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Mike and Steve ask and answer a variety of questions. Never a dull moment. Guffaw free zone?
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 ministry. Esteban, what do I, I almost wanted to say cayate, but that would have been very bad manners. It would be rude. Buenos dias, cayate. Me amigo. You know what I meant?
Please forgive me, con permiso, ayúdame. Oh. That's what I was looking for. That's helped me. It had a may in there, but I didn't know about it.
It reminds me of, what's that, Dora the Explorer. Ayúdame.
You know, ayúdame. I wanted to say ayúdame, I said the wrong word, and I think I should probably, you know, be more cuidado. Cautious.
Steve, where did you learn your Spanish? You know, on the mean streets of, no, I took it to school. I started in seventh grade, and all the way through, you know, high school, I took a semester at USC, actually, too, so.
Oh, I did not know that.
That's why you liked the USC football team.
Well, I liked USC football team for a long time. I mean, I used to listen to the radio. In fact, when they had their undefeated national championship season, 1972, I was listening to it on the radio way back then, so.
Steve, to this day, I can picture in my mind I know exactly what it looked like, that little transistor radio that I had, and I would hold it up to my ear, walking around our neighborhood in Nebraska, listening to 11, 10 a .m., and the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Saturday.
Woo-hoo! A little dial.
I wish I had that little transistor radio. Well, I had a few transistor radios. I mean, I remember the one I used to listen to, it was usually at my dad's house, and it was like, it was a corner thing.
It was this whole setup where my brother and I had beds, you know, that pulled out. They were like couch beds things, so, yeah.
That was like poor man's futon.
Well, you know, a little bit better than that, but yeah.
When I was a kid, I didn't know what a futon was.
Yeah, I didn't really know what it was until I got to Okinawa, where we saw them, actually. I bet you did. Yeah, yeah.
That's right. So, Steve, when I think of life in general, I think about the segue. Oh, Steve's waving at the window to his wife. That's my daughter. Oh. Oh, random thoughts. Yeah. I have a shirt on today, and I received this from Corrine and Christopher, and it's Jack Mormon Coffee Company.
Tell me what you said to me behind the scenes about Jack Mormons and what that meant, and when you first heard that you grew up as a Mormon.
Yeah, I was saying, I don't really think I heard that until I was probably 12 or 13, and we were doing maybe fast offering collecting on a Sunday, which, after church service, so we would go around to the people at the church.
And collect money from them. What was that, fast offering? They're fasting, or you take it fastly?
The first Sunday of every month, Mormon church people, they fast, they're supposed to fast from breakfast and lunch and then take the money from that and give it to the church, and the church gives the money to people in need, or they buy products for people in need.
The church, the Mormon church welfare system is pretty extensive. They produce all kinds of food and paper goods and everything else, and you just go into this warehouse, you get whatever you need when you have a need.
Steve, when it comes to Mormonism, do you think it's more of a problem of, are they self-righteous, right, trusting in their own righteousness, or are they trusting in a fake Jesus righteousness? They think they're trusting in a righteousness from Jesus, their definition of Jesus.
Which one is it? Because I think they act morally on the outside, but is that a self-righteous moralism, or is it a moralism more based in a false religion?
Well, I mean, I think some of it is a self-righteousness, but I think more than anything else, when you're dealing with Mormons, you are dealing with the people who really identify as Mormons. I mean, and that sounds really basic, except you don't understand how attached to the person it is.
It's not just a culture, it's not just a religion, it's their life, it's everything that they identify with. When you go to church, well, Fast and Testimony Sundays, the first Sunday of every month, you're supposed to fast, and then they don't have a regularly scheduled speaker on that Sunday.
People just get up after we would pass the sacrament, is what they'd call, what we would call the Lord's stable, and people just get up one after another, after another, after another to bear testimony to the church, and it's so part of your life.
You just get up there and you say, I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet, I know this is a true church, et cetera, et cetera, and sometimes Jesus gets mentioned in there, right? But it's more about Joseph Smith, it's more about the truth of Mormonism and that it's the true gospel, but even little kids will get up there and say, I'm thankful for my mommy and daddy, I'm thankful for Joseph Smith, and all that stuff.
Steve, as you were talking, it made me think about the damning religion of Jesus plus, and Colossians, of course, when it's Jesus is superior, he's sufficient, Paul is riding underneath the spirit of God's inspiration and direction, and he wants to exalt Jesus as creator and head of the church and head of the world, and then he talks about all the plus stuff in Colossians two, and mysticism, and asceticism, and angel worship, and all those things.
