God’s Sovereignty Over Your Past

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. Sounds kind of funny this morning. He's sitting in a room by himself laughing at his own jokes. I haven't even told a joke yet and I'm laughing.

Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry. I haven't really talked this morning much. I said a few things to my wife this morning and she went out and ran an errand. And now I'm here in the studio talking.

It is in real time, October 23rd, 2026. You can always write me, Mike, at NoCompromiseRadio .com. If you want to have me come and speak at your church, I need first class airline tickets. I need to have Outback Steakhouse only.

Ruth Chris maybe. We're upping it to Ruth Chris. And I need to fly with someone else of my own choosing. My wife or one of my children. And four-star hotels at least. How many people will be there and what's the honorarium?

Mike’s 1973 Reformation Confirmation Quiz

I was going through some of my notes before we get into the topic du jour today. And in my Lutheran confirmation class, I found some old notes, my old quizzes, and some old writing papers. And this one is the quiz on the Reformation, Mike Abendroth.

I think this is 1973. I got a 75%. I got a 75%. What in the world? Luther was born in 1483, 1683, or 1843. I got that one right. Shortly after he began to study law, Luther became a monk, not a soldier or preacher.

Luther for years tried to find peace by studying, I circled, one being alone and other good works. It was supposed to be good works. I think he did study though. Indulgences are being sold to people to free from guilt, send missionaries, or to support the government to free from guilt.

Okay, got that one right. The church denounced, ignored, or welcomed Luther's theses. Denounced, got that one right. When Luther did not change his views, he was accepted, excommunicated, punished. When Luther was banned, Prince Frederick hid him at the castle of Erfurt, Württemberg, or Wittenberg.

I said Wittenberg, but it's Württemberg. And my children even know that because I took them to the castle. Boy, that's a loud truck. Luther was married eight days, eight months, eight years after the Reformation began.

Should have said eight years. Luther published about 440, 400 books and treatises during his lifetime. 400. Luther most of all wanted revolution, evolution, reform in the church. You talk about a revolution.

Then we move from underlining to completion. The teachings Luther stressed were justification by, fill in the blank, faith, I put. The priesthood of, I wrote faith. It should be believers. He didn't correct me on that one.

And the supremacy of, I wrote services and scriptures. The scriptures persuaded Luther that we cannot merit God's favor, but salvation is a, and I wrote, gift of God to be received through faith. How did I not get saved?

There was truth there. Was there not? On October 31st, Luther nailed a list of concerns known as the resurrection. As the resurrection theses to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg. Oh, that is something.

Sola Scriptura and Competing Authorities

I was going to do a different show today, but I'm going to just stay on topic here. Lutheran confirmation 101 and theses. Some of the changes Luther desired for the church were reducing the number of sacraments from seven to the number, fill in the blank, number two.

I got that one right. The supreme authority for matters of faith and life is the Bible. Isn't that interesting? Supreme authority. I think for years I misunderstood sola scriptura. I think I thought it was essentially solo scriptura.

A nude Bible only is, well, obviously the Bible only is inspired. It is only inherent. It is only infallible. It is only God breathed. It is only those things. That's true. But are there other authorities?

Yes, there are other authorities. You have bosses. You have elders. You have governments. You have statements of faith that you're under authority to teach those things in accordance with your statements of faith.

If you are at a church, that kind of thing. But the supreme authority over matters of life and faith or faith and life in this order is the Bible. And therefore, if you think the only authority is the Bible, you've misunderstood what we're after.

And we are after the Bible is the final authority. Of course, it is alone inerrant, alone inspired, alone revealed by God, breathed out, theopneustos. That's true. But the supreme authority, so in the matter of the Reformation, as you well know, there are two sides of the battle.

And one side of the battle is the obvious one, living here in New England, of course, with the Roman Catholic Church and the magisterium and their tradition. And which one's the final authority? The Bible or those others or what the pope says, what the pope says, ex cathedra.

There's all kinds of things there. But the final authority is the scriptures. So it doesn't matter if tradition or the pope or the cardinals or the magisterium or someone else or everyone else says something that's not in accordance with the scriptures.

We say the final authority is the Bible. So that's the one side that a sola scriptura was combating. The other side is not often talked about unless you are Scott Clark. We have what I would say extreme charismatics, right?

People experiencing what did Luther call some of the people? I don't remember the German word for the people, but it's like they swallowed the Holy Spirit feathers and all. I believe that's if it's not a Luther quote, Melanchthon or someone else.

