Coin Toss

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. This is Steve Cooley with our well -rehearsed, scripted program format today.

Right down to the letter. There are no errors, no miscues, and no variations.

We�re just strictly on the script today. Tweet today, Sweden, �Bishop supports

Muslim demand to broadcast the call to prayer.� Which raises a question, you know, can

Muslims and Christians pray together? They can, but they should not.

How can they? How can they do that? Because they both have the wrong view of God, and then they pray to that idol.

Pray to that made -up God, the amalgamation between Allah and God, the

God of the Bible. Aren�t they the same? Well, I was thinking about the word amalgamation, and it was making me think about getting a dental filling or something.

It�s just about the same type of pain. Amalgam. That�s what it was, amalgam. I wonder what the root word for amalgam is.

Amal. So, it�s mal, which means, you know, bad, and then put an

A in front of it. It�s not bad. Yeah, it�s a good filling. I don�t think that�s it at all.

I don�t think that has anything to do with it. Also, in the news on Twitter today, there�s a

Rebecca McLaughlin article on the Gospel Coalition site called �Fifty

Shades of Love.� Now, did not Kevin DeYoung say quite a while ago, and I think he�s on the board of TGC, didn�t he say we should not be doing things like this?

I think he did. I think people have already chronicled it, and then now they�re doing it. I�m not saying anything bad about DeYoung.

I�m saying they should follow DeYoung�s advice. You should get Kevin DeYoung on the show. One man here said, �Fifty

Shades of no thank you.� Well, it would be better if he said, �Fifty

Shades of forget you.� I think I�ve actually tried to get Kevin DeYoung on the show.

Really? And you know what? These days it�s too hard to get these, you know, bigger shots on the show, and so he said no. Really?

Yeah. That was before I started criticizing Gospel Coalition even, I think. Hmm. Well, that ought to make him, you know, he ought to come on to just kind of defend

Gospel Coalition. Well, maybe we could get a bunch of people, you know, with the latest Russell Moore and Beth Moore and Thabiti and others.

Russell Moore and Beth Moore? No. I think what happened was� Brother and sister? I think, you know, Shem, Ham, Japheth, and the

Moores. Okay. Well, they came from one of those three lines, right?

Oh, yeah. Yeah. But I didn�t like that whole, you know, the whole dreamer thing and immigration, and I saw

Thabiti�s picture of him there, and then Russell Moore and Beth Moore and, you know, Voskamp and all these people are similar, like�

It reminds me of the old Kenny Rogers song, �Don�t fall in love with a dreamer ,� you know? I said to Kim, if someone came to me here at the church and said, �I�m here illegally, and I�d like to stay,

Pastor, what do you think ?� And I would say, �Do you know what? I�ll help you and help write some letters and do these other things.

We don�t want to break the law of God because it�s not a sinful law here in the

United States, so let�s try to get you here and do the legal paperwork.� But if they say, �You�ve got to pay a fine or you�ve got to go to jail or you�ve got to get shipped back to your home country ,� then that�s the price for breaking the law.

I don�t know why that�s hard. I mean, it�s amazing to watch, you know, people argue against the law.

And I�m like, well, okay, it is the law. If you don�t like the law, then we have a democracy, you can change the law.

But it�s too hard. Okay, well, then let�s just violate the law, right? I mean, imagine if that was, well, you know what?

I�d like to murder somebody, but, you know, it�s against the law. Well, good.

That�s good that it�s against the law, right? But it�s different in this case. I mean, we have a border.

We don�t really like it. Well, then let�s get away, do away with the border. Well, no, we can�t do that because then we won�t be a country.

And then people try to use, well, they try to rationalize it.

And I do think, Steve, that through the acts of sinful men, God does all kinds of wonderful things as he works his purposes and uses secondary means and causes and all these other things.

And there will be people who came over to the country from Muslim countries for all the wrong reasons, maybe to take advantage of the system, maybe to bomb people.

I have no idea. They hear the gospel here where they wouldn�t have heard it there, and then they get saved. But that�s not a rationale to do something.

