Call to the Ministry (Part 2)

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. Mike Abendroth, I'm your host today, and on Tuesdays, I have a co -host.

I'm not just the lead host, I'm the co -host on Tuesday, and so welcome, co -host.

Hi to Calypso, we sing to your spirit. Here we go again. That's a song by, of course,

Diana Ross, or John Denver. I'm not really sure. My father had eight tracks in the

VW Bug. I think it was a 1973, a baby blue, and I think he had a

John Denver eight track. Yeah. I think I could sing all those songs by heart. I had John Denver eight tracks.

Well, did you have Captain and Tennille? No, no. Good, because Muskrat Love is pretty much out as far as I was concerned as a punk rocker.

Well, that was a remake, you know, originally done by America. A lot of people don't know that. I did not know that.

Wow. That's what I said, 70s music, man. You don't wanna, you just don't wanna go there. Well, if you call

Muskrat Love music. It's music, it's from the 70s, it's from the 70s. Okay, so,

No Compromise Radio, always biblical, always provocative, always in that order. That's our desire. We want today to talk again about the call to ministry.

People say, I'd like to go to seminary. Should you? Shouldn't you? And last week we talked about, well, give us a recap,

Steve. What did we talk about last week? We talked about the internal subjective call, about, you know, having an overwhelming sense that you need to be in the ministry, and why that's so important, because I, you know, as we said last week,

I think there's just a high burnout factor, and I think it's oftentimes, not because the men who go into it are not smart enough, that they're not educated enough, but they just, at the end of the day, they just go, you know what?

It's not worth it. So that was one of the things we talked about. Okay, I thought you were gonna do, I'm just, and doggone it,

Stuart Smalley, or whatever that guy's name is. Isn't he a senator now? Yeah, well, you know, sadly, yes.

Okay. But, you know, we haven't even talked about where you should go to seminary, I mean, there are a million things we could talk about.

Okay, good, well, let's do this for a template, and then we'll get into that part. Lectures to My Students, Charles Spurgeon, has, in my mind, the definitive chapter on this topic.

Definitively stating positions, so you can work through, should I go to seminary, or should I not? And so let's just use that as our template, and it's in front of us now.

Number one, he must have an intense, all -absorbing desire for the work.

So Spurgeon says, you need to be fully consumed with, you're compelled to go to seminary because you're compelled to do gospel ministry work.

And again, I just think, you know, A, you probably won't get through seminary if you don't have that desire, but B, you will find yourself quickly overwhelmed by the ministry if you don't have that desire, because it is a 24 -7 calling.

I wouldn't even call it a, it's really not a job. It's just, you just have no time where you can say, well, now

I don't have to worry about anything at the church or anyone at the church, because it's constant. I would say for 14 years now as a pastor, every time the phone rings at home,

I say to myself, what's the problem now? Yeah. Steve, when - Of course, right before I answer it,

I always say it could be the big one. Yeah, Ed McMahon's calling. What about the call to ministry when you're in ministry and things are really bad?

There are down times in ministry. There are times of trial and suffering and hardship, some self -imposed, some imposed by others.

It's good to know, Lord, you have called me into this ministry. I have seen your objective hand in terms of giving me the teaching gifts and giving me the affirmation of my elders, and I know you have called me here, and therefore

I can't quit, because how could I say no to you in light of my salvation? And if you don't have that, as I said before, you'll just never make it.

You'll get discouraged in ministry. There's no question about that. Why? Because ministry is all about, ultimately,

I mean, you're serving the Lord, but you're serving people, and people do what? They let you down.

There's a saying, the cheap bite, and that's just true. They do. They can be vicious, and they'll let you down, and they'll desert you, and they'll do all sorts of things, but if your focus isn't on Christ, your first reaction or your second or third reaction, at some reaction, at some point, is gonna be to leave.

You'll say things like, I don't need this. My father would say, I need this like I need a hole in my head.

And it's hard to argue with that, isn't it? That's right. But if you do it for the Lord's sake, in light of what he's done for you, then you can put up with it.

Spurgeon says, secondly, for the call to ministry in lectures to my students, he must have an aptness to teach and some measure of the other qualities needful for the office of a public instructor.

And you know, that really is an amazing thing, because again, if you can't speak or teach, and if you can't communicate, then you ought not to be in the ministry, but I mean,

I just think about my own life. I was terrified to speak in public.

Absolutely terrified. And it was through, you know, the Lord used some situations in my own life to put me in front of people every single day where that was my profession for a while, was just to talk to people, large groups of people who were hostile to me.

And you know, so it's just interesting how the Lord works that out. Steve, the same thing happened to me. I was petrified, mainly because of my vanity and my pride.

I was petrified to get up and speak in front of other people. I hated it. It was one of my phobias.

And I got a job out of college having to speak to people all the time, sometimes just in front of one person as a sales rep, sometimes in front of a hundred doctors or nurses.

