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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. It's Mike Abendroth here, and actually I looked outside and it seems like it's clearing up. That is excellent, I appreciate that. We wanna give away a book today again, Glorifying God by Thomas Watson, and this is compiled and adopted, adapted, adaptation by Patty Hummel, and this is on Thomas Nelson, and this is a devotional for every day of the year.
It's got June 8th, et cetera, June 6th. Let's see, let's go to June 6th and just read this randomly. Thomas Watson is a great Puritan writer, was a great Puritan writer, and his Repentance Book on Banner of Truth is probably his most well-known work, but I like it that he uses all kinds of illustrative language, great writer, and so I'm just turning to June 6th, not because that was D-Day, but because that was the day I was married.
How's that sound? The day I was married was D-Day, okay. God will judge the world in righteousness, Acts 17, 31. A judge puts his robe on and removes it again at night, but Job never, excuse me, but Job did so put on justice that he did not put it off until death, forever clothed.
We must not take our robe of justice off until we lay down our tabernacle. If God be in you, you will be like him. But every unjust action, by every unjust action, you deny Christ, you stain the glory of your profession.
Heathens will rise up in judgment against you. Because God is just, there will be a day of judgment. God will administer justice. He will crown the righteous and condemn the wicked. He hath appointed a day, Acts 17, 31.
God is just and he will take vengeance. Men, break the laws God gave. The day cometh for the execution of offenders. A law not executed is like a wooden dagger for show. The wicked shall drink a sea of wrath, but not sip one drop of injustice.
At that day, God's justice shall be fully vindicated from all the objections and demands of unjust men. At the last day, God's sword will be drawn against offenders. His justice shall be revealed before the world.
Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? Genesis 18. If thy heart has been broken for and from sin, thou may plead not only God's mercy, but also his justice for the pardoning of thy sin. Show him his hand and seal, and he cannot deny himself.
June 6th, glorifying God. So if you'd like a free copy of that, well, I have a few to give out. You can write me at info at nocompromiseradio .com. By the way, I read all the letters that come in, emails that come in, info at nocompromiseradio .com.
Been receiving some letters from the local jail here. I'm glad the men there are listening. God bless you, men. We want to remember the prisoners there. And it's amazing to think that radio could be used in the life of men who are incarcerated, and how great it is that God can forgive all of us.
Also, we've got the book, Sovereignty and Supremacy of King Jesus. Special discount on our website if you'd like to order my new book. I've got two or three other books in the works, trying to get publishers for them.
The third book is already finished and done, but no publisher yet. And then the fourth and fifth are in the works, writing those, not as we speak. I wouldn't want to say that, not as we speak, because it's hard enough to do radio, let alone write a book while you're doing radio.
I think maybe I could do a no-compromise book. That might be interesting. And I've noticed as time has gone on, the more I sit in front of this microphone, kind of the easier it is. In other words, you know, I can look down on my iPhone and check my mail.
I actually do that once in a while. Sitting here talking and just checking my mail. So for those pregnant pauses and other times that aren't so good, you know what I'm doing now. Flipping around the Bible, writing some things, looking around, and there's distractions here at the church.
We're designing a new church building for the new land that we purchased. And I thought, you know what? We need to have some kind of cool EIB studio or something. But anyway, I don't know how that'll work.
Right now it's just a table. In front of me, I have a Bible, ESV. I have a mixer that is a 1202-VLZ3 Premium Microphone. I have a mic line mixer. I have a call box, an Innkeeper Digital Hybrid JK Audio Call Box.
For Wretched Radio, I have a BrickLink Comrex. I have a laptop, a Dell. I'm a Mac guy, but here we have for no compromise. I have a Dell Inspiron 1210. And then there's some other blue box over there I can't read from right here, but that's also for some Wretched Radio deal.
And I have a microphone. I don't, I can't tell what kind of microphone it is. V6 3M, Phil Johnson said he liked the microphones. How about that? I think that was pretty good. Sony headphones and then one other microphone and my cup of coffee and a bunch of books.
So since I can write books and do no compromise radio, why don't I have a drink of coffee too? Wow, that is Pete's coffee, nothing like it. Today on no compromise radio, we're going to talk about the Holy Spirit.
If I took all the shows that I've done, the last 500 shows and then categorize them, put them in different rankings, what subject matters do I talk about? I hope at the top of the list, you'd hear Jesus's name and his work and his atonement, the father's electing work, something like that.