In spite of man�s sinful efforts, God still has his plan. But we don�t do that because we�re pragmatists.

And I�m not mean. I�m not against people. I want, you know, I like immigrants and everything else.

I just want people to come here and obey the law. If we need more people here, then we should increase the number of immigrants that we permit to come in here.

It�s pretty easy. I�m a simple guy. Steve, it�s the problem with the

Bible, though, that I think, you know, these folks have. But prove yourselves alters of the word and not merely obeyers.

Is that what it says? Oh, excuse me. I�m sorry. Prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves.

Yeah, you were trying to alter things, all right. I know, but it was for a reason. Okay. It was for my own reason.

Johnstone said that when people look at you, they should say he�s a doer of the word of God.

No. I mean, that could be secondary to believer, of course, but in that context, doers of the word.

He�s a doer of the word. They should look at you and say he�s a doer of the word and he�s gracious about it.

When the text says not merely hearers, I remember MacArthur�s sermon. Not like it was yesterday, but I remember the sermon.

And he used that Greek word. Yeah, before yesterday. Acroates, and it is an auditor.

And so I�ve taken classes before. I went to Ligonier D. Min program, and it was a Sinclair Ferguson class, and I audited.

Uh -huh. I know. I audited the class. I didn�t have to do any of the work. I just sat in. Did he ever mock you or anything, you know, for being an auditor and not a doer of the work?

You know, I don�t know if he really knew that until after the class, so I was thankful for that. I bet. I bet.

Because he�s like, �Oh, so you�re just sitting in here, soaking up all the wisdom.� Well, Pat and I said, my brother

Pat Apendroth, he and I were there, and we thought, you know, we need to take him out for lunch, and so how do you go about doing that, or take him out for dinner?

So we said, I think on Sunday night for our first class, there�s a hotel room outside of Samford, Connecticut, uh,

Samford, uh� Florida. Florida. That�s Stamford, Connecticut, but Samford. It�s Stanford, California, too.

Right. And we said, you know, is there a night this week, Dr. Ferguson, we could take you out for dinner, and we�d like to take you out to Ruth Chris Steakhouse, because we thought we really want him to go.

And he thought, boy, these guys really want an A in the class, don�t they? That was Pat�s idea, and I think he had the budget at the time for Omaha Bible Church, so I was just along for the ride.

And so Sinclair said, you know, that�d be great, and we sat down, the three of us, uh, on a Thursday night, and it was, you know, very memorable.

I have no idea what we talked about, but� I remember it like it was� I have no idea what we talked about. I do remember that he wanted to know about us as well, so I thought that was classy.

And he probably didn�t get his steak raw either, did he? No, but he was watching me eat mine raw, and then he said something about a verse in Acts about blood, and was talking about Leviticus, but I just thought he was a

Presbyterian. Then the next year, I went to audit another class,

Acroates, at Ligonier, and it was D .A. Carson�s class on Hebrews, and so we thought we�d do the same thing, because Pat was there as well.

Jean. Now, our listeners don�t know that, but Carson has the, you know,

Canadian, he can speak French with a lot of other languages, and I think he�s from Canada originally, isn�t he?

Or his dad was just pastoring there? I think he is. By the way, that book, �Ordinary Pastor� was really excellent about his dad.

I commend that book highly to people. And my other favorite Carson book was �The Call to Reformation�, �Spiritual

Reformation�. It�s an excellent book. Excellent book, yes. So Pat and I were sitting there, it was a small room,

I was having all my headaches at that time. But anyway, we said, �Dr. Carson, we�d love to go out for dinner sometime, and maybe, you know,

Thursday night.� Took him to Sizzler. And we got the

Malibu chicken. We took him to Sizzler. The budget wasn�t quite what it was a year before.

Omaha Bible Church�s budget was Ruth Chris, Bethlehem Bible Church�s was the Sizzler. Anyway, and he said, �No, thank you.�

That�s all he said. So I actually asked Dr. Carson, too, if he would be on my radio show, �No

Compromise Radio Show.� �No, thank you.� And I said, and he said, �No, thanks.� And, you know, my background�s sales.

