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No Compromise Radio. Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.
Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures, verse by verse, with no compromise.
If we needed new revelation, God would use apostles. But since we have a canon that's complete, close, sufficient, adequate, authoritative, we don't need anybody else telling us this is what God says.
In other words, we now have divine wisdom. By the way, if I could be an apostle, I would love it. I'd love everything except the martyrdom part, but I would love to be an apostle. You know how much authority they could have?
You know how easy it would be to understand, well, you know, that's kind of a tough verse. Is that a genitive? Is that a, what kind of objective genitive, a subjective genitive, what kind of verse is that?
I'd just go, I'm an apostle. I know. This is not a joke. The sick people that are this church, that I could heal if I was an apostle. And how I would never have to say again, listen, if I tell you something from the Bible, you must do it.
But if it's just my own wisdom, take it or leave it. I could say with the authority of Christ, you must obey. We don't need apostles today because we have wisdom found in the 66 books of the English canon.
Apostles do not exist today. Now let's go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Paul calls these Christians mature, and you might think these are immature Christians. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 6, yet among the mature, we apostles do impart wisdom.
What do you mean mature? These people are acting immature. Well, mature can mean lots of different things, including people that are fully initiated into a special group. He's not saying you're arrived theologically, you have arrived with sanctification.
You're perfect. You're really just the mature ones. He's saying you're acting immaturely, but here he says something could be with sarcasm. He says, you're part of this fully initiated group. You're on the inside.
You have the spirit of God, and he says, we speak wisdom to you. You're part of this group of real Christians. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 9, he explains a little bit more who these people are, who are the mature.
End of verse 9, chapter 2 of 1 Corinthians, where God has prepared for those who love him. Corinth, if you love him, you're a saint, and he actually calls you mature because you're part of this group, and then he says, with clarification, verse 6, although it is not a wisdom of this age, the kind of thing that comes and goes according to history, who are doomed to pass away.
Who are those rulers? Do you know what Origen thought? Origen thought those rulers were demons. You Christians have wisdom from God, but it's not a demonic kind of wisdom. Is that what he's saying? Well, look down at verse 8.
I think we can determine who the people are there, and it's not demons, they're people. None of the rulers of this age understood this, verse 8, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
Who crucified Jesus? People or spirits? Did the spirits drive the nails in? Now maybe you say there are some rulers like Herod and Caiaphas and Pilate, people like Judas, some of the Sadducees and the Pharisees and hypocritical people and the lawyers.
They were the rulers, and behind them there was this demonic horde. Well, that would be true. But he's saying, Paul is saying this, you Christians have a divine wisdom that's not of this world. It's out of this world, and it doesn't pass away.
It's always relevant. How relevant are these folks who are doomed to pass away? Not very. I ask you, where are the great minds of the last generation? Where are the great minds of the last 100 years? Where are the great minds of the last 1 ,000 years?
I'll tell you where they are, they're dead, and much of their wisdom has passed away. We impart, the apostle Paul says, with other apostles. You're going to blast me that I'm an apostle? We apostles collectively say, this is the mind of God.
So why focus on human wisdom? And so now I say to you as an application, would you study the scriptures because they're always relevant? Don't get caught up in this, well, it's a different time, it's a different language, it was 2 ,000 to 3 ,000 years ago, it was a different culture, different historical thinking, they were Eastern, we're Western.
No, this is a relevant thing. I ask you, is the holiness of God still relevant? Is dying and pain for your own sins still relevant? This is not some kind of Amish old-fashioned book. This is not what Robert Green Ingersoll said.
If a man would follow today the teachings of the Old Testament, he would be a criminal. If he would follow the teachings of the new, he would be insane. No, we need the words, they're relevant. Thy word is a lamp unto thy feet and a light unto my path.
The Bible says the fear of the Lord, the word of God is enduring forever. It endures forever because it's clean, it's not corrupt, it's not spotted, it's not tainted with sin, it endures forever, it is eternally relevant.
I could say it this way if I was with the younger people. I think this was a generation ago though. The Bible is always in. We never say bye-bye to the Bible when it comes to its relevance. If you have divine wisdom, how many Bibles do you have at your house?
