Don Green December Interview

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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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.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial.

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Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry, my name is Mike Abendroth.

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Always biblical, always provocative, always in that order.

We�re trying to get you to think biblically about life, about God, about yourself.

I think of Calvin and the Institutes, and right thinking about God and right thinking about yourself.

That�s really the issue, and the only way you can do that is looking at the Bible.

So I like men who preach the word, and they are not swayed by popular opinion

or the ebb and flow of the world, and so that�s why once a month we

like to have a special guest on, and I appreciate when he pays on time to be on

the show, but Don Green, welcome back to No Compromise Radio.

Thank you for having me, Mike.

This month�s check is in the mail, it should arrive in the next couple of days, so you can be looking for that.

I just want you to know when you transfer money via wire, I have to pay a $15 fee for that.

I don�t like that fee.

You need to add the fee onto the cost.

I�ll talk to my banker about that and make sure you�re taken care of.

All right, Don, you are a busy man, you�re a pastor and father and many other things, and so am I.

You had an idea about a book that we could write together maybe in a conference there in Cincinnati, and we�re going to talk about

that today off air, but I�m going to throw you my Abendrothian curve right now and

say, let�s talk about it on air a little bit.

You�re thinking about what, when it comes to a book, maybe we could write together about a particular topic, and why would our

listeners even want to know about it?

Well, my thinking about a book is that I�m going to join myself to your audience to

expand my visibility, first of all.

Smart.

Very wise.

Yeah.

But what we�ve been talking about, and what I have in mind, is to

do a book that kind of focuses in like a laser on two aspects of the doctrine of

salvation.

Talk about the doctrine of justification, and how God declares us righteous in Christ,

and then as a second theme in the same book, to talk about the doctrine of regeneration,

the new birth, that when God saves us, he imparts a new nature to us that changes the way that we

think, the way that we live, and the way that we submit ourselves to Scripture.

I think both of those things are necessary, like both wings on a plane, to

live and to teach a balanced view of the Christian life going forward, so that we know what

God requires, and how he fulfills it in Christ, and then how he changes us

by doing a work inside our hearts and imparting new life to us.

Don, I like the idea, and so we�re going to just throw it out to the millions of NoCo

listeners, and they can write in, and they can say, �You know what? I�d like a book like that.

Or maybe they can give us other topics that they might enjoy, but I think if we write it from a pastoral

perspective, and you know, to make it very relevant, to make it very

applicable, kind of like, I don�t know, just kind of like a felt -needs kind of thing.

I think that would sell a lot, especially if we had a picture of you with your nice smiling grin on the cover.

And with the warm button -down sweater that I like to wear when I�m preaching.

Speaking of that, what�s your take these days?

Andy Stanley seems to dig himself deeper into the pit of, is the Bible really, you know, do

we say the Bible says, or do we go from a different approach, or take it from a different approach?

Any particular thoughts that just go through your mind when I say Andy Stanley?

You say?

I�d say that you just introduced the next section of Pastor Todd�s Crawl.

Okay, perfect.

Well, we need some lead -in music.

I don�t know what kind of, by the way, I haven�t asked you this, what kind of music do you like?

If you�re in the car, and it�s Sunday night, you�re driving home, and you know it�s kind of like your Friday

night, Pastor�s Friday night is Sunday night, and you know you�re not going to work the next day, and the convertible top

comes down, you and your wife are out for a vanilla cone at Dairy Queen, and what kind of

music do you play?

Well, you know, I�m not much of a music listener, to be honest

with you.

My wife and my family is all very musical, but I haven�t really had that.

You know, I love the traditional hymns of the church.

There�s a classical guitarist in our area that plays at our church named Jeremy Collins, who has a

CD that I�ve often listened to as I�m preparing my mind for

preaching and just needing to unwind.

That classical guitar is often a way to, you know, kind of soothe my spirits

and help me get into a right frame of mind.

I was waiting for ZZ Top or something like that.

You know, I know there�s something in you that wants to listen to, I don�t know, an old Who song or

something.

