Think (Part 3)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, "...but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.".

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and today there'll be no weak sauce. How about that, Zach? No weak sauce. What is weak sauce?

Weak sauce is when you go out and catch a wave. Try to catch a wave, and there's just no force to the waves. They're just kind of swishing all around. There's not a good set. Tide's bad. Swell's bad. And it's just a weak, it's a weak wave.

Weak sauce. So, no weak sauce waves today on No Compromise Radio. Can you believe we're on WVNE? After 700 shows, this flagship station has still not tried to kick us off. Well, they've tried to—well, they have raised the rates, but that was an indirect way of trying to kick us off.

But we are still on the radio, still saying no to sin and yes to Christ's righteousness. How about that? So, we're really glad to be on today. You can pick us up at the website, and all our podcasts are there, www .nocompromiseradio .com.

Or you could pick us up at iTunes and subscribe, and our subscription list has gone up quite successfully. I'm still not convinced we shouldn't charge for those shows. And we're happy to be on getting close—well, I think we're two and a half years into this deal here called Radio Ministry.

And on a serious note, I'm very thankful for the opportunity we have to talk about biblical things from a provocative perspective. I don't really think I'm that blunt. I don't really think I want to be a straight shooter.

But I'm sure for those that love Charles Stanley and David Jeremiah's approach, I'm probably not your guy. But that's okay. It's a big world, and that's why we have menus, as Donald Trump would say. That's why we have menus, so you can just order what you like.

So if I'm listening to you today and in your home speaking, as a friend and as a comrade in ministry, thank you from a real heartfelt thank you from me to you. By the way, if you want to visit us at Bethlehem Bible Church, you can.

Two services, 830 in the morning and 11 o 'clock in the morning are two services. We have the acid rock service at 830, and then we have the country service at 11. Oh, man, no, the services are the same.

I wouldn't do that. I don't do acid rock. I'm looking on my iPhone right here, and I'm just trying to see if there's any kind of acid rock that I have, because I could just play it in the background. But right now, I'm kind of drawing a blank.

Okay, I've got to find something. What kind of music would summarize the style of music that we have here? That's the 8 o 'clock service. And then we have for the second service, the 830 service, we have something that's a little bit different.

We kind of slow it down a little for the people that aren't really into that. It's more kind of the reggae service, and so we'll have that instead. And so that's the later service. See, it's the Jewish reggae thing.

That's what we've got at the 11 o 'clock service. All right, enough of that nonsense. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. I'd like to talk to you today about your mind. We've been doing a series on the Christian mind, and what does a Christian think?

Are you a thinking Christian? And if you haven't heard the last two shows, here's the premise. In the book of Romans, 16 chapters, and the hinge, the fulcrum, is at the end of 11 and the beginning of 12.

After a short burst of praise, found in 11 .33 -36, Paul then talks about using your mind. Before you love one another, before you submit to government, before you resist evil, before you exercise Christian liberty, before you use your spiritual gifts, Paul addresses the mind, because the mind is an important component to Christianity.

We've been talking about that the last two weeks. If you've got your Bibles, or if you want to just listen to me, Romans 12, verse 1, it talks about presenting your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual, our logical, our thinking way of doing things.

So, Paul is saying this. If you think back to what God has done for you, and how He has redeemed you, how He has given you His Son's righteousness, how He has performed a great work for you and has regenerated you—Paul doesn't use the words regeneration in Romans, but just theologically speaking—and you just go back and rehearse in your mind just the greatness of Christ's life and death, resurrection, ascension, and then how horrible you are, the sinfulness of mankind, then you'll see the difference is praise, and the praise that stems from a great salvation spirals then into right thinking.

So Paul says, I want you to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God. In other words, Paul says, I want you to live holy, W-H, holy for God, all for God. It's hard to give ourselves to God, that is, our whole person.

To give money, well, it might be difficult, but it's not really that hard to write a check. If you've got money, you write a check. I mean, it costs you, I'm not trying to say that it doesn't cost. To try to give time to the Lord, again, that costs, but it's easy, fairly easy.

