You can have emotional thoughts and intellectual feelings, switch those around, and still not be saved.

And for me, before I got saved, I would do crazy things. Whitewater raft, went skydiving a couple times, scuba diving. What was I thinking doing those dangerous things? How about one of the most dangerous things in the world?

Driving your car down the street. If you�re not a believer, I don�t know how you live knowing that any moment you could choke on food or the walls fall down or struck by some kind of nuclear bomb and then judgment.

It is appointed for man once to die and then judgment. And if you say you believe that God is and that he�s one, well, James would say sarcastically, �Well, big deal. You do well. The demons have one up on you.

The demons also believe, James 2 .19, and shudder. Calvin said, �Knowledge of God can no more connect a man with God than the sight of the sun can carry him to heaven. John Calvin was right. If you�re listening today and you simply believe in the facts and you have not been born again and your life does not show the work of God�s power, that is to say, the power that granted you repentance, faith, and a determination to follow after Christ Jesus, then you want to ask yourself the question, �Am I really a real convert or am I a false convert

Some kind of psychological convert, some kind of appeasing my conscience convert, some kind of convert that has not even demon faith. Demons at least have some kind of emotional attachment to it because they shudder.

It�s the word in Greek where the hair goes up on the back of the necks of a dog type of thing. So, don�t just say because you�re a Trinitarian and you�re creedally orthodox that somehow you�re going to heaven.

Just because you know the apostles� creed, just because you pray, �Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to take. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Hail Mary full of grace. Blessed art thou among women. It doesn�t matter what you say. You could say orthodox or heterodox things. You could say conservative things theologically or liberal things theologically.

You could be all emotional about it. You could have some kind of emotional response, an experience, some mysticism. Jesus talked to me while I was shaving and came and put his arm around me and said, �Gee, what a good boy am I.

Whatever it might be, if you do not have a life that is indicative of God�s work, if you�re not born again from above, then you need to stop being deceived. I wish somebody would have told me. I think of one guy who kind of did.

I got so mad at him, I wanted to punch him, but I didn�t. I was in the car on Santa Monica Boulevard coming home from church and we were all talking about church things and my father was dying and I was, in my mind, seeking after God and seeking the truth.

Now I see God was drawing me because no man seeks after God, Romans 3, but he said, �You�re a Christian, Mike. I wish I had that guy�s name. I don�t even know his name anymore. I don�t know his phone number.

I�d love to call him because he made me mad. How dare he somehow say I�m not a Christian? I believe the right things. But it wasn�t a trust in, it wasn�t a reliance upon, it wasn�t a forsaking of sin and self-righteousness and throwing myself upon the mercy of the hope of Israel, the Messiah Christ Jesus.

I did not, in my life, bear witness to Christ�s deity at all. And so, I was worse than the demons. The demons, at least in Mark 5, show a reverence to Christ Jesus. They bear witness to his sonship. They realize there�s a place called hell.

I don�t want you to just simply believe the facts. Do you have new affections in your life, new hates and new loves, new desires, a love for the Word, a love for God and His holiness, a love for God�s people?

Are you different? Just because you can�t change yourself and then say, �Well, since I�m changed, that is how I know for sure I�m saved. There are other factors, but I think it is fair to say if the God of the universe has made you born again from above and He has given you a divine nature, you�re partakers of the divine nature, 2 Peter 1, if He has given you new affections and new loves, you ought to be different.

My friend used to say, �If there�s no change, there�s no change. Shorthand forth, if there�s no change in your affections, then there�s no change in the status you have before God. You�re still a sinner.

You�re not counted a saint by the declared judge of the universe. There is, friends, a faith that does not save. You can have a faith in Jesus Christ and still go to hell, John 2. But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to bear witness concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in a man.

And so, it would be good for you to read Luke 18 and say, �Compared to everybody else, I�m wicked. Compared to God, I�m extremely wicked, and I�m not going to judge myself on a bell curve, find some people who are a little bit better, some people are a little bit worse, some people that know less, some people that know more.