No?

Not at all?

Well, you know, I know that music from my high school days before I was

converted, and it is amazing the way those songs stick with you 40 years later.

They�ll pop in out of nowhere, and all of a sudden, you know, the lyrics from Boston or something like that are

making me realize that it�s more than a feeling.

Thank you.

See, we like to have some pop culture references on No Compromise Radio, so I�m glad you kind of did that.

Pastor Steve, you know, will throw in his two cents worth for Drifter songs and other things like that.

Yeah, good for Pastor Steve.

Regarding the Craw issue, what�s in Pastor Don�s Craw, talk a little bit about the veracity of

Scripture.

Is it okay to say the Bible says to prove a point what�s going on with Stanley and, you know,

the church there?

It�s one of the largest churches in America.

What�s your take on all this?

You know, when I saw the reports about what he had said and, you know, wanting to talk about

Jesus and, you know, minimize the Bible, it�s just very upsetting to

me.

I mean, this is in my Craw.

Because there is such an let�s just, Mike, let�s just cast aside any kind of

touchy -feely stuff and just get to the core of it.

There is such an arrogance in a man who would say, who would want to talk about his

own thoughts and praise it in his own way and be ashamed of the Gospel, be ashamed of the

Scriptures, to such a point that I don�t even want to really talk about that.

Listen, we have to confront people with biblical authority, because that�s what

we are calling them to.

The biblical authority is the only basis of truth that we have.

It�s our only authority is what is contained in the four corners of the 66 books of the

Bible.

And so, it upsets me greatly to hear a man say, �Let�s not talk about the Bible.

Let�s push it aside, you know, and just talk in some vapid sense about Jesus.

Well, the only thing that we know about Jesus truly is found in Scripture, and so you cannot

separate the incarnate Word in Christ from the written Word found in

Scripture.

And it is foolishness to try to evangelize people without using the Bible,

because faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ.

Don, it seems to me that, and of course I can�t read motives, I can just kind of analyze what people say,

but you know, the Bible has so many things in it that make the culture

hate it and recoil against it.

And whether it�s six -day creation, whether it�s the purity of sex only

between a man and a woman in the covenant of marriage, there are a lot of things that the world just hates.

So I guess what he�s trying to do is, Stanley, if he says, �The Bible says then that means they�re going to attack all kinds of other

issues in the Bible, and you can�t wear polyester, etc.

And so let�s just say, well, let�s just talk about Jesus, and then not bring up the Bible.

But tell our listeners why that�s a false bifurcation.

Well, it really is.

Again, God works through His Word, and you know, we�re born again by the living Word of God.

And so if we have any love for souls at all, and any understanding about what we have in the Bible,

we realize that God, to the glory of His own name, uses His Word in the proclamation

of Christ to do a work in an unbelieving heart, to awaken them and to bring them to repentance and

faith.

This is the way that God does it.

And we do not have liberty as preachers, as pastors, to

set aside the Bible.

The Bible is our authority, and once you set that aside, you have

sacrificed your authority and you�ve just become a motivational speaker, speaking on a

human level.

And I just totally reject the idea that we should be ashamed of the Bible.

You know, in a similar manner, the Apostle Paul said that, you know, the preaching of the cross is

foolishness to men.

We can�t get around that.

And if people raise questions about, oh, you know, you can�t wear polyester, you can�t eat shrimp, well, there are

plenty of compelling answers to that, and you just patiently answer questions as they come

up, but never straying from the laser -like focus on Jesus Christ and Him crucified,

and we do that by preaching the Word that He�s given to make Himself known.

Don, years ago, I stood at the Areopagus, Mars Hill, where Paul addressed

men, the men of Athens, in Acts chapter 17.

I don�t think Stanley�s probably nuanced enough to approach it this way, but I know when

we were in seminary, some were saying Paul was wrong in his delivery of the

message on top of Mars Hill.

He shouldn�t have done what he did.

Any thoughts when you think of Paul�s Mars Hill address?