I mean, I'm almost ashamed by how many Bibles we have at our house. How many Bibles, the resources that we have. I want to encourage you, you are a Bible-reading church, so keep reading. Here's my plan for the summer.
This is what I suggest. We're going to take on the book of Mark this summer for divine wisdom. How many chapters in Mark? 16, but barely 16, not many verses in chapter 16. For the month of June, I want you to read Mark 1 -5 every day.
If you hit about 20 days out of 30, let your conscience be assuaged. July, Mark 6 -10. August, Mark 11 -16. Like MacArthur says, read it from the same Bible. So you go, oh yeah, Mark 11 -15, it's right here in my Bible.
Left-hand column, half the way down. Keep reading, every day. Read your proverb, read your psalm, read your other things. Mark 1 -5, Mark 1 -5, Mark 1 -5, Mark 1 -5, and you're going to start seeing the big picture.
What do we do when I preach? Sometimes I just come down at such a detailed level, these kind of atomistically. I want you to get the big picture, to see divine wisdom incarnate. Mark 1 -5, beginning in June.
So I'm giving you a little head start so you can kind of pick up on it. And you read it in the same Bible, over and over and over. And I guarantee you, at the end of these three months, I'm not a prophet or the son of a prophet, but here's my guarantee.
You will be more wise. They say I'm studying Romans or something else, that's fine. But as a congregation, let's look at the book of Mark. It's fast, it's all about the greatness of Christ. And when you look at this book, you're going to go, I am more and more impressed with Jesus every single time I read it.
I can't believe how he talks to people. It's not in Mark, but I love it when Jesus is talking to the scribes and Pharisees, and the lawyers say, you know, you're pretty hard on them, you know, what about us?
You know, woe to the scribes, woe to the Pharisees, what about us? And Jesus says, and woe to you lawyers as well. And I just go, that's my Savior. That's my Lord. If people know that you have no righteousness, he's kind, compassionate, generous.
And if people think they have righteousness, he delivers the death blow verbally. So if the Bible is always relevant, if the Bible gives divine wisdom, then we ought to study it. And so the gospel of Mark this summer, chapters 1 through 5, 6 to 10 for July, and then 15, excuse me, 11 through 16 in August.
Any takers? Okay, nobody wants to commit. I see that hand. Ferdy, are you in? All right. You say, well, I'm a dad, and I don't know, you're doing the parenting class, how do I lead my kids, what do I teach them?
I don't know about you, but I kind of like to double things up. If I have to teach something, if I have to do something myself, then we might as well make it a family affair. How about the book of Mark that shows Christ Jesus and all his humanity and all his deity?
The second reason you ought to completely saturate your mind with the Bible, that is God's divine wisdom that's always relevant, is number two, second reason, because it reveals the eternal mind of God.
It reveals the eternal mind of God. We all have subjects that we like and don't like. I used to like math until I've had to relearn 5th grade, 6th grade, 8th grade, 11th grade math at home, helping the kids.
I didn't really like Diffie Cues. I didn't really like geometry. I didn't really like algebra. You all have classes that you used to take and you didn't like, but you were forced to take them. If I could live my life over again, I'd take a bunch of English literature classes, and I'd take a bunch of history classes, but there's one class that's the best class in the world, because the subject is the best.
How about in the scriptures you can study the eternal mind of God? I like to peer into Martin Lloyd-Jones' thoughts. I like to peer into John Calvin's thoughts. I like to peer into, pick your favorite people, Mary Schleser.
I like to peer into people's minds. Maybe your favorite is Elizabeth Elliot, and you just think, the way they thought, the way they talked, the way the old generation just did things. I just wish I could just peer in a little bit.
I'm reading Paul Johnson's biography of Churchill. I thought I wish I could have hung out with Churchill and just sit there and listen to Churchill when he would say, you know, everybody's a worm, worm theology, but I'm a glow worm.
I just find that fascinating. Don't you want to meet that guy and study? In one sense, don't get me wrong, but I'm going to try to be as careful as I can. I am glad the Boston Bruins tanked miserably.
It was embarrassing. By the way, since I was nine years old, my favorite team was always the Boston Bruins, because I pick teams the right way. I pick by color, so I pick yellow. You want to know why I'm a Lakers fan?
