How did you come to Christ?

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. Today is Tuesday, my name is Mike Abendroth, and in the particular room, in the house, in the building, in the near -reaching stratosphere,

Steve Cooley. I prefer Apostle Steve, if you don�t mind. Well, Steve, Apostle Steve, I have a few questions that I�d like to ask you about the

Bible because I�ve always wanted to know the answer of the baptism for the dead and other such verses and with an apostle here.

Go ahead and shoot. Yeah, I�m ready. Go ahead and shoot. I think that�s kind of how Paul talked. Shoot.

Hey, Corinthians, okay, shoot. Well, you know, paper was at a premium in those days, so he didn�t want to write expansive responses to, you know, we have a question,

Mr. Apostle Paul, shoot, you know, they just kept it quick like that. I learned last night as I was reading a book that since they didn�t have scratch paper in those days.

See, see, in the Bible days, no scratch paper, who would have thought of such a thing? And no recycling bins. No recycling bins, no green bins.

So they would write on shards of pottery, and I think it�s called ostraca or something like that.

And so you can find what people were thinking about if you find some pottery shards. We do the same thing in my house.

That is why. You know, break plates and, you know, just grab them and... When you do that spinning thing with the spinning plates and everything and you hold that deal in your mouth to spin the plates, kind of Ed Sullivan show like.

Yeah, then you have extra scratch paper. Kona does that. Steve, now,

I know you�re a big fan of the five points of Calvinism. Yes. Just off the top of your head in your own inimitable way, you�ve come up with the five points of charismaticism.

Yeah. At least the first point. Well, it�s total chaos. Total chaos.

And then you have unlimited laughter. That�d be

Rodney Howard Brown. Unconditional laughter. Unconditional laughter. And then it�s... Limited scriptures.

Yes. Limited scriptures, irresistible tumult, and preservation of Oral Roberts University.

Woo! Tulsa. Go Tulsa! Go Tulsa. I don�t know why this strikes me as so funny, but this is the loudest

I�ve ever laughed on No Compromise Radio. Why do we do this? Well, it�s just because I guess we can, right?

Sure. Yes. Are there any other acronyms that you can think of for your TBN friends that are out there?

Not right off the top of my head. It seems kind of like you�re unloving, Steve, towards the charismatics.

There are some good charismatics out there, aren�t there? Let me tell you something, Mike. I married a charismatic. Wow. Didn�t you?

Yeah. She was in the Ft. Square Church. Yes. And was she watching TBN at the time? Yes, she was. Or she just had quit that?

No, she was. She was. Well, I think by the time we got married, she�d probably quit that.

Did you see the picture of Paul Crouch giving a bad sign, a derogatory sign with his hand to the camera the other day?

It was in the news. No, I didn�t. You know, I just can�t get over him with his powder blue pants pulled up to his chest.

I just can�t. I really don�t like looking at the man. No, I think that�s the

Mrs. No, that�s Paul. I mean, Paul Crouch, you know,

I still get their newsletter, and I just, you know, they edit out some of the family members when they�re in, because there�s a whole big lawsuit going on and everything.

It�s just ugly business. Steve, I read this in a book the other day. The Christian must never be ashamed of saying, �I don�t know.�

I don�t know about that. And then they quote Calvin, �Of those things which it is neither given nor lawful to know, ignorance is learned, the craving to know.�

A kind of madness. Well, I mean, Deuteronomy 29 .29, right? The parents� favorite verse, �The secret things belong to the

Lord.� There are some things that we�re not meant to know, but we have the entirety of Scripture.

That�s what God has chosen to reveal to us. So, we do have the things that are revealed and the things that aren�t revealed.

I mean, people like to speculate about dumb things. There�s no end of speculation on eschatology, end times, and everything.

I think it�s fine to go with what the Bible says, but once we start getting outside of that, how do you write?

