God Will Judge (Part 1)

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.

Michael Lee Abendroth here, ML Abendroth. You can write me, Mike, at NoCompromiseRadio .com. The slogan is �Always Biblical, Always Provocative, Always in That Order. I want to talk about the one who never compromised, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Listen, we all compromise, but we hate that. We all sin. We hate that. We don�t live the lives that we�re supposed to live. We want to. We�re sorry about it, but we need a Savior. And even Christians need a Savior, right?

Did Jesus die for the sins of Christians too? That�s a good question. I want you to know we�re also on KAGV and another station, KFGR. And if you�re listening to those, why don�t you let those stations know, both in Alaska and Wyoming, that you like No Compromise Radio.

That�d be good. I appreciate I�m on those stations and appreciate the support there. And from Wyoming to Alaska, we�re only in places where there�s, you know, just people out in the tundra and there�s a lot of Republicans with guns.

Israel 2023, next year. That is February 21st through March 2nd. If you want the registration form and the brochure, $34 .99 is the cost. Email me and I�ll send you one, the assurance book called No Condemnation, a compilation of assurance articles, 31 days to just be refreshed in the work of Christ and remember Him, so that you might have gospel assurance.

That should be out real soon. Hopefully, sometime this summer, you�ll receive that and you�ll just order that online at Amazon and working on another book about theological pilgrimage. And the first chapter of that book, From Lordship to Law Gospel, is found at the Heidelblog.

So you can go to the Heidelblog and type in From Lordship to Law Gospel and get kind of an idea of what�s going on there. I think people have taken it wrongly that somehow, if I disagree with John MacArthur, I�m attacking him.

Nothing could be further from the truth. It was John MacArthur that taught me how to be a Berean. John MacArthur taught me how to do exegesis and study and show myself approved. That�s exactly what I�m doing.

And if I disagree with somebody on a theological issue, what does that mean? It means I disagree with them on a theological issue. Don�t you disagree with me on a theological issue? I hope you can at least find one, right?

And so I�m just trying to drive people back to scriptures. And what does the Bible say? That�s all I�m trying to do. And the day that you hear me say something negative about the person of John MacArthur is the day that the show will be over.

I would never say that. I, years ago, wrote a letter to Raul Reis, my pastor at Calvary Chapel, and could I have said, you know, given some big critique or this, that, and the other? I just said, �Thank you.

Thank you for teaching me verse-by-verse teaching. Jesus is the only way. The Bible can be trusted et cetera. And I�ve told John in person. I guess I could write him another letter, but I�ve told him in person many times what he means to me.

I�ve said to him, �You�re like a father to me. You say, �Well, how could you then write an article, write a chapter in a book from Lordship to Law Gospel Well, because John�s taught me to do that very thing.

And it�s not a personal issue, it�s some theological nuance going on and some theological adjustments and taking a look at it, and that�s all. So it�s, I�m not responding to people online who are trying to make this into something it isn�t.

If you simply online want to call me an antinomian, you have no idea what you�re talking about. You don�t even know the theological definition, nor have you listened to the show, nor have you listened to my sermons, nor have you understood the Law Gospel distinction or the third use of the law, preaching that every single week, wanting the congregation to live a holy life, a godly life, but not out of fear, a servile fear, but out of a filial fear, out of a motivation of guilt, grace, and gratitude.

We are after, are we not, biblical truth. That�s what we�re all striving for. So I don�t really understand all the details. I guess to some degree I understand that people love their pastor, want to protect what they believe and everything else, but all that to say.

That�s what�s going on here in my life these days, getting close to going on vacation to California, to Santa Cruz, California. I�ll be preaching a couple times for my friend, Pastor Drew Cunningham, at Santa Cruz Baptist Church, and my son�s going to preach there two times as well, so that�ll be a fun month, Mike and Luke in the pulpit, talking about the Lord Jesus, preaching for Steve Meister this summer, and maybe some other places too.

So anyway, my health update, if anybody�s wondering, my prostate numbers, I just have to do that once a year, we�re really, really good this year, best ever, so don�t have to do anything for another year, praise the Lord, 2015 was when I was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

I had brachytherapy afterward, and by the way, I�ve got to talk to a lot of people who have had prostate cancer, and we�ve talked on the phone. Some believers, some unbelievers, and for the unbelievers, I try to encourage them to think about this from a spiritual perspective, like there�s a God, and they�re going to answer to Him, and there�s a Savior, and for the believers, I try to work through how can we obey the Lord as His children, even though we�re hurting, and my troubles with anxiety and other things in light of cancer and self-righteousness and stuff like that.

