Discernment Ministries

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.

Early Memories of Berean Call and Dave Hunt

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. It is a Tuesday, and that means it�s time for Wednesday, guy. Thank you. Thank you very much for having me. My name�s Spiff. I don�t mean this like a four-letter word kind of thing or a curse word, but what�s the worst thing you�ve been called?

Like not now with curses, but somebody called you something in the jail or, you know, police car or something. What did you get called?

I think here�s a better question. What haven�t I been called? You know, I mean, my favorite one to be called, though, is homophobic. Oh. Uh-huh. Yeah. I love that one because I just look at, you know, especially if it�s face-to-face online, you know, what can you do?

But when it�s face-to-face, I look at them and I go,. �Well, I spent a weekend alone in a hotel room with a homosexual. You know, does that sound homophobic to you?

Their eyes usually get pretty big. Well, I remember one time I said to Kim, she was in California, I was here in Massachusetts, and I said, �I have confession to make, honey. We were talking on the phone.

I said, �It was in public and it was in the middle of the street in front of our house, but I just want you to know I kissed another lady today on the cheek. And I said, �It was our lesbian friend across the street and she hadn�t seen me all summer.

I gave her a hug and kissed her on the cheek in the middle of the road. That seems relatively safe. Yeah, I know. Well, today, Steve, I think we�re going back in time. We�re turning the clock back. So we met each other, how long ago, 30 years ago or something like that?

It�s close. I think it�s like 20, 27 plus years ago, yeah. Still friends. Yeah, most of the time.

Most of the time. Well, yeah, if I agree with you, you�re happy. If I disagree, come on.

Then I�m not happy. How does that work? Well, it�s like, you know, any kind of bad relationship, I guess, I don�t know.

Well, I�m going to try to figure out what to call you, a name that must not be mentioned. When we first got saved and we were doing Bible studies and stuff like that, you would come over and the Bible study would run this way, greeting, maybe a beverage offered, right?

You want a coffee, a tea, or something like that? Brewski. No, I never did that. And then we would sing a few songs. Then we would have the Bible study. Then we would have fellowship. But early on, maybe before singing, I would usually get out a little piece of paper.

It was kind of a little mailer and it had some quotes, maybe some interesting discernment stuff. What was that thing that I pulled out? Because you actually have one in front of you right now. It�s a collector�s item.

It�s the Berean call. How many of you know about the Berean call? Bend, Oregon. Raise your hand. We see that a lot. Berean call was put out by Dave Hunt. I guess it was put out by Dave Hunt.

It�s got his name on there, right? Yeah, Dave Hunt and T .A. McMahon.

Is T .A. still alive? I know. Dave has since departed. I do not know. We fell out of touch. Dave was against what? He was against Roman Catholicism.

He was against psychology. He was against Mormonism. He was against Calvinism. Yeah. Well, that was later. And it�s so funny to me because we used to cheer Dave Hunt on and then he would start like every other newsletter would be this just rant against Calvinism.

And I�m just like, you know, I liked him better when he was talking about things he knew something about, right?

Well, what happened for me, Steve, is I would read something about The Woman Rides the Beast or something, you know, an anti-Rome thing, and then I would realize, hmm, did he do the same kind of scholarship for that book that he didn�t do or did do in the Calvinism debate book with James White?

Because if it was that shoddy in both places, I can�t trust him.

Yeah, it really does get questionable. I mean, the debating Calvinism book came, you know, a little bit later after he�d been posting for quite some time or writing these newsletters against Calvinism for quite a while.

And then James said, why don�t we write a book together, right? Let�s just do that. Oh, well, I mean, I don�t know if I told this story before, but I just remember reading that book and I would read the portion written by Dave Hunt.

And my wife would say to me, because I�d be reading at, I don�t know, like 10, 10 .30 at night or whatever, and she�d go, are you going to go to bed? And I�m going, I can�t. I just read Dave Hunt�s rubbish and I�m not going to be able to go to sleep until I read, you know, James, give him the left hook, you know, kind of, because it would make my blood pressure go through the roof reading what he did to scripture.

He would say things like, you know, well, Calvinism says we�re all robots and we don�t make a choice. But it�s clear in the Bible that people do make choices, therefore Calvinism is false.

We could probably talk about James White these days and what he�s into and who he affiliates with and all that. But I did appreciate, or I still appreciate, the Potter�s Freedom book that had something like the big three or something, you know, these are the three main passages that are Minions use, and we need to be well-equipped.

I think it was 1 Timothy 2, 4 -6, 1 John 2, 1 -2, and 2 Peter 3 -9 or something like that, the big three.

Yeah, probably. Although these days, of course, what do most people just jump to? They win every argument by just John 3 -16. Whosoever will.

The Berean Call, Acts 17, and Corporate Discernment

Well, two comments I wanted to make about this Breean call. First, I learned this from Steve Meister. Here�s Acts 17 about the Breeans. The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue.

Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica. They received the word with all eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Now here�s what Meister said. It�s not a Berean person, singular.

It�s the church. The Berean church studied the scriptures, and so you can�t be a solo Berean. You have to be a Berean with other people, examining these scriptures to see if they�re true. And I thought that�s pretty good by Steve Meister.

So you mean one person in isolation is not the arbiter of truth?

Well, for me, once I received the Berean call at my house in North Hollywood, I thought I was the arbiter of truth.

Isn�t it funny? I�m just looking at this thing, and I�m just looking, look, Spurgeon, Haldane.

Yeah, two super-Calvinists, not hyper-Calvinists, but super-Calvinists.

But they�re under the quotable thing. This must be before they took a turn.

Remember the old article that was, I think maybe in Modern Reformation, I�m not sure, but it was called �Are You Sure You Like Spurgeon Yeah. And he went through, or someone went through all these quotes.

From Discernment to the Glory of Christ

Steve, maybe we could talk about this. Here�s what I�m after today on No Compromise Radio. Discernment ministries like this, they don�t seem to last. You and I talked about sustainable ministries and sustainable obedience and holiness and all that.

Here�s my premise. You can dissect it. One of the reasons why discernment ministries don�t last is when you�re always picking at other things, you sometimes forget about why you�re picking on them or showing them to be wrong, and you forget about who Jesus is.

It�s similar to you just give people law all the time in terms of holy living, and you forget to tell them about the lawgiver. Here you�re discerning everything else, but you�re not really talking about the Lord that much, except maybe to compare here or there.

Am I off? Am I on?

What do you think? Well, there�s this one comparison that people make about the FBI and looking at counterfeit dollar bills. They don�t teach people how to identify counterfeits. They teach them to identify the genuine article.

I think in this case, some �discernment ministries� spend so much time studying false doctrine, that not only do they not study correct doctrine, but they kind of lose their zeal for it, right? I mean, if all you�re zealous for is to prove other people wrong.

Would you consider No Compromise Radio a discernment ministry?

Well, hey, it isn�t my ministry, man. I just kind of show up and, you know.

I think probably early on, Steve, there was more of that flavor, right? Even in the name �No Compromise�, in a world of compromisers, we don�t compromise. And I think as time has gone on, we should probably even redo the intro because, you know, we stand for the truth and we can even be controversial and all that stuff.

Somebody said to me, �That doesn�t really match what you�re talking about these days.

How about, why don�t we change the name of it to Bend, but Don�t Break Ministries?

I wonder if that�s a place in Oregon near Bend where Dave used to be.

Well, I think it�s kind of the, you know, college football defense mentality. Bend, but don�t break. We just don�t want to give up the touchdown.

Be good in the red zones. Yeah. Well, I think we�ve tried to also redeem No Compromise Radio by saying we love to talk about the one that doesn�t compromise, the Lord Jesus. He said to the Father, �I always do.

He said, regarding his relation to the Father, �I always do the things pleasing to the Father.

Someone, and I forget who this is, somebody said to me the other day, well, you know, Jesus was, you know, it�s this accommodational sort of Jesus who just loves everybody. And I go, I think I said something like, �Try telling that to the Pharisees.

You know, I mean, so, and there�s this whole thing about, you know, Jesus was friends with prostitutes and yadda yadda. I mean, there�s this mythology about Jesus, right? I sound like I�m starting a discernment ministry.

But, well, because now I�m going to, you know, invoke Bultman. You know, if you demythologize Jesus, well, when I say demythologize Jesus, what I mean is, let�s actually go to the scripture and let�s see what it says, right?

As opposed to just kind of what people make up about Jesus. These ideas, these romantic ideas that people have about him. Let�s talk about who he really was, and we only get that from the scriptures.

New Christians Need the Gospels and the Attributes of God

Steve, let�s try to give some advice to people who know some new Christians. Either you�re a new Christian and you�re listening, or you know a new Christian. Excuse me, it seems to me that when I�m a new Christian, or when I was one, I wanted to study cults, the kingdom of the cults.

I was just thinking about that book, Walter Martin. Right.

And I also wanted to know about the book of Revelation. Yep. Now, on one hand, okay, the book of Revelation is a revealing or an uncovering of who Jesus is, right? So, you talk about Christ-centered books, with all the tribulation and bowls and judgments and all that.

It says in the title, it�s a book about Jesus. But what would you say to someone who said, I�m going to get a bunch of cult books, A Woman Rides the Beast, New Spirituality, Global Peace, Cup of Trembling, Larry Krabs...

Another One Bites the Dust? Yeah.

What would you tell them? I would tell them to start reading the Gospels. You know, you want to know Jesus, because it is revelation, a revelation of Jesus Christ. Yes. Is it a revelation of His earthly ministry?

