Building Churches for Man’s Glory

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. My name is Mike Abendroth, and it is sunny out.

I�ve got the sun coming through the shades here in Burbank, California, going to Vista Street.

Oh, sorry, this is Massachusetts, and we are going to have, I think, oh,

I don�t know, 6 to 12 inches of snow tonight, and then ice tomorrow, and that�s the problem, ice for service.

So, what are we going to do? We�ll have to find out, but anyway, if you�re on NOCO radio group, closed group,

I guess you can see this, and I don�t know, maybe you�re out shopping, getting your, what do you buy if there�s a snowstorm?

Gas for your generator? Lots of pretzels? I�m not used to doing shows in the sun.

Listen, I got in the mail the other day, �Pastor Resources 2019.�

And you can see the little booklet there if you�re watching on Facebook Live, �Pastor

Resources, Helping Pastors Grow Churches.� And I thought the whole thing was going to be about the

Holy Spirit. That�s what I thought. I thought the Holy Spirit, we would learn about how He illumines

Scripture, how He convicts of sin, how He points people to the

Lord Jesus, how He seals to the day of redemption, how

He sovereignly regenerates, how He does all kinds of things. But this is actually what you can do to make your church grow.

Now, on No Compromise Radio, you probably know ahead of time that we like church growth, but we just want the

Lord to do the growing. That is to say, new Christians are made by God, right?

Sovereignly, monergistically created by God, that is, regenerated by the Spirit of God, effectual call.

And we like the growth of Christians because we want them to grow and mature. And you can think of 2

Peter chapter 3. But I think this is a different strategy. Call me naive, especially on the back, it�s got the whole irresistible deal with Andy Stanley.

So today we�re just going to have, maybe I�ll get into Matthew in just a moment, Matthew 8, I think I listed those, but just for an intro to get people to watch since we�re up to a mighty four watching.

Now the old way I did this, I could tell who was watching. I can�t tell who�s watching here. Oh, they�re Barbara. I hope you�re feeling better,

Barbara. Good morning to you too, you�re in sunny Northern California. How are your Jack Russell Terriers?

These pastor resources, I don�t really know what�s in here, but I can pretty much tell you that they will be man -centered, pragmatic, method -driven, and that, here�s my question, if you could use these methods at a local church,

Bible -teaching church, and they work, and they also work for Jehovah�s Witnesses and Roman Catholics and Mormons, would these things that are contained in this pastor resources actually be good and valid, excuse me, and biblical?

It does have the very beginning, I will give it kudos. There's Josh, the foremost important no -goer.

That's exactly right. I only let the biggest givers watch on these secret things.

This is an interesting shadow here. Seriously, it�s sunny, but it�s about ready to storm like mad.

New King James Study Bible on page one. So I�ll give that props. That�s a good way to grow the church, you see the

Bible, oh, it�s a little old -fashioned. Next one, it�s got something from Church Resource, and it�s

Rahab, Hagar, and Naomi. The Known by Name series explores complex women in the

Bible and their struggles with tough questions through the lenses of a counselor, a biblical teacher, and a dramatist.

A few things to say here. Back in the old days when there was liberalism and evangelicalism,

I�m not talking about politics, I�m talking about theology, you still wanted to feel good if you were a liberal.

Therefore you wanted to have a little Bible, but not too much. A little bit of decorum, biblical decorum, but not a whole lot about sin.

The Lord Jesus or His exclusive work. So what did they do back in the days?

They said, you know what, we�ll use the Bible, but instead of talking about death, burial, and resurrection, instead of talking about the life of Jesus, instead of talking about propitiation and wrath and assuaging

God�s holy anger against sin, instead of law -keeping by the

Son and imputing His law -keeping to all those who would believe, instead of that, we still want to use the

Bible, but we�ll, let�s see, what could we do? Let�s tell stories. And that�s exactly what they did.

So what could we learn from the life of David? What could we learn from the life of Joseph? What could we learn from the life of,

I guess, Rahab, Hagar, and Naomi? Look at their faces.

Okay, there�s Naomi. That looks like Grace Jones. I mean, Grace, yeah,

Grace Jones. I was going to say Grace Slick. Hagar, she looks like, who does she look like?

She looks like some kind of model for the Gillette commercial. And then

Rahab, who does she look like? Does that look like Taylor Swift to you? I have no idea. But anyway, it�s interesting.

There are some examples in the Bible that we can look at and say, you know, this exemplar preaching, example preaching, and of course, in Hebrews 6, it talks about Abraham and how he was trusting in who

God was who kept the promises. And the focus is really upon the object of Abraham�s faith, but still saying, you know what,

Abraham trusted in God. And he�s saying, you know what, you Jewish people, you should be saying the same thing.