And I just had to do that on a regular basis. Steve, tell us the story about when

I arranged you to speak to the rest home, the Jewish rest home, I think on Van Nuys Boulevard.

I don't even know the name of it anymore. And I wanted to record you. Tell us that story. Oh, that was a total stealth caper.

Yeah. Stealth caper. I remember the day oh so well.

You know, it was a beautiful, warm, sunny, Southern California day. Anyway, we're at the rest home and I get up there and you know, the old folks having been in a few rest homes now, you know, there's a wide variety of them from people who are just wanting to break up the monotony of the day to those who just get wheeled in.

And I think there was one woman who used to say, you know, beans to everything you said, you know,

I said. And so anyway, I'm up there in the front and I'm kind of nervous and I've got my little three by five index cards and I'm gonna, you know, preach the gospel to these folks.

And - Is that when you had the good news Bible too? No, I didn't. Okay. But you know, Mike's in the back of the room and just kind of all smiling and he's, you know, beforehand just encouraging me and everything and then get up there.

And he's like total stealth mode, turns on the recorder because he doesn't think I can see it except it's got a bright red

LED light on the front of it. I'm sorry, I didn't switch the strobe function off.

The red strobe light, some B -52s concert or something. Well, what you do is if someone says,

I like gospel preaching, I want to be a gospel preacher, I want to be in the ministry, Spurgeon is right.

Those men should have the gift of teaching. He says on page 25, if a man be called to preach, he will be endowed with a degree of speaking ability, which he will cultivate and increase.

And so there's room for growth. Aren't you glad for that? Yes, I really am. I mean, when I look back at, you know, some of the messages

I preach, in fact, I re -preached a message here not too long ago and I was going through the notes and I thought it was gonna be so easy to preach because I already preached it and I looked through them and I'm going, what a mess this is.

You know, I had to like redo the whole thing. You know, it was just, so I think we definitely learn and grow and get refined as it were by the grace of God.

First Timothy chapter three, verse two says that these overseers, these elders are able to teach.

I think NAS says apt to teach, but I believe if you study the original language you'll see excellent teaching.

They are superior teachers. It's just a little bit, I think apt or able, oh, he's able to teach.

I think he should be an excellent teacher, not just, oh, he's able. That'll get her done. That'll do a little pig.

Yeah, just kind of get over the bar, just kind of a marginal guy. And that's not what you want. I mean, listen, if you're gonna get up and I hope you're in a church that does this.

If you're gonna have a pastor get up and teach for 45 minutes, preach God's word for 45 minutes, he better be pretty good.

Or there aren't gonna be many people awake after 45 minutes. If you believe that Christianity is subjective, mystical, feeling -based, you are charismatic on the inside, well, then

I guess teaching would not really be such a big deal. But if you believe in objective truth that must be proclaimed, the king of the universe,

Jesus Christ, the king of kings, gives a message to his heralds and he says, you preach the word, you herald the word in season and out of season, then you better be good at it.

Well, when you look at the pastoral epistles, first and second Timothy, Titus, and you see how many times the term sound doctrine is there or teaching and all these, the way

Paul stresses that the church must be about, it must be led by men who will teach the word, as you just said, from second

Timothy chapter four, verse two, preach the word in season and out of season, and you just look at how the stress that is placed on truth, well, then you can't be someone who just wants a subjective kind of feel -good sort of thing because you realize that the church really is, must be built on a foundation of scripture, of scriptural truth.

We're No Compromise Radio. You can write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com. We're going through the call to ministry.

Spurgeon says, number three, he must have a measure of conversion work going on under his efforts.

What does that mean? That's very interesting. Conversion work going on under his efforts. It means that,

I mean, at its easiest, most foundational level, that just people get saved as you are preaching and teaching.

And I mean, and I'm sure you've had this experience, but it's just wild to have somebody come up to you that maybe you didn't even know.

And I remember sitting in a group once, and we're just kind of introducing one another and tell us how you got saved.

And this woman says, well, I got saved in your fundamentals of the faith class. And I was, I didn't know, you know, so you never know what the

Lord is gonna do. Well, it's good being a Calvinist and believing in the sovereignty of God over salvation because then we don't have to put tick marks on the front of our

Bibles. And I've had the same thing happen to me. I just preach away. Sometimes, Steve, though, I'm not sure

I'm thinking to myself, you know, some people could get saved during this message today. I thought that a couple of weeks ago during Resurrection Sunday.

I was more thoughtful about it, more forward thinking to say, Lord, would you save people out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light through the preaching of this message?

And what I think Spurgeon is saying is there should be conversion work. And I would add to Spurgeon that there should be a maturation of the saints under you as well.

And so anybody that listens should be effective, believer or unbeliever. Yeah, I mean, what happens when the word is unleashed as it were, you know, from the pulpit, it pierces the heart.