No. You know, it�s really a revelation of the glorious risen Christ. And that�s certainly helpful. I mean, the book tells us it�s helpful. But it�s not where I think people, especially new Christians, need to be and need to grow.

They need the milk, right? To use that scripture analogy, they need the milk of the Word before they can move on to more solid meat. They really need to know who Jesus is, what He said, how He lived, why He died.

You know, those kind of issues need to be more thoroughly understood.

Perfect. And both you and, excuse me, me, no, both you and me, you and I, yeah, okay. I knew when I said it, it was wrong. There�s a radio show that I listen to all the time, a Christian radio show, and they always get that wrong.

You know what I use? Here�s a little trick I usually use, is I reverse the order. So if I say �me� most of the time, that�s not going to be right most of the time. Right.

Right? Well, I was hearing myself wheeze, and I thought, why am I wheezing today? I�ve had lung problems in the past, but I thought I was getting better. But both of us have given attributes of God books, attributes of God books, to new believers, because that�s exactly what we�re talking about.

Yes, it might be talking about the triune God, it might be some stuff about the incarnation that�s true, but who is God? You need to get a good view of who God is, right? That�s where we go. That�s right.

What�s your favorite attributes book? I mean, we call them attributes, a description, something about God, His perfections.

Well, I mean, it�s probably Pink, but Charnock is good, great. And then, you know, Noah, what�s the one Barrett just did, like no other or? Yeah, None Greater. None Greater, that�s it. So I mean, those are all good.

You know, our guys did a great job teaching through that a year ago in Sunday school during the summer. So I think those are all good. I think probably None Greater is probably more accessible for most people.

I know that in Pink�s book, for instance, I would disagree that wrath is an attribute, right? He�s holy, therefore he has wrath. But by definition, is God wrath? I mean, in the Trinity, before time began, right, ad intra, to whom is he wrathful against?

It was an anticipatory wrath.

I believe God has wrath, and He�s angry with the wicked in Psalm 5 -5 and Psalm 7 -11. But I still like the book, Pink�s book, because it just works through with some excellent quotes from not just Scripture, but from some Puritans and other writers, and it�s free online, right?

And so you think, okay, I probably read that book more than I�ve read any other. Free. Uh-huh, free. Would you still like Tozer, his Attributes of God book, The Knowledge of the Holy?

Yeah, I don�t remember the last time I read it. I mean, it�s been quite a while, but I probably like it less, you know, just because of what I remember about him, not, you know, so I don�t know.

Right. I remember reading recently his chapter on the goodness of God. And sometimes if I would quote Tozer on Facebook or Twitter or something, you know, it�s that famous quote, what comes to your mind when you think of God is the most important thing about you.

They�re like, oh, he was this guy, this Christian missionary alliance, some kook, mystic, blah, blah, blah. How could you be quoting him? And I thought, oh, I hope you�re nicer to your wife than you are to me kind of thing.

Show up at heaven and Tozer�s there. You don�t belong here.

And then, of course, I said, physician, heal yourself when I have the quoting C .S. Lewis videos out there. But that�s that shtick. That�s this kind of shtick thing. So we�d like to encourage new believers, hey, way to go.

You�re reading a book. You know, you came out of Rome, and so you�re reading a book out of Roman Catholicism about it because you want to evangelize more. Great. Any particular books about Jesus besides the 89 chapters of the Gospels and the book of Revelation?

I have just took home, I haven�t read it, but the one by John Owen, The Glory of Christ. So I�m looking forward to reading that.

To interrupt you, Steve, for a second, I think that�s his last book. It�s in volume one of the Banner of Truth series, but that�s when he�s the most mature, when he�s the oldest. And you can look online, oh, when were each of these books written?

Because they�re not in sequential order in the Banner of Truth series. They might be in the New Crossway series. I�m not sure. He started off with the display of Arminianism and ended up with The Glory of Christ.

And that�s almost kind of what we�re talking about for the show today. You start off critiquing stuff earlier in your ministry. Here�s what�s wrong with Arminianism. Fine. Legit. Good. And then at the end of your life, it�s The Glory of Christ.

And it�s just so important to get to know Jesus. I mean, I cannot stress this enough. You know, I always encourage people to read the Gospel of John. And why? Because it really is, if you read it for what it is, which is, you know, the recollections, the testimony, the inspired testimony of John, the beloved apostle, and you just kind of have this picture in your mind of John just kind of walking through different scenes of Jesus ministry, it really helps you to get to know him, you know, from the perspective of somebody who would say, you know, I was his best friend or, you know, he was my best friend, earthly-wise.

And I just think it�s so, so helpful. I mean, there�s so much, there�s a lot of emotion, particularly as it gets toward the end of the ministry of Jesus, you know, whether it�s the Last Supper, you know, the trial, all these kind of things that are going on.

