Theological Resources for iPhones

The Purpose of No Compromise Radio and the Gospel Theme of Galatians 2:5

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. I just put my head on my hand and then my elbow on the table. No elbows on the table. That�s how I grew up, by the way. Okay, no elbows on the table. We didn�t have to pray before every meal.

Rote Prayer and Everyday Life in the Studio

Come Lord Jesus, be our guest. Let this food to us be blessed, amen. Nice prayer, unless you pray that every single day of your life, morning, noon, and night. Come Lord Jesus, be our guest. Let this food to us be blessed.

I mean, to have Jesus as a guest, it�s a pretty wonderful prayer, until it turns into rote. Anyway, then I fell asleep. I don�t know how long I slept for, eight minutes, ten minutes or something. It�s hot in here.

It is early September in New England, and since we had a summer that was pushed back by the spring, which was pushed back by the winter that would never end, it�s hot, and that makes it tiring. I can�t have my air conditioner on here in the No Compromise Mega Studio, Mega Studio, because it makes sounds, it makes noises.

iPad Mini, iCloud, and the ESV Bible App

All right, oh, here�s something. I made the switch a few years ago to start preaching and speaking from an iPad Mini, and my iPad Mini, iPad Mini 2, has gone around the world with me, and you can just pull up all kinds of messages, and if you have Wi-Fi, of course, you can access Dropbox, and you know, Logos stuff is on there.

And yesterday, oh, probably my favorite iPad Mini, iPad Mini 2 story, first of all, it�s never broken. I always have my backup on my phone, so I could squint. It�s a small screen, but I could still see my notes.

They�re all backed up on my iPhone, thanks to iCloud, and I often bring a battery Mophie backup, so if my iPad Mini 2 goes, you know, battery-less, I can plug that thing in, and I can preach the whole time.

Well, yesterday, which was Thursday in real time, I picked up my iPad Mini that was plugged into my MacBook Pro to charge, sync, and it was hot. I mean, super hot. As we used to say in Nebraska, hotter than blazes.

That must be a figure of three. Anyway, I unplugged it, put it in the freezer, not for very long, but just a little bit, and that thing will not start back up again. So now I have my iPad 2, the old one that�s cracked and sketchy, and I�m going to have to preach from that this weekend because I can�t get to the Genius Bar with Apple until next Wednesday.

So that�s crazy. I just feel like something�s broken in my life, probably because it is, like my truck�s head gaskets. Head gaskets all messed up. In light of having iCloud and stuff like that, I am often asked by pastors by just kidding but I am asked what apps do I like to use for my phone, since I�m not an Android person or anything like that.

I�m just going to tell you from the perspective of the Apple world, as I look on my Apple product right here, on my first screen, I have the ESV Bible, and I paid extra for the ESV study notes. I like the NAS Bible better in terms of accuracy and ambiguity.

Doesn�t that sound weird that I like it for that? Well, it�s ambiguous in certain spots. That means I have to study to figure out which way I should translate it, which way I should take the interpretation.

Where the NIV especially will determine it for you, ESV is in between those two. Not exactly in the middle, because we don�t go for exacts around here. But I preach from the ESV just because that�s the Bible of most evangelicals these days.

I commend ESV for their ease of access, and it�s easy to get copies of, and I think they act like a Christian organization as they approach selling Bibles. They don�t do it as a money-making deal. Someone just rode their bicycle past.

I wish I was, but I was taking a nap in the studio. So the ESV study notes for the ESV Bible, crossway notes, are excellent notes. I am a fan of the MacArthur Study Bible, and so I thought, �Well, it�s like the NIV Study Bible.

You�ve got so many notes, but they don�t tell you which one�s right. And let�s say, for instance, in Calvinistic passages, it�ll have both views, you know, which view. And then you have to pick one.

I mean, it doesn�t pick for you. I�ve always liked the MacArthur Study Bible because I know where John stands. Funny thing about John MacArthur. You just kind of know where the guy�s coming from. I say that with thanksgiving and appreciation.

And so I like the ESV study notes much more than I thought. I think there was a time I just couldn�t use the MacArthur Study Notes as easy, as just as easy, easier, easily, easiest. And so I use ESV. And the more I read them, sometimes they�ll make me think about the passage in a way, in light of the cross, that I think is good.

