Jonathan Nadeau Interview (Part 2)

No Compromise Radio

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:01

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

00:07

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

00:16

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.

00:24

In short, if you like smooth, watered down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

00:30

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

00:40

King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry.

00:46

I'm your host, Mike Abendroth, and I have someone in the studio today, and it's not Steve Cooley, Tuesday guy.

00:52

I don't know what today is because I think it's gonna air on Friday. So, Jonathan Nadu, welcome,

00:57

Friday guy. Hi, thanks for having me again. Jonathan is on last week, but for those who are tuning in today and didn't hear last week's show, number one, shame on you.

01:08

Number two, let me give you an update. Jonathan Nadu is a member here of Bethlehem Bible Church, and he has a very special and interesting testimony when it comes to God giving him spiritual eyesight so he could grasp

01:23

Christ's glory, experience forgiveness of sin, and follow Christ Jesus with his life, and now wife and kids.

01:30

And so, Jonathan, give us about a two -minute overview what we learned about you last week for those who are tuning in today.

01:37

Sure, when I was 14, I got into a car accident which caused me to lose my eyesight.

01:46

And at this car accident, it was on a Sunday, and it was a Sunday around 10 in the morning or so.

01:54

And so, when I got in the car accident, it was on kind of a windy, curvy road that is not a busy street at all.

02:01

It's a little side road, basically. And there's a very high hill above the road, and a gentleman came running down.

02:08

He had called the ambulance, and by the time the ambulance got there, they said, there's no way this kid's gonna even make it to the hospital, which was about a mile, a mile and a half away.

02:17

And so, when I got to the hospital, my hospital is in Putnam, Connecticut, and they were doing a UMass Life Flight practice run.

02:24

So, when I got there, the helicopter was already on the landing pad. The doctors that needed to be there to do the life flight run were already there.

02:33

And so, they rushed me in. They operated on me quickly to patch me up and get me on the helicopter. They flew me to UMass.

02:39

I was in surgery for about 18 hours, and I'm still alive and here by the grace of God.

02:46

And were you conscious through any of that, or you were unconscious the whole time? I don't remember it, but they say

02:52

I was conscious. Okay. Well, we're talking to Jonathan today because it's interesting, as we look at Christ's work in the life of a

03:00

Christian, it's good to ask ourselves lots of questions, like who initiated salvation?

03:06

How should a Christian respond in trial? And so, I'm gonna ask Jonathan a variety of questions today. And Jonathan, I'm just glad you're here, and I know it's your desire not to talk about yourself, but you wanna talk about Christ Jesus and glorify

03:18

Him, right? Yes. But God does work personally in the lives of people, and I think of Paul on the

03:23

Damascus Road, and I think three times recounting his conversion in the book of Acts. I think of the man who was having the demons in him of legion and then

03:34

Jesus said, "'Go, tell everybody the great things God has done for you.'" And that's what we want to do today in this extended testimony.

03:42

Jonathan, one of the things I like about you is you realize God has been sovereign over this whole thing.

03:49

And I remember asking you quite a while ago, Jonathan, do you get bugged or irritated or exasperated if I ever say spiritual blindness from the pulpit or something like that?

03:59

No, no, never. And so, you're not, I'm sure you don't want people to be rude to you or stare at you or make fun of you, but it's not one of these issues where Jonathan's in the room, we have to mind our

04:10

P's and Q's because he's extra sensitive. Oh, no, not at all. Why do you think you're that way?

04:16

Well, personally, I think it's a little ridiculous if someone is like that. I mean, you can't say blind around a blind person or, oh, did you see that?

04:23

I mean, it's part of our vocabulary. So, I mean, it's kind of silly to have to walk on eggshells like that.

04:28

Absolutely. Tell us, Jonathan, through the ministry now of, you know, the internet is horrible because there can be horrible things in it, but it can also be great.

04:37

Tell us about how you're able to read, as it were, and to listen and for those people out there who think that, you know, it's

04:45

Braille or anything. You don't even read Braille, right? I don't even know how to read Braille. Okay, how old are you now? 32.

04:50

So you've been blind for almost 20 years. And tell us about how you listen to shows and who do you listen to?

04:59

And tell us about JAWS and all that. Sure, I have a computer that has a screen reader on it, which it does what it says.

05:06

It reads the screen. I can hit the tab key or the arrow keys and it bounces me around the screen and lets me know where I'm at.