So I said, �Well, you know, I just was thinking, you know, we could talk about one of your books and, you know, I am one of your students and all that.�

�No, thank you.� Then I asked him to do the Sinclair, the S. Lewis Johnson blurb, little puff, for that book.

And he said, �No, thank you.� Genre. Oh, yeah. So back to genre. There are different genres.

G -E -N -R -E. And I think it�s from a root word, yes? Maybe means kind or�

Yeah. Well, probably from genus, right? Yeah, yeah. Kind, yeah. Some kind of root or beginning or subspecies strata.

And so with his American, French, French -American, French -Canadian, 1812 accent, he doesn�t say genre.

He says� Genre. It was so great. I mean, he probably said the word three or four times before I realized what he was saying, you know?

I�m like� It was so classic. Genre. Genre. I thought that was maybe, you know, he was writing another commentary on the

Gospel of John. Yeah. In French. In front of us. Yeah. That�s right. Because we saw him at, what�s that seminary out there?

Isn�t that where we saw him? Oh, we went to Gordon -Conwell for the day. Yes. We were the interlopers. Yeah. Who else did we see there?

Sidney Grodanus. Yes. Uh -huh. Now, I like to preach Christ in every one of my sermons, although I don�t think he�s in every text at the atomistic level, but I think

Sidney Grodanus might. Yeah. That was an unusual experience.

Uh -huh. I like the guy, and you know, he has a point that many people will just talk about moralistic things in sermons and exhortations only and commands and imperatives or law and, you know, not -Gospel indicatives and other things.

We don�t want to spiritualize the Old Testament. Did you know that Abraham�s call is about the

Great Commission? Okay. In seedbed form or something, what do you say?

I don�t know. I don�t know, but it was unusual. So Steve, to ask this question isn�t to answer it, but I really like an answer from your perspective.

Is there any reason we wouldn�t want to talk about Jesus in a sermon? Is there any reason we wouldn�t want to talk about Jesus in a sermon?

Hmm. Right. We�re talking to new students. Yeah. You know, Cory preached here on Sunday night, and he was preaching from Psalm 56 and talked about Jesus.

Is there a reason we wouldn�t want to? No, I can�t think of any reason we wouldn�t want to. The only thing

I can imagine, I mean, this is true all the time anyway, right? When we preach, we�re preaching for an audience of one, namely, you know, the triune

God. But I mean, if I were to preach and I knew, like,

Jesus was actually there, there physically sitting there, I don�t know if I�d� because I�d be like, �I don�t want to get anything wrong, you know?

I don�t want to say anything about you that�s not true.� Now, I had to think that way all the time, right?

I don�t want to say anything about him that�s not true. But I�d be like, �Can I just talk about something else today, you know ?�

Well, what if we put it this way, though, to make it harder on you, Steve? The Father told you, �I want you to talk about my

Son ,� and there the Son sits. Well, I�d be very, you know,

I just, I mean, I try to be careful, obviously, anyway. But, you know, I�d probably go to the

Gospel of John and just kind of let John speak for me. Look at how great Jesus is. Uh -huh.

So, yeah. And you know what? Here�s the thing, too, just thinking about that picture, it�s kind of an odd picture, but he wouldn�t have a self -satisfied look, right, if he was watching.

He�d just be thinking, �That�s right. You know, that�s the Word. Thank you for preaching the Word.� That�s all he should say.

And that�s all we should be saying. There�s no, you know, this is what we�re called to do and this is what we should do.

So, yeah, I can�t really argue with that. And I think, you know, have

I ever preached a sermon in which I did not mention Jesus? You know, to my shame, I may have, you know.

I look back at all those sermons I preached in Genesis and Exodus and Esther, and I would be afraid to listen to them now because I think

I was trying to be faithful to the text, but I don�t think I was taking a step back and seeing how this fits into the grand sweep of redemption and where it fits in God�s progressive revelation.