Couple times they overdo it here or there, but I like the notes. And so I regularly look at the notes. And so that�s on my front, let�s see, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24. I have 24 icons on that front page. You know, the bottom four are immovable.

And so I�ve got ESV Study Bible. So the ESV Bible is for free. You can pay for your study notes. My guess is $5, $6, something like that. I�d encourage you to do that, because don�t forget, then you can use it on your iPad Mini when it�s not burning hot, hot as blazes, and you can use it on your other phones and your other devices.

So anyway, I also use for, I�m not talking about B of A or Strava or MyFitnessPal or Google Maps or Calendar or Camera or any of that. Logos Bible, L-O-G-O-S now. It looks like it�s Logos, but the Omicron, I think we think at least, the O instead of the Omega.

The Omicron is an A sound, and the Omega is an O sound. So it�s Logos. So, the Logos Bible app is nice because whatever you have on your computer, you can access through your phone as well, and through your iPad and through your iPad Mini and stuff like that.

I don�t know what the licensing things are. I own a bunch of iPads that then my family uses, so they all have them as well. Well Logos Bible, the downside with Logos is they blatantly sell anti-Protestant books, not, I think they sell them under the guise of scholastic availability and research.

But some of the books, and I�ve written to them, some of them I don�t think they should sell. So, BibleWorks on the other hand, while I don�t have it on my phone, they seem to be more Christian in their desires for product and stuff like that.

It just doesn�t have as many books. Most books, hey, I think you can get a Mike Abendroth book on Logos, I don�t think you can get them on BibleWorks, unless my last name�s Bauer-Danke, something like that.

So, I do like Logos and I suggest that you get a copy because you can get the base package for free. Not the base package, but just standard stuff, a few Bibles and a few dictionaries for free, and then you can add things on as time goes on.

You can also get, they have free commentaries per month or a free book or something like that. So, what else do I have here for Bible-related products on my iPhone? I have the Grace To You Bible app.

Now, on my second or third page, I have the Grace To You app that you can pull up MacArthur. I should be getting paid for this. They should have been giving me free apps for this stuff. What am I doing?

The ESV is found in the MacArthur Study Bible, Grace To You Bible, and it has your ESV. I think the thing that I don�t like about it is at the very get-go, it goes back to Genesis 1. So, the ESV Study Bible, if you go back to Luke 18 or Song of Solomon 3 or Revelation 4 and you put it down and then you pick it up, it�s found where you left it.

That�s good. But what�s good about the Grace To You Bible is at the bottom it says something called John�s Notes. And then it says Genesis 1, 1 to 2, 3, and you�ve got MacArthur Study Notes there. So, I like that.

I like it where it says John�s Notes. Then I also like it where here I�m at Exodus 21. It�s got little have to return to Genesis 1. What I�m after is something else. Let�s see. How do you use it? Well, it�s got the oh, there, top right, sorry.

For Exodus 20, it says Now Reading Exodus 20, and then Featured Sermons, Bookmarks, Notes, Highlights, Study Resources, Bible Introductions. And what I like about this is you�ve got transcripts, you�ve got blogs related to that passage.

So, if you want to study more about the passage, the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 verses 1 and following. By the way, what�s the most important part of the Ten Commandments? It�s not one of the commandments.

It�s the preamble, I�m the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Right? I think it is God spoke all these words saying that, and then he says in verse 3, You shall have no other gods before me.

So, I like that Bible app. And I think that�s $6 .99. So, they should be sending me a free copy, but I already paid for it. I figured it was going to a good cause. On my second page of my phone, when you swipe it over, what else do I use?

Well, I have Pandora Radio there. Oh, I think we�re talking about Bible apps, right? Yes, we are. I have Grace To You sermons. And so, if I want to listen to MacArthur, they�re all catalogued, and I think the one that I�ve listened to more than any other in the history of my listening to Grace To You and being a member at Grace Community Church for years, and a deacon, is Examine Yourselves.