And there�s just a pathos, you know, it�s just packed with so much meaning, I mean, to me as I read through it. You know, you talk about the Gospel of Mark and how it�s action-packed. Well, I just think, you know, the Gospel of John just takes you, I mean, it�s kind of gut-wrenching at some points, but it�s a good gut-wrench.

And guess what I was studying this morning?

What have I been studying the last two weeks? The Gospel of John. Hmm. Steve, I personally struggle with this, and that�s why it�s so good for me to be even reading John this week. I was studying John 4 this morning, and kind of just working through the themes, Jesus using a physical problem and providing a physical solution to point to something greater.

Therefore, you�ve got this water, and you�re gonna get thirsty again. There�s spiritual water that He provides. There�s bread, you have to eat it again. He�s the spiritual bread. The person�s blind, that�s indicative of spiritual blindness, right?

And so He�s just this masterful teacher. But my problem tends to be, and maybe you, the listeners, are the same way. I tend to separate, if I�m not careful, the benefits of Christ from Jesus, the one giving the benefits.

In other words, I experience forgiveness, justification, sanctification. I experience adoption. I experience conversion. There�s all these things that I have, but I forget too often, �Oh, these are from Jesus.

This is what He�s done for me. To link it back to Him. Right. And I think that�s kind of Ferguson too, even in the whole Christ, making sure we don�t separate the benefits of Christ, which are wonderful, from the benefactor.

Yeah, I think that�s good. Like I said, I just think there�s, well, let me phrase it a little bit differently. I think in John, there�s so much about Jesus that just endears Him to you, right? So much compassion, so much love, but there�s also just a forthrightness and a directness, right?

He doesn�t, He never did this. He�s never kind of coy about what He�s doing. You could argue the parables have a certain coy factor, but I think He gives the reason for those. But there�s just so much compassion, love.

And I just think, I find myself always wanting to be there, right? I imagine, because as I preach through it, I imagine myself being there and I want to be there. This is where, you know, I just think it would be just fulfilling and fun and everything.

So you should watch The Chosen. You can get all the details. Yeah, I�ll pass on that. I�ll pass. I don�t need to, because it�s so vivid, you know, in the gospel.

Jesus Reveals Sin and Offers Living Water in John 4

Steve, this morning I was studying this passage, and it�s from John 4. Jesus said to her, this is the Samaritan woman, �Go, call your husband and come here. Right? He�s been talking to her about thirst and thirsty and never getting thirsty again.

He�s got this special water. He doesn�t call it special, obviously. And she said, �I want this water. Give me the water. I don�t want to be thirsty again. And, of course, can Jesus just call people sinners?

But to your point, just even the way He goes about it, there was a reason why He just didn�t say, �You�re a sinner and you need to repent. Now, both of those are true. But He says, �Call your husband.

I have no husband. �You�re right in saying you have no husband, for you�ve had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you�ve said is true. So now He didn�t even ask a question.

He just makes that statement, right? �What you�ve said is true. The woman said to Him, �Sir, I perceive that you�re a prophet. And you just go back and forth. And I think she kind of tries to change the subject a little bit.

�Hey, here�s where we worship, et cetera, et cetera. And I just go, �Oh, to be there. And then we actually can be there through the lens of Scripture.

I mean, she�s just undone for, you know, she�s just like, so it�s like, �Brr, brr, brr, brr. Yeah, go get your husband.

So He will reveal it, but He�s going to do it in His own way, the Jesus way. Maybe this is a new evangelism way. We have to just market this as the only way to evangelize, the Jesus way. What�s that thing around your wrist there, the WWJD?

What�s that?

Well, it was... He�s trying to think of something funny. No, it�s just, it�s the Apple, what would Jesus do, you know, band. Okay.

So... Well, so funny now, I�m around Apple Watch people, and then I think, man, they sure look at their watch a lot. They�re getting buzzed.

They�re getting buzzed. Oh, I turned all those things off. I mean, I will occasionally get one, but it�s like a, it�s a text or something. But if you do that, if you allow it to notify you every time you get an email or something like that, my wrist would be like...

It�s like shocking. Maybe you should have Duolingo tell you it�s time for your Spanish lesson. Nein, danke. And so how many... Are you on a good roll? Yeah, 900 and something days, so... And that�s pretty good.

I�ve got like 10 days for my Duolingo Latin. So I�ll never catch up, but I�m trying.

Well, I think, you know, part of the thing for me is, and I�ve read some good suggestions, is just wanting to get to use it in more familiar circumstances. So I think I want to watch movies with Spanish subtitles.

That is very smart. Well, Steve, thanks for coming on today, talking a little bit about discernment ministries. If you�re a new Christian, we�d like to recommend Attributes of God by AW Pink. You can get it online or you can order through, I don�t know, is it Baker?

Uh, Mayfield? Thanks for listening.