I hope you'd hear a lot of that. That's what I want to be known for. I think you'd probably hear a lot about the word of God and then counters against the word mysticism. I'm really against mysticism.
What's the definition of mysticism? Well, I guess it starts with a mist and ends with a schism, but I don't know how much I've talked about the Holy Spirit. Regularly we talk about the regenerating work of the spirit.
Often we talk about the father elects some, the son dies for those some, and then the spirit in time brings those some to redemption, he seals them to the day of redemption, to use Paul's language in Ephesians.
And so we regularly talk about the spirit when we come and think of the triune God, father, son, and Holy Spirit, as the songwriter would say, God in three persons, blessed Trinity. But lots of times there are people who somehow think we don't believe in the Holy Spirit because we're not charismatic, because I don't believe in speaking in tongues as for today, that I question miracles and don't think some person like they did in the Bible days has the gift of healing.
Does God heal? Absolutely. Does God heal through prayers? You bet he does. Does God heal through medicine? Yes. Does sometimes God decide not to heal? Yes. Is there healing in the atonement? Well, yes, eventually there will be healing in the atonement, in glory.
So just because I don't believe in some charismatic gifts, it doesn't mean I don't believe in the Holy Spirit. In addition, some people say, well, the music isn't spirit-filled. And you know, I know I'm supposed to be politically correct, but this is no compromise radio, and I'm now a blunt New Englander.
Those people have no idea what they're talking about. They are so infantile and so immature in their thinking and biblical knowledge that they have no clue. It's just like a kid. They just open their mouth and whatever comes out just comes out.
It just kind of falls out. Open mouth, fall out words. And so spirit-led, spirit-filled, what does that mean? A heavy backbeat, drums. I am very surprised with people who like to raise their hands when it comes to music, but they'll raise their hands to a dopey song that's just faster.
Yet when it comes to a godly song that's super slow, any lament, man of sorrows, what a shame. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus. Songs like that come on, they don't raise their hand. Why? Because they don't even know why they're raising their hands.
They don't know what it means to raise their hand. How do you raise your hand before a king? I can't show you because it's radio, but you'd be quite surprised. So today I want to make sure you understand that we believe that the Holy Spirit is fully God, that He has always existed, He always does exist, and that He is alive, I guess that's what I'm trying to say.
So we're going to talk a little bit about who the Spirit is and what the Spirit does. And I guess it comes with the territory that if you ever critique charismatics that you don't have the Spirit. So what about the Holy Spirit?
The first thing I'd like to say is that He is a person. When you normally say wind, because that's where we get the Greek word for spirit, or if you think about some spirit being or something, just a power, you wouldn't call that a person.
Yet the Holy Spirit is a person, clearly distinguished from His power. He's not just a power, He's not just a force. The Holy Spirit is a person. How do I know that? Well, number one, because He has an intellect.
It says, and He who searches our hearts, Romans 8 .27, knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. So the word search means to investigate, and that's exactly what the Holy Spirit does.
He investigates our hearts, and He, do you notice, it says He, so we don't say, and it who searches, and it that searches, no, He who, relative pronoun who, searches. He has a mind, He thinks, that is clearly indicating that the Holy Spirit is a person.
He has emotions, Ephesians 4 .30, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Awareness, feelings, grief. If you have a power, can a power be grieved?
Can a influence be grieved? Can a force be grieved? Can energy be grieved? Can light waves be grieved? Can particles be grieved? No, absolutely not. And not only does the Holy Spirit have an intellect and emotions, but also a will.
All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and He gives them to each one just as He wills or determines God the Spirit's sovereign choice, God the Spirit's free decision to give spiritual gifts to those that He wants to give them to, whatever gifts they are.
Every Christian gets one, maybe you get more. I just heard somebody saying the other day that there's a teacher that believes that you only get one gift, and that's all you get. Well, I don't know, maybe that is.
That's the first I ever heard of that. God the Spirit has knowledge. I don't think forces have knowledge. I don't think power has knowledge. But here, the Spirit of God, He has an awareness of the thoughts of God, and He understands the mind of God, 1 Corinthians chapter two.
Listen to what this book says about the Spirit's knowledge. The Greek word for Spirit is pneuma, which is a neuter gender word. Any pronoun used to substitute for pneuma would normally also be neuter.
However, the biblical writers did not follow this grammatical pattern. Instead, they substituted masculine pronouns to designate the Holy Spirit. The purposeful change in grammar emphasizes the personality of the Holy Spirit.