How many books were in that left -behind series? Well, I don�t know. I don�t have any end -time speculation, because when

I have any question, I turn and tune into the Bible Answer Man, and then

I get it all sorted out for me. Oh, okay. Well, good for you. I think there were like 13, 14 volumes or whatever, you know, and you just go, �Really ?�

I mean, you just can�t get there. Steve, sometimes when Christians are trying to memorize the verse references, such as John 3 .16,

where is that found in the Bible? They use memory devices. Is that mnemonic devices?

Mnemonic. Mnemonic? Yeah, the M is... Mneh, mneh. Mneh, mneh, mneh. No, it�s silent. Minuto. The first M is silent.

They sang a song once. So anyway, I have for Deuteronomy 29 .29 a memory device that always works.

Okay. In the year 29 .29, if man is still alive. But that�s wrong. It�s 25 .25.

We�ll see. What would you rather do, go with the lyrics of a song in the late 60s, early 70s, or be biblical like I am,

Deuteronomy 29 .29? In the year 29 .29, if man is still a line. What is that?

Be still a binary person. Steve, I was reading an article the other day by S.

Lewis Johnson Jr. That would be Samuel Lewis Johnson Jr. Yeah. Yes.

And by the way, I got an anointing from Samuel Lewis Johnson Jr .�s desk when I sat, not on his desk, but at his desk.

A little bit of the glory just rubbed off on you. You know what? It�s Shekinah. Yeah. How do you come to Christ?

And he has an article that you can pull up online, Preaching the Grace of the Spirit�s Calling, S. Lewis Johnson Jr.,

L -E -W -I -S. You heard him here on No Compromise Radio on Fridays. We played a few of them. Did you interview him?

That would be, you know what? If our crack team could do that, I�d ask a question and then we would play one of his audios for the answer.

Today, I�d like to interview S. Lewis Johnson. It�d be all scratchy and everything. How great would that be?

It�d be really great if you could find him saying the word �mic� sometimes so that, you know, you could just kind of cut that in.

Well, �mic.� Somebody please adjust my mic and then we cut it a mic.

So oh, speaking of anointing, though, in S. Lewis Johnson, there are a few videos up,

Vimeos online of S. Lewis Johnson preaching. They have a funny color, it�s faded videotape from VHS format probably or beta.

And do you know what, Steve? You�re going to like this too. His pulpit is our pulpit.

No. Not exactly. I mean, it isn�t the exact same molecules and wood, but it is the exact same design.

It makes me respect him all the more. Yeah. Anyway, he has this article and he asked the question, �How and why do we come to Christ ?�

And then he said, �From the human perspective through the instrumentality of faith.�

But then he says, �On the divine side, how do we come to Christ Cooperative.

Together, yeah. We like kibbutzes in Jewish land called

Israel. So, the first person ran the race by himself, the second person came to Christ by himself. wasn't in a three -legged race. Well, that was called a burlap sack potato race, or as we say in New England, ba -day -tas.

Ba -day -tas. Why do they call potatoes here, not potah -tos, but they call them ba -day -tas? I don't know, but it's not very attractive.

Okay, I know. I kind of like a little bit of sour cream on my ba -day -ta.

How about some ham -bag? Ham -bag. Get some cheap ham -bag. Okay, so we've got the

Pelagians. They say, I came by myself. The Semi -Pelagians, I wanted to come and God helped me. Armenians say,

God gave me sufficient grace to come because Christ died and I cooperated.

Very nice. It's getting better. I'm just trying to put it in a race format, and it doesn't really come to mind.

Well, I would say the first few remind me of the Canadian runner in the Olympics known by his first name,

Ben, the yellow -eyed sprinter. Yeah. What would those yellow eyes mean? Steroids.

Okay. Each one of these views so far needs steroids for sure. The Lutherans say,

God brought me and I did not resist. Kind of cool.

Yeah. You know, Lutherans are smart. When is Michael Horton going to come out and say, basically, I am a Lutheran? Probably never.

Well, you know, maybe that'll be his next book. I'm a Lutheran. No. No. I think he maybe already said it, but you had to pay the extra money on the

White Horse Inn special Table Talk club member. No, Table Talk would be Ligonier. 200, yeah, no.