To do charity or social work or gospel-oriented work, that is difficult, but not that hard. But here Paul says, I want you to give your entire body. He's not saying body separate from mind. He's saying give yourself to God, your entire self.

Present with the language of Old Testament sacrificial presentation. James Boyce says that God does not want your money or your time without yourself. You are the one for whom Jesus died. You are the one he loves.

So he didn't die for your money. He didn't die for your time. He didn't die for your charity. He died for you. So with the tense in Greek of finality, with decisiveness, with a marriage-like commitment, you present your bodies like they would give gifts in the temple in Leviticus 1 and 16.

This is what Jesus' parents did when they brought him to the temple. They presented him to the Lord, Luke 2 .22. You give your whole man, your whole woman, the totality of your being, life, mind, actions, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

No, we're not talking about body. Here, Lord, you have my ears, you have my feet. This is everything you are, your life, your mind, your actions. John Calvin said, by bodies he means not only our skin and bones, but the totality of which we are composed.

He adopted this word that he might more fully designate all that we are, for the members of the body are the instruments by which we carry out our purposes. And that's exactly what Paul is trying to say.

And this is a living sacrifice, not a dead sacrifice. The other sacrifices you kill and they're dead. You, in light of what God has done for you, responding out of gratitude, you are a living sacrifice.

This is loving God and serving him with all you are, with eagerness. You are a person who was sinful and Christ died for your sins, and now God isn't calling you to die for him, he's calling you to live for him.

A .T. Robertson said this isn't a propitiatory offering, that is to assuage the wrath of God, because Jesus alone did that. But this is a praise offering. And we are not called to die for him, we're called to live for him.

Now occasionally we're called to die for him, but this particular case here that we're talking about isn't martyrdom sacrifice, this is the sacrifice of praise, of living wholly for God. Hoyt said, one could die in a moment of time, but this calls for more, this meaning Romans 12.

One, as living, all that he is and does for all time is now presented to the Lord. Oswald Chambers said, giving up my right to myself, that's what Romans 12 is talking about. I no longer am Lord of my life, and to use MacArthur's terminology taken from Paul, we are slaves of Christ.

Jim Elliott, the martyr down in the India region, Indian region, not India of course, Ecuador, he said, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. There's a story about consecration, and a woman went to a wise pastor, and he said, you have any questions about holy living?

And she asked, would you please tell me in a word what your idea of consecration is? He held out a blank sheet of paper, and then this is what the wise pastor said, it is to sign your name at the bottom of this blank sheet, and to let God fill it in as he will.

Here Lord, you have my life, I'm yours, I want to serve you, and after I've served myself, I've served sin, I've served the world, I've served foolish desires, I want to serve you now. You have died for me, and you have provided everything for my life and salvation, and therefore my only logical response is worship, presenting myself as a living and holy sacrifice.

And this kind of thinking, using your mind, destroys any false bifurcation that you might have. So if you think that you go to work and that's secular, and then you go to church, that's sacred, then this whole living, presenting your whole self to the Lord, should smash that false bifurcation.

If you say, well, I'm doing dishes, that's secular because I'm a housewife, I'm a homemaker, but then when I go to the ladies' Bible study, that's sacred. That's the wrong way to think. Changing diapers and doing dishes for the glory of God is not secular, or it can be done in a secular fashion, not thinking about things properly, but this is the life that Paul calls people to, a life devoted, holy, W-H-O-L-L-Y, to the Lord.

Isaac Watts penned this song, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. This is good motivation. This is right motivation, living in light of the cross.

Calvin said, Paul's entreaty teaches us that men will never worship God with a sincere heart or be roused to fear and obey Him with sufficient zeal until they properly understand how much they are indebted to His mercy.

That's right thinking. But Paul goes further. Paul in Romans chapter 12, verse 2, says there's a way that you ought to think that defends you, guards against what the world is trying to sell. You know the next part of the verse, Romans 12, 2, do not be conformed to this world.