And it was part one. And I love listening to that message, Examine Yourself to See If You�re in the Faith, from 2 Corinthians chapter 13. I also liked Easy, Hard Words, Soft Hearts, I don�t know, something from Matthew 7.

False Arts, Good Words. The title of it was really memorable. I also have, on my second page for apps, is I have a Creed app page. And so, this is from Christian Creeds and Reformed Confessions, copyright James H. Price.

And so, it has a Bible link, and you can have the proofs of the Bible shown in the confessions. And these are the confessions it has. Apostles� Creed, Nicene Creed, Athanasian Creed. It tells you where they�re from, by the way, in this one.

It says they�re Southern Gaul, 6th century. Belgic Confession, Netherlands, 1561. Heidelberg Catechism, 1563. Canons of Dort, Dordrecht, Netherlands, 1619. Westminster Confession of Faith, London, 1647.

Westminster Shorter Catechism, 1647. And Larger, 1647. And so, I like to read creeds once in a while. Athanasian Creed, sometimes I just read through and I just think, you know, this is just good. It�s making me think rightly about the Trinity, especially with the topic of the Trinity.

You want to make sure you�re thinking rightly, because if you�re thinking God is one God, but he manifests himself in three persons, you�re down to T .D. Jake�s oneness manifestation. He manifests himself one way, then the next, and the next.

Sabellian Heresy, although Jake�s is probably smart enough that he uses things like manifest in the flesh from 1 Timothy 3, which has nothing to do with manifestations. It has everything to do with Jesus existed before time began, and then he cloaked himself with humanity.

That�s what that�s after. So, just let me read you a couple things from the Athanasian�s Creed. And here we have the Father. This is number 10. The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal.

Number 11. And yet there are not three eternals, but one eternal. 12. As also, there are not three uncreated, nor three incomprehensibles, but one uncreated and one incomprehensible. So, likewise, number 13.

The Father�s almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Spirit almighty. 14. And yet there are not three almighties, but one almighty. 15. So, the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God.

16. And yet there are not three gods, but one God. 17. So, likewise, the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord. Guess what the next one is? 18. Yeah, I know that, but what does 18 say?

And yet there are not three Lords, but one Lord. 19. For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every person by himself to be God and Lord, that is, the three members of the Trinity.

20. So, we are forbidden by the Catholic small-c universal religion to say there are three gods or three Lords. 21. The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten. 22. The Son is of the Father alone, not made nor created, but begotten.

23. The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son, neither made nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding. 24. So, there is some great stuff there for me to just think through it rightly. And if you really want to have a good devotional flavor for your creedal memory, Heidelberg Catechism, 52 questions.

Hmm, how does that divide itself up? That's like one guy said the fear of the Lord is found 365 times in the Bible, or fear. What is the only comfort in life and death? Heidelberg Catechism, number one.

What's your only comfort? I mean, that's a good question to start out of the gate, that I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own. By the way, there's verses for all these. But belong unto my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who with his precious blood has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from the power of the devil, and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head, yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation.

And therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready henceforth to live unto him. Now, if you don't think that's good, number two, Heidelberg Catechism.

How many things are necessary for thee to know that thou enjoying this comfort may live happy and die happy? Technically, mayest live and die happily. Mayest. So good. Answer three. The first, how great my sins and miseries are.

The second, how I may be delivered from all my sins and miseries. The third, how I shall express my gratitude to God for such great deliverance. Isn't that good? That's right where we get those three G's.

Guilt, grace, gratitude. There's your paradigm for life that thou mayest live and die happily. Guilt, grace, gratitude. That's a good way to evangelize. Talk about the other person's guilt. Talk about grace.

And then if they respond appropriately with repentance and faith, you'll know that there are grateful, thankful people. Whence thou was no, oops, whence knowest thou thy misery out of the law of God? And then off it goes.

So I would say that that's a pretty good app. I like it. I think it's cheap. I think it is very simple. And we have scrolled over to page three on my iPhone as today on No Compromise Radio, we're talking about good apps, helpful apps for your Bible study.

S. Lewis Johnson, Martin Lloyd-Jones, and Other Preaching Resources

I have an SLJ app. It is called SLJ and it is the teachings of Dr. S. Lewis Johnson Jr. Samuel Lewis Johnson. He used to be a preacher at Believer's Chapel and he died in 2004. And he has a best-selling book, Discovering Roman Spiritual Revolvement for the Soul, Zondervan 2014.