What do they call it? What's the White Horse Inn? Special Modern Reformation select membership.

Yeah, Modern Reformation. That's the name of the magazine. I know, but they have some special club members, some table fellowship.

It's Modern Reformation secret papers. Dossier, I think they call it.

That would be the cool show, the dossier. Oh, yeah. See? Okay, and then, all right, how do people come to Christ?

Well, from the human side through the instrumentality of faith. That would be Ephesians 2 and Romans 3.

From the divine side, there's lots of controversy. Pelagians, semi -Pelagians, Armenians, Lutherans, and now how about the last group?

We save the best for last on No Compromise Radio, don't we? The Catholics. I think

I've just got the, I'm too tired and I'm laughing at everything. What would the Catholic view be, though?

Could you tell us what that view would be? Well, it would be somewhere between the semi -Pelagian and the

Armenian view. I mean, basically, prevenient grace and all that kind of nonsense.

I wanted to come, but the confessional booth was closed. I wanted to come and the priest helped me.

Our Lady was giving good counsel? Okay. There's a church in town called Our Lady of Good Counsel here in West Boylston.

Have you ever been? No. We had one near, you know, back where we lived, Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

Yeah. Yeah, there's one up in Lemonster, Lunenburg area, Our Lady of the Lake. So, she's fond of water,

I think. There's one near our house here, and it's called Our Lady with No Mortgage.

I like that one. It's a low -interest mortgage. I know someone who said,

I don't believe in Protestant evangelicalism anymore, and I'm back in the Roman Catholic Church. I know this particular person, and I'm in the car the other day,

Steve, driving, and I'm listening to 89 .3. Now, I know that's a venial sin, because we're on 760, and I'm driving, and I'm driving, and it's 760 a .m.

WVNE, and we pretty much just lock onto that station, and we listen all the time, 24 hours a day, even though it's only on during the daylight.

Even when I'm sleeping and driving. Yes, sleeping and driving. Even when you're texting.

But I flipped it over to 89 .3. Probably one of my kids was messing around, and here they are talking about a serious topic.

So, this was punishment, then, for one of your kids messing around? Yeah, that's correct. Well, it's that Catholic kind of punishment deal, you know.

Kids, be quieter. I'm going to put it on 89 .3. Yeah, or else. See? We know what to do.

Some people put Tabasco sauce in their kids' tongues if they disobey. Some give time -outs. Some chide their children.

We put it on the Pope. And they were talking about abortion, which is a serious topic, of course, and the lady had several abortions, and she was a psychologist, and no one had ever told her that could her depression be from killing her own children repeatedly.

And then she said, and so far I'm listening, and I'm thinking, so far what they've said is true, and I've learned a lot, and then they said, well, here's how

I got my help, and I began to pray to Mary. When I found myself in times of trouble.

See? Even Paul McCartney knows. So, anyway, I called my friend. I finished listening to the segment.

It broke up, I think. Maybe there was some satanic interference, a low frequency. Just like the Beatles broke up.

Just like the Beatles broke up. Break you up just to make up.

Who sang that? That was the Stylistics. Seriously? Yeah. You are good at this.

Break up to make up. That's all we do. Yeah. Alright. I want to have some other kind of music for you on your

Saturday show, and so you have anything that you want. It won't be the Stylistics. Alright. So, did you like The Temptations?

Yeah. Just my imagination. Just my imagination. See, some people think the Rolling Stones first sang that, but no. In fact, it was The Imaginations.

The Rolling Stones didn't sing anything first. They might have invented a few lyrics, but they - My wife would say they don't sing anything.

She said, Mike, the common denominator in all the music that you like to listen to is the vocalist can't sing.

It's pretty much true. What do you mean Paul Weller can't sing?

Okay. Back on topic here. And so, I called my friend and said, you mean to tell me that you've left

Protestant evangelicalism and now you believe in this Mary worship as intercessor and as practically co -mediatrix, if in fact that's not canonized yet?