05:12

I can surf websites. I can send email, receive email, type out papers. I can pretty much do anything a sighted person can do short of maybe editing video or touching up pictures.

05:23

Okay, and how about work? Sometimes people think, well, what is a blind man to do?

05:30

And tell us, do you know anything about computers at all? Yeah, yeah. I have a business somewhere where we build and sell computers and repair them.

05:38

And so when you were 14, though, there was no such thing as a computer, right? No, there wasn't. Oh, there was, okay.

05:45

Well, you look pretty young. I don't know, I'm gonna see if you're gray, though. You're losing some of your hair. I'm definitely losing hair.

05:51

Okay. Tell us a little bit about the Word Faith Movement. Now, were you saved first and then got in the

05:57

Word Faith Movement? No. Or you were in it first? And Jonathan, give me a little overview because you're a theologian now and you study and learn.

06:05

Tell us how horrible it was for you to be in Word Faith Movement that was somehow trying to get you to have enough faith to get your eyesight back.

06:15

Oh, it was, again, this is all the sovereignty of God, which is awesome. And He can even pull you through false teaching and being a false convert.

06:24

And I just praise God for even that also. So we started going to a congregational church and our car ended up breaking down.

06:33

So we stopped going to church. And then this one day we're driving down the highway like we always do. We always get off the same exit.

06:39

And we had been praying to find a church to go to. And this lady was pulled off the on -ramp and she ran out of gas.

06:45

We ended up getting her gas for her. And when we came back, she's like, I don't have anything to give you, but do you guys go to church?

06:51

Do you need a church to go to? And we were like, oh wow, this must be God. So we ended up going to this really -

06:58

Are you saved yet? No, no, no. Okay, I keep going. So it was this very charismatic church, speaking in tongues and you've done a few shows on that and healing and all these other things.

07:12

And it's like the Word Faith Movement or the Speak It and You Say It Movement where God is like your magical genie and he has to do what you tell him to do if you say these things a certain way.

07:24

Words are containers. Yeah, yeah, words are power. And so I started going there and they basically put it on me.

07:35

My whole, they were telling me and teaching me like my whole testimony is to be healed, to get my vision back.

07:42

And they would put it all on me if you don't get healed, it's your problem. You don't have enough faith.

07:47

You're the one holding it back. God has to heal you because we're healed by his stripes. And you need to find some sin that's rooted deep in you four generations ago and get that thing out of your family line.

08:00

And you need to pray, pray, fast pray. And if you're not healed, it's your fault. And they just put all this pressure on you.

08:07

And it definitely can be discouraging if you're told like your goal is to be healed and if you're not, you're kind of a failure.

08:15

Can you imagine telling that to someone who's basically, did you have your face ripped off?

08:21

Is that about what it was? So lacerated? Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah. And so there's an organic problem.

08:28

Do you still have your eyes? Yeah, yep, yep. You've got an organic problem where the eyes are damaged.

08:34

And then you say, well, God wants you healed. And certainly, Jonathan, do you believe there's healing in the atonement that we'll experience in heaven?

08:42

Absolutely. Ultimately, there is healing in the atonement. And by his stripes, we are healed. And of course, we believe 1 Peter chapter two that talks about that.

08:49

But that doesn't necessarily mean that we're healed on this earth. And if you tell somebody who's got a bad back or their leg hurts, you just need to have more faith,

08:58

I think that's still bad. But to me, it's, Jonathan, unconscionable to say, do you know what?

09:03

God wants you healed. First of all, they don't know the mind of God. A lot of hypercharismatics would especially not know the mind of God.

09:11

But then to blame the person. Do you know what? You're not healed because you don't have enough faith.

09:16

I just think that's sick. And if you're listening today on No Compromise Radio, WVNE, and you would like to be healed, friends, sometimes there's a reason for your sickness, like in John chapter nine, right?

09:32

The man who was born blind. Jonathan, do you remember why he was born blind? For the glory of God. For the glory of God.

09:39

And so this whole shenanigan faith that says, if you're not healed, it's your fault.

09:45

I mean, what an easy out, it's your fault. I remember Johnny Erickson Tata. She was going to a charismatic church when she first got saved and ended up going to Grace Church with John MacArthur.

09:55

She's since moved on. But I go to Grace Church and there was people pretty much in every row in a wheelchair.

10:02

And they want to hear about the truths of God, the sovereignty of God, the long suffering of God, the loving kindness of God.