It gets in between our thoughts and intentions, our marrow and joints, all these kind of, you know, analogies that the

Bible uses. And what it really does, if you're sitting under a Bible teaching, it's going to convict you.

I mean, the best sermons I've ever heard weren't the ones that pumped me up and made me feel good. They were the ones who just made me realize how short

I fall of the glory of God and the areas of my life that I needed to shore up and things that I needed to change.

And, you know, the weaknesses in my life that I need to address. And that's what the word of God is supposed to do.

It's supposed to mature you, refine you, sanctify you. And along those lines, don't you think,

Steve, that when people, men, excuse me, when men sit under real

Bible preaching, expositional, Christ -centered, you have imperatives and indicatives, you have confrontation and comfort, et cetera.

When men sit underneath that, don't you think there's something in a real man of God who says,

I'm attracted to that kind of preaching. I'd like to do that. Maybe not at the church level, but to my family, to my wife, to myself.

I want to know the Bible like that. And conversely, in mainline denominations and in liberal churches, you don't get people having the real call to ministry there because there's no real example.

There's nothing to be called out of or unto. Well, that's kind of the difference. You know, the way I phrase it when I'm talking to my wife or my kids is, you know, some people go to church and they just want to check off religious duty.

Done. Attended church on Sunday. And other people go to church to serve people and to be transformed by the word.

And when you are being transformed, you're not just kind of, oh, yeah, I did church today.

You're excited about it and you want to share what the Lord is doing in your life through the message preached with others.

It's just natural. It just kind of, it's as natural as talking to people about a great restaurant that you went to.

It's just something that you cannot resist doing. I'm thinking about lunch right now. That wasn't the authorial intent.

Yes, but I'm ready to respond to you. Carl Spurgeon, lectures to my students. Number four, what about the call to ministry?

Spurgeon says, his calling will be made known through the prayerful judgment of his church.

Spurgeon says, page 30, none of you can be pastors without the loving consent of the flock. And therefore this will be to you a practical indicator, if not a correct one.

The sheep will know the God sent shepherd. What does Spurgeon mean there? Well, I mean, let's put it this way.

You know, people sometimes say, I go to Pastor Mike's church or whatever.

We understand what they mean. And I think this is the affirmation of people.

If you are somebody who can't preach a lick, people will let you know eventually, you know, and I mean, one of the ways they would let you know is that, you know, they stopped coming, which wouldn't be the right way to go about things.

But people let you know because they affirm them. You know, not every message that we preach is great, but by and large, when people are hearing the word and when they understand that you are actually communicating effectively the word of God, then they're thankful for that.

And they let you know that. I think this goes back to the subject, excuse me, the object of call to ministry, that those underneath you recognize that God is doing a work in your heart.

God is doing something that can't be explained in any physical way. It has to be explained supernaturally.

God saved that man with the supernatural gospel, and now he's equipped him to go do something he never could do on his own.

Steve, I look at my life and it really, I'm not saying this just to say it, but I was, well,

I'm not the man I used to be. That's obvious. But I look back and I think I was timid.

I was introspective. I wasn't outgoing, and I was just caved in on myself, as it were, and then

God saved me and then did something, did a work in me to... You were introspective?

Yes. To use the psychological categories, I was an introvert.

I learned something today. Well, although sadly, probably a lot of that was due to marijuana and other drugs that make you act introvertedly.

There you go. I mean, it really is. Sometimes I just have to kind of, it's almost, to me, it's almost breathtaking to just think about how did

I get here and understanding that I never could have, if I set out to plan to get where I am now,

I never could have made it. That's true. Because it just, I'm not clever enough to get here.

Well, that is a perfect lead -in, and you didn't even know what you were leading me into this. No, I didn't. John Newton wrote a letter on the same subject to someone about the call to ministry.

And he said in his letter, Spurgeon actually was talking about this letter as well, an opening in providence by a gradual train of circumstances pointing out the means, the time, the place of actually entering upon the work.

And so Spurgeon quotes Newton there, and he says that if you're called to the ministry,

God will see to it through his providential mighty hand that you get to where you need to get.

You'll get the money. You'll get the breaks to coast into the master's seminary. It will all work out providentially because if God has called you, he easily has the power to get you into the ministry and to get you to seminary, even though you have no money.

Right, I mean, God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. God owns the earth and all it contains. There's no limit to what he can do if it is his desire to do that.

All right, how about Newton when he says, men who sense conversion have betrayed great feebleness of mind and are readily led to embrace strange doctrines or fall into the evil company and gross sin.

I never can find it in my heart to encourage them to enter the ministry. Well, I mean, one of the keys to, there are two aspects there, but one of the keys certainly is discernment.

If you are easily led into just stupidity and all kinds of aberrant theology and dubious thinking about scripture, then you ought not to be in the ministry.