And it's using language where they're crazy and they have experiences. They have God speaking to them, signs, visions. And they will say this is on par with scripture. And some, especially lazy ones in my mind, in my opinion, put it over the scripture.

I mean, it's hard to study the Bible. There's lots of issues there in terms of different culture. It's near Eastern. It's 2 ,000 years ago, 3 ,000, 4 ,000, 5 ,000 years ago. It is containing three languages.

It contains three languages, Aramaic, a little bit in Esther and Daniel. And then you have Greek and Hebrew. You have different geographies and topological, tropological, topological. Oh, I think I read somewhere, speaking of R. Scott Clark, that if you want to say Augustine or Augustine, I don't think he cares.

I think he's got a rationale for it. Either one, I'm not talking about the city. I'm talking about the man who stood up to many and who wrote the confessions. He wrote 1689. Mike Haven wrote, quiz on the Reformation, 1973.

The Law and the Need for a Mediator

How would you have done? The only mediator between man and God is, and I wrote Jesus. Well, that's good. And as I said before, are we not glad that we have a mediator? If you think of what's going on in the Bible without a mediator.

I think I made mention of this last week or a couple weeks ago with the Pactam conference thing. I don't know if anybody listened to that show. I think you should have probably listened. I think you would have been encouraged.

You probably thought it was just some kind of update on a conference, which it was. But I tried to put in some good little nuggets if you want to learn something. We all want to learn. Why would you be listening today if you didn't want to learn?

Probably you wanted to laugh a little bit. That's easy. They went out from Rephidim. They came to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness. And there Israel camped in front of the mountain.

Moses went up to God and the Lord called to him from the mountain saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel. You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself.

Now then, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession among the peoples for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

By the way, does that sound like something you read in 1 Peter about the church? So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words, which the Lord had commanded him.

And all the people answered together and said, All that the Lord has spoken, we will do. And Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord. And then you remember, there's a consecration. They're supposed to wash their garments to be ready on the third day.

The Lord's going to come down inside of all the people, put up the boundaries, don't touch the mountain or you're going to die, whether you're a beast or a man. And then it says, So it came about on the third day when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.

And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. And they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the Lord had descended upon it in fire. And it smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace.

And the whole mountain quaked violently. When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him with thunder. The Lord came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain.

And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain. And Moses went. We, as Dennis Johnson said, don't dare preach God's law to God's people, his redeemed people, without a mediator. And that mediator is the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man.

Luther’s Reformation Legacy

Make sure you preach the mediator to people if you're preaching the law to people. And you should rightly preach the law to people. The blank confession was written by Luther's close friend, Philip Melanchthon.

And I wrote the true confession. The true confession. Augsburg confession, come on, Mike. At the city of Worms, Luther uttered the famous statement, Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise, God help me. All right, maybe he said it, maybe he didn't.

But certainly that was his sentiment. That's his actions. That's what he did. But I didn't write here I stand. I wrote here I stay. Well, you know what? That's not bad. If you're 13, that's not too bad.

Luther translated the Bible into the blank language. See, I might not like filling the blank sermon outlines for Sunday morning worship, but for a quiz on the Reformation in 1973 at a fairly liberal Lutheran church, this isn't too bad.

He translated the Bible into the German language. Luther, as a hymn writer, is best known for the hymn, A fortress, fortress is our God. A fortress, fortress. And I didn't even spell it right, Lee. F-O-R-T-R-E-S.

A fortress, fortress. The best known of Luther's writings is the small catechism. Smaller catechism, okay, fine. True or false statements. So, so far, I've missed 15 points, and then I've got another 15 to go.

So, I'm already at 85, and I'm going to miss 10 more on this one. I think it's a two-pager, but I don't know where the second page might be, but we're going to just find out as we go because this is called confirmation quiz.

323 million Protestants in the world have their roots in the Reformation. True. Anger at the church became the basis of Luther's thought. False. The common people greeted Luther's ideas enthusiastically.

True. Luther proceeded, sorry, Luther produced a liturgy, easier for me to say, in the German language, so the whole congregation could participate in the worship service. I wrote true, and he didn't correct me.