10:09

And it's not, well, you know what? If you don't get up out of this wheelchair, it's your own problem. That is a damning doctrine.

10:15

If you go to one of those word faith churches in Hagen and Copeland and blab it and grab it and say it and spray it and all that stuff, you need to leave because when you distort the gospel and the cross, what else are you going to distort?

10:29

Everything. Yeah, and I would say run. Absolutely, so now you're in this movement and did you think probably, you know what?

10:36

God's going to heal you? Oh yeah, I mean, at that point, they would pull all these scriptures out of context and they would make their case.

10:43

Look, God will heal you. He has to. He died on the cross. You're guaranteed this healing, so it's going to come.

10:49

I wonder if any of those people were balding or had glasses. I'm sure they did. I see these guys on TBN and other heretical stations and I'm thinking they're talking about healing and they've got thick glasses and they're balding.

11:02

I was going to think they'd say, your physician, heal yourself. And so walk us through still, we're talking to Jonathan Nadeau today, walk us kind of how you got out of that movement and when actually

11:14

God saved you and how he saved you. Sure, so we're at that charismatic church and basically that pastor ended up sort of like leaving or whatever, but there was kind of a few pastors in that church and the main pastor left, so one of the associate pastors took over and he kind of started a new church, so we were still going there.

11:33

I was doing the music on the praise and worship team, I was playing guitar and singing and the pastor one day,

11:40

I don't know, maybe a month or so, he gave us a heads up and he was just like, oh, by the way, I'm leaving. Someone in Colorado is giving me this like giant mansion and I'm going to move out there and he was from India, so he was more focusing on his ministry in India.

11:55

So the shepherd just left the flock and he was like, hey, Jonathan, if you want to take over, everything's yours and I was like, what?

12:03

Take over everything, preaching and everything? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Seriously, you're not even converted? No, no, at that point I definitely was not converted.

12:09

Children of a lesser God. Yeah, well, I mean, I wasn't playing any, at this point I was like a false conversion.

12:16

I thought I was saved, but I wasn't. You know, let's stop there for a second. We're on No Compromise Radio. Jonathan, tell us about a faith that doesn't save.

12:23

It's possible to have a faith that's not saving. Well, the way these guys would teach is say this prayer, take your flu shot, all your sins are forgiven, bam.

12:34

And there was never talk of sin or the sinfulness of sin. You know, the whole, everything they taught was

12:39

Jesus died on a cross so you would die, so that you would be healed. Jesus died on a cross so you would have everything you've ever wanted.

12:46

Jesus died on a cross so you'd have all the money you ever wanted. You just need to get the sin out of your life and all these things.

12:53

And so, you know, and I would go to church every Sunday, every Wednesday, Bible study. I was doing all the music and, you know, at this point

13:00

I thought I was saved, you know, and so the pastor ended up leaving and so the church basically dissolved and we didn't have a church for a year.

13:10

And right before the church dissolved though, we started discovering the way the master ministry, and they talked a lot about John MacArthur.

13:20

And I started downloading sermons from John MacArthur and I said, and after listening to even one,

13:26

I said, I've never heard anyone teach the Bible like this. Wow, now stop there for a second. When you were talking about,

13:32

Jonathan, being very religious, there are probably people listening today who are super religious.

13:38

They do things in the name of Jesus. I just thought of these verses in Matthew 7. "'Not everyone who says to me,

13:43

Lord, Lord, "'will enter the kingdom of heaven, "'but the one who does the will of my Father "'who is in heaven.

13:49

"'On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, "'did we not prophesy in your name "'and cast out demons in your name "'and do many mighty works in your name?

13:57

"'And then I will declare to them, "'I never knew you. "'Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'"

14:06

So Jonathan, tell our listeners, what's the difference between you knowing God and God knowing you? Well, the important thing is

14:13

God knowing you. I could stand outside of the White House and say, hey, let me in, I know

14:18

President Obama, let me in. That's not gonna matter. If President Obama comes out of the White House and says, hey,

14:23

Jonathan Nadeau, yeah, let him in, that's all the difference in the world. Absolutely, so now we're back to MacArthur.

14:29

You're listening to MacArthur and you say, I've never heard the Bible taught this way. Yes. And was that during the time that God convicted you and you were converted?

14:37

Yes. And so what year do you think that was? Let's see, we were married in 01, so I would say maybe 04 or 05.

14:49

Okay, and then did you start going to church or what was the progression of your life then? Well, we didn't have a church for about a year.

