The 2026 Pactum Conference

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Apendroth, and I'm justified, yet I still sin. But one day, one day, that will not be true. Justification? The work of God. Sanctification? The work of God.

Glorification? Good luck. Just kidding. The work of God. Monar-gistic. Mono-alone. Erg-work. God-alone-working. And, of course, in sanctification, well, in justification, we respond with the faith that God gives us.

We believe, sanctification, we respond with faith that God gives us, that he's working in us, which leads to mortification and vivification. Somehow, the Italian language keyboard that I had on my phone started translating my English iMessages on my iPhone, and people said, you're speaking Italian.

I said, poorly. I think if there's one place that I'd like to hang out more, it'd be Italy. Now, there's a lot of places I haven't been. If the flight wasn't so long, I sure would love to see Japan one day.

When I was younger, I said to myself, self, where would you not like to go, and I pretty much would want to go everywhere. Maybe not, what's the place where Pat Abenroth was in Russia? I think it's Siberia.

Novosibirsk. Novosibirsk, or something like that. I think Pat said he had, the windows wouldn't open. It was either freezing cold or super hot. They're just like on the search for Diet Coke someplace.

I think that's what he said. Anyway, Mike Abenroth, mike at nocompromiseradio .com. That's how you can write me. If you'd like a book, times 10, write me and I'll get you 40 off. Otherwise, I think October so far has been the slowest selling month for No Compromise Radio.

But you can buy my brother's book on the Ascension. That's a brand new book you can get on Amazon. He's working on a law gospel book as well. I don't know, Broadman and Holman. Maybe that's one on Good Works.

I probably should get going again on books so I'm not surpassed by my smarter, younger brother. In the old days, people would say, who's older? Sometimes they took Pat to be older, probably because he was so skinny in those days.

Why Mike Recommends the Pactum Conference

Now everybody looks at me and they know who's older. It sounds like a guy sitting in a room by himself laughing at his own jokes. That's exactly what it sounds like today. The Pactom. I know that's a podcast that you should be listening to, and many of you do, with Mike Grimes and Pat Abenroth.

But I want to talk about the 2026 Pactom conference for many reasons. One, to encourage you, just in general, to talk about theology and ministry. Two, to encourage you to go next time. I don't think I'll be there in 2027.

Hopefully be on a sabbatical, but I'm betting I'm going to get invited back in 2028. This year at the Pactom. The other thing I want to do, the purpose of the show today, is when the conference audios come out, that you listen to them.

You don't have to listen to mine. I mean, you already listened to this, so that's probably enough. But there are a variety of speakers and a pre-session, and so hopefully you'll listen to those. So anyway, I am happy to go to Omaha, because I was born and raised in Omaha.

Born there in 1960, Clarkson Hospital. Went to Masters Elementary School, not associated with John MacArthur. First I went to Lord Dodge, then Masters, then Morton Junior High, then Omaha Northwest, then the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, stinking Lincoln, and off to California I went.

So I have favorite pizza there. It's called La Casa Pizza. I took my wife there when we first got married, 37 years ago, and a cockroach ran down the plywood wall. Not plywood, what do you call that stuff that you put in basements on the wall, it kind of looks like wood, it's not wood.

Oh, come on. I can't believe I don't know the name of that, but I am older. And so she didn't really like to go back, but it's kind of like a meat pie almost. Romano cheese, Parmesan cheese, some kind of double red tomatoey sauce, extra hamburger.

Or as they say here in New England, Hamburg, Hamburg. You just don't go by hamburger, you buy Hamburg. I don't know why that is. And so I like doing that. They have the Runzes there, of course. Almost like a pierogi kind of thing with cabbage and hamburg in the inside, and a little bit of, I think, onion, salt, pepper, who knows what else.

It's like a little sandwich in a If you're cold, put one in your pocket and you can warm your hands up. Kind of gut bombs. So those are the only places I think I really wanted to go to for old time's sake.

There was a place called Big Bronco's, or Bronco Burger. I didn't make it to Bronco Burger. I drove past the house that I grew up in, 9131 Tomahawk Boulevard, Omaha, Nebraska 68134 -402 -572 -1121. Is that too much information?

The Pactum Speakers and Their Teaching

I thought the house was big, but when I was growing up, the house was very small. Anyway, so I get to Omaha, and these are the speakers. J .V. Fesco, he's now teaching at Jackson RTS campus. He used to be at West Cal.