That's an ongoing tense. Don't let the world conform you to its mold. You know when you get some jello and you put some hot water in with it and stir it up, put it in the mold. If the mold is a Thanksgiving display and you flip it over after it is cooled, then it's going to be in the form of this Thanksgiving display.

So what Paul is saying is don't let the world put you in its mold so that you think like they do and act like they do. The world has an agenda. Media has an agenda. Satan is alive and well in this world, and so watch out.

Be protected. Don't be conformed to this world. Don't be fashioned. Don't let the world fashion you. It's a passive imperative. Don't let the world fashion you. Don't stop this. Don't be squeezed into this mold of the world, J .B. Phillips' terminology says.

Don't be a chameleon. Watch out for this evil age. It's trying to get you to think wrongly. And this worldly thinking, friends, as you've heard me say over and over and over, worldly thinking is not what we typically would think of with Billy Sunday kind of Christianity.

Don't drink and don't smoke and don't go to movies and don't go to dances, etc. That's not worldliness. Now drunkenness is worldliness and inappropriate sexual kind of dancing is inappropriate unless it's husband and wife in their own bedroom or whatever.

This is a worldview. This world thinks a certain way. And worldliness isn't, well, you know, movies are bad, therefore we don't go to movies. The world has philosophies and methodologies and thoughts and value systems or lack thereof.

And they're trying to sell you those things. They're trying to get you to think like the world thinks, relativistically, no black and white truth, no antithetical thinking, no propositional truth, everything's postmodern if it's true for you.

That's worldliness. It's not, you know, I got a tattoo. Now the merits or motives of tattoos, that's a whole different story. I've talked about the tattoos a lot. If you're getting a tattoo because you want to show off and brag, that's the wrong motive.

If you want to get a tattoo because you want to be a rebel, that's a bad motive. If you want to get a tattoo because you're trying to associate with a pagan god, that's a bad motive. But don't go to Leviticus to try to tell people not to get a tattoo.

This is within the realm of Christian liberty, good, better, best, etc. What are the motives to get a tattoo? And I said it before, if you want to get a tattoo, then that's between you and the Lord. And you know, for me, it comes down to things like fashion.

If I would have got a tattoo when I wanted to have, I'd have a big Rolling Stones tattoo, you know, the tongue right on my shoulder right now. And I don't wear flare jeans anymore, so fashions change.

But if a husband and wife went to get tattoos with their names on the other's body, that has nothing to do with Leviticus. And so we're only thinking, it isn't, oh, these obvious things that fundamental, you know, King James Only Baptists talk about, oh, tattoos and smoking and drinking and, you know, rooting for the patriots kind of thing.

This is a methodology. This is an ideology. This is a war of thinking. This is hedonism rules and relativism rules and materialism rules. But the world through media and through the educational system is bombarding our minds.

And so Paul says this, if you think about who you were, you think about what Jesus did, you think about grace, sovereign grace, you think about the cross and substitutionary atonement, literal resurrection, you ought to just engage in your mind in such a way where you'll say, Lord, just take me.

I'm yours. I want to follow you. This is my whole body, life, soul, mind, spirit, everything I've got, I want to serve you with. And Paul says now, I want you to think about protecting your mind. That's what he's doing here in chapter 12, verse 2.

You will be influenced by people. And if you're not careful and you just don't ever think about this negative influence, you're going to be going down the wrong direction. So Paul says, I want you to prevent yourself from thinking like the world thinks because you're not part of the world anymore.

You're a part of the church. Well the flip side of negative is positive. The flip side of defensive is proactive. The flip side of protective is offensive. And so now Paul goes on to say, besides thinking logically, besides thinking defensively, he says now I want you to go on the offense, Romans 12, 2.

But be transformed by the renewal of your mind. So regularly the way to teach someone is stop doing this and instead do the opposite. Don't lie, tell the truth. Don't steal work. Don't be conformed to the world.

Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. May the Spirit of God transform, metamorphosize is the Greek root, metamorphosize your mind.

Renew it. Your mind needs renewal. You need washing of the water of the Word, washing by the water of the Word. Keep on being transformed. The world is active and you are passive when it comes to being conformed to the world.