I was listening to the Catholic radio station on the way into church today, it just happened to be on,.
E-B-T-N. Your wife probably put it on right now. Was it E-B-T-N, or what's it called? A huge bug or something over there, just FYI.
Oh, I was wondering why you're looking over there,. E-B-T-N, what is it, the? E-W-T-N? Yeah, something like that.
Eternal Word? I think Mother Angelica. Yeah, she recently died.
I don't know why they never talk about her last name, because there's some serious name recognition there, Mother Angelica Houston. She's pretty popular. Anyway, yeah, she recently died, but here's what I found fascinating.
While they're not going to say we don't believe in Jesus, because the Catholics do, the Mormons do, I mean, it might be a different definition of Jesus, but like Mormonism, here I am, listening to E-W-T-N, and it's Mother Angelica, pray for us.
So first they were doing the rosary, Mary, pray for us, you know, Mother of God, for our sins, or whatever they say for the rosary. And then it was Mother Angelica, pray for us, because she's dead, and I just thought it's Jesus plus.
Somebody to intercede on your behalf, some new mediator.
Steve, I'd like to ask you a question. It's an underhand, slow pitch. If Jesus, according to Hebrews 7, is making intercession for you now, and the Holy Spirit in Romans 8 makes intercession for us, intercedes for us, is there any reason we need Mary or Mother Angelica?
There is zero reason, no. And you know, it's really absurd, but of course, you know, the whole idea behind Roman Catholicism is these people intercede with Jesus on our behalf, you know, or maybe Mother Angelica is interceding with Mary, who then intercedes with, you know, it's like one of those movies with the old fire chain, you know, the bucket brigade, where they're, you know.
It's the bucket brigade of false teaching, because once you say, all of a sudden, oh, that's a big wasp, actually. So you talk for a second, I'm gonna go kill it.
Okay, well, you know, the problem with wasps, no, let me just get back to Jack and Mormonism, because we started talking about that, and there's a dead wasp. We started talking about that, and so anyway, we would go to these houses on Sunday morning after the service, and we would go there, and you know, sometimes you walk up to the front porch, and there's the scent of bacon wafting out of the windows, and you just go, you know, your eyes would just kind of go, get really super large, first of all, because you're hungry, but secondly, because these people are scoffers, you know, and so then, you know, the older guy with you would just say, well, they're Jack Mormons, you know, and you're like, okay, what does that mean?
And he goes, well, that means they're inactive. They're not, you know, they don't go to church. They're not really participating the way they're supposed to.
Steve, when you were saying that, I thought of 1 Timothy 4, now the Spirit expressly says, I think that's probably pay attention kind of language, don't you? Expressly says, hmm. I mean, I think when he says something, he expressly says it, but now it's
Like people on TV say, thus saith the Lord, you know, that kind of thing, or God told me, well, no, this really is God speaking.
Expressly says that in later times, some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons. Now, these aren't demons that are teaching. They're not, you know, a phantom demon coming, talking, and Casper the friendly demon ghost or something like that.
Today's guest is Beelzebub. I know.
The text, interestingly, says these deceitful spirits and teachings of demons are through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared. So I think it's MacArthur who uses the language of hypocritical lie speakers, right?
Yeah, and that's what it is. Okay, and so what are the teachings of demons that the Spirit of God expressly says? I almost said like espresso. Expressly says. Don't you hate it when people say? Expressly says.
I'll have an extra expresso. Ex. And it says, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods. So you know it's demonic when marriage and food are messed around with. And Steve, I don't know, I haven't studied the passage in depth for quite some time, but those are both things that God has given to people who aren't even Christians.
Common grace stuff, right? Common mercy. Where God would grant the covenant of marriage to unbelievers and food to unbelievers. And what does Satan do with his demonic demons through hypocritical lie speakers?
You can't have this food and you can't have that food.
Because it makes you more spiritual. Isn't that true? And what does that do? Why is it a doctrine of demons?
Well, I would submit to you, listeners, I think Steve will agree with me, it takes away from Christ's sufficient work at Calvary. This makes you more lovable. This makes you more holy. This makes you X, Y, and Z when everything is in Christ, this mediator that he had talked about two chapters earlier.
Well, does that apply to vegans too? I just heard this thing. If it's for religious purposes, yes. If it's just for. Well, but you know, some people, I think it makes them feel more spiritual because they're not killing things, you know.