Great stuff on covenant theology, covenant of works, covenant of redemption, and his new book should be out later this year or early next year on the covenant of grace. And so J .V. was there. Harrison Perkins, I really like Harrison.

He's an OPC pastor up in Detroit area, a really neat guy, friendly, smart, humble, that was the best message I heard him give, and I'll get to those messages in a minute. So those two speakers, Dennis Johnson was there, and Dennis has retired now.

He's emeritus professor, maybe at West Cal, and he has that great book, Hymn We Proclaim, preaching Christ from all the scriptures. And then there was Pat Abendroth, and he gave the intro message, and then I gave the closing message because I had to correct all the speakers, and so Pat said just, you know, whenever they make a mistake, then you clear that up on that last day.

Just kidding. And so those were the speakers. Nepotism is alive and well, but it's not nepotism if you can actually do it. I did talk about Jesus and taught the Bible. So that's the PACM conference in October, and the way Pat bills it, and it actually is true, it's not one of these celebrity conferences.

A Conference Designed to Serve the Local Church

It's not one of these, well, you know, I have five bodyguards, matter of fact, I don't think I had any bodyguards. I should have probably needed one. No bodyguards. Pat tells all the speakers, of which I have been one, let's get there early.

Let's meet with the people. Let's try to encourage them. If they want pictures, if they want a book signed, if they want prayer, if they want to just talk and get to know you, you're there. Don't hang out and there's no green room.

Don't hang out behind the scenes. And so I was the driver of the car, and so we'd leave early to get there early to meet people, thank the folks that were serving. By the way, the people serving behind the scenes, fabulous job.

And I remember going into the kitchen saying, thanks for everything you do. I walked in and I said, I have two things I want to say. Thanks for everything you do, so I get to do what I do. Great service with a smile, joyful servants.

And then number two, is there a Diet Coke back here? Before I forget, I mean, they got trays of cheese and meats and crackers that you could just take with little cranberries. They've got hummus, they had biscotti, I think biscotti means double cooked.

I know biscotti is cookie in Italian. I know that much, Allora, and all kinds of coffee and snacks and sodas. And they just did a great job serving behind the scenes. So these days you might be thinking celebrity conferences, G3's dead.

Shepard's Conference, I think, just did sell out. I don't think the speakers are as, well, I think Michael Reeves, Conrad, I think those two guys are great. I forgot who the other speakers are actually.

What are the big conferences, T4G is gone, Gospel Coalitions, Lib, what are the other big conferences? I know they have a Banner of Truth Conference, that's smaller. I know Deeply Rooted has a conference, that's smaller.

That's why I had to tip Justin. He was there. Justin Bice was at the conference in Omaha. Anyway, there's nothing wrong with having conferences. I think the way they should be done is with the attitude of, this is here to serve the local church, bring in other speakers that say the same things we do in the pulpit to have some additional speaking.

If you have a men's breakfast, is there anything wrong with a men's breakfast and have a guest speaker in? Obviously, so you could have it, instead of one message at a men's breakfast, several on Friday night, several on Saturday, and it's for the local church, and then anyone else that wants to come.

How do we serve the people at church with additional Bible teaching? For those that need a theological tune-up, for those that need extra teaching, for those that need to be reminded, we're not replacing Sunday ordinary means, we're not replacing Lord's Day worship, but we're just giving the people more Bible teaching.

Some conferences end up having the speakers just give kind of a warmed-over sermon, and that's the message. They just think, well, I've been working on such and such a passage, such and such a topic, I'm going to jam that into the overall topic of the conference.

Everything I've done for PACT, the last several years since PACT started, it's new, it's original, in terms of the main conference, and it's something that I've been assigned, and I have to work on it.

It's not a sermon I preached five years ago and I just warm it up. We call those sugar stick sermons, something you preached in the past, people seem to respond well to, and then you preach it. But anyway, it's new stuff.

So it's in the fall, it's in Omaha. I did double check online with chat, my friend chat, and he, she, it said that I could wear my seersucker suit on October 3rd and 4th if it was sunny and a nice day in Omaha.

I think technically you're not supposed to wear seersucker past September 30th, but there was a little exception. And I thought to myself, self, people in Nebraska don't know about fashion anyway. Well, that does, but I'm going to, I'm going to blaze the trail.

And so I'm going to do it anyway. So I did it. I had some nice compliments. People wanted to know where my socks are, but I had these special slip on loafer type of shoes that I got in Italy, or maybe I got them here and they're just Italian.