What's your view of Mary? You can't believe this, can you? And I didn't really like the answer they gave me.

Really? Well, because it's the duck and jive thing. Well, the Catholic position is we don't worship Mary, and if it's this whole

Dulia, Latria, Santeria stuff, Santa Margaritas. You know what it reminds me of?

The guy on the street corner who has the three cups, you know, what do you call that? It's not three card money, but it's the, you know, where they move the marble around or the peanut under the balls or the cups.

I like the one that has, they actually have shot glasses and cashew, find the cashew. Yeah. It's in uptown

New York. But, I mean, that's kind of what they, when they go to this, well, we don't really worship her. It's, you know, we honor her just like, you know, because she was called, what, the most blessed of all women, and, you know, you are most blessed or whatever the exact word is.

Tell out my soul. That's terrible. So, Romans chapter three, we're talking about how people come to Christ through preaching, yes, through the gospel, yes.

Romans three, it says that we are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom

God poured, excuse me, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith.

And so, from the human side, it's by faith. From the divine side, we come to the final one today, not just the

Pelagian, Semi -Pelagian, Arminian, Lutheran, Catholic, Calvinists.

What would be a synonym for Calvinist? Those who believe in God's sovereignty, a synonym.

Yes, like Augustinian. Oh. Paulinian. Non -Pelagian.

Non -Pelagian. I just made that up. I like that. Non -Pelagian. The first time I ever heard...

Anti -Pelagian. The anti -Pelagian. The venerable James Montgomery Boyce, who pastored 10th

Presbyterian and died about probably ten years ago, maybe longer, he was the Presbyterian version of John MacArthur in my mind.

Yes. Very faithful expositor. His commentaries are excellent expositional commentaries.

I like James Boyce's voice, gravelly. You know, you just think, James Boyce, he...

I think he got his Ph .D. at Harvard, if I'm not mistaken. Really? That would be manly.

Something. It was either Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge. Anyway, when he preached a message, not a sermon on Sunday morning, but a message at one of these

PCRT, Philadelphia Conference of Reform Theology, one of those deals, and he was trying to push the proverbial envelope.

He preached a sermon, Steve, entitled, I'll never forget it, Jesus was a Calvinist.

Yeah. Now, what did he mean by that? Well, what he meant was Jesus preached the sovereignty of God and salvation over and over again.

I mean, even, you know, in John 6, no one can come to me except that the

Father draw him. And, you know, in John 3, you must be born again. And the number of examples that he gives are pretty dramatic.

And, you know, John 6 is so graphic because at the end of the chapter, what happens? You know, he's had these mobs following him.

And after that chapter, everybody just kind of leaves except for the disciples. And he turns to them and says, you know, do you want to leave too?

But the point is, if Jesus employed today's methodology, he'd be crushed because look what he did.

He just chased all these people away. You know what, Steve? People will say Calvinists don't believe in human responsibility or we're hyper this or hyper that.

In John 6, that you were very properly referencing earlier, we have both.

Chapter 6 of the Gospel of John, verse 37, all that the Father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me,

I will never cast out. They have to come to Christ, right? God doesn't believe for them. God doesn't repent for them.

And then a few verses later in verse 44, no one can come to me unless the

Father who sent me draws him. And so, Steve, everything comes full circle.

This is why we go back to the tea of tulip, total chaos. Excuse me. So here,

S. Lewis Johnson, in the Preaching the Grace of the Spirit's Calling article, which was a lecture given in Toronto Baptist Seminary in 1988 of all times.

Well, it's better than 1888. Well, that's true. It says, God, this is how

Calvinists responds to from the human perspective. How do you come to Christ through faith? From the divine perspective, the

Calvinist says, God brought me to Christ. Now, don't you think that would help with assurance of salvation?

If you're struggling with assurance, let's go back to your view of salvation. Because if you have to cooperate, then

I see why you're doubting. Well, and if it's up to you to maintain your faith, you know, if faith is

God given, then it's something you may sin and you may struggle and you may have difficulties.