So, I don�t think I was thinking that way. But I think,

Steve, even if we went to Proverbs or Esther, for instance, and there�s no mention of God per se,

I still think we need to talk about Jesus in the sermon for lots of reasons. Here�s one.

When we�re preaching, if we were just preaching some law passage, you know, get wisdom. The beginning of wisdom is get wisdom or something like that.

You think, okay, and I never talked about Jesus. Well, what if I personally have a hard time with getting wisdom, and I�m deficient in my desire for wisdom, and I�m acting like a fool?

Isn�t it good to then tell people, Christian, remember, Jesus has paid for those sins.

Christian, Jesus, He got wisdom. He learned. He tried to apply the knowledge. He did what

Solomon said in Proverbs 1. Otherwise, we�re just going to whack people with the law all the time and give no gospel?

Law, law, law, law, law. Well, and it�s what� people don�t know this, but they want the law, right?

I mean, we are lawyers. We�re law lovers.

Even if you go to one of these churches where they tell you how to do this, what is that?

You know, how to be a better neighbor. Here are six rules for a tension -free marriage.

Well, what are those? Those are nothing but laws, and oftentimes, they�re made -up laws.

And if you fail one of the made -up laws, then what? Right? You know, always say to your wife, whatever, you know?

Steve, isn�t that fascinating? You�ve really identified a key problem. The pragmatic, seeker -sensitive churches that have the cool eight -week series bundled up tightly and nicely with the neat banner and font and advert, seven ways to communicate better, you know, in a broken world or whatever, and it revolves around marriage, communication, child raising, work, you know, how to get by on a

Monday, love life, finances, repeat. Yeah. And it�s law, massive law.

And it�s all built about what? Becoming a better person, performing better, better, better, better, better, better, better, better.

Well, the problem with that ultimately is what? I�m never going to be complete. I�m never going to be fulfilled.

I�m never going to be what I ought to be, right? And that�s not the point of the gospel.

The point of the gospel isn�t be all you can be, right? That�s the Army. The old

Army of one. Yeah, that�s the old Army thing. Be all you can be. Steve, there was a progression with the Army ads that went from national spirit and a desire for protecting others in the country to this is where you can be personally fulfilled as a self, as id.

It�s gotten quite bad. Yeah. I mean, even when they were doing the �everybody gets a beret.�

You know? When everybody gets a beret, how much is it worth? Yeah, that�s right. When I hear about all these law sermons, it made me think of Sonny Curtis.

I left my baby and it feels so bad. Guess my race is run. She�s the best girl that I ever had. I fought the law.

Is it the Bobby Fuller Four or something like that? I don�t know what they did originally, but the Clash version is killer.

Well here it says, �Songwriter Sonny Curtis.� I�m thinking of Eddie Cochran also did.

Now, that is not Cochran who did the Warp Speed.

No. What was his name? Some Cochran. Yeah, I can�t. It�s the guy who said, �That�ll do, little pig.�

He played him in the movie, and I can�t think of his name. Yeah, that was Star Trek.

Zephaniah Cochran or something. Who is that? Efren Zimbalist Jr.

I don�t know, but I think the original band in the �50s, and I could be wrong.

Zephan Cochran. There you go. Uh -huh. Look at that. Fictional character in Star Trek.

You won�t hear that on any other theological podcast today. Uh -huh. Look at that. He first appeared in 1967 episode �Metamorphosis.�

Let�s see. Who is that? Glenn Corbett. But who�s the guy? That�ll do, little pig. Yeah. That�ll do. I did not know that.

That was amazing because he constructed humanity�s first warp -capable vessel, the

Phoenix, in Bozeman, Montana. How about that? Wow.

All right. So what about people that just always talk about the gospel but never talk about law?

How does that work? Would that be antinomian? Yeah, but I mean, we don�t see that much of that.

I guess maybe you� it would almost seem refreshing these days.

I mean, if you want to just talk about the gospel, how do you talk about the gospel without talking about, first of all,

Christ, because He is the gospel, but secondly, without talking about sin, right?

