2 Peter Is Not For The Faint of Heart

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. It is Saturday, February 13th in real time, 521 p .m. It is Saturday and we�ve had tons of snow here in New England. I think we�re going to get some more this coming week.

Of course, my snow thrower, snow blower, broke and I ordered a part and it�s supposed to be here, oh, in July. Well, we�ll see if we get that part or not. We�ve got some shovels and probably the neighbors have some snow blowers, snow throwers.

Oh, to be in Florida at the time, I guess, or California, although in California, can you do anything? Can you go out? What can you do? You can�t go to the Shepherd�s Conference, that�s for certain. In the last, I don�t know, day, what do we have?

We had Votie Bauckham�s got heart problems, no Shepherd�s Conference. The Ravi Zacharias, a report came out about his sins and, you know, I mean, I started to try to read it and I just thought, I actually don�t need my mind, which I struggle with purity enough, to just like feed on this stuff.

I guess it�s enough for me to know that the report talks about sexual sins and infidelity and pictures and owning massage parlors and stuff like that. But I mean, just like, oh, yikes, and you�re going to probably say to me, oh, this is easy for you to say now, but what I�m going to say is true.

I never was a big Ravi fan because I�m not into, quote-unquote, �apologetics� in a rationalistic way and I think we have a defense for the faith, that�s true. But I just never liked it. I always thought when Ligonier had him as a guest speaker, here�s Ligonier, when you think of Ligonier, what do you think of besides R .C. Sproul?

Reformed. And I�m like, this isn�t, he�s not reformed. I never really heard him talk about the Bible in terms of exposition. He used the Bible, he said things, but it was just more this, I don�t know.

So anyway, the other thing that I don�t know about, so if it�s not true, fine, but was he a member of a local church? Did he have any accountability at a local church? Was he a churchman? When you travel all the time and you�re never at your home church, what does that do to someone?

I think RZIM, Ravi Zacharias International Ministry, wants to keep going, but I don�t see how they can. I hope I finish well, right? Obviously, I�m not saying everything Ravi ever did is wrong, but now when you think of Ravi Zacharias, what do you think of?

I think of the massage parlors, that�s what I think of. That�s not good. When I die, I want you to think, well, Lee Stavendroth, while he was a doofus half the time, every time he did talk, he did talk about the one who was the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ.

That�s what I want the legacy to be. Christ-centered preaching. That�s what I want the legacy. Oh, Abendroth, he taught me how to say things directly and desire authorial intent, divine authorial intent to be discovered.

He taught me to not compromise. He taught me that the Lord Jesus never compromised. He taught me law gospel. He taught me three covenants. Whatever that might be, I don�t want it to be some kind of scandal, right?

Because of the Lord, number one, my wife, four children that I don�t want to have to say, you know, daddy had no, while dad had your mom, he had no self-control in this particular area that many men have failed in, and women, of course, too.

So, anyway, just a sad situation. I�m not on social media anymore, so Facebook and Twitter, not posting anything there. It�s actually kind of good for me because when I do hear something, because somebody will send me an article, �Oh, did you hear about this?

Did you hear about that I mean, I want to kind of give my two cents, and I want to tell people what I think, and I want to try to straighten them out. The world can live not knowing what Mike Abendroth thinks about every little detail, and I guess, to be fair, I tried the last five, six years on Twitter, at least to make things kind of fun and lighten some things up, but that cost me my teaching gig at the Master�s Center.

Oh, well, that�s just the way life goes. Okay, we�re talking about 2 Peter, so that was kind of like a little deviation there, kind of, you know, while I don�t have to tweet every little opinion, I can now tell my opinions on the radio.

By the way, if you ever pray for me, pray that I finish well, that�d be a good prayer. While I have some physical problems that I�d like to have fixed, that�s a bigger issue that I don�t need to leave a legacy, I don�t need to make a mark on the world, I don�t need to have best-selling books, I don�t need any of that stuff.