Christ-Centered Preaching and the Use of the Law

I can't remember. Did I mention I like to go to Italy? And let's see, okay. Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio. We're talking about the Pactam Conference. And the Pactam Conference was this year on covenant theology.

In the past, I think it's been law gospel. Next year, it's the divine mystery of sanctification. I think that's the title of it or sanctification, Walter Marshall stuff, how to live a holy life in light of God's work in your life.

God sanctifying, we respond with holy living, no to sin, yes to righteousness while we are believing. This year it was covenant theology. And there was a pre-conference and the pre-conference had three speakers.

And first speaker was Dennis Johnson on preaching. The pre-conference is for pastors, elders, seminary students, those that want to be leaders, deacons, aspiring young men for pastoral ministry. And it's Saturday morning.

And so Dennis Johnson talked about Christ-centered preaching. And the one thing I remember that he said, and I want to re-listen to it, is when it comes to preaching to Christians, of course we preach the law, right?

There's the third use of the law. We're not antinomian. We want our congregation to live holy lives and we want to instruct them. God is holy and good and righteous, and therefore so is his law. And his law is something that helps us as we live in light of who God is.

It helps our neighbor. It benefits them when we obey the law. And it glorifies the Lord. So it's good for us. It's good for our neighbor. It glorifies the Lord. Obviously we teach third use of the law over and over and over.

It's in books. It's in my sanctification series. Speaking of which, Brandon Kimber of American Gospel, American Gospel 3 is out. I think I recorded two hours worth of stuff for him, and he put me in for like five minutes, which is more than I deserve.

And he'll be here on Sunday, I think, worshiping with us. So I'm going to have to talk to him about that, which is fine. I don't care. People don't need to listen to me while you're listening to me right now.

And so basically when it comes to Christ-centered preaching, you either follow the apostolic model, seeing Christ in the Old Testament like they did, or you come up with your own model. Now, when I was in seminary, they would say things like, since we're not apostles, we can't do what the apostles do.

And of course I'm not inspired like the apostles. God's not revealing truth to me like he did the apostles. But if I don't use the apostolic method, I'm going to use a different method of interpreting the Bible.

And which method would that be? Enlightenment, anti-supernatural, who would tell me? And therefore, Dennis Johnson really stressed the apostolic model. And back to the law part, making sure we don't exclude grace that motivates our obedience to the law, third use.

The gospel motivates, Jesus motivates, giving us the spirit so that we might obey. And then he went to Sinai in Exodus 19, and God revealing himself in his law, no mediator, thunder, lightning, frightening, spooky.

And he said, these are my words, I think I have the dare part correct. Don't you men, don't you dare withhold the mediator from the people when you preach the law. Wow. We're preaching the law to people and we should, but if we're only preaching the law on the Lord's day, that's wrong.

We should not be withholding the mediator. They have a mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Timothy 2, verses 4, 5, and 6. There's one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. And therefore, don't withhold the mediator from the people.

Remember the way you could think about it is the law from the hand of Christ, from the mediator. He's the one. I've paid for your sins. I've lived for you, for your righteousness and for your good, for your neighbor's good and my glory obey this law.

And now you can. Christ for pardon, Christ for power, duplex gratia, gratia. So that was very, out of everything that was said that weekend, that was the thing that really stuck with me. How dare you withhold the mediator when you're preaching God's law to God's people.

That was very, very good. Then JV Fesco, he talked about counseling and he wrote a book about counseling. Of course, there's all kinds of counseling on the spectrum from ACBC, the old days NANC, CCEF, there's integrationists, there's just purely secular psychology.

And what do we do and how do we go about it? And could we use God's two books when it comes to helping people, God's revealed word and then the book of nature. And of course, Proverbs 6, it even tells us in God's revealed word to go outside the word and look at an ant and see what they do and we could learn from them.

And so he was not trying to say I'm pro-integration, but I'm pro-natural law. God's book of nature, God's book of his word. So that was really good. And then I batted clean up on the pre-conference and I talked about surviving pastoral ministry.

Full-time almost 30 years and for a few years I was in ministry helping in Grace Church. So let's just say 33 years of ministry. How do you survive ministry when so many pastors burn out, are depressed?

I even think of Darren Patrick who put together a bunch of Barna information about how many pastors are burnt out and how many pastors' wives wish their husband would do something else and actually remembered Darren committed suicide sadly years ago, he was 49 years old and just how difficult pastoral ministry can be.