So, anyway, and then my COVID pneumonia, my lungs are slowly getting better, it�s been eight months, I think, since I�ve been out of the hospital, there�s improvement, I�d like a little more improvement maybe than what we�ve got going on, but I do ride the bike some outside, and then bacteria and pneumonia is almost over.

Ecclesiastes and Finding Joy in a Fallen World

Okay, enough about me. I�m preaching through Ecclesiastes these days, and lots of people think it�s simply a pessimistic book, and they think, you know what, it�s got a lot of questions but no real answers, and you know what, when I read it, I think everything�s vain, too.

I don�t really get any answer, there�s no encouragement, there�s no good news. And so I�ve been trying to go through the book of Ecclesiastes on Sunday, and a little bit here on No Compromise Radio, to show you with great poetic form, wisdom literature form with parallelisms and similes and rhetorical questions and alliterations and little proverbs and as one writer said, short narratives and pointed parable-like endings, that you can have joy in this life, and that you can understand God�s sovereign, and you can get by.

More than get by, great joy. Looking at this book, simply from the perspective of the fallen world, it�s devastating. Looking at this book from a Christian perspective, that it�s in the Christian canon, that is, between Genesis and Revelation, it�s our Christian book, and we know what Jesus said in John 24 and in John chapter 5, that we can look at this book, Ecclesiastes, that talks about vanity, that talks about how life is just puzzling and frustrating and temporal, and we can look at it and say, �Hmm, but what we do know is God�s good, and we can receive good things from His hands.

It�s from the hand of God, right? Eating, drinking, and finding enjoyment, because you can eat and drink and have enjoyment, because it�s from Him. Your wife, your children, your taste buds, your job, your new life, the Spirit of God around you, and you just go through an entire list, �Count your blessings, name them one by one.

Count your blessings, see what God has done. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your many blessings, see what God has done. I don�t sing very often on the show, but if you didn�t think I was in tune, I just got over pneumonia.

The doctor, yesterday at the lung, the doctor said I�ve got probably another month before all the debris is out. Did you know debris ends with an S? Illinois�s, Des Moines�s. I learned how to climb telephone poles in Des Moines, and then drove over Illinois�s.

How does that all work? Is this French stuff? How does that work? In addition, if you embrace God�s sovereignty. See what I did there? Enjoy everything from God�s good hand. Embrace God�s sovereignty.

So chapters 1 and 2, hey, life, circular, futile, doesn�t seem to go anywhere, tri-wisdom, tri-pleasure, can�t figure it all out, but I can enjoy what I do have from God�s good hand. It�s not from evolution, it�s not from an alternate universe, it�s from the triune God.

Not only that, in chapter 3, I can get by with joy because God�s sovereign. I can have real wisdom that says, you know what, I can fear God, and I can be wise about what�s going on here, and I can receive God�s gifts with joy and gratitude, and I can obey Him, and I know Jesus is going to come back, the resurrection, and I can respond with Psalm 107, �Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men.

Spurgeon said, �Whatever else may be questioned, this is absolutely certain, God is good. That�s good for me to hear, right? I�m waiting for all these tests, I had the lung test, I had the CAT scan last week, whatever your tests are, issues in family, and health, and issues with society, and you don�t like the government, whatever it might be.

We do know that the Lord is good and does good. God is good and God gives, and every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

That�s James chapter 1. God is sovereign, and we see the world through God�s sovereign hand, and we realize things kind of look backward, but as Luther said, �Our Lord works like a printer who sets the letters backwards.

We see and feel well His setting, but we shall see the print yonder in the life to come. I mean, when we get to heaven, we�ll go, �Huh. I mean, I was thinking about COVID pneumonia, and I had done everything I thought the right way, and did the iodine in the nose, and all these other things, and hydroxychloroquine, and ivermectin, and all the other things that I was supposed to take, and I didn�t get the monoclonal.

I could have, I could have gone to Dana-Farber and got the monoclonal, harder to get in Massachusetts, but I could have gone there because I�m a cancer patient, and I didn�t go do it. I didn�t think I needed to.

I talked to one doctor. He said, �I don�t think you really need to and about killed me. So now all this health stuff, and all this other stuff that I have to go through with lungs, when I was getting the health test, something, I said, �Well, what if this doesn�t get any better and she said, �Well, lung transplant.