1 Corinthians 10 is more negatively, don�t do what the Israelites did in the wilderness. And so,

I can�t say that there�s no place ever for exemplary preaching, exemplar brain preaching, preaching by example, for examples.

But most of the time, this be like Ruth, do we want to tell people to be like Ruth?

Remember that whole scene there with Boaz? Be like Esther? Are we sure we want to tell people, oh, be like Esther?

Remember that whole scene in chapter 1 and 2? Here we�ve got Naomi, Hagar, and Rahab. Now, I will say that in Matthew and the genealogies, it�s amazing to see ladies listed in such a culture back 2 ,000 years ago.

But they are listed, and of course, they play a huge role in the life of the church.

And as image bearers, and as those who receive spiritual gifts, I mean, where would we be without the ladies?

And especially how God has even worked through the sinfulness of not only men, but also ladies like Rahab.

I don�t know. What about the Hagar thing? That just dawned on me. Oh, here, here.

I�m missing out. Here it is. It tells me. Rahab. What could you learn from Rahab? Don�t judge me.

Don�t judge me. God said I�m qualified. So, you know, when

I�m looking through James chapter 2, and faith without works is dead, and the

Greek would lend itself to how can you keep on saying that you have faith when you keep on having no works? You can�t say that.

Well, you could say it, but it�s not true. It�s not valid. I did not know that James chapter 2 says, �Don�t judge me.

God says I�m qualified.� There are four sessions each at 20 minutes each. It doesn�t tell you how much these cost, but they�re at pastoresources .com.

Don�t judge me. So, from now on, when you think of Rahab, I want you to hashtag it. Don�t judge me. Now, what do you think the lesson is for Hagar?

Now, remember, what we�re talking about here is this moralistic, pietistic, flannel graft type of preaching where you find a few things about David and you say, well, you know what?

You should be like David. Here�s one of the other problems besides that coming from a liberal background where people would say, you know what?

We still want to hear the Bible taught even though we don�t want to be told about the inerrancy of Scripture or a soon return of Christ or judgment or sin or hell or anything else, so just give me good stories.

Here�s the other problem with this kind of preaching. Every pastor, every layperson, every lady who teaches the

Bible would come to those passages, let�s say with Joseph in verses chapter 37 through 50 in Genesis, and they would come up with something different than you would.

Everyone would come up with different things when, if we study the Bible and try to find what does the writer intend, we should come up with the same thing.

I mean, if we do things rightly, we will come up with what the writer says, and then if you do things rightly, you�ll come up with the same thing that I came up with because we�re both looking at the

Scripture and we�re studying Revelation, and then it�s giving us, informing what we believe and what we teach about it.

While I might not preach Romans 116 the same way you will, homiletically, expositionally, but exegetically, it�s the same thing.

You should come up with the same thing. So, what would you come up with, Hagar? What would be the facts?

Don�t you judge me. What would be the facts here for Hagar? In the face of rejection,

God says, �I�m significant.� There she is right there. Okie dokie.

And then Naomi, of course, when I feel worthless, God says, �I�m enough.�

Don�t judge me. I�m qualified. In the face of rejection, God says, �I�m significant.�

And when I feel worthless, God says, �I�m enough.� I can�t remember who originally said it, but it was in line theologically with kind of home makeovers.

You know, they�ve got those shows. I�ve never had cable TV in the last 30 years, but I needed internet speed updated, and with internet speed came the cable channels and the vortex of satanic shows.

A lot of Mars days do seem satanic, but we never had the HD channel or whatever that�s called, and we never had these home makeover shows.

But they don�t pick great houses to makeover, and you know, there�s the big poster and here�s the reveal.

Similarly, they don�t take models and do makeovers on them.

I guess you could. I guess they have different models now, right? Different.

I�m trying to stay out of trouble. They pick somebody who�s not looking their best, and they make them into something wonderful, and it�s not the person who�s getting the makeover.

It�s not that they�re good, but it�s the artist. It�s the makeover person.

It�s the makeup artist. They�re the ones that receive the praise. And this whole thing back in evangelicalism, God don�t make no junk.

You ain�t got no good grammar. The focus here,

I�m, I�m, I�m. When we think about ourselves, and seriously, when we think about ourselves wrongly, about who we are, let�s think

Romans 7 and 8. Wretched man that I am, right? I want to do the right thing. I don�t do it.

That�s Romans 7. And some Christians just live in that world, and I want to make sure you don�t just live in that world.

Romans 8 talks about there�s no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, and therefore, you have no condemnation,

Christian, because the Lord Jesus has paid for it. Legally, you stand before God as righteous as the

Son is. And some people only live in that world, but both are true, so I want you to hold on to both

Romans 7 and Romans 8. I don�t do the things that I want to do, but there�s no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

And to use the Latin that Luther used, simult, simultaneously, justus, just or righteous, et, that�s and, peccator, pescator, simultaneously just and fishy, pescato, simultaneously just and sinful.