It's like when you see the president of the United States before and after and how much older they look and grayer they look. So I tried to encourage people not to forget about their Savior and their friend, the Lord Jesus.

And it was kind of a grace-based, gospel-centered encouragement to hold the line, to be faithful in light of all that God has done. Don't quit on Mondays, you know, work out, that kind of stuff. So that was the pre-conference.

Fellowship and Encouragement Among Pastors

Just a little side note and deviation, it was great to see so many friends there. What a great opportunity for fellowship. And I've been at some conferences where I didn't care for the teaching, but I was there for the fellowship.

Right? You go there to see old friends. It's like a class reunion in some sense. And there's everything right with seeing friends to encourage one another. Actually, that's a biblical command, encourage one another.

And when I go to conferences, I'm hurting physically or emotionally, or there's problems at the local church that are weighing on me heavily, then other people encourage me. And then I also think, all right, things seem to be going well with me, for me now, therefore I'm going to go encourage other people and pray with them, cry with them, come alongside them.

And there's everything right with fellowship of like-minded believers. And so we had that. I spent some time with Justin Perdue. We had a lot of laughs. My son Luke was there with his men, John Haynes and his son, and a couple of the guys, Renee, of course, was there, my stepson, as I'll call Renee.

And that was good to see those men, of course, a family, Redemption North County. By the way, you should pull up Redemption North County, California, sermons, eight week series on the family, but buckle up because if you're a feminist, you're going to be very offended.

Go Luke, go. So it was great to see those guys. I met Josh Loftus, I think that's his last name. That was fun. He's a fun fellow, fine fellow, friendly fellow. I wasn't going to say odd fellow. That's not...

Odd fellow's all... No, but it was good to see him and his friend, okay, I'm thinking, and co-laborer, Jack. It was good to meet Jack and so many other people. Taylor Sinclair was there, my assistant, Justin, Austin Hobbs and his wife, Ashton.

So many people, I mean, I'm going to miss people. Like I said, Justin Bice was there, lots of folks, it was just fun to hang out. What Pat does well is he has special things too. So Thursday night's a special dinner at Todd and Laura Swift's house on a little lake and then they have this awesome dinner.

I mean, Laura is such a great cook, Todd's a great host and a great bicycle rider, by the way. And in the day was a good basketball player and the food is awesome. So what Pat does is he invites pastors, especially pastors from small towns and guys that need encouragement and then they all come.

Oh, I forgot this. Oh, I'll get to that. And so we're all there and what I like to do is there's name tags, so I usually put a fake name tag on, Bob Godfrey, John Piper, Daniel Fuller, I've done a variety of those.

Special dinners, lunches on Saturday at the Bliss's house, Bliss's are just super encouraging. I mean, Mike is just so friendly, so enthusiastic with all kinds of Nebraska memorabilia as well in the barn.

So Pat does a great job with that. It's not just conference, but even like Sunday night, Dennis Johnson, Kofi, oh, Kofi was there. How could I forget my nephew Kofi? Kofi was there. We had pictures on the Packham couch and I started singing Ebony and Ivory and he thought it was funny and I just laughed at my own joke.

People are like, what are you doing? You're insane. Whatever. We were just having a lot of fun. Yeah, but you know, Kofi's at every conference, so I think he's a Simeon Trust this week. Anyway, lots of friends and behind the scenes things.

So that was good. It's just more than a, it's more than a conference. You get the pre-sessions, you got the special invites, you know, morning, noon, and night, that kind of stuff. Like I said, I'm the driver and I get to hang out with Dennis Johnson, Fesco, Harrison, and so Dennis Johnson is 78 years old, still very insightful, warm, reminded me of some of my friends 30 years ago for Dallas Seminary, just the kindest, warmest, Christ-centered people.

I really appreciated Dennis. Like I said, 78 years old, but still warm, plays pickleball three times a week, I heard, and it was just good to get to know him. Well, we had the conference. The conference was on covenant theology and Friday night, three sessions, Saturday, three or four sessions, but Friday night we had, and Pat was the mastermind behind all this with Harrison Perkins, we had a special tribute to Scott Clark.

So Pat also flew in Scott Clark and presented him a book, a feshtrif, different theologians who've been influenced by Scott and have benefited from Scott's ministry, and they wrote chapters. And so Pat and I were the only Baptists who wrote a chapter, I think it's called Friendly Fire or something like that, please don't put us in jail when the Christian nationalists take over, something like that.