I mean, they heard the resurrection of the dead and some mocked, but others said, we�ll hear you again,

and yet there were some, Damaris and others, who believed.

I mean, I don�t care if somebody mocks the message, I�m a steward, I

want to be faithful to the Lord, and if people mock, well, that just comes to the territory, doesn�t it?

Well, yeah, that�s right, Mike, and it�s, you know, and mocking comes with it.

Look, they mocked Christ when He was on the cross, the Pharisees challenged His teaching at

every point and rejected it.

This comes with the territory, and we have to fear God and love His Word

more than we fear men and love their applause and their approval of us.

And you know, when it comes to Acts 17 and Paul�s, you know, it seems to me like, as you were describing, you

know, some mocked him, some said, we�ll listen later, some believed.

This is the way that God does it.

He uses apostolic preaching as He sees fit.

Some are saved under a particular message, some are hardened under a particular message.

We are just faithful, and we let God do what He will and what He wants to do

as we do it.

Our job is to be faithful, not to be appreciated by men.

Don, it seems to me that as I read 1 Corinthians 2 that you alluded to just a moment ago, and

even in chapter 1, Jews demand signs and Greeks seek

wisdom, but we preach Christ, the Messiah, crucified, a stumbling block to

the Jews and folly to the Gentiles.

And even when he says in chapter 2, I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and then the Greek

is kai, Him crucified, and some means and Him crucified, you could I�m

even thinking in light of chapter 1, Paul is saying, I determined to preach Christ among you, even

the crucified one.

I know you don�t want a Messiah on a pole crucified, but I�m going to preach that anyway.

I don�t want to be ornery, but I think you could identify with me, Don, where when I know people want a certain

thing, they�re unbelievers, they want me to say a certain thing, I almost give them the opposite, and that opposite always is

Jesus, the Messiah on a cross.

Yeah, that�s exactly the way I view it.

What I want to do if I�m preaching to a hostile audience, and frankly it doesn�t happen nearly as often as

I would like, I want to know what the stumbling block is, what they object to in the

gospel, and that�s what I�m going to press home most upon them.

It reminds me of what Luther said, and I can only paraphrase it, that a soldier is proven when

he�s engaging the battle that�s actually at stake, and if he flinches from the battle that�s actually being

fought today, he�s not being a faithful soldier, no matter what else he might be doing.

And if I know that people are objecting to biblical authority, I�m going to preach biblical authority to them.

If I know that they�ve been tainted by N .P. Wright and are questioning

penal substitutionary atonement, I�m going to preach penal substitutionary atonement to them.

We have to be faithful soldiers for Christ and uphold his truth where it�s being

denied or compromised.

Talking to Don Green today on No Compromise Radio, Don�s our welcome monthly guest.

Don, as you were talking about Luther, I just got back from Germany and hopefully will be there next year for

Reformation 500.

Luther nails the 95 Thesis on the Wittenberg Church door, 1517, October

31st.

And I was thinking about Luther and the recovery of scriptures in the language of the people and

how this relates to Andy Stanley.

Of course, he takes the New Testament, he writes it in German so the people could understand it.

It�s so sad of Luther, wasting all that time in the Wartburg Castle, translating all that.

He should have just said, �You know, the Latin says, �Jesus did such and such.

� We don�t need the Bible.

We don�t need the Bible in our own language.

Let�s just go back with what the Latin says and trust what the Pope says as well.

Well, yeah, and that�s another aspect.

I�m so glad that you brought it out.

I don�t know if I�m following the exact where it plays that you�re pointing me to.

But when we set aside the Bible, basically we�re just going to tell people that, �You can just listen to me.

You can take my word for it.

I�m clever enough, if you�re a mega -church -seeker -sensitive pastor, or I�m

authoritative enough, if I�m the Pope in the Catholic Church.

Take my word for it.

� That�s the last thing that a preacher of God�s Word should do.

He should delight in pointing people to the text.

Read it for yourself.