Luther desired reform even if it meant disorder and destruction to achieve it. False. Mike Ebendroth, the Reformation quiz. Now, my problem is I don't know where the other page is. I'm not sure where that is, but for my part here, the best thing was faith, justification by faith, priesthood of all believers, and the supremacy of scriptures, and we cannot merit God's favor, but salvation is a gift that we receive through faith.

God’s Sovereignty Over a Flawed Religious Background

That's pretty good. I'm happy that the Lord used this in my life. So let's talk about that for a minute. What if you have a background that you grew up in a Roman Catholic church? Could the Lord use that?

Could he be having what people meant for not good, that is to say, Trent denying sola fide, denying all the other solas, but teaching you things like God is three in one, Jesus is the God-man, don't mingle the two essences, don't mingle the humanity of Jesus and divine essence.

I have to be careful how I say things. I don't think Steve Meister listens, but if he were, I want to make sure I don't get challenged. But remember, Reformation came along, and there were certain areas of theology that needed no Reformation, and I submit to you that if you look up a Catholic catechism and begin to study the doctrine of God, see if you can find a mistake.

That'd be a good little test. Can you find a mistake in the doctrine of God in the Roman Catholic documents that they believe today? Well, my point is that if I, and I did, grew up in a Lutheran church, and once I got old enough, have a car and go through puberty, and go off to college not caring about these things, I think the Lord still had me, obviously in a sovereign hand, teaching me these things.

So whether you grew up in a Roman Catholic church, a liberal Lutheran church, a liberal Methodist church, a liberal congregational church, hard to find one that's not, but there are some here. Four Cs.

Are you not glad that when you finally came face-to-face with your own sin and need of a Savior, you didn't have to figure out, well, let's see, oh, I never knew Jesus forgave sins on earth. Your sins are forgiven.

I never knew that. I never knew He was compassionate to sinners in Luke 7. I never knew He walked on water. I grew up believing the Bible to be true, even when I was not saved. I knew this was God's Word, it was different, and it's true.

Everything in it's true. I never doubted Daniel in the lion's den. This morning I was reading Daniel and lion's den, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. I never said to myself, oh, you know what?

I don't believe in a supernatural God. I don't believe in a God who is over, above nature. I don't believe in a God who's three in one. I believe in three modes, Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit. No, I didn't think that.

I thought God in one, and the Son was sent by the Father to redeem, to die on a cross, to be raised from the dead, literally, bodily. He's going to come back to judge the living and the dead. I learned the Nicene Creed.

I learned the Apostles' Creed. I'm actually thankful that the Lord used these things in my life because He was preparing me. He was preparing me for 1989 crisis of father dying in January, purchased my first house in April, got engaged in May, got married in June, and then got saved later in September, October 1989.

So if you have a Roman Catholic background, I don't say you should praise the Roman Catholic Church, but I just say you should praise the Lord for using things like that. And maybe it's other things. Maybe you say, I grew up Mormon, but I was taught to be honest, and I was taught to be a good person, and I was taught to be a good neighbor.

I think the Lord can redeem those things. Obviously, none of those are salvific. Morality is not saving, not meritorious, not any kind of condition, ground of salvation. But in fact, you believe in a sovereign God and how He works all these things together for good.

And so as I sit and look at some of my papers here, I was getting taught the Bible. I'm sure I was getting taught baptismal regeneration. I assume I was just believing I was already Christian because I was baptized.

I don't remember hearing sermons at all, let alone a sermon that said you must be born again. And just because you've been sprinkled with water, you still need to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm sure, well, maybe that wasn't said, but even though they say wrong things, my point is, my point.

Confirmation Sermon Notes and Moralistic Preaching

So, my cave and wrath, we're 28 minutes in. We're talking about confirmation, how God uses things. Oh, I just found, oh, this is interesting to me. Let's do this next. I found a sermon notes paper, and we were required in confirmation class to take sermon notes, X amount.

I don't know how many we were required to turn in, but sermon notes, we have a little paper here. My cave and wrath, December 9th, 1973. In red, great work. Okay, so let's find out what kind of sermon I must have been listening to.

Before Christmas comes. That's the name of the sermon, before Christmas comes. Gospel of Luke three, one to six. And I have seven, eight points and a comment. And the comment is, a little too long. Oh, a little too long.

I bet you I thought it was a little too long. What were the points? Many people are not prepared when Christmas comes. You know, they're not really prepared with their presence and everything else, and not really prepared for proper worship.