14:56

So for a whole year, I was listening to John MacArthur, John Piper, Albert Moeller, Steve Lawson, all of the great preachers that God has provided with us for this day and age.

15:08

And so I pretty much had to dump my mind of everything that I thought

15:14

I knew and actually start learning the truth. And when you were listening to these men preach and speak, why do you think these guys have so much authority?

15:24

Is it their personality? Is it Lawson's charismatic style?

15:30

Where did they get their authority? From the Father above. Isn't that amazing? When you preach the word of God, it's not some self -created authority.

15:40

You think, you know what, these are the very words of God and the word preached is the word of God. So now you're converted and how did you find

15:48

Bethlehem Bible Church? Like I said, we were listening to a lot of John MacArthur and went to his website.

15:54

Well, we ended up going to Nine Marks Ministry, Mark Dever, and he had like a church finder.

16:01

So we put in our zip code, and at this time we lived in Putnam, Connecticut still. We put in our zip code and the closest church was

16:08

Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. And so we said, all right, so we clicked on the website, bbchurch .org.

16:14

We went there, we started looking around and we see Mike Avendroth, Steve Cooley, and then we say, hey, wait, these guys graduated from Masters, which is the seminary of John MacArthur.

16:24

We said, that's all we need to know. And the next Sunday we drove out here and the first Sunday we came, we knew this is exactly where we were supposed to be.

16:32

Do you remember what I was preaching? Yes, you were in Matthew 5 doing the Beatitudes. Oh, all right.

16:37

You know, we used to do that at Grace Church. We'd say, well, how long have you been here at Grace Church? And people would say, I got here at 1

16:43

Thessalonians 5. Yeah, and which it was great because for this whole last year, we had been learning about the law and the mirror of the law.

16:53

And then we come in that Sunday and what are you teaching? Jesus is teaching through the Beatitudes. It was great.

16:58

Absolutely. Well, we're talking to Jonathan on the radio today at No Compromise Radio, a man who lost his physical sight, but it gained spiritual sight to see

17:07

Christ in all his glory through the word preached. Jonathan, if people are listening today and they're struggling with some kind of health issue, maybe it's not blindness, they've got chronic pain, walk us through James a little bit.

17:21

When James talks about counting it all joy when you meet these kind of trials, how are you able to do that, encourage them?

17:30

You know, sometimes, I guess here's what I'm saying. People will say, well, you know, how can you say that? Because, you know, your life is better than mine.

17:35

I think you have trials in your life. How would you encourage other people to have joy in their trials and in their life, even though life hurts?

17:44

Well, I guess the first would say is if you know beyond a shadow of a doubt, you're one of the elect and you are saved by the grace of God, you can rest assured that you will persevere to the end, that not one will slip from his hand.

17:57

And if you are suffering now, I say suffer now and enjoy later. And, you know, maybe you will get healed, maybe you won't.

18:05

I know for myself, even if I don't get healed on this side,

18:11

I've already received the greatest miracle ever, and that's being brought from darkness into light and for being born again and given a new life.

18:19

Jonathan, let me read these verses to you and then you can make some comments on them. Here in 2

18:26

Corinthians 4, Paul writes, "'So we do not lose heart. "'Though your outer self is wasting away, "'our inner self is being renewed day by day.

18:35

"'For this light, momentary affliction "'is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory "'beyond all comparison.'"

18:46

You sound like a Reformed Baptist, mm. Now this is a radio, now I want more than just Reformed Baptist, mm.

18:51

It's just, I just love hearing those words. Some people may look at affliction as a bad thing, but if you look back on it the right way, it can be a good thing, because I don't want to say it forces you, but it makes you want to lean on God.

19:06

It makes you want to lean on the Father to trust in him, to know that he's gonna carry you through.

19:12

Well, isn't it true when the psalmist says, "'In my affliction, I sought God early.'"

19:19

And when everything's going well, you still might be prone to pray and to depend on the

19:25

Lord, but when things aren't going so well and there's a crisis, those crisis moments make you want to pray, right?

19:32

Definitely. So Jonathan, we've got about six minutes left of No Compromise Radio Ministry. Let's talk about theology.

19:39

Why do you like to study theology and who do you like to study? Well, I like theology because once I was,

19:46

I heard the truth for the first time, I grabbed onto it and I do not want to let go of it.

19:52

The truth is so powerful and learning theology, learning, God is so gracious to give us the words that we can know him as much as he wants us to know him here on earth.