I�m not telling you anything that you can�t see for yourself if you�ll just read the text and contemplate it with a

receptive spirit.

And we want God�s Word to be in the hands of God�s people, because that is the instrument that he uses to

sanctify them.

Jesus said, �Sanctify them in the truth.

Thy word is truth.

It is the word that is sufficient for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, for teaching, Paul

said in 2 Timothy 3.

And so I just get very animated when I see

men professing to be Christian pastors, standing in a pulpit and diminishing the Word of God

in the eyes of those who hear him.

The accountability, the strict judgment on a man like that is fearsome,

James 3, verse 1.

And I want no part of it.

I want my people to have a Word of God open in their lap or on their iPad screen

and seeing what it says for themselves.

That�s my job, is to be a window through which they can see God�s Word for themselves.

Don, what do you think the outcome of this will be?

In other words, in 10 years, what will happen, maybe not particularly to him, but in

churches like this, that once they abandon Sola Scriptura, once they abandon a high view of God�s

Word, then they begin not to preach it, and then what happens next?

I mean, what�s the next step in compromise?

Well, I think the very logical next step is that once you�ve displaced God�s Word as the

authority, you substitute the authority of a man in leadership, and he becomes the

voice of God through his own dictates of what he declares and what he wants.

He starts speaking about visions that he�s had, or I think God would have us do this, and it�s all tied up

in a human leader.

And you might be able to build an audience that way, but you�re not building God�s kingdom.

And the truth of the matter is that you can never protect people that way.

When it�s based on your cleverness and on your words, all that�s going to happen is

that that will last only until the next man who�s more clever than you are comes along, and then people will follow

after him.

The deadly spiritual consequence is that people are following men, not Christ, when that�s

the philosophy of ministry.

Yeah, I just shudder to think what happens next.

I mean, I have so many failings in my life, but I say to myself, I know the Lord works through his Word

to confirm it.

I know that I had good teachers and instructors at seminary, good friends like you, but I�m thinking,

I fail in so many areas, but I cannot fail in studying the text.

A worker who does not need to be ashamed, Paul says, and I think to myself, I can

at least deliver the Bible to the people.

If I do nothing else, at least I can do that.

Lord, help me make the top priority the faithful transmission of the proclaimed Word

on Sundays and every other time I open my mouth.

Yeah, all I can do is say amen to that, Mike, because that�s my entire motivation in

ministry as well.

I have nothing to offer people except the Word of God, and in the privacy

of my life, my prayers and intercession for them,

Acts 6, we must devote ourselves to the Word of God and to prayer.

It was years ago when Ed Young Jr., I believe, came out on a tank, a real tank, T -A -N -K,

and he then preached Ephesians 6 and spiritual warfare, and I don�t know if it was

somebody else who said it or I just said it in my own mind, but my thought was something similar to

this statement.

What do you do next week?

If you�re going to have MMA boxing or if you�re going to have a rodeo or you�re going to have free car wash

giveaways or something, I don�t know what you do.

You give a sermon on Song of Solomon on a bed that�s on the platform, or stage is probably a better name.

What do you do the next week?

Well, for us, it�s simple.

We just preach the next text, but for them, what kind of creativity and budget needs to go into such

foolishness?

Yeah, you know, you come out in the tank next week.

The only thing you can do to make it better is to fly overhead with the Blue Angels and buzz your

congregation with the jet.

In one sense, I hate having said that because I�m afraid that somebody will actually arrange to do that and say, �Hey, that�s a cool

idea.

I�m going to do it.

Well, it would get everybody�s attention, that�s for sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, Martin Lloyd -Jones recognized this long, long ago, and he said

something paraphrasing that if he came out and preached in his swim trunks, he

could attract a crowd that way, but it would be a total dishonoring of the Word of God.

And we just don�t�we don�t manipulate people, and we don�t use gimmicks in order to attract people and try to

get them to listen to the Word of God.

The Word of God is sufficient in itself, and when it is preached honorably, honestly, and

with passion and with accuracy, God will make sure that the right audience hears it, and he�ll

honor his Word.