By the way, I just got my royalty check for the last six months regarding that book. Well, it wasn't a check. It actually was an IOU. It was, uh, I still owe them money because they gave me in advance to help me be motivated.

And there's an arrangement that I have with the estate of S. Lewis Johnson, his family, and copyright S. Lewis Johnson Trust, S. Lewis Johnson Jr. Trust and Mike Gabendroth, always in that order, and rightfully so.

And, uh, anyway, didn't sell enough copies to pay back the huge, gigantor advance. So, but anyway, this featured content, we have Old Testament messages, New Testament messages, topical messages, and, uh, a nice bio, uh, obituary.

I think Saspels is in. So you've got messages verse by verse through Matthew, John, Acts, Romans, 1st Corinthians, 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, 1st Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, 2nd Peter, 1st John, 2nd and 3rd John, Jude, and Revelation.

And the Old Testament messages, you've got Genesis, uh, Exodus from Egypt to Cana, Typology in Leviticus, Isaiah, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Habakkuk, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Stephan, Gideon, and the life of David.

And then you've got, which is amazing, topical messages on Eschatology, Christology, and the life of David. So, uh, the Eschatology ones here, uh, Covenants of Scripture, New Covenant. What about Israel?

What about the future of ethnic Israel? And, uh, probably some of my favorite ones. Oh, no, these aren't, they're not on here, but more and more are added all the time. You're going to love this app, S. Lewis Johnson.

The thing about S. Lewis, he's kind of like D .A. Carson. Uh, D .A. Carson can preach. He's a scholar and he, um, was an excellent seminary professor. Because a lot of times, you know, those things don't go together.

You can either do one or the other. It's kind of like when I was in high school, I wasn't very good at basketball and I wasn't really good at football. I lettered in both, but I didn't do either exceptionally well.

I thought if I could just do one well, I would be happy, but I can't even do one that well. I'll just pick one. But some of these men, because of the Lord's gifting, are uber talented and, uh, God has them placed strategically in his church.

Martin Lloyd-Jones Sermons and Narrowing the App List

Okay. Page four on my iPad, iPhone, what I like to use for Bible resources is I have the Martin Lloyd Jones sermons. So Martin Lloyd Jones is another one of my favorite preachers. One of the things I like about Lloyd Jones and S. Lewis Johnson, both of those men, high view of God, high view of Christ, high view of the solas, and they finished well, no scandals, no running around on their spouses or anything like that.

So you can listen to Lloyd Jones, the MLJ Trust, and you will be encouraged. I like to listen to a lot of, uh, preaching. I'm on my bicycle and once in a while I'll listen to a little bit of music to get me home, but it's typically preaching.

So that's an excellent resource, Martin Lloyd Jones. On the next page, what do I have here? Solitaire, that's a wonderful Bible app. And, uh, iPhoto. Oh, sorry, those aren't Bible apps. Those are it. Those are the ones that I have.

I used to have a few others just because I wanted them on there. Maybe it was Ligonier's, I don't know, Reformation Radio or something like that. But I had to kind of downsize some, because if I don't really use it, then I'm going to abandon it.

So I don't want to have it on my phone, especially if you only have 90 billion gigs and why, uh, you know, cloud your phone up with all that stuff. So, uh, today I was going to answer some questions, but we kind of took off and this can be the iPhone show, the No Compromise Radio iPhone show.

I, uh, think we can have gadgets and devices and gizmos and things like this that can help us. And so, of course, it could be used wrongly or rightly, but here we want to use things rightly and we want to learn more about the Lord.

I got saved when I was 29 and I was sick of not, you know, learning about Him. And so it's been all out since then. And I rarely have time for some of the extraneous things. Although I find myself backsliding once in a while and watching the amazing.

So there you have it. Info at NoCompromiseRadio .com. That's how you can write us. And you can write to Mike, our Tuesday guy, or to Josh. If you've got technical questions, we'd love to help you in any way we can.

God bless you.

You can check us out online at bbcchurch .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.