Evangelism Opportunities

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.

My name is Mike Abendroth, and we here aren�t quite live, although I�m looking at the studio equipment, and we have the ability to go live. And so, if we needed to go live someday, we could. I could take calls.

Many people have asked over the years, �Why don�t you take calls And you know, if we did take calls, it would probably make it easier for me and harder. Easier first. Easier because I wouldn�t have to prepare so much, because, you know, I prepare hours for every show.

I�ve actually prepared a lifetime for every show. And I usually don�t prepare at all. I just try to find something that I think would be interesting that I would like to listen to and then do the show that way.

But it�s usually out of a reservoir of, you know, 20-some years teaching the Bible. Then it would be hard because I really want to be nice to folks. And if you meet me and have a cup of coffee, we would be nice to one another.

I would be nice to you at least. And if you�re on the phone asking me questions, if it�s a good question, then I would love to say, �Oh, that�s a great question and insightful. Way to go. I�m glad you�re thinking those thoughts.

But if it�s a bad question, then I have to say, �Well, isn�t that kind of a dumb question I remember when I was filling in for Tom Krause in WV &E, and there would be people who would call in. And some of them, you know, great questions.

And some of them had agendas or wanted to talk about politics or sports or something like that. And maybe some disagreed or got mad or whatever. So it just made it a little more difficult. So maybe someday, but again, I have a full-time job.

This is just kind of on the side. I try to record four or five shows a week, so that takes about two and a half hours of sitting here talking. And I don�t try to study anything above and beyond my normal studies for the local church ministry here at Bethlehem Bible Church.

Evangelistic Opportunities in an Increasingly Decaying Society

I�d like to talk a little bit about some evangelistic opportunities that come up, because I have a desire for you to preach the gospel to people, and if necessary, use words. I�m just kidding. It�s just a joke.

We live in a society where it is decaying rapidly before our very eyes. In America, we aren�t going to recognize this place. And when our president said he was going to make radical changes, if change was the issue, he�s kept his word on that.

That is for certain. So what do we do? What�s the Christian response to all these issues that are flying around? And so I want to make sure you keep the main thing, the main thing. I want you to remember that we are not post-millennial at this show.

I don�t talk much about eschatology with the millennial issues, pre, post, ah, pan�s not so funny anymore, but pro is. Who would be against a millennium? I mean, even my ah-mill friends, if there was a real millennium, they wouldn�t be against it.

If they were wrong in their eschatological views, they wouldn�t be against it if it really happened. Right for all of us with eschatology, there�s going to be some surprises, I would guess. And whatever really happens, we�ll all be really happy for.

We�ll be glad that Jesus has fulfilled the word, and Jesus is going to come back triumphantly physically. So what do we do? Can we Christianize our society? Should we try to stop the inevitable slide into oblivion, spiritual oblivion, as these religious ah, people that hate Christianity rule, whether that�s in Indiana or any other place.

By the way, I�ve always wondered, if you can�t, you know, you force me to bake a cake for a gay couple, I don�t do that, but if somebody said, �I�m forcing you to make a Nazi SS cake to celebrate fascism, you�re forcing me to bake a cake with a bunch of white hoods for the Ku Klux Klan, you�re forcing me to bake cupcakes for NAMBLA and I say, �No.

You know, you try to hire my sound people to do, you know, background information for something that�s promoting pornography. So I mean, it is just a wacky world. What�s that Ralph Waldo Emerson quote, to be exact?

I made sure, I mean, I always mess it up, so I made sure to actually have it in front of me today. Since you know Ralph Waldo Emerson, he�s a Massachusetts kind of guy, I�m in Massachusetts, and he writes in the 1800s, �A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.

I always mess that up. I always talk about foolish inconsistencies are the hobgoblins of little minds or something like that. I mean, I just, I don�t get it down quite perfectly. And what he�s saying is, you know, who wants to like, you know, make sure everything�s all detailed, consistent, there�s a logical thought to, you know, every angle.

But anyway, let me give you the full quote, because it tries to condemn people like me too. �A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.

I�m not saying I am divine, I�m saying, to use the small �d�, �divines you know, studiers of theology and the Bible. So what do we do? Here on No Compromise Radio, I want to push you to do the main thing.