I�m like, �Lung transplant? Lung transplant? What are you talking about And I was talking to my son Luke the other day, and I said, �You know, I�m forcing myself as I study Ecclesiastes to do this, embracing the sovereignty of God, because I just should have drove into Dana-Farber an hour away and got the monoclonal.

I probably would have never had to go to the hospital, and it�s this whole what if thing, but I know God�s sovereign. And then Luke said something, �Yeah, Dad, I know, but this was the best thing for you.

Son, I told you not to give me theological verities. I�m the preacher here. In the book of Ecclesiastes, it�s interesting. For the different names of God, the word that�s used of God regularly 40 times is Elohim, sovereign, creator, powerful.

Matter of fact, it�s used nine times per every 1 ,000 words. Just used over and over and over. I mean, Deuteronomy, Jonah, Psalms, 2 Chronicles, and Ezra have more occurrences of the word Yahweh, but no other book.

And so, God is sovereign. We enjoy Him, and we fear Him, so that the people, chapter 3, verse 14, may fear Him to reverence and honor. And I�ve said it before earlier today and yesterday, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

But there�s different kinds of fear. It�s not fear of a judge, servile, crouching, he�s going to torture us and execute us. That�s God�s relationship to the unbeliever. But because of Jesus, because of the Lord Jesus, our advocate, our umpire, our mediator, our friend, our go-between, our in-between, representative substitute, risen Savior, well, we fear God, but it�s out of reverence, and it�s like a son fearing a father.

His father is so great, and his father is so wonderful, and his father is so kind, that he says, �You know what? Perfect love is cast out fear. I�m not afraid of my dad kicking me out of the family. I�m afraid that I wouldn�t obey enough to honor him.

He�s so wonderful. I respect him so. I love him so. I want to please him so. That�s what fear is, awe, respect, I want to obey. The end of the matter, all has been heard. Fear God and what? Keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

That�s what we want to do. We want to enjoy Him, but we have an eye toward how great He is. And now we come to this next little section, because really, chapter 3, verse 15, ends a section, and now we come to chapter 3, verse 16, and, you know, I was going to be preaching these chapter by chapter, but I had to slow down just a little bit.

Here�s what I�ve got so far for my Baptistic alliteration. Enjoy everything from God as a good gift. Embrace the sovereignty of God over everything, even though you don�t see it. You�ve got to trust that.

And now the third E, expect God to judge all wrongs and expect eternal life. That�s where we are in Ecclesiastes. So you look around the world and you go, hmm, there�s injustice. Can you see it? I mean, if you�re a Republican or Democrat, you probably see a lot of injustice on the other side.

I wonder if you see it on your side. I wonder if you see it in you. I wonder if you see it in courts. People getting paid off. People have a certain persuasion and they let criminals off the hook, right?

They just let them go because it�s, you know, because of whatever reason now we�ve got and all kinds of culture and systemic racism and intersectionality and all that. If you got enough intersections in your reality, then you get off or whatever it might be.

And you�re like, you know what? I�m expecting more justice than there is. How can I live in a world with so much injustice and have any bit of joy, have any bit of satisfaction? And that�s the section we�re here looking at.

The preacher�s going to preach to himself and he�s going to basically say, �Koleth, the preacher, is going to say, you know what, there�s a time for justice. He�s had all these other, he�s used the word �time� 30 times so far in the earlier verses of chapter 3.

And now he�s going to say there�s a time for divine judgment. And in this chapter and chapter 4, a lot of �I see, I saw, I�ve seen, I perceived. This is what we�re looking at. Take a look at the world.

Take a look at the world in reality. And what you�ll see is injustice. How do you get by in a world full of injustice? Verse 16 of chapter 3, �I saw under the sun that in the place of justice� courts especially, right?

Civil courts, criminal courts, supreme courts, lower courts, appellate courts �I saw under the sun that in the place of justice even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness even there was wickedness.

Okay, how am I going to walk by faith and not by sight when all I see is injustice? You know, justice in our world, in America, lots of times is determined by how much money you have. If you�ve got a lot of money and you can get the best lawyers, you can murder people and get off.

You can commit corporate crimes and have a not guilty verdict. You can just do whatever you want. You look for the courts and you think they�re always going to do the right thing? Well, they�re supposed to do the right thing.

Even in Exodus 23, 7, �Keep thee far from a false matter, and innocent and righteous slay thou not, for I will not justify the wicked. The courts of Israel, make sure you do the right thing. Don�t pervert the law.