Because they were yellow. Pittsburgh Pirates, yellow. So I'm a Boston Bruins fan. But if you're going to study that, I knew when I was a kid, I could tell you the statistics of the only non-yellow team I ever wanted to study, the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
I knew yards per carry, and if you're into football, what we call soccer, you know all this, and you study, and you give all the adoration, and studying late at night. There's nothing wrong with refreshment for the Christian.
There's nothing wrong with rest for the Christian. There's nothing wrong with recreation for the Christian, is there? We're not legalists. I'm not saying you need to go home and smash your Wii and your TV and everything else.
It probably would, though, help a lot of you. But how about the object for your studies? Somebody says, well, you know, what are you doing these days? I'm taking some classes. Oh, really? Taking some classes?
Where? Sure, you know, at the Kenny Bunkport community thing up there in that strip mall? No, I'm studying the eternal mind of God. That's what I'm going to start saying to the few friends that I have left.
The Scriptures reveal the mind of eternal God. And Paul is going to say to the church of Corinth, and I'm going to say to you, isn't that a good subject, to know this God? And by the way, it's not in the text here, but it's a biblical principle.
You will become like the one you study. Even in simple things. You know, they have people, and they show them with their dogs, and you go, after the dog's 15 years old, you see the people walking with their dogs, and you go, they look like their dogs.
Do you know, they have a study, I heard S. Lewis Johnson talking about it, that if you show a brother and a sister at age 50, and then show a husband and a wife at age 50, who have been married 30 years, the husband and wife look more alike than the brother and sister.
The one that you think about and spend time with, you just change. And if you study something, you will become like that something. And if you study the eternal mind of God, guess what? You will increase, if you're a Christian, in your godliness, and you will be more like God.
I don't mean in some kind of pagan little God things, but like God. More holy, more righteous, the eternal mind of God. Look what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 7. I, as your pastor, want to encourage you to keep saturating your mind with the Bible, because it's relevant, one, and number two, it reveals the eternal mind of God.
But we, no word Waldo people here, we, apostles, impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. We impart wisdom from God. And now he's going to say something positively.
If verse 7 was more negatively couched, now this is more positively couched. There is a real wisdom that leads to light and salvation and eternal heaven. And it's not fresh, it's not newly originated, it's not the latest to surely find itself in the dumpster of the outdated.
This is the eternal mind of God. Look what the text says. Decreed before the ages for our glory. Now that is enough to blow your proverbial mind. Did you know the cross was not plan B? Did you know Jesus was to come and die for those people that the Father had given Him, and it was determined in eternity past?
Did you know in eternity past the Father, Son, and the Spirit had a triune pact and promise where they said, let us pick a group of people, everyone deserves hell, but let's rescue some, we'll have the Father choose those some, Jesus the Son will die for those some, and the Spirit of God will redeem those some, before Genesis 1 -1, it was all determined.
And Paul says, I preached you a wisdom where you can have the veil of eternal decrees pulled back, and you get to peek in there and say, this is how God works. Paul says, we impart a secret. Do you see it in verse 7?
The word is mysterion. It doesn't mean mysterious. It means something that nobody knew until God revealed it. So God knew about this, but we didn't know about it until apostles came down and told us the mind of God.
There's something in this word mysterion that conveys the idea of tight-lippedness. Shutting your mouth. Sealed lips. God didn't have to tell us all this stuff about predestination, decree, the eternal Christ Jesus coming to die, the Trinity, but he wasn't tight-lipped, he had a secret, and then he used the apostles to tell us the secret.
This is not some kind of mysterious thing. It needs to be solved. This is something that God only knew, and he now told us. One of my favorite stories, when I think of mysterious, is William Phelps, who taught English literature at Yale for 41 years, retired in 1933.
Marking an examination paper shortly before Christmas one year, he came across this note. God only knows the answer to this question. Merry Christmas. Dr. Phelps returned the paper with this note. God gets an A.
You get an F. Happy New Year. God only knows the eternal decrees, and he didn't have to tell anyone. But through the apostles that he selected, he has revealed this, and it's no longer a mystery. This is not some kind of mystery religion.
This is a religion that God had to himself, and then he revealed it, apocalyptically revealing it. God only knows, and he revealed it to us, and now we know. And we have this wisdom in Scripture, and so if you want to know the eternal mind of God, it's going to take you to open your Bibles to look.