It's almost Jainism. But I saw this morning that somebody died climbing Mount Everest. She was a vegan from like Australia, wanted to show that vegans weren't weak. And then she's dead.
I read about that a couple of days ago. I'm always fascinated with Everest, but I didn't know she was a vegan. Yeah, vegan.
I think they've had like four people die here in the last week.
I forgot the numbers, but it's like one out of every six end up not making it. I don't know why you'd do that. And then you can't even get their bodies off the mountain practically. You just have to let them lie there.
Why would anybody do that? You know, it's just like, just because I can sort of thing.
Steve, I've been listening to some public radio, NPR on different podcasts and stuff like that. I'll pray for you. I know. I'm trying to remember the one about this American life or something like that.
Just random interviews with people. And they had this guy and he was fasting and he was trying to talk about how he wanted to get to a different spiritual plane. And he starts off the morning with some weird things that he has to do.
And then he has to have this broth and then this, that, and the other. And he's lost X amount of weight. And I think it was a 21 day fast. And this little culture of other fasters would also talk online.
And some have had experiences that seem very spiritual to them. But what I found fascinating, if Jesus isn't enough, here we are back to that subject again. Finally, at the very end of the fast, after 21 days of enemas and not eating this and all these other things, he basically was like,.
And I still haven't found what I'm looking for. It didn't work. So did he start singing the U2 song?
He said he started eating an apple and he was waiting all this time to eat an apple. And then it was like, oh, I have this apple to eat and am I supposed to feel guilty? And I don't know.
You know, again, it's that aesthetic, like denying yourself, refusing to eat, refusing to do this, that, or the other thing somehow brings you into a better communion with God. And I just don't see that committed or commanded.
Well, the passage goes on in 1 Timothy to say, this food is something that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.
Isn't it nice to just, if you want to eat a steak, you can eat a steak. If you want to have wasps, you can have wasps. What's the weirdest thing you ever ate?
I should ask that question to Phil Johnson, but it might take a whole show. Where does, I don't eat weird things.
Even in Japan when you were there? No, no, no.
Because I rarely even, you know, I rarely went to the local restaurants. And when I did, it was to eat something identifiable. So I don't eat weird things.
If you had a contest, a theological radio challenge with, well, let's say Wretched Radio and they had to eat some grubs and we had to eat grubs,.
Would we win or would we lose? We'd lose, just flat out.
So if we had a team challenge and we had to eat some weird egg thing, you wouldn't do it? No. How about for money, for your charity?
No, no.
How about a million dollars for the church building fund? No.
No. I mean, pretty much, you know, if it was life or death, I might eventually get around to it, but other than that, probably not. Okay.
Steve, I thought you might find this interesting. This is 75 incorrectly used words that can make you look dumb by Jeff Hayden and things that are difficult. So here's one. What's the difference between bring and take?
Okay, the difference between bring and take.
Because people use them wrongly according to this author. Really? Uh-huh. Both have to do with objects you move or carry. The difference is in the point of reference. You bring things here and you take them there.
You ask people to bring something to you and you ask people to take something to someone else or somewhere else.
You're not supposed to say Well, yeah, you wouldn't say, please take this to me. Uh-huh.
Can you bring an appetizer to John's party? Nope. Can you take or can you bring? See, it's harder than it seems.
Oh, I see. Well, yeah, but if you say, would you bring dessert to my party?
Oh, okay, good.
But see, I think that's just a fine point.
That's kind of useless. No, I think you're gonna know this one for sure. Adverse and averse. These are things that people often use incorrectly. Adverse and averse.
Adverse, you know, circumstances that are negative.
Yeah, yeah. Here it says, means harmful or unfavorable. And then averse is feelings of dislike or opposition. So, you know, it says here, but hey, feel free to have an aversion to adverse conditions.
See, I was gonna say, it's like, once you're done with the first verse, then you sing another averse.
Oh, nice. And lastly, on Grammar 101 via No Compromise Radio, I thought I knew the answer to this one, but I was not correct. It was partially correct, but it was not all the way correct. Affect and effect.
Oh. See, now when I say it that way, then you have to kind of think longer, but just.
Yeah, well, effect is usually a noun, but it can be a verb.
Let's deal with the verbs first. Affect with an A means to influence. Impatient investors affected our rollout date. Effect means to accomplish something. So I didn't know affect and effect could be, are both verbs.
I didn't know that. And then how you use effect or affect can be tricky. For example, a board can affect changes by influencing them and can effect changes by directly implementing them. Yeah, so there you have it on No Compromise Radio.