Keep the main thing the main thing. You�ve heard that 100 times. No, that�s not from Ralph Waldo Emerson. I think that�s from Ann Hutchinson or some crazy Jesus. �The resurrected Jesus gives a commission, gives a command.

These are the words I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me and the law and law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their mind to understand the scriptures.

�And he said to them, �Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem.

You are witnesses to these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you, but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. Then he led them out as far as Bethany and lifting up his hands, he blessed them.

While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple blessing God. We have a commission.

For us, it�s the great commission, right, to go evangelize. And so what you need to do, in my opinion, is look for opportunities to preach the gospel. And you need to be as wise as you can, and looking for that little type of leverage to make sure you talk about the Lord, prayerfully saying, �Lord, help me figure out ways to talk about your Son.

So a while ago, my two daughters and I were in a car accident, and it could have been a very bad car accident, just get a new 2015 car, trade in the old one, get a newer one. I�m not really into cars that much, I just want them to start and to pass inspection sticker stuff.

That�s a stressful thing when the check engine light�s on and you�re trying to get it passed, man. So we�re driving and someone was at a red light and they just decided, 64-year-old guy, he wasn�t drinking or on any medication, and he�s at a red light and he just decided to go.

And so I swerved some, I was going about 40 miles an hour through this highway intersection, and I swerved and I thought, I�m going to make it, I�m going to make it, I�m going to make it, swerving around him.

And then he hit the back of my car and we spun around in a 360. I looked to my daughter and said, �Are you okay, are you okay And my daughter had just been changing some clothes in the car. She was teaching ski lessons and she was changing out of her boots and other things, so she had her seatbelt off and then she put it back on and then we had the car accident.

Coink-a-dink. I was lucky, a lot of fortuitous chance there. The Lord was very much, of course, in control of that situation and every situation and we�re thankful, very thankful to be alive. My neck was sore for a couple of days.

You know, that was about it. Well, I want to tell you the whole story because it�s interesting, but we don�t really need to get there because I�m sidetracked. So I finally, after like 40 days, got the car returned because it wasn�t total, they fixed it.

And then I went there and they left the key in the car, but it was locked, I didn�t have my wife�s key to get there. So I didn�t know this, instead of putting a hanger in to get the car door unlocked, they had this blood pressure cuff type of instrument and they would blow it up in between the door and the body of the car and it would open it up just enough by pumping in the air, putting in another one, pumping in the air, and then could get access to the lock and then they unlock the car.

I thought that�s pretty amazing to kind of wiggle in through there to get access, to have this little opening to get the job done. So similarly with evangelism, I was at the gym, which leads me to this, and I�m not asking for the church to pay for my gym membership, although, you know, maybe I could.

I�m not. It�s just a joke. I can�t believe how many people I�ve been able to preach the gospel to at the gym. Lord, I�m there to work out, I have my headphones on usually because I don�t really like to hear music that�s like �rah, rah, rah, rah.

You can tell I�m getting older, right? So it�d be nice to hear the lyrics, but in those particular songs, I�m not sure that would be good either. And I�m usually working on my sermon, you know, I�ve got my iPad, so I�m working on issues.

And who wants to hear �rah, rah, rah, rah� when you�re working on your sermon? We have special effects on No Compromise Radio. And so I thought, you know, I�m there to preach the gospel to people. And so, you know, I�m there to work out and all that stuff too.

But I�m just looking for those opportunities. So may today, sharing some of these stories with you, I encourage you to do the very same because remember, I�m paid to be good in evangelism, and you�re good for nothing.

No, I think pastors and leaders and missionaries should be very evangelistic. And you think of 2 Timothy chapter 4, you know, do the work of an evangelist. Some people really seem skilled in evangelism.

Some people, you know, are shy. Every Christian needs to talk to people about the good news. And so I love being at places where there�s unbelievers. I rarely get out much. It was like Chuck Swindoll telling people at Mount Hermon, oh, at the Christian Conference Center in Santa Cruz, how many of you, you know, live here in Mount Hermon, have houses here in Mount Hermon, the area?

A bunch of people raised their hand and he said, I�m sorry. So I feel bad for you because you don�t really get out among unbelievers very often. And how exciting it is to preach the gospel. I mean, talk about feelings.

Talk about do the right thing via biblical thinking, and then having God reward you with the feelings of, wow, that I could speak well of the Son. So let�s talk some about just regular evangelism, and let me give you two quick reminders before I give you some anecdotal stories.