In standing naked before the gaze of the thrice-holy God, I am undone. My conscience bears witness to that, that I know I�m a sinner in need of grace and mercy from a God who, rightfully and with all justice, could damn me to hell the first time I ever sinned, but in His forbearance and patience and common grace has given me all kinds of wonderful gifts, and I have not shown thanks to Him.

I�ve been like Romans chapter 1, too busy sinning to be thankful, too busy trying to drown my conscience with unrighteous deeds to somehow acknowledge that there is a God who deserves my honor and obedience and very life.

And so, my name is Mike Ebendroth, this is No Compromise Radio. I don�t want you to be a listener here in Worcester or wherever you�re listening across the country or world to think that just because you know some facts, you are going to heaven.

I wish someone would have told me that. If you have a friend that walks around and they say they�re Christians and they live with their girlfriend, or they live with their boyfriend, or if they�re a boy that lives with their boyfriend or a girl that lives with her girlfriend, or people who are idolaters or people who are covetous, or people who are defaming the name of Christ Jesus in whatever unrighteous way that they do, and you know they call themselves a Christian, why don�t you do them a favor?

Why don�t you love Jesus enough to tell them the truth and love them enough to tell them the truth? I think that would be the most loving thing you could do. Well, the second thing I wish someone would have told me, but they didn�t tell me until later and maybe the reason why God did not sovereignly have them tell me that until later is so I could be riled up on that topic and actually be passionate that we have to tell people the truth.

Religion Cannot Remove Sin or Save

I�m the kind of guy that if you have a disease and it�s terminal and all the doctors and friends and relatives and other people want to hide that because they don�t want you to know that you�re terminal, I�m going to tell you that you are terminal.

Consider your latter end. Make sure you are right with God. Make sure that you have Christ�s righteousness imputed to your account by looking away from self and looking to Christ in faith, by faith, through faith, taking God at His word that whoever looks upon Jesus Christ will live as they look with faith and look to His life, death, and resurrection and soon return.

I�m not the kind of guy to keep those secrets, so I have to keep lots of secrets in pastoral ministry. It has been said of pastors that they should know, they probably know enough along with the elders and leaders of the church to split the church five ways at any single moment.

There are incendiary type of facts that people know as pastors. But if you want me to keep those things biblically secret, then I will comply. But if you want me to keep the fact secret that you have a loved one and you�re going to not tell them they�re going to die, I�m telling them they�re going to die.

They need to know because you don�t want them to be upset. Upset they�re dying. I don�t want them to go to hell, that�s what I don�t want. So the second thing I wish someone would have told me would be this, and therefore I tell you, religion cannot take away anyone�s sins and neither can being religious.

You can be religious all you want, it doesn�t take away sins. Actually, religiosity, religion, and being religious, instead of taking away sins, it adds more sin. It inoculates people from the gospel because they think they�re good.

They think they�re virtuous. They believe they�re moral. They have a God that they�ve made up in their mind that helps them when it comes to therapeutic issues of conscience and how to get along with others when it comes to relationships.

And so they have this God who�s far away, he�s a deist, and therefore, as the new term is coined, moralistic, therapeutic deism, that�s what they have. And I think William Farley�s right when he says the thing that damns people more often than anything else is virtue, supposed virtue.

If you had Christ�s virtue, that wouldn�t damn you, that would rescue you, that would save you. If you had Christ�s works, if you had his holiness, that would save you. But when you think you have virtue, but forget that whatever virtue you might have in society�s gaze, it is tainted by sin because your hands are bloody with sin, tainted with sin because your hands are an extension of your heart, of your will, of your inner being, of your sinful, depraved, fallen will.

And so that�s why works damn, because even if you do a work unto God like baptism, it�s still damning because it�s still a work, it�s something that you do. And so religion cannot take away sins. I go to my grandmother�s house growing up, pictures of Jesus there, I remember the face of this, you know, German Jesus with blue eyes and kind of the wispy hair, the one that�s the very famous one.