20:02

We can learn his attributes and what he expects of us, and it's just a fantastic thing to be able to do.

20:09

Well, you strike me as a guy, Jonathan, who maybe you didn't know this explicitly, but you know it implicitly, and that is what

20:18

William Plummer said. When there's a big problem in your life, a big trial, and in your particular case, physical blindness, you need big doctrines, a big view of God to sustain you through, to say, you know what,

20:32

I have a wife and three kids and I want to try to provide for them and I want to try to help them and there are certain things

20:37

I can do, certain things I can't do, and so I need a big view of God because I have big problems.

20:42

Absolutely. And so when we study doctrine, doctrine just simply means something that's true about God.

20:49

These people that are listening today, if you're listening today and you've got small little problems, then maybe kind of a puny

20:56

God can get you through, but when big problems come and it's a fallen world and they're going to be there, you need to have a high view of God, that God is a king and sovereign, and this world is going along exactly as God pleases, always as he pleases, wouldn't you agree?

21:10

Absolutely. So what else do you want to do with your life? You've got maybe another, well, it could be another minute or it could be another 40 years in this world.

21:20

Tell me about your passion to serve the local church and life and goals and all that. Well, I would love to get involved in the music again and play for the

21:31

Lord, and I've been convicted of that lately and for the long -term, Lord willing,

21:37

I would at some point like to be able to go to Southern and become either a pastor or even become a part of faculty to teach men how to preach the word, how to preach the truth and to go forth and proclaim the truth.

21:51

Well, that's like saying, sick him to a mad dog. Jonathan, as you, let me ask you this,

22:02

I ask this of certain people, who's on your iPod? Who do you like to listen to these days? John MacArthur, Steve Lawson, I have you,

22:11

I have - Me, wow, that's, you know what, it reminds me of the story, I was in Germany and I was the guest speaker and MacArthur was going on video, he was going to be a video speaker and I was live and it said,

22:22

Mike Ebenroth and John MacArthur. I say that little thing, that's the right order in my proud mind.

22:31

All the other, you know, great preachers of the day, I'm having a mind slip right now, but I probably have like,

22:40

I'm probably subscribed to about 25 preaching podcasts. Okay, and how many hours a week do you work?

22:46

As many as I have to, unfortunately work hasn't been too great lately, but that gives me more time to read and listen to sermons and read the

22:53

Bible. Tell us a little bit about sin and the Savior, we've got two minutes to go, you were preaching a little bit earlier, tell people through your experience regarding losing your sight, conviction of sin, what is it, why sin is so bad against a holy

23:12

God, let's kind of wrap the show up that way because people need to know they're sinners. Well, if you think,

23:18

I know for me, if you think you can't be forgiven of your sins, you can be, because I was that person, when

23:25

I first started reading the Bible, I said, there's so many atrocities that I committed, so many awful things

23:31

I did in my hatefulness and my wickedness, my rebelliousness against God, I said, there's no way he's gonna forgive me now,

23:37

I did all these things to make him angry and to anger him, there's no way he's gonna forgive me, and I started reading about Paul, and I read the book of Acts, and I started reading more about Paul, and I said, surely if God can forgive this chief of sinners, he can forgive me, so you can be fully forgiven by the sacrifice that was made on your behalf by Jesus, all of your sins are paid for, and you can be sure of that.

24:02

I'm reading 1 Corinthians 6, and such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, and you were justified in the name of the

24:09

Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Jonathan's trying to say that your sins are great because they're against a holy

24:17

God, but there's a great Savior who can cover sins from every spectrum, no matter how many times you've sinned, to what degree you've sinned, from murderers to rapists to pedophiles, people can be forgiven because of Christ's great work.

24:33

Jonathan, I got 40 seconds left, I have an odd question. Are your other senses more heightened now?

24:38

Do you, you have to rely on them more, but do you think they're more heightened, is that just you? Oh yeah, yeah, one thing for me, if we're in a really crowded area, like a cafeteria or if there's a lot of people around,

24:47

I have a really hard time of even hearing someone right next to me because I can hear everything going on. So people are like,

24:54

I thought you could hear better. I'm like, I can, that's the problem. Well, we are

24:59

No Compromise Radio Ministry, my name is Mike Abendroth. Jonathan, thank you for being in the studio. I appreciate you and your family and your ministry, and I wish

25:08

God a very, I wish a blessing on you from our great God. Thank you. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

25:20

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.

25:29

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.

25:36

You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

25:45

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