Why does Christians fail to make a greater impact? Well, obviously that's bad grammar. How do we deal with those barriers? Answer, we must repent. Yeah, that's good. Four, repentance. Review, what are you?

Regret, redirection. So I guess that's their definition of repentance through the eyes of a 13-year-old. You review what you've done, you regret it, and you redirect. You know what? I've heard worse.

Have you not heard worse? Point five, before Christmas comes, how does it relate to you? Every valley shall be filled, empty lives. Oh, so your valley, a valley that will be filled in this proclamation of Luke 3, I think it's with John the Baptist, your lives are going to be no longer empty because the valleys are going to be filled.

You want answers? I do. You want answers. I want answers. Mountains and hills must be leveled. That's true. Number six, we must ask the Lord. And here, my sub-point was irrigation. Number seven, humble yourself.

Okay, that sounds good. How do you get ready for Christmas? Make sure you're humbled. Eight, three crooked ways need to be made straight. Four rough places need to be made smooth. And one of those ways is to do it without worry.

A little too long. So, sadly, my guess is it was a pietistic, moralistic, do better, do good, T. David Gordon coming to the church and then saying, oh, you know what? This church is all about being good and being nice.

Remember that? He said, if you go to most churches today and just sit there, let's say you know nothing about Christianity, you're from, I always say Tibet, but you live out in some Indian village, you've never heard of Christianity, and you go to most churches, you can understand the language, you have a translator, whatever, and they ask you, what's Christianity all about?

Most of the time, he says, people will say, especially in light of the sermon, just be nice to people, to be good to people. That's sad. We don't want that. If an Old Testament rabbi, or an Old Testament rabbi for that matter, if a rabbi comes, not a Messianic rabbi, a Messianic Jew rabbi, but if just a liberal rabbi comes, reformed Judaism rabbi comes and listens to your sermon and he agrees with everything in it, that's a bad sermon.

That's a really bad sermon. I don't know if this was connected or not, but here's another sermon note that I just saw. Jesus has come with the angles and separate the angles. Now I get what I'm trying to say.

Come with the angels and separate the sheeps and the goats. Left, go, right, come. My life is accountable with Jesus. Honor to Him, listen to Him. We are preparing for our briefing. We are preparing for our briefing.

God’s Providence in the Details of Scripture and the Whole of Life

Well, there you have it. Mike Habendrod, No Compromise Radio Ministry. I also have in front of me, they would give you backgrounds of books of the Bible. So here's a background of Exodus. And it actually teaches the right thing.

The birth and training of Moses in chapter two, chapter one, talks about the time period, generation that came to Egypt. Then we have the burning bush. What was Moses doing? What was unusual about the burning bush?

What was Moses' reaction? Moses has excuses in chapters three and chapter four. Exodus five and six, the first attempt to persuade Pharaoh. How would you describe Pharaoh's attitude? What is the way Pharaoh oppresses the people?

And then lastly for this section, the hardness of Pharaoh and the plagues. What sign was given Moses and Aaron in Exodus seven? What do you think is the meaning of Exodus seven? What are the plagues God sent upon Egypt?

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. So back to my point and we'll wrap it up here. God is sovereign and Romans eight is true. God works together. God causes all things to work together for good.

For our good and for his glory. Those that are called according to his purpose, everything. And so you can look back in your life, whether there were bad things that you did, bad things that were done to you, wrong teaching that you received, God is going to make sure that he uses all that.

And so even things in my mind, if I had a father that was a hands-on father and really involved somebody that just didn't pay the bills and showed up at football games once in a while, I'm talking about my dad, then I'm going to try to be a hands-on dad.

If I had a father that was a wonderful father and reflected who God the father was in many ways, then I'd be happy for that. And the Lord would help me so I could help other people. And so I just look at my background and when there are bad things, I think I've gone through bad things, I can now help other people.

But even in a system that would teach baptism regeneration, even in Roman Catholic system that says you get grace through the sacraments, the Lord has used that and did use that in the midst of it all to save you.

I mean, think about how God is working everything. I mean, just let that sink in. How does God cause all things, right? Work all things. How does he even do that? That's amazing to me. So you can write me, mike at nocompromiseradio .com.

If you want to order more books than 10, you can. I'm trying to work on a couple other books right now. Tired, not getting much done. I came into the studio to talk about one thing, but I saw this Reformation quiz and I thought, it is time for me to sit in a room and laugh at my own jokes.

Mike Abendroth, No Compromise.