I think this is N's book on Moody's Handbook of Theology. There would have been no reason to change from the neuter to the masculine unless the Spirit was understood to be a person. So he's got a little chart here.
Masculine pronouns for the Holy Spirit. Scripture, John 15, 26. Neuter noun, pneuma, masculine pronoun, He. John 16, 13. Neuter noun, pneuma, masculine pronoun, He. John 16, 14. Neuter noun, pneuma, yet masculine pronoun, He.
So what the writer is saying, what N's is saying, what the scriptures reveal is that a Spirit is an it. The wind is an it. It's neuter. It's not He, nor it is she, the wind. If you'd say the wind, she's really blowing out there.
I guess you'd say that, but that's not how we're supposed to talk. But here when you have the word Spirit designating the Holy Spirit, when we have a personal pronoun, it's given the word He, because He is a person.
He has a personality. He also has divine attributes. Power doesn't have divine attribute. Energy doesn't have divine attribute. Influence doesn't have divine attributes. Electricity doesn't have divine attributes, but the Spirit of God, He does.
He is omniscient. He is omnipotent, even seen in creation. Or Genesis, Job 33, verse four. He is omnipresent. In Psalm 139, can David flee from the omnipresent Spirit? Spirit, the answer is no. He is eternal.
The Holy Spirit did not come to existence at Pentecost. The Spirit of God is eternal, and He's even called, in Hebrews 9, verse 14, eternal, the eternal Spirit. Christ offered Him, through the eternal Spirit, Christ offered Himself without blemish to God.
And so when I talk about the Holy Spirit, the word Spirit and wind and it go together so often. Sometimes I'll say it, and I have to correct myself because we're just even saying the wrong, it seems like it's wrong, except it's inspired.
And there's reason because the Spirit is a person. The Spirit has another divine attribute, and that is He is holy. That's the most common name for the Spirit, isn't it? The Holy Spirit. He has that transcendent quality.
Yes, holiness means pure. Yes, holiness means set apart, but holiness has at its root, it means different, other, transcendent. And so that is exactly a great definition or great attribute for the Spirit of God.
He is full of truth. The Spirit of truth, John 14, John 15, He leads people into truth. And so John 14, 17 talks about the Holy Spirit with the divine attribute of truth. Energy doesn't have truth. Light doesn't have truth.
For some, the Holy Spirit is, probably for the majority of evangelicals, misunderstood. And so today on No Compromise Radio, we're trying to talk about the Holy Spirit a little bit more so we can understand what's happening.
So let's just think about if a local church said, you know what, we really don't believe in the Spirit of God. Let's just say, you know, since I'm so non-charismatic, since I'm not a continuationist, since I am a cessationist, since I believe that the signed gifts were given pretty much at three times in the history of the world.
During the times of Moses and Joshua, to give authentication to Moses and Joshua and the words that they spoke. There was a lot of healings done then to confirm that. Second time was Elijah, Elisha. That was another time period where we needed to authenticate the men and their message, and then Jesus and the apostles.
Three periods of time that if you add up together, you'll have about 100 years in the history of the world where signed gifts were very, very prominent and being exercised regularly. So let's just say I say to myself, well, you know what, since I'm not a charismatic, I don't wanna have anything to do with the Holy Spirit.
And so I'm just gonna just dog the Holy Spirit. I don't wanna have anything to do with the Spirit. What would that mean in our church? If somehow I could, although I can't, it's hypothetical, it's theoretical.
If I could say, you know, let's just say no to the Holy Spirit, what would happen? Well, let me tell you the first thing that would happen if we had no Holy Spirit at the church, like we've been accused of.
Oh, there's no Holy Spirit at the church. Allegedly. Hey, haters. Let's say we're Holy Spirit haters. Hey, Holy Spirit haters. If you haven't watched the Stephen Furtick, Hey, Haters video yet, you ought to.
Hey, Haters by Stephen Furtick. Type it into YouTube and you'll say, man, I think he's hating right about now. That's a different subject. The first thing that would happen if there was no Holy Spirit at the church, if somehow he would go, he would leave, he would get raptured, we could push him to the side.
But just theoretically, the first thing that would happen is you'd never hear about Jesus. Yeah, that's right, you heard me right. You'd never hear about Jesus because the Holy Spirit loves to point to the second person of the Trinity, Christ Jesus.
He, the Holy Spirit, could say I'm God and I deserve worship. Certainly you can read in Acts where they lied to God slash they lied to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God, God deserves worship. But in the unique relationship of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit recedes into the background, as it were, to point to Christ Jesus.