And I want to be in the place of God honoring what he has established rather than attracting a crowd to follow after

me.

Don, our listeners certainly are supportive of their pastors, and I�m thankful for that.

But that really, to me, is the summary of what you should expect in a pastor, that he will, by the grace

of God, stand up and herald the truth.

I want the congregation that I serve to realize, you know what, there�s a lot of things that Mike would fail in,

but when it comes to funerals, and weddings, and hospital visits, and

Sunday morning, Sunday night, Sunday school, Bible studies, when that guy

opens his mouth in a formal setting, I�m not talking about just watching a football game on TV, but when

he opens his mouth, he talks about what the Bible says, the Bible says, the Bible says.

And I think if a pastor does that, then the congregation should say, �Hey, back to Lloyd Jones,

or Spurgeon.

He gives me a stake so I can overlook some of his other failings, but I get the filet mignon every week, so

if he can�t measure up in other areas, it�s no big deal.

Yeah, yeah, by comparison, that�s the only thing that matters.

And if we don�t give them the Word, anything else that we do is a failure by comparison.

If we give them the Word, then, like you said so well, Mike, you know, the other things can be

overlooked by people who understand what is the priority in the Church.

I think it was Mark MacArthur who said, you know, to his father, �You know, Dad, when you�re in the pulpit, you know, you�re kind of a big shot or

something like that.

He was little when he said it.

�But when you�re out of the pulpit, you�re just a regular person.

� You�re not anything special.

You ain�t nothing special.

Right.

You know, we carry this treasure about in earthen vessels, Paul said.

And you know, you and I have, probably better than anyone, the deepest sense of our own

failings, and you know, who�s adequate to do this?

Who is fit for their sinful, defiled tongue to declare the eternal

riches of Christ to an audience that will die and go to hell without it?

You know, who�s adequate for such things?

And so, you know, I love God�s Word, and I hope that by the

ministry that you and I are doing in our own spheres, that just by the very act and the way that we

approach the text and the way that we handle the act of preaching, we communicate the sobriety, the

seriousness, the glory, the majesty of God�s Word, and the Christ to which that Word testifies.

Amen.

Amen.

Don, I�m looking over to my bookshelf, and I have a section of theology, Theology Popper, Christology,

etc., and then I have a section of biographies.

And the biographies there, to a man, and of course, there�s some women in there, Mary Slessor,

who�s not a preacher, but to a man, to a person, those people didn�t have the

Andy Stanley view of the Bible.

And whether it is William Carey, whether it is Tyndale, whether it

is James Pettigrew Boyce, it doesn�t matter who those people are, Charles Hodge,

they had a high view of God�s Word, and then it affected the way they proclaimed the

truth.

And I don�t think I�ll have an Andy Stanley biography in my shelf anytime soon.

Yeah, you know, I�ve got something similar.

I have displayed on one of my bookshelves biographies of J.

Gresham Machen, Martin Lloyd Jones, Spurgeon�s successor, the Ian Murray biography, his

name is escaping me at the moment, and also Jonathan Edwards.

And all of those have the covers of the men there.

And I conduct my study, as it were, in the symbolic

presence of those men who established themselves by serious ministry to the Word of God.

And it just reminds me that I�m just a small link in a big chain

of trying to transmit truth faithfully, seriously,

meaningfully, accurately to the next generation that would come after.

And I feel accountability to God, and in a lesser sense, I feel accountability to those men on

whose shoulders you and I stand today.

Amen.

I would hate to have one of those men that invested in my life, I�d hate to let them down.

I would be sad to get a phone call from them,.

�Mike, why aren�t you preaching the Word ?

And if that�s true, what a greater sense to dishonor the Lord who sought us

and bought us.

And Don, we�re thankful to have you on No Compromise Radio.

The 24 Minutes goes by quickly.

We�ll talk to you again next month, Lord willing, on No Compromise Radio.

Thank you, Mike.

Good to be with you.

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

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