Of course, we have a long list. Maybe we should start a hall of shame of bad theologians, exceedingly bad theologians, because there's a long list of people who make their living so -called preachers and teachers and who are just shameful in the way they abuse the word of God.

That's true. They should not be in the ministry. They should repent and learn. What about the call,

Steve, to ministry that if Jesus Christ, the captain of our salvation and the one calling us into ministry was the suffering servant, he suffered, doesn't he call, when he calls someone into ministry, doesn't he call them to suffer?

Newton said we must try whether we can endure browbeating, weariness, slander, jeering, and hardship, and whether we can be made the off -scouring of all things and be treated as nothing for Christ's sake, end quote.

Well, I mean, it's just the nature of this. And you know this, and you've seen many men go through this.

Anytime you teach hard things, people respond to that. And sometimes it's very positively, because they hear it and they acknowledge it as the truth from God.

And then there are some people, I mean, obviously there are unsafe people in most every church, and there are some people who just will go after the pastor, who will spread scandal and rumor and really just trying to plot against him.

NoCompromiseRadio .com, we're trying to talk today about ordination and call to ministry. Steve, do you have to go to seminary to be in the gospel ministry?

Absolutely not. I mean, was Spurgeon in, what seminary did he go to? Was that Union Theological Seminary?

No, you don't have to be, but I think it's certainly very helpful.

And I think too, it's just an affirmation. People know, you know, we went to the Master's Seminary, and I think the good part about going to seminary is that there's a certain baseline that people would expect, you know, someone who came from that seminary to have, to possess a certain knowledge that they would have.

Well, what happens is we say, you don't have to go to seminary to be in the gospel ministry.

That is true. People say, well, Spurgeon wasn't, Martin Lloyd -Jones wasn't, but until I meet another

Spurgeon or Lloyd -Jones, I'm gonna tell people, you wanna be in gospel ministry. I think Steve's choking here.

I need some kind of Holy Ghost Poland spring water to cure him or something.

You know, just a lightsaber will do. Okay, let the bodies hit the floor. If you are not

Spurgeon or Lloyd -Jones, then you should go, because you're only gonna rise as far as your local pastor can take you, and maybe he's skilled in languages and everything else, but I like this seminary called

Master's Seminary, and I like Southern Seminary and other seminaries as well, but I like Master's because it's tied into the local church, and so the local church oversees everything, and so it's less parachurch than other organizations.

And by parachurch, you mean, you know, I actually had to illustrate this, the other night, I drew a church and then a parachute over the church.

Oh, okay, yes, yes, I was gonna say something about parakeets, but that would be different. A lot of people don't know what a parachurch is, parachurch ministry is.

Parachurch ministry is a ministry that's not in the church or out of the church, it's alongside of the church, para, like paraclete, where we have the

Spirit of God coming alongside of us, and so it's not accountable to a church elder board or something like that, and so Master's Seminary is accountable, and that's one of the reasons

I like Master's Seminary, and we think men, if they're called to ministry, should go.

Should you take any online classes? I think if guys wanna take a few classes early on, that'd be fine, but overall, degrees online are lacking, aren't they?

What are they lacking? Well, so much in the personal interaction, you know, in the spiritual development. I mean, if I'd gotten my degree online,

I never would have met the godly men, you know, at the Master's Seminary, and I would have really missed my time in Dr.

Roskup's office. You know, he was my academic counselor, and you know, I didn't. So when you got in trouble, he'd take you in there, and?

No, although he did have a great big yardstick on his wall, but you know, just hanging around with him,

I used to just kinda look at him, and you know, Dr. Roskup, would you adopt me? And those are just, you know, and hanging out with some of the other faculty, getting to talk to them,

Dr. Farnell, and Dr. Grissani, and Dr. Barak, and just some wonderful men of God, and really enjoyed my time there.

So today on No Compromise Radio Ministry, we talked about the call to ministry. If you're a man, you're a

Christian man, you've been equipped with the gift of teaching, and you've been affirmed by those above you, and underneath you, and you have a compelling desire to go to seminary, then we think you should consider seminary.

Southern Seminary has a Northboro campus here close by. I would say they're an excellent seminary, wouldn't you? Yes, I would.

Don't you like what Al Mohler has done there? I love what Al Mohler's done there. I love that documentary, and I love the whole thing.

I just love how he's, you know, God has used Dr. Mohler to really transform an institution that was on the brink of biblical irrelevancy, and brought it back to a real vibrant school that the

Lord can use. John Newton said, Jesus Christ deserves the best men to preach his cross, and not the empty -headed and the shiftless.

I mean, what good is an empty -headed or shiftless person? I mean, you need people who are dedicated and knowledgeable, men who will be faithful.

Shiftless and empty -headed. Need not apply. That would be a good motto. No Compromise Radio, we'll see you next time.

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.