I�m sure that it�s just, you know, I�m in the middle of nowhere, 5 ,000 people here in this city, maybe 6 ,000, and happy to be here. I think I saw the GoFundMe page for Voti because I heard he doesn�t have insurance, and it�s up to like 254 ,000 out of the 750 ,000 needed.

And if something ever happens to me, and I need medical procedures, A, I have insurance, and that�s another discussion. And B, I�d never get that much money because nobody knows me, and that�s fine. I need no legacy other than the congregation here saying, �He preached Christ Jesus and stood for truth.

That means he stood against error. And the legacy that, you know, I would have for my children, that dad, while very imperfect and sinful and frail, loved them and, you know, tried to, you know, do the best for them.

So anyway, I didn�t know this was going to be like a shrink chair. When I was in Vienna with Lance Roberts, I said, �Well, what do you want to do And he�s like, �Well, I don�t know, wherever you want to go.

So I would get online, look up some stuff, �Hey, Freud, he�s born here, his house is here. I think he, yeah, Vienna. And I think the couch is in London, but his little apartment was there in Vienna.

And I remember learning on that trip that Freud had figured out a way to get people off certain drugs by getting them hooked on cocaine. Oh, man, Mike Ebenruth, No Compromise Radio. Why do we call it No Compromise Radio?

Well, I don�t want to compromise. That was always the shtick early on. That was too man-centered, though. And so then it was no compromise because at the cross, justice and mercy were not compromised.

And the Lord Jesus, when you look at his life, if you want to look around, isn�t there anyone who could live a perfect life and not succumb to temptation and to not have eyes full of adultery, as 2 Peter talks about the false teachers?

And of course, the answer is yes, Jesus, the last Adam, no compromise in his life at all, perfectly obeying God, entirely obeying God�s law, and therefore, no compromise radio ministry. I think we finished 11 years, something like that, 11, 12 years, something like that.

Pat Ebenruth�s got a new podcast called The Pactum, from the Pactum Salutis, the Pactum of Peace, the Covenant of Redemption, the Pactum, P-A-C-T-U-M. And I think you�ll like his shows. Biblicism, Law, Gospel, and Christ-Centered Preaching are the first ones that I have heard, but after this is recorded, or played rather, there are probably some new ones.

When I�m going to teach a book of the Bible, I regularly, not always, I didn�t do it with Nahum, but I like to do kind of a jet tour of the book, so then when we go look at individual pieces, or portions, or pericopes, or paragraphs, I didn�t say periscope, although it looks like it, pericope, then it�s a little bit easier.

That is to say, you have the overview, the 37 ,000-foot overview, 10 ,000-meter overview, and then you go, �Oh, now I see where everything fits. And so, that�s one of the benefits of doing jet tours, is then if you do a jet tour to start, or even a jet tour at the end, or both, beginning and end, of your sermon series, it helps the congregation understand it better.

Maybe I could do it this way. If you want to follow along with the pastor, so let�s say you�re a congregant at Bethlehem Bible Church, and by the way, for 11 years now, people have written No Compromise Radio and said, �I can�t find a good church.

Would you please come here and start a church If you do that, we would attend. And I�m flattered by that, and that would be very nice, but then that means I�d go to one place and I�d have to move to the next person and ask, and the next person, the next person, so I started saying, �Well, you could always move here.

So far, nobody did. I mean, some people have moved here, but not because of No Compromise Radio, although it is really nice to get visitors for No Compromise Radio. That�s nice. All right. What am I talking about?

Second Peter Jet Tours and the Book's Summary

Second Peter jet tours. All right. Let�s do this. We�re going to kind of go in reverse. We�re going to start with the end of the book and then work our way to the front of the book. You know, like, what would you do that for?

There�s an order to these things. Well, let�s approach it this way. If you had to give me a verse or two that would summarize the book of Second Peter, what would those verses be? What would that verse be?