That�s Romans 7 and Romans 8 put together. And so, the focus when we feel down and out, we don�t think about ourselves.

This is what who the Lord is and what He�s done. So, so far, we�re not really into Matthew 8.

I�m turning the page now. Connect your ministry with God�s story, and you get

Bibles, NIV Bibles that you get a handout. You know, I don�t like the new NIV Bible, the 2011 version, but this actually would fit with the theme,

Helping Pastors Grow Churches Using the Bible. All right, now this one

I�m not going to like. Okay, see, who do we have right there? All right, I know you can see that.

Do you know the real story behind the New Testament? And of course, N .T. Wright�s going to tell us, because how would we know?

And you need to have the English Anglicans tell us what we have ignored the whole time.

She�s just beautiful. Hey, I would like a Bulletproof Coffee. That would be great. Well -known

Bible scholars N .T. Wright and Michael F. Byrd team up to take you on a tour of the story behind the explosive story of the

New Testament. You�ll discover things you never knew about Jesus� baptism and journey into the wilderness. You�ll also discover things that you never knew about Second Temple Judaism and how the

Pharisees weren�t really into works righteousness. It had to do with table fellowship. Sorry, that was just my little no -code deal.

And the significance of the death and resurrection, the incredible expansion of the early church into the Greco -Roman world, and how the transforming mission of Jesus can still turn the world upside down today.

First session is going to be free. I�d like to know how much they�re going to charge for the second session.

If you�re one of those people that say, yes, but N .T. Wright affirms bodily resurrection, therefore we need to give him a pass, you probably wouldn�t like some of my

No Compromise Radio videos. All right, here we�re coming to the next one. I�m thinking, let�s see, that Karnak, I�m thinking, who is

Katy Perry? All right, now let�s see. Chris Tomlin, Darren Whitehead, new

CD series, Holy Roar. Holy Roar.

Now, I don�t know if you�re supposed to roar in the spirit. I don�t even know how we would say that here in New England.

Roar, raw. You know, if they say it�s raw outside, you know, it�s rainy and icy and just kind of in between rain and ice and snow and everything.

They call that raw here. It�s raw outside. And I think that�s a great word to describe it. But they say here, rawr.

It�s just like law and order. Lawr. What do you do? I�m in lawr. Nice. I�d like you to meet my wife�s parents, my mother in lawr.

What does it mean to praise God? This is the Holy Roar. The ancient world, something extraordinary happened when

God�s people gathered to worship Him. It was more than just singing. It was a time to fully embody praise to God for who

He is and what He has done. I don�t think they�re going to say anything about this, but I hope they�re not going to use the word incarnational.

That word has been used properly for the Lord Jesus and shouldn�t be used for anybody else.

That�s one of the no -copete peeves. Maybe Stephen can make up some banner for that.

Incarnational. That�s bad. That�s a bad word when used for us in ministry.

It�s a real incarnational ministry. We don�t have services on Sunday. We go to the coffee shop and pray and then we go talk to people.

We�re incarnational community missional. You see, the whole no -code deal for me,

I think I was going after people quite a bit eight, nine years ago. Then I think I mellowed out a little bit, but now it�s confusing for me because I�m getting older and if people get mad at me on Facebook especially, they especially get mad at me on Facebook because I throw these scuds out and then

I don�t really respond because I don�t have time to respond to a bunch of Facebook people. You know, call and ask your pastor kind of thing.

And even when the people from the church that I pastor ask me on Facebook, I don�t usually answer because I�m doing other things.

So BBC folks, email me instead. But you know, what�s the worst that can happen to no -code?

I almost quit last year, but I was glad I didn�t because I was feeling bad with the radiation and everything else.

But this is just my hobby. And so therefore, hey, if we holy raw it, what are we going to do?

Four -session video Bible study. Pastor Darren Whitehead shares insights on how�oh,

I forgot. Josh just said, �Don�t go soft to me.� No, I was going to say, I think

I�m getting maybe more ornery because what do I care? I�m 58. I have a job. I love the people here.

This is my main job is to proclaim the truth about Jesus in the book of Hebrews and train up men for preaching and disciple them.

And then other than that, what do we care? Steve answers me on Facebook. Barbara said,

I bet he does. How great is our

God. Holy is the Lord. I lift my hands in good father. But see, they're not telling me what the roar thing is. That's what

I'm concerned. Seven words that will change the way you worship. I'm hoping roar isn't one of them.

And dance ministry. I hope that's not the other. Uh -oh. Here's the next page.