Same language here in the Greek, present, passive, imperative. Present, keep on, passive, be transformed, imperative, it's a command. Keep on being transformed. And see here's what happens. The Scriptures are given to us and they begin to transform our mind and our eyes and our ears spiritually.

We think and see differently. And we don't want to stop with, well, you know what, I just am learning a lot. Of course you have to learn. There's no way getting around it. But with Jonathan Edwards, there's a goal and we learn with our intellect so that our affections are changed.

So we love Christ more and we appreciate Him more. And so that's what we're after. D .L. Moody said, the Scriptures were not given for our information but for our transformation. And so he's close. He's close.

A better quote would have been by Moody if it said something like this, the Scriptures were not given for our information only but for our transformation. So that's what we're after, a reprogramming of the way we think about history, about sin, about education, about God, His greatness, His beauty, a brainwashing to think God's thoughts after Him.

That's what we're after. Paul said in Corinthians, excuse me, in Colossians, set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth. Why? For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

When Christ who is our life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. No wonder Paul said later in that same chapter in Colossians 3 .16, let the word of Christ richly dwell within you.

Did you catch that? Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you with all wisdom, teaching, and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

You can ask yourself the question, how am I at protecting my mind from the world and its influences, and then how proactive am I in putting the right stuff into my mind in my home Bible study, my listening to good sermons in the car, going to Bible classes at the church and Bible studies, Sunday morning, Sunday night attendance.

There's an old saying that says, small minds discuss persons, average minds discuss events, great minds discuss ideas. Now that's not bad wisdom, probably something my grandmother could have told me. I'm going to add something to that.

Small minds discuss persons, average minds discuss events, great minds discuss ideas, and godly minds discuss Christ and his word, pouring that in through staying seated until your Bible study's done, through godly spiritual discipline.

I don't know if you're a reader, but listening to No Compromise, I hope you are. I hope you've bought that number one bestseller, The Sovereignty and Supremacy of King Jesus. Change your world. Change your world view.

It'll change my finances. I think I told you the story, I received a royalty check for my first book. It was a six-month deal, and so twice a year you get the royalty checks, and there were some books sold in England, and so I got a royalty check for two dollars, excuse me, two pounds, like 40 pence.

Did I cash it? Somebody ask? I can hear you ask in your Pinto. You're driving a 72 Ford Pinto, and you ask, did I cash it? Of course I cashed it. Well, I cashed it and went out and bought some Pete's Coffee is what I did.

So I've been getting some emailers, and they said we've switched to Pete's Coffee, and we like it. So if Pete's Coffee's listening, I think I should get a free pound of dark roast whole bean. Hey, and we're called NoCompromisedRadio .com, so see, com for commercial.

Oh, brother. So when you're thinking about the Bible, why don't you supplement your thinking with a good book? People read only one or two books per year, and it's Tom Clancy or a cookbook or something like that, New York Times bestseller, some fiction, some romance.

Why don't you pick a good book? Why don't you read The Sovereignty of God by Ed A .W. Pink? Why don't you read The Gospel According to Jesus by John MacArthur? Why don't you read Tozer, A Knowledge of the Holy?

There's so many books to choose. Go to your pastor and say, Pastor, I'd like to start reading, and I'm going to try to read six books a year that help me understand the Bible better. That's a good way to have your mind renewed.

Read your Old Testament, too, because if you read 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, 1 and 2 Samuel, you'll learn about history of the world, of course, but you'll learn history from a theological perspective, and you need to see history today from a theological perspective, and you're going to know what the will of God is the more you study the Bible and what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Wouldn't you like to have your mind dwell on those things? Well, my name's Mike Abendroth. That was a fast 24 minutes. You can write me at info at nocompromiseradio .com, and I'll actually, since our email's fixed, I'll actually answer you unless it's a crazy question or a Mormon question, and I'll have Pastor Steve do it, or if it's even ultra crazy, I'll have Ray Johnson do it.

You can write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com, and we will look forward to your letters and phone calls. 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. The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.