If you do something like that with Matthew, I would probably go along with S. Lewis Johnson and say, here�s a summary of the book of Matthew. Say to the daughter of Zion, �Behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.

The king is here. It�s all about the king. If you wanted to describe Ephesians with a couple verses from the book of Ephesians, which verses might you pick? I would pick Ephesians 3, 20 and 21. �Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.

Amen. If you were to pick a verse from Romans or a couple verses from Romans to summarize the book, what would that be? Romans 1, 16 and 17. �For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, �The righteous or the just shall live by faith. If I were to ask you, give me a verse or two from 2 Peter that would be a good summary of the book, what would you say?

And the answer is, you�re correct. 2 Peter 3, 17 and 18. So, you go to the end of the book and what do you see? As a matter of fact, there�s nothing else after this. So, this is the last two verses. �You therefore, 2 Peter 3, 17 and 18, I think summarize the book of 2 Peter.

�You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. When it comes to all the stuff that�s going on with the false teachers, what we need to be doing is growing in grace and knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for a reason and that reason is, so we�re not going to do what the false teachers do or tell us how to live.

We�re not going to follow their advice on how to live. They�re going to take advantage of grace. They�re going to be licentious and we don�t want to do that. Therefore, that is a great summary in those final two verses.

Peter is writing a book where there�s some false teachers saying a lot of things. Now, people say, �Well, what were the false teachers teaching? What was their specific heresy And people can look at, well, maybe they were Gnostic teaching, maybe Epicurean philosophy, but as Simon Kistemacher says, what they really were doing, these false teachers, is they were teaching an eschatological skepticism.

An eschatological skepticism. You know what? In the end times, eschatology, I don�t think Jesus is really going to come back. Maybe he already did. You just missed him. An eschatological skepticism. Simon Kistemacher, once again, �Since the root heresy, denial of the second coming, is addressed at the end of the epistle, chapter 3, it�s more natural to start at the end and work backward.

I�m not crazy, institution. You�re the one that�s crazy, institution. Now, for anyone that got that, you�ve got to be some old school people to get that pop culture reference. At the end of the book, you�ve got this denial of the second coming.

That�s why Kistemacher says, �Oh, so if you get that, then you go back to the very beginning and read it and you�re like, �Oh, now I see. Now I get it. Knowledge about who God is is going to lead me to holy living and give God glory, and I�m going to avoid what these false teachers are going to say, because they�re saying Jesus isn�t coming back, and they�re saying it for a reason, because they want loose living.

They want to live the way they want to live. If you�d like a little way to work through this, maybe what you do is you say, �Well, you know, how could I just have a survey or an overview or a jet tour of 2 Peter

By the way, I�m going to say, �Paul said. See how Paul wrote this? I don�t know how many times, so I might as well just do it once now. I know this is Peter, but like when I was in Nahum, I�m saying, �The book of Hebrews says.

If you deal with Paul for a long time and then you switch to Peter, it just rolls off the tongue, does it not? I�m already going to say it sometime that Paul said this, but this is a Petrine epistle, and therefore I�m going to just make the mistake one time and get it out of my system.

So, Paul the Apostle says in the book of 2 Peter, �Well, the good news is, this is the third show that I�ve recorded today, and so far in the last 17 and a half minutes, I�ve not yawned one time. I tried to mask the yawn in the last two shows, and then I just gave up.

Because you get what you pay for. Unless you�re one of the 12 Patreon supporters of No Compromise Radio Ministry, you get what you pay for. I was just thinking about the Patreon supporters. It�s interesting.

I was at Julie Roy�s website because she�s after John MacArthur and Phil Johnson and a lot of other people. She writes about Xavier Zacharias. But anyway, I noticed that she posted the income for the ministry and then what stipend she took.

So, I think it was like $198 ,000 a year that she was given, and she takes a stipend of $58 ,000. And so, I don�t know if she has another job or what she does, but what�s my point? My point is not pro-Julie Roy�s, anti-Julie Roy�s or anything like that.