And so Harrison, I was on the platform with Harrison, it was mainly Harrison and Pat, but I was up there because I contributed. And we presented Scott with the first book because they were printed and sent there.

And we honored Scott that night, standing ovation, Scott, I could see was teary eyed and touched. And so that was really, really neat because a lot of us have received good law gospel teaching and understanding reformed faith and confessions.

And we're talking about practice, piety and practice. And so that was on Friday night. So we had Fesco Perkins and Pat Abendroth speak that night, and then the next day, I think it was Johnson, Fesco, and then me.

Covenant Theology: One People, Two Adams, Three Covenants

So Covenant of Redemption, it's called the Pactum Salutis, was the main session, I think that Pat did. And then we had Covenant of Works, Covenant of Grace, Covenant Theology for in life, why is it practical?

That's what I did. And one of the things that I did to make some Bible teaching in this no-go is I said, if you understand Covenant Theology, forget all the end time stuff. You can be Covenant Theologian of Covenant of Redemption, Covenant of Works, Covenant of Grace, and still think there's a future for Israel.

I mean, you're on your way to not think that, but that's okay. S. Lewis Johnson, think of those guys. So it wasn't an eschatological thing, it was the undergirding rebar. And one of my points, the practical application of Covenant Theology is it simplifies the Bible into a simple one, two, three.

If you remember one, two, three about Covenant Theology, it will make the Bible so much easier. And as you look at the Bible, I mean, 66 books, three languages, many authors, Eastern mindset, different geography, different genres of literature like poetry, prophecy, law, apocalyptic genealogy, historical narrative, different culture.

If you don't understand honor, shame, ancient warfare, sacrificial worship, purity laws, arranged marriages, it becomes hard. But if you remember Covenant Theology, it's as simple as one, two, three. One people of God, two Adams, three theological covenants.

One people of God, given to the Son in eternity past, inter-eternitarian agreement, eternal counsel, called the Pactum Salutis, the covenant of redemption, and the Lord, God the Father gives to the Son, a particular people to go redeem.

So if you think that, you're already on your way to one people of God, because it is one people of God. The elect, one people of God, two Adams, the first Adam and the last Adam, Adam himself and Jesus, and all men hang on one of the two Adams girdles, as Thomas Watson said.

First Corinthians 15, thus it is written, the first man Adam became a living being, the last Adam became a life giving spirit. And you can go to Romans five to see that as well. And then three, so one people of God, two Adams, three theological covenants.

Now sometimes people talk about bi-covenantalism and other things, and without getting into every little detail on which one goes with which, if you remember three theological covenants, the covenant of redemption, the eternal agreement within the Trinity concerning the redemption of God's elect, the covenant of works, that covenant that God had with Adam requiring perfect, exact, entire obedience, let's see, no, personal, entire, exact, perpetual obedience.

And then the covenant of grace, God's gracious covenant with sinners, that's progressively revealed and administered through biblical covenants fulfilled in Christ. Maybe I could just say it that way, the gospel.

So it helps simplify things, one, two, three, covenant theology, simple as one, two, three, one people of God, two Adams, three theological covenants. So that's what I did. Anyway, the Pactam Conference, you should sign up for, very, very encouraging, lots of fun things.

There's the Pactam Snow Globe, there's the Pactam Couch. You can go in to see the Pactam Studio and Mike Grimes and Pat do a great job. And so I just wanted to kind of give an update and a little promo on the Pactam Conference because I think it's the best conference in the world.

And to just see behind the scenes Pat's heart for people and for the speakers. And might I say, especially for pastors that have reached out to him saying, I'm kind of on the road to covenant theology, but kind of rough here or there.

I'm just understanding long gospel. Can you help me there? What does this have to do with this confession and how can I understand it better? There's no one better than Pat. So if you're a NoCo listener and you need encouragement, I will love to try to encourage you.

But especially Pat Ebendroth would be a help when it comes to the Midwest. And it's in Omaha, so it's in Central America, technically the Midwest, so it may be easy for everybody to get there. My name is Mike Ebendroth, talking about the Pactam.

The Pactam salutas, the Pactam of redemption, of eternal peace, and the Pactam Conference at the Pactam, I believe, .com. You want to go there 2027, Tom Hicks, Michael Beck, forgot the other guys. If I'm not going there, who cares?