And we would pray before meals, pray before bedtime. I remember the meal prayer, it was just, you know, so rote, �Come Lord Jesus, be our guest. Let this food of us be blessed. Amen. Pass the chicken, you know, finger-licking good, banquets, chicken.

I don�t know what it was. It was just this rote deal. But we were a religious family. We were monotheists. We said that we believed that Jesus was God. And we, with our religious fervor, would throw a bone to God, especially at Easter and Christmas.

And we would go do Christian-like things and we would look down our nose upon those who would not do Christian-like things, you know, the horrible Hindus and Muslims, and that would be our attitude.

And here, we knew nothing about the real richness of Christianity, about its main feature. That is, it is about the works of Christ Jesus, the Spirit of God and Father, all being one God. It was not about what we could give to God, it's what God gave to us.

It's not how we were so good, it's how God is so good. And it is not about how we can make God be pleased with us, it is how God is pleased with us through us turning away from ourselves and looking at Christ Jesus with the eyes of faith.

Religion inoculates. You just get a little dab of smallpox and they put it under your skin, your body knows how to fight the small amount, it gets antibodies, so when you get the real smallpox exposure, your body knows what to do.

And so it's the same thing with the so-called spiritual immune system and spiritual antibodies. You just get a little bit of religion, enough to inoculate you, and you say, it doesn't work, it doesn't really help me with my life, it doesn't help my conscience become assuaged and pacified, it doesn't help me become a better neighbor, a better husband, a better wife, a better worker, it doesn't help me sleep at night, I just got a little of it and it doesn't work.

That's what happens when people go to the altar call and the gospel isn't even preached so they come to a saviorless savior because he's not the savior of the Bible. They don't even know enough information in order to be saved.

It's more than information that is needed for salvation, because the Spirit of God must attend to that information. But there has to be information preached about the gospel or no salvation. So what we're after here is we're after not religious activity, not just attending services, not sincerity.

You can have sincerity and worship at the altar of Molech, killing babies with sincere utter devotion. You can go to mass every single day with devotion. You can have your kids confirmed with devotion, baptisms, prayer meetings.

But you cannot be saved through religion, what man does. That's why it's a big lie, I was going to say a big fat lie, I'll say it. Sometimes people criticize me and I get emails that I say things in an unkind way.

I don't think it has anything to do with being unkind, I'd be unkind if I knew these things that didn't tell you. And I think those of you who are men that say that to me ought to man up and grow up and as Paul would say, 1 Corinthians 16, act like men.

If I think you're ladies who are saying that, I'll probably take it from you a little bit better. I'm certainly not past critique, but I'm off subject. You cannot do something and then be right with God because what you do is affected by the fall of Adam and your own sin.

That's why in my little Lutheranism book, Why Baptize Infants, 1981, Augsburg Press, page 3, in a booklet put out by the Lutheran Church, it has a subtitle, Baptism Saves, here's what it says. Baptism establishes a new relationship with God.

Through Christian baptism, we have our sin forgiven, become heirs of eternal life, and can remain his children forever, space, amazing grace, end quote. I wish somebody would have told me as I was growing up Lutheran that that is chicanery.

That is a canard. That is nothing but confusion. That does not help anyone. That damns. So you throw a little bit of water on a kid's head and then they're set. You've all been to funerals where the smoke and incense is going on, and the first thing the priest says is based on their baptism, we know this person's in heaven, and you knew they were a fornicating adulterer, liar, drunk, but now since they had some mumbo-jumbo, hocus-pocus water put on their forehead when they were a kid, they're saved?

That has nothing to do with salvation. You might want to call it hocus-pocusism, and that would be fine for you. It is a free country. But if you want to call it Christianity, by historical definitions, Christians don't think that way.

That's not Christianity. Salvation is what God does for you and to you based on Christ Jesus' work applied by the Spirit of God. It has nothing to do with what you've done with some kid. He didn't even do it to himself.

He did nothing. The parents did it. That still doesn't work. So my name is Mike Avendroth. We'll get to Part 2 next week, same No Compromise station, same No Compromise time.

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 bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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