My comment is just it was interesting. I�m like, �Wow, that�s a lot of money given for investigative journalism. That was my only thought. Back to topic at hand. I guess, you know what? On some of that stuff, that�s why it�s almost better that I just teach Nahum or 2 Peter or Hebrews or something like that.

I�m more interested in law-gospel paradigm than I am, you know, the Xavier Zacharias stuff. I did that on purpose. I�m more interested in the covenant of redemption and works and grace than I am some of these other things.

I�m more interested in justification of my faith alone, sola fide, active obedience of Christ. Those are the things. Because if you think about the motivation for the Christian life, what�s the motivation for the Christian life?

I think pretty much most of us, we live in a world where we see Rome and she puts people just under law. I mean, even the gospel is moral transformation for them. Once you add some works into the gospel, it�s just all works now.

It�s all law. Wesleyan sanctification is pretty much what I think people in America have experienced because it�s the most popular. There�s a law that shows you you�re an unbeliever. It�s a mirror. Then Jesus saves you.

That�s the good news. That�s the gospel by his life, death, burial, resurrection, appearance, ascension, and session, and soon return. Then we put people back under the law again, sanctified by law, and just now go do that.

It�s unlike Rome, which is law. Wesleyans are law, gospel, law. But that�s not really what we�re after. The motivation of Christian life is still the Lord Jesus. When you think of the right paradigm, it should be law, gospel for both justification and sanctification.

Law, gospel, law, gospel. Law, I see myself as a sinner, as an unbeliever. I need the righteousness of Christ. Gospel, that�s provided for me by grace and by grace alone. Now as a Christian, I see the law of God.

It�s no longer a mirror that condemns me. It�s a guide. It�s a norm. It�s a direction that will help me because it stems from God�s holy character. But since I�m now a son and not underneath God the judge, it can guide me.

But why would I want to do it? The answer is back to the gospel again, even in sanctification, the duplex gratia, the double benefit of Jesus for pardon and for power. It enables me to be by the power of the Holy Spirit to live a life commensurate with my calling, at least try.

And it gives me the motivation for obedience, guilt, grace, gratitude. If I were to, I used to be a swimmer. I was a lifeguard for a while. Swam from Alcatraz to San Fran a couple times. So I�m a decent swimmer.

I�m not very fast anymore, but I get in the pool and swim a couple miles and I like to do that and just get exhausted. And what if I rescued your child and they were drowning and I pulled them to the side and pushed them over to the dock and up on the dock and then I slipped under and drowned.

I lost my life rescuing your child. Would you be in debt to my family in any way, shape, or form? When you�re going to come visit my wife at the funeral, would you say to her, �By the way, if you ever need anything, I�d be willing to do anything for you.

Do you need any help in any way, shape, or form with the funeral expenses That�s what you would do. It�s natural. And so that�s the same thing. We don�t have to go to hell. And then now God says, �This is a guide for you.

Don�t commit adultery. And it condemns us. The first use of the law as a mirror and we realize we need a Savior. And Jesus never looks at a woman with lust, never commits adultery, and He dies for our lustful, sinful, adulterous, fornicating thoughts.

And now He says as a Father, God the Father says, �Don�t commit adultery. It�s still not good, but you�re not damned for it because you�re already forgiven and so. But this is a guide because it�s not good for you, it�s not good for them, it�s not good for society, it�s not good for the church, it�s not good for anyone.

But I realize I do that now out of gratitude because I�m thankful I don�t have to pay for those things. And therefore I never got to the rest of this book of 2 Peter now, did I? But that�s not the point.

This is no compromise radio. What is the point? The point is Jesus never compromised at the cross. No attributes of God were compromised. They all were simultaneously put on a brilliant display about how God loves sinners.

My name is Mike Abendroth. You can write me Mike at NoCompromiseRadio .com.

Or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.