Well, they�re true. They�re not anecdotal really, but the first thing we have to remember, or you have to remember when you evangelize is this, is that you evangelize for the glory of God primarily. Okay?

Evangelize for the glory of God. Now everyone is saying right now, great, amen, we believe that, that�s obvious. So let me tell you what that implies then, infers. What are the consequences of that idea?

It means that your number one goal in evangelism is not the salvation of other people. It�s not to close the deal. It�s not to get them to believe. It�s not to get them to repent. It�s not to get them to change their mind.

The number one goal is the glory of God. See, if you have your goal, your ultimate goal, as well, you know what, I think I want them to believe so I can maybe put a tick mark in my Bible so I can be glad that they�re not going to go to hell if they were to die in a car accident or any other kind of accident.

What will happen? Well, you may be tempted to water down the gospel. You may be tempted to minimize the doctrine of the holiness of God and His just wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness and sin.

You may be tempted to talk about sin as making good things ultimate only versus a sin against God that stems from a lack of faith and a rebellious unbelief, which leads to lawlessness, which ultimately talks about then things like idolatry and other things.

So what we do with evangelism is you think, I�m here for the glory of God. So what would give God glory? That I would speak well of His Son. This is the Father�s voice heard in Scripture, and it was heard out loud in that day, �This is my beloved Son in whom I�m well pleased.

And again, on another occasion, �This is my beloved Son, hear Him. Right? This is the apple of my eye. So when you speak properly about Jesus, Jesus, He was fully man. Jesus was fully God. Jesus was virgin born.

Jesus kept the Father�s Word and always did His will. Jesus loved God with all His heart, soul, mind, and strength and loved His neighbor as Himself. Jesus self-sacrificially died on Calvary. Jesus raised from the dead.

Jesus ascended. Jesus to return. Jesus can forgive sins on earth, but He can because of what He did with a substitutionary death paying the penalty for all those who would ever believe. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus.

I love to tell people there�s no one like Jesus. Nobody talked like He did. Nobody preached like He did. Nobody was pure and holy like Him. He never sinned. He never gossiped. He never slandered. He never coveted.

He never envied. He never lusted. He didn�t do any of these things. Who is like Jesus? He can heal blind eyes. He can heal deaf ears. He can heal mute mouths. Who is like Him? You know, you think of a Savior who seeks and saves those that are lost.

He gives His own life a ransom for many. I almost stuttered there. I think I did stutter. Time for some Pete�s Coffee. At NOCO Radio is a Twitter account. We�ve been ramping up Twitter a little bit, so if you�d like to get on there, that�d be great.

You can go to the YouTube channel as well. I think we�re up to 100 episodes as of this real-time recording. We recorded a bunch more in my study, and we�ve got a bunch of graveyard scenes recorded as I would ask questions of Phil Johnson, Carl Truman, and James White separately.

It was a freezing day a few years ago, by the way. Two years ago now? Three years ago? It was when Carl had hair. That�s when it was. Oh, man. So we, number one, preach for the glory of God. Number two, don�t forget about depravity.

Don�t forget about depravity. If you forget about spiritual inability, spiritual corruption, Adam�s imputed sin, which consequently has people, all people except Jesus, as born with sin nature, then you�re going to try to talk about apologetics in a wrong way.

If you know they�re dead, then there�s going to be no sign, no archeology, no �my life has changed� kind of thing. You�re going to just have to tell them the Bible. The message comes from you about Jesus, right?

That�s how people get saved. That�s Romans 10, 17. Faith comes by hearing a message about Christ. So you remember those two things. So I was going to go this whole show talking about anecdotal messages, and now I need to at least give one.

So my wife introduced me to a lady, and she�d lost her husband, and I�m known as the pastor around there at the gym. She was sad. I tried to empathize with her. My wife and I were talking, and then I said, �Well, it sounds like to me� she said she couldn�t really go back to the church she was at anymore, and it was a pagan church, by the way, universalistic kind of church, federated.

I like federal headship. I don�t like federated churches when you have Baptist congregationalists and Unitarians all get together. How does that work? I don�t know. So I said, �Well, it sounds like to me you need some good news.