Steve, what's the best thing you've read lately, theologically, that our listeners might pick up?
The best thing I've read theologically. I don't know. I wasn't really, I don't know.
Okay. The best thing I have read lately is what I just used to kill that wasp. It serves dual purposes. And interestingly, this book is called The Lamb of God, and I used that to kill the wasp. Have you ever gotten stung by a wasp?
Nope. I've gotten stung by many wasps, including in the mouth.
Well, that's because, you know, you are a wasp magnet and because you ride your bike outside.
Kim said I should get some type of netting that could go over my mouth or my helmet.
Or something like that. See, I almost don't blame you for not wanting to do that. It sounds kind of weird. Plus, I'm sure something horrific would happen if you did that. Well, how are you gonna
It would catch on fire. Something bad would happen. How are you gonna eat a protein bar? How are you going to spit? That's not gonna work. Right, yeah, it's not gonna work at all. Anyway, Robert Raymond wrote this book called The Lamb of God, the Bible's unfolding revelation of sacrifice.
And I just wanna talk about this book a little bit today in the time we have left in this potpourri type of show. What he does, Steve, is he starts in Genesis 3 and then he moves to Genesis 22 and then Exodus 12, Exodus 25, and following Isaiah 7, 52, John 1, and then what the New Testament says about the lamb.
And any book that talks about the lamb as it's unfolded in scripture, it got my attention. The precious blood of the lamb, Peter talks about it. And we had Robert Raymond here, which made it extra special for me to read, thinking about this, he's in heaven now, but when he was on earth, he was quite a gentleman.
Yes, he was.
And so is this like kind of a systematic theology?
Well, you know what I think? It's almost, Steve, if I kind of read it rightly, with a large swath, a large theme, probably more biblical theology laced into the idea of the systematic category of lamb.
Does that make sense? So you've got lamb of God as a system, but then how is it woven throughout all of scripture? So it's not only systematic theology, but biblical theology. But the price of the book was highlighted in the conclusion and it, he was hitting it out of the park.
Steve, I just thought to myself, I'm glad I believe in the right way because he is, let's think about these words. Is excoriating a word? What does that mean? Excoriating is a word. It is a word, I forgot what it means.
Well, if somebody excoriates you, it means they're really giving you a verbal what for. Oh, okay, so I was right.
They're taking a two by four to you. Okay, so he quotes Calvin and many of us, and of course, Steve, myself, we think we would stand before God before we would understand the scriptures. We thought we could stand before God and we might make it in our good out, might outweigh the bad.
So I just think that's probably like religion. Yeah, something like that, yeah. Well, here it says, justification is concerned with the justice, not of a human court, but of a heavenly tribunal, lest we measure by our own small measure, the integrity of works needed to satisfy the divine judgment.
You know, we have our little minds thinking, oh, this is what God will require. There are none who are more confidently and as people say, boisterously chatter over the righteousness of works than they who are monstrously plagued with manifest diseases are creak with defects beneath the skin.
God's justice is so perfect that nothing can be admitted. What is in every part whole and complete and undefiled by any corruption. How are you gonna stand before God like that? You're not going to. You're not going to.
If he should count iniquities. Who can stand? Calvin goes on, such was never found in any man and never will be. In the shady cloisters of the schools, anyone can easily and readily prattle about the value of works in justifying men.
But when we come before the presence of God, we must put away such amusements. You're in theology school and how can we stand before God? Well, it's Mormonism, it's Catholicism, it's Christ's righteousness plus something else.
It's Jainism. It's Jainism. No, I'm sorry to do this on No Compromise Radio, but it is our show and it is a free show. When you say Jainism, I think of Captain Jane, somebody on the Enterprise. No. What was her name?
Oh, oh. Was that her? That was her name in real life is Jane. What's her name? She's a captain of the Enterprise or one of the
Yeah, I can't think of her. She was pretty tough. She was like Margaret Thatcher-like. Her real name though is Kate Oh, yes. Kate Mulgrew or something like that.
You're correct, but her Is it Janeway? Yes. But when you say Jainism, that's what I think.
Yeah, no, that's not right. It's a Far Eastern religion that teaches that life is in everything and so you don't want to step on an ant or anything else because you're killing life, you're diminishing the circle of life.
What about all those microbes and parasites and other things we can't see?
I don't know what they say about those, but the religion was founded before they knew about microscopic things, but I'm sure they want to preserve that life too.
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Hello. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.
Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.
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