Now when I was thinking about all this, I was thinking about Lady Justice. Remember Lady Justice? Did you know since the 16th century, here�s from the online account, Lady Justice has often been depicted wearing a blindfold?

And so you see that, all right? So for 600, 700 years we�ve got Lady Justice wearing a blindfold. Why do you think she�s wearing a blindfold? Now of course what I always thought was, she�s supposed to be impartial, she�s not supposed to see power, skin color, I�m not talking about power dynamics or anything like that or privileges, but she�s not supposed to see anything, right?

It�s facts. These are the facts. We don�t care what family you come from, if your last name is Bush or Clinton or anything in between. No, no, it doesn�t matter. This is what the facts are. And she�s supposed to be blind to anything that would make her partial.

But that�s not, that�s what it means now. You know what it started off as? It started off as an Ecclesiastes Lady Justice being blind. It was sarcasm. She�s blind to the injustice that�s going on at her very feet.

There�s all this injustice going on everywhere and she doesn�t even notice it. That�s Ecclesiastes. That�s Ecclesiastes 3. Hey, where�s the justice? You know, this is kind of like Amos. Where is justice?

Biblical justice. I�m not talking about social justice or any kind of funky weird deal like that. That�s not what I�m talking about. You know that by now. I mean, some people are convicted of murder, they didn�t do it.

Some people murder and they did it. Well, that�d be the same. And they don�t get convicted. So he preaches to self. �Co, we�ll let the preacher preach to self. And by the way, this is what all good preachers should do.

This is on my best days. I do this. I�m preparing my sermon all week long. I know I�m going to preach to you, no-compromise radio, ultimately the Lord secondarily, Bethlehem Bible Church, tertiarily, no-compromise radio.

See why I never remember what I�ve said to whom? To whom did I say what? Here he preaches to himself. I prepare my sermon all week, and then the sooner I can preach to myself before I preach to the congregation, the better.

I said in my heart, verse 17, I said in my heart, is this coming through? Yes, it is. �God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work. Hey, there�s a time for everything else.

There�s a season for everything else. �There�s a season for this too. It�s like, oh yeah, I just was telling you this in the poem in chapter 1, verses 3 to 8, excuse me, chapter 3, verses 1 to 8, God�s going to judge.

So, I just want you to know, Christian, well, unbeliever, you need to know this too. There�s going to be judgment one day. It might not be on earth. It might be, but it ultimately will be in heaven. It will ultimately be at the great white throne.

There will be judgment. Every single sin will be paid for. We know God can judge, and God here, the preacher says, will judge. It�s inevitable. Everybody�s going to answer to their Creator. Every wrong is going to be dealt with.

Coming attraction, judgment, and it won�t be attracting you because you want to go, but you�re just, like, impelled to go. Every matter, every work, every judgment will no longer be partial and biased and faulty.

No, no, comprehensive judgment. God will judge. So, what does that tell you? Well, Christian, it tells you that vengeance is God�s. He will repay. You don�t have to be the avenger. You can pray for justice, you can desire righteousness, and if it doesn�t happen, well, you just can rest in who God is.

You can still have faith, can�t you? You can still have hope in God. If you�re on the courts, if you�re a judge, or if you�re a lawyer, you want to do the right thing, of course. But destiny for everyone is going to be justice.

And for the Christian, of course, justice is simple because Jesus paid for our unrighteousness. He gives us his righteousness. There�s no condemnation. There�ll be no judgment for the Christian in terms of, �Do you go to heaven or hell

That�s already been taken care of. We can talk about works and rewards and stuff like that, but we�re not talking about heaven, hell, damnation stuff here when it comes to God judging the Christian.

For the unbeliever, though, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. Solomon knew, eventually, God�s going to judge. It�s in God�s plan. So why worry? Why be concerned? Why�you know what he doesn�t say?

I just interrupted myself. What if he said, �You know what? I said, �My heart and God will judge the righteous and the wicked. What if he didn�t say that? What if he said, �There�s injustice anywhere, everywhere and says, �This too is vanity.

He didn�t say that. There�s going to be judgment. Another son of David understood all this that God sees, God knows. First Peter 2 .22, �He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he, Jesus, was reviled, he did not revile in return.

When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. The Lord Jesus knew about the Father doing that very thing. And so, it would be good for us to follow Jesus� steps and say, �God, I trust you to judge.

My name is Mike Abendroth, 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 6. 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.