Oh, she said, �I�d love some good news. And off I go. I have good news. Here�s who Jesus is, the king, sovereign. There�s a comforter that he gives, the Holy Spirit, and off we were, as we would say, off to the races.

Someone said, �I�d like to get together with you and talk about things and we sat down over a coffee. This was in the last week, and the small talk started, and I tried to immediately get to other issues, and he said that he had had a stroke recently.

He�s 61, I believe, and that he was worried about where he was going to go when he died. He grew up kind of in a Baptistic church, married a Roman Catholic lady, but loves the Thomas Jefferson Bible, which guts all the supernatural aspects of Christianity, including the resurrection, and he wasn�t sure about the resurrection of Jesus.

And so what did I do? I said, �Well, I�m super glad that you want to talk about spiritual things and that this stroke�sorry that you had it, by the way� �made you think of eternal things. And so I said to him�and by the way, I bought the coffee, so I had some capital invested� $250.

And I said, �Well, it was good that you want to talk about these things, because if it�s not this kind of stroke, it�ll be something else, and then you�ll stand before God, and then what I said, �I think you�d agree with me that God�s holy and pure, Heaven�s holy and pure, there�s going to be no sin in Heaven, or there wouldn�t be Heaven anymore, so how�s a sinful man like you going to get to Heaven?

You don�t believe in any kind of supernatural stuff, but now you�re telling me you believe in Heaven. I said, �Here�s what I know about you, because I know me as well, and I know humanity. We�re realists, you know, you can talk about, �I�m not a sinner, I�ve got a disease or an ailment or a condition or some bad behavior, or I don�t sin, I commit crimes.

You can talk that way all you want, but deep down, I said, �Here�s what we know. I said, �I know this, because whatever you are, I�m worse than you, but I know that you�re a liar, and that you are envious, you�re covetous, you don�t love other people like you should, you don�t love God like you should, you committed lust, in your mind at least.

I went through all this, self-righteous, prideful, I said, �All these things are sin, they�re sin, you�re sinful, and your body�s decaying. Why? Because of sin. So, let�s just talk frankly, man-to-man, about sin.

Sin is so bad, sin is so wicked. I mean, it is, and I use this line all the time, and so I said to him, because he kind of studies history, and so I was bringing a lot of stuff back to war motifs, and I said, �How many times does it take for a peasant to spit in a king�s face before the king executes the guy, banishes him

He said, �Only one. I said, �Yeah, can you imagine, only one sin And then I began to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ and His work, His life, and then I began to talk about this resurrected Savior, and you have to believe in Him.

I said, �If you have a Bible, you say you�re reading John, but you don�t believe in Jesus, you don�t believe that He was the resurrected One, I�m the resurrection of life, and you don�t believe it. And I said, �If my father were here, and he were to say to you, �I�ve served in the Korean War, and I even went to Korea and you would say, �No, you didn�t.

You�re not taking Him at His Word, you�re not believing Him. And you have to believe Jesus, you have to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you have to turn from this kind of anti-supernatural thinking.

I mean, other than that, I mean, I guess what we do is we say, �This is all a chemical reaction or, �You�re nothing, you�re just like an animal. So, why are we even having this conversation? But I said, �See, deep down you know there�s more.

God has made you in His likeness and image. He said, �Eternity in your heart, and there is forgiveness found in Christ Jesus for people like you. You�ve got to take Him at His Word. When you read about Jesus in the Gospel, and He says, �I am the Lamb of God or you know, John said that of Him, �but I am the Bread of Life, I am the Resurrection and the Life, I am the Light of the World.

Who would just come into a restaurant, if I just sat down here over a cup of coffee and I told you, �Hi, my name is Mike Ebenroth, I�m the Light of the World. I mean, even Bono, the other day, when asked by that news reporter, �Jesus is either the Lord, who I think He is Bono said, �or He�s just nuts.

He�s just off the deep end. Well, anyway, my name is Mike Ebenroth. We�re talking about evangelism today. Evangelize to the glory of God. Well, let�s do it this way. Evangelize. Evangelize to the glory of God.

And evangelize knowing you need to talk to people about the Lord Jesus Christ from the Bible, because they�re so depraved. Nothing else will cut to the heart of a man except the Word of God, Hebrews 4, verse 12.

Mike Ebenroth here, No Compromise Radio. Don�t forget, you can write me at info at nocompromiseradio .com.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebenroth 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.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.