But if you know in your mind, if the Spirit is testifying to your spirit that you belong to him, then, and you know it's all of God, then it's a lot easier than basing your faith on an event or a statement or what have you, you know, the typical

Arminian, semi -Pelagian argument. It says in Galatians chapter four, verse nine, but now that you have come to know

God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world?

And I know Paul isn't correcting himself, but he's making something very explicit. We know

God because he first knew us, to kind of change, to conflate things a little bit. Well, yeah, I mean, it's the same thing, though.

To be known by God is to be loved by him. God knows everybody in the sense that he's not unaware of anyone, but he knows them in a specific way when he saves them, and we would call that love.

Now, if we're like the Pelagians, I cave by my cave, I cave by myself, I came by myself, or like the semi -Pelagians,

God help me. What does that do to the refrain in Ephesians chapter one, to the praise of the glory of his grace, to the praise of his glory, to the praise of the glory of his grace?

Let's get a new refrain, it'll be called the Pelagian refrain. To the praise of my glory. I mean, you know, we'd have to alter, what is it, verses six, 12, and 14?

We'd have to change them, because you can't say that this is all of God, and in fact, you know, you would have to wonder why

Paul bursts out in praise in verses three to 14. What, you know, why is he praising

God if it's something that we did? That would make no sense at all. Well, these things all tie together on No Compromise Radio.

James Montgomery Boyce's predecessor was Donald Gray Barnhouse, and Donald Gray Barnhouse was also the preacher that God used to quicken

Essois Johnson, did you know that? Wow. Yeah, so see, all these things come together. It's a circle of life. Yes, that's right, tabletop mountain.

Donald Gray Barnhouse said, in regard to this topic for today on No Compromise Radio, that was gonna start off as Christianity today, but we've gone astray.

It veered. Yes, it veered. Barnhouse, if you have made a decision of the will that is according to God's will, it is because God has first jiggled your willer.

A little jiggle. It's like when I'm in the fuse box, just jiggling things around. The Jell -O jigglers when we were a kid, those were fun to play with, weren't they?

The Jell -O's jiggling, it just makes me think of Chick Hearn. Can you give us a little

Chick Hearn, something about the lights are, the refrigerator's shut, the lights are off, the door's, butter's getting hard.

Yeah, he'd say the game's in the refrigerator, the lights are out, I don't remember the whole thing, the

Jell -O's jiggling, yeah, this whole creepy thing. That just meant that the game was over. Can you recall the lyrics to Oh Happy Day, Steve?

Oh happy day, the Edwin Hawkins singers. Is that what it was?

Yeah, but no, I can't. Well, this is a different. When Jesus walked. Yeah, this is a different hymn. Tis done, the great transaction's done.

I am my Lord's and he is mine. He drew me and I followed on.

Charmed to confess the voice divine. That's probably, that was probably written before.

Probably before the Edwin Hawkins singers. Do they still sing together? No, that was like, you know, that was one of those

K -Tel, you know, best hits of the 60s.

Now my question is, if you live on the East Coast though, what would be the equivalent of K -Tel? J -Tel,

I don't know. W -something -Tel. No, you remember those K -Tel collections where they would take a bunch of, you know, the greatest hits of the 70s and it would be

Seasons in the Sun and, you know, The Night Chicago Died and, you know, whatever. Well, but, you know, on the

West Coast, we have radios that start, radio stations all start with K. There's a couple of exceptions.

Yeah, but what I'm saying is it wasn't a radio station, that was a company. I know, but I'm just trying to act like I know what I'm talking about.

The senselessness of the discouragement sometimes on no -compromise radio. It would be a W. W -Tel.

Do -Tel. W -T -L -E. Today, Mike Abendroth and Steve Cooley on nocompromiseradio .com.

You can write us at info, nocompromiseradio .com. Thanks for listening today. And Merry Christmas.

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 six. 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.

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