You can see why this is perfect for no -code. Alpha youth. Spark life -changing conversations with youth.

Josh said, Paul wrote Galatians in his 40s, so I figure I'm still warming up.

That's perfect. I'll be the judge of that. Alpha youth.

There's the church down the street, Roman Catholic Church, and they're now doing alpha. And it's one of those things where I know the

P stands for putting. That's the only thing I know. If your church is in alpha, it needs to be the omega.

Choose love, not fear. That's the next one. A guide for churches. I kid you not. I'm going to have to prove this.

Look at that. I don't know if it's backwards for you or not. This is a guide for churches on how to love refugees and immigrants.

And then it's got a pair of Converse All -Stars. Oh, I have no idea why we have a pair of Converse All -Stars.

Are those the refugees All -Stars, the immigrants All -Stars, the people that are supposed to serve them as All -Stars?

It says, welcomed, loving refugees and immigrants because God first loved us.

Without getting into a thousand different things about politics, of course, we're supposed to love everybody, and we're supposed to love our neighbors.

And if there was someone here who was a refugee or an immigrant, and they were here illegally, what do you think I would tell them?

Well, I think you're right. I would say, do you know what? I'm going to tell you this as a pastor and as a friend,

I'd like to help you get into this country legally, so let me be your advocate, and we'll go talk to the local authorities and figure out how we can do the paperwork so you can be here illegally, a la

Romans chapter 13, and we want to do the right thing. And that's what I would do.

It has nothing to do with not loving people. The things that we have learned from liberal politicians are amazing to me, but at least we have

Converse All -Stars. All right, what's the next page? We're not going to make it to Matthew 8 or 9.

We're going to do Matthew 9 in about five minutes. Something incredible is happening.

Did you know? This is going to be so incredible. I've got a pastoral guide here for resources.

It says in 2018, 10 ,123 moms accepted Jesus because 10 ,123 moms were invited to mops.

Okay, so what does that mean? Everybody who's been invited to mops accepted

Jesus? They accepted Jesus because they've been invited to mops? I have no idea what this means.

Reach moms and their families in your community with mops. I love Bible studies. I love

Bible studies that talk about the Lord Jesus. If that's what they do at mops, I'm down for that. But I don't understand this.

10 ,000 moms accepted Jesus because 10 ,000 moms were invited to mops. Well, then why wouldn't we send every unbeliever there?

That's a pretty good success rate. Unless they're saying, you know what? We invite them there and we water down Jesus enough so every person can say yes.

Josh just said, give us your thoughts on G3. What's G3? Is that the summit with all the economic people?

Well, since I wasn't invited, I'll just trash it. How's that? See, they'll say if I critique it, then they'll say, oh.

You know what? I listened to David, who's the man that delivered the message in the wheelchair.

Miller, is that his name? Yeah, I listened to him. And I liked what I heard. I listened for about 10 minutes.

I listened to about 10 minutes of Phil Johnson, liked what I heard. I listened to about 10 minutes of,

I know Josh, I'm just joshing you. I listened to 10 minutes of, who else?

Mark Dever in Romans 10. I listened to, I wanted to listen to David Platt because I thought he's probably going to say something.

It was interesting to me that I don't think the pre -conference on social justice was on live stream.

I don't know why that is. I would like to see that. And I would like to know some of the behind the scenes things with Piper and Dever and Platt and some of those guys that are more social justice than what they did behind the scenes with people like Voti, who signed the

Dallas Statement, Johnson, Phil Johnson, who signed the Dallas Statement, James White, who signed the Dallas Statement.

I'm not sure. You know, to me, the best part about G3, if I would have been there, would have been the fellowship with all the people and all the

Twitter folks and Facebook folks and social media people. I know what it's like when I go to the Shepherds Conference, even if there's not a whole bunch of good speakers, the fellowship behind the scenes in Christian ministry is something that's wonderful.

So I probably should have watched more of it. If it was me, if I was

Josh and I was leading the whole G3 thing, I don't know how I would have worked out the whole social justice thing, but it probably would have been different the way he works it out.

But he probably won't be asking me to come and speak next year. I saw a lot of you people, though, on Twitter and all that stuff.

I wish right now I was at the conference in Westminster Escondido, and that is the Westminster Seminary Escondido Conference.

My brother's there. My friend Todd Swift is there. My son last night was there. A couple of messages by Bob Godfrey.

And then today, I think it's who? Clark and Kim and Horton and some others.

So I'd like to be there too, especially with this weather. Well, we're going to talk about Matthew 9 in the next show.

I'm going to do Facebook Live as well in about two minutes. My name is Mike Abendroth. This is NoCompromiseRadio .com.

See Church .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.