Flip back a book to the very end. You only have to flip over a couple pages, maybe even one page at the end of Romans 16. We have this same kind of language. Romans 16, talking about something that was not known, but true, and then God discloses it.
Romans 16, verse 25 to 27. When you hear the word mystery in the Bible, don't think mysterious. Think about something that only God knew, but he used apostles to disclose to us. Romans 16, 25. Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ.
According to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages, but has now been disclosed, and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations according to the command of the eternal God to bring about the obedience of faith.
Dash to the only wise God, be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ. Amen. That's the idea. We didn't know it. God did. He disclosed it. If the God of the universe discloses things, it's good for us to try to study those things.
You see back in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 7, we've got to wrap up. This is the creed before the ages. For your are our glory. It could have been for his glory, but here it's for our glory. The goodness. One man called the tenderness of God for our supernatural destiny.
Why did he do it? Just because he knew more? He was wiser? Well, it's true. He was wiser. He did know these things, but he did it for his people's glory, his bride's glory. We should study it. One of my favorite things to do of all time is I have a little file in my filing cabinet, and I call it love letters.
And I've saved, I think almost every one of them, I think I have, the letters that Kim would write me. And I would save those, and I thought, you know, I'm going to just kind of pick a rainy day to read some of those.
I keep them down in my garage in my little kind of hut down there, my little enclave. And I just sit there, and I read those things. I think I am the object of her affection. She wrote that about me. She didn't write that about anybody else.
Not you. I was going to say not Mr. Magoo, but that wouldn't work. She wrote them to me. Those letters are going to burn one day. Those letters are important, but they're not eternal. And they reveal her mind and her emotions, and I'm glad for that.
But if I get so amped up on those things, sometimes, by the way, I'll find one that's so good, I'll just set it up on the counter where Kim makes her tea so she has to read it in the morning. I'm thinking, okay, now don't forget now.
I know I've been a pretty big bumbling bum the last few days, but remember what you thought of me, and let your yes be yes and your no be no. Sometimes I like to take ones that I wrote to her and set those out.
God says, I've got my mind, I've got my plan, I've got my will, I've got the decree of the universe, and if He didn't tell anyone, it would be perfectly right and just of God not to tell anyone. But He says, I've told you, and I've told you for your own good and for your glory and for your amazement and for your worship and your awe and your honor so that you could sit there, I mean, for my honor, that you would look at these things and honor me.
Can you contemplate anything greater than the subject of God? His plan. What happens when we die? How the worst thing in the world, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, could be planned by God. So sometimes we become so familiar with something, we just assume it to be true.
We're a Bible teaching church, Bible teaching Awana, Bible teaching Sunday school, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, but I want to encourage you to read the Bible because it is relevant, because it's divine wisdom, and it reveals to you the mind of God.
And we'll learn next week the other four. Jonathan Goforth, 1830. My deepest regret on reaching three score years and ten is that I have not devoted more time to the study of the Bible. Still in less than 19 years, I have gone through the New Testament in Chinese 55 times.
And if he was a weak saint, and we are weak saints, let's now ask God to give us that kind of desire. Pray with me. Our Heavenly Father, we would ask now as children, needy children, disobedient children, children that need your help, what good father wouldn't help a child in need?
And so, Father, we're asking you, the Great Father, the Eternal Father, the Great I Am, that you would help us to become more and more like your Son, Christ Jesus, as we look to the Holy Spirit-inspired divine wisdom in the New Testament through the apostles.
Father, I pray that you'd work in the hearts of people here to increase their trust in the Scripture, its validity. And Father, that you would let no one here hide behind their sin, or immorality, or unrighteousness to somehow defame the Bible.
Father, protect us from that. Help us to live holy lives, so when we look at the mirror, the Scriptures, we see ourselves, but then we look past ourselves to see Christ Jesus, our Captain, our Savior, our Friend, our Redeemer.
Help Bethlehem Bible Church today and the dear visitors that are here to open their Bibles up with joy, longing to see your mind, your eternal mind, that's given to us for our glory in Jesus' name. Amen.
No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroff 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 10 .15 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.
The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff, or management.