How can you be all gospel and not talk about, you know, sin? So I think the gospel is a good thing because you�re going to get around to the law, too, because in order to define sin, you have to talk about the law.

So, Steve, we have to make a correction here. The Star Trek in 1967 metamorphosis,

Cochrane was played by Glenn Corbett, okay? Then at Star Trek First Contact, Cochrane was played by James Cromwell, the little pig thing.

Yeah. Well, I was just thinking about that. That�s not really a correction because I did say it was the movie. Oh, because in my mind,

I was switching things around, right? Mm -hmm. Okay. You�ve Voskamped yourself.

Steve, what if we had just law only, but we had some really cool blue lights? Because blue lights are the way to go.

When I see blue lights, that means not the blue light special at Kmart, but this is the blue light special for worship service, anointing,

Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost. We�re having a Holy Ghost party here. I�m not familiar. You�ve got your finger on the pulse of a multitude of heresies, and I commend you for that.

I like to really know what�s going on in the heresy world. Well, I�m sorry, Steve. I have to make the final no -compromise correction.

Cochrane, that�s Johnny Cochrane, and he was a lawyer, I think. That was that.

He was working on patent laws for the warp drive speed. Yeah, here you go.

It was Bobby Fuller. I fought the law. I think he was the one who had the big hit.

Really? Yeah. I thought it was Eddie Cochrane. Well, he might have recorded, but I mean, you know, most of the two.

This is a first in no -compromise history. I usually do this, and Steve gives me the eye, and then now

Steve�s doing it himself. Yeah. I fought the law.

Did you know in 1960, Eddie Cochrane died in a car wreck in the United Kingdom, and Gene Vincent was injured?

Those are two, like, giants in rock and roll history. All right. So when the Bible says, �I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, even are and him crucified ,� and we don�t preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, 2

Corinthians 4, verse 5, just how important is it if you�re a parent or a

Bible study teacher to talk about Jesus? Vital. So when kids say, when asked, �What did you learn about in Sunday school today ?�

�Jesus.� �I�m actually happy.� Right, but what�s the typical response? You know, I think if I�m a parent,

I hear, �Jesus ,� and then I go, �What about Jesus ?� Right? And it ought to be enough if they could just say, �Jesus.�

If they learned anything about Jesus, that�s a big plus. Instead of, I mean, imagine, what did you learn today?

How to be a better neighbor. No elbows on the tables. Yeah. And learned how to, when to eat with a fork and when to eat with a spoon.

Not hitting. That�s a good lesson. Probably in today�s classes in some churches, they learned how cutting�s bad, right?

And transgendered folks, you know, if you�ve got somebody in your AWANA program that goes by a �she ,� but they�re really a �he ,� what do you do?

Drop back 15 and punt. Pretty soon, you�re going to say, �Okay, we can only have people who are members at the church.�

That was my first response. I read that, and I just said, �I think it might be time to just say you�re either a member or you don�t come.�

Right. I mean, because here�s what�s going to happen in that church. At some church, they�re going to say, �Well, you know, we�re thankful you�re here and everything, but we really can�t have all the confusion that your child�s causing.�

Instant lawsuit. Instant lawsuit. Because you allow everybody else who�s cisgendered, but you don�t allow me to come.

And so, you know, that�s going to be the lawsuit coming. Steve, I�d like to leave with a quote, because, you know, we like to quote all kinds of people,

Sinclair Ferguson and D. Carson. Bobby Fuller. Yes. And now

I had this Mother Teresa quote about perpetual Eucharistic adoration. Do you think we should go ahead and do it, or do you think we should just skip it?

Well, only if it�s gospel -oriented. Oh, very nice. �There is a light in this world, a healing spirit more powerful than any darkness we may encounter.

We sometimes lose sight of this force when there is suffering, too much pain. Then suddenly the

Spirit will emerge through the lives of ordinary people who hear a call and answer in extraordinary ways.� I like to put that in the

Treasury of Merit. That was either Ann Voskamp or Mother Teresa.

It�s a coin toss. 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 6. We�re right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.