If you can imagine somebody standing behind a door and you just see somebody's arm sticking out through the door and they're pointing to someone else that's on your side of the door so that you'll look at him.
That's exactly what the Spirit of God does. The Spirit of God, it says in 1 Corinthians 12, three, therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says Jesus is accursed and no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.
When you see a Spirit-filled church, when you go to a Spirit-filled church, you're going to see a place that Jesus Christ is proclaimed, that he's the center of attention. It says in John 15, 26, when the helper comes whom I will send to you from the Father that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me.
No compromise, radio listeners, get that into your noggin. How do you find a Holy Ghost-filled church? By going to a church that talks about Jesus all the time, that Jesus is at the center. I determine to know nothing among you except Christ and him crucified.
That's Holy Spirit-driven. The Holy Spirit testifies about me. The Holy Spirit could testify about himself but he testifies about Christ Jesus. That's exactly what happens and you will testify also, he says to the apostles, the disciples in verse 27 because you have been with me from the beginning.
So the witness of the Spirit, he bears witness to the work of Christ. Of course, he does many other things but I want you to know that as the Spirit works, you will see the effects of the Spirit by watching people centered upon the work of Christ Jesus, his life and his work.
It's interesting, too, that when the Scriptures speak of Christ, you can remember that the Holy Spirit's directly involved with Scripture, revealing Scripture, inspiring Scripture and illuminating Scripture now for us.
And so you look at Luke 24 about the Old Testament, Moses and the prophets speaking of Christ Jesus. John 5 testifying the Old Testament does of Christ. You have the Spirit of God even testifying about Christ Jesus then.
You don't say, well, Luke 24 and John 5, it says basically you see the work of the Spirit throughout the entire Old Testament, the whole thing preaches Christ. No, the Spirit of God by A, revelation, B, inspiration and then nowadays through illumination, testifying to Christ Jesus even in his work through the Scriptures.
That's an amazing thing to think about, bearing witness to Christ Jesus as the Bible was put together and now as the Bible is illuminated in our mind, the Spirit of God bearing witness to Christ Jesus.
So when you say to yourself, I wanna go to a Spirit-filled church, the evidence of that is not tongues, miracles, healings and everything else. The evidence would be, are they proclaiming Christ Jesus, the God-man, the great King, the Savior, the Redeemer, the advocate, our friend, our brother, is that who they're talking about?
Because if they are talking about that, you know that the Holy Spirit is involved. So when people come here and they say, your church isn't Holy Spirit-filled, I first say to myself, the cloud in my mind, my iCloud says ignorant, but I probably smile and then I also, my heart of conviction says, pastorally I should be kind to them and nice to them and if I'm right, it's only because of the Spirit's work in my heart, so maybe I can help educate them.
But I usually just smile and then say, well, you can tell churches are Spirit-filled when they talk about Jesus all the time because the Holy Spirit testifies about Jesus and points people to Jesus. And so by the grace of God, that's what we want to do.
We sing songs about Jesus. We are able to pray to the Father because of Jesus and His mediatorial work and His advocacy. We have salvation because He lived for us, He died for us, His resurrection confirms that we have a Savior who assuaged the wrath of God.
We have the power of the resurrection that works through us by the Spirit's applying. And so without the Holy Spirit, there's no Jesus and so without no Jesus, you know, and here, okay, let's just cut to the chase here.
Churches that say they're Spirit-filled, the Charismatic churches and Assemblies of God and, you know, Freedom This and Focus That and Win This and Numa That and Eagles Nest That and all these other places, whatever they're called, and they say we're Holy Spirit-filled, of course they talk about Jesus some, but I wish they'd talk about Him more.
And some fringe Charismatic churches, more extreme Charismatic churches and some vineyard churches that I've been to, it's all about the Holy Spirit. And if it's all about the Holy Spirit all the time, that's not a Spirit-filled church because the Spirit will testify of Christ.
Now, if you're working through a passage and it's a lengthy passage in 1 Corinthians 12, 13 and 14 about the Spirit's gifting and you're talking about the Spirit a lot, oh, I get that. But Spirit-filled means, among other things, putting the focus and the spotlight on Jesus Christ.
This is my beloved Son in whom I'm well-pleased. We believe in the Holy Spirit. He is a great person of the Almighty Triune God. This is No Compromise Radio, info at nocompromiseradio .com.
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.
The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.