Communion Practices

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

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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

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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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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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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

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Avendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, where God broke the law for love.

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Oh, sorry. That was a Stephen Furtick quote. Excuse me for that. And you know what? I saw the legalese on the beginning of that.

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You can only have fair use of it. So I don't know if you can actually say, this is No Compromise Radio, where God broke the law for love, because that's, it's exclusive to Stephen Furtick.

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Okay. Well, that was just in my opinion. So I'm always safe if I, you know, from the lawsuits, if I just say, in my opinion.

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In my opinion. Steve, you're preaching through the

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London Baptist Confession, or teaching through on Sunday school, right? You're not using that as your text to preach. Preaching through the sacred text of the

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London Baptist Confession. Anything really jump out that you think is either A, great, or B.

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Uh -oh. Because our website, it says, you know, these are some of the reasons why we use it.

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And we're in, you know, general agreement or whatever. Well, I mean, the first thing that jumped out at me was it was written in 1678 instead of 1689.

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So that's. That's interesting. Those poor guys in the 1644 edition. Yeah. But, you know, it was illegal to publish until they changed the laws.

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So that's why it didn't get published until 1689. Well, they broke the law for love. Which you won't do.

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All right. I think it's Love Baptist Confession. That's the LBC. Oh, yeah. Love, love, love.

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You know, do some things jump out at me. Well, I mean, the one thing that jumps out at me, and I've told you, I don't even think you want to go down the road, you know, the

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Sabbath. I just think, you know, it's pretty much it's, it's pretty, it reads kind of Sabbatarian to me.

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Well, Steve, this last Sunday, I preached Hebrews 7, 23, 24 and 25. There was a shower here for one of the ladies, a bridal shower or something.

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So my wife and children stayed back for that. And I went home and I ate something. I took a nap.

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I rode 44 miles on Sunday Sabbath on the bicycle. But I, to redeem it and to make it appropriate and acceptable and proper,

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I listened to about seven Abounding Grace radio shows with Pastor Chris Gordon, and I figured that made it up.

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I thought you were going to say, you know, I pulled over and helped some people. Well, that's actually what

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I was doing, Steve. Thank you for clarifying that. I know you're here to help me. I was just riding my bicycle around trying to find people that I could help.

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It was a work of mercy. Yeah. Deeds of mercy. It was a work of mercy. I was looking for that. Good. Good for you. But I did come back on Sunday night at 530.

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I unlocked the church and we had our prayer meeting. Yes, we did. Yeah. Okay. Anything else?

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Since I've got this thing in front of me, Steve, the pastor's resources for helping pastors grow big hair churches.

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I noticed the communion cups that we can get, the value price communion cups. Would you, this is a serious question now.

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Would you go give someone the Lord's supper if they said, you know what,

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I'm a shut in or I'm in the hospital and I'd like the Lord's supper. Would you go and give them that even though this is supposed to be the communion of the saints?

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How would that work out? They're on oxygen.

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They can't get to church. They'd like to have communion. Would you grab like 10 people and go do it? Sure.

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You know, they have those little kits, those little things that you can take to give communion places outside the church.

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Yeah. Yeah. Sure. If they said, you know what, I'm a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm hooked up to oxygen.

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This trial has caused me to believe and I have real faith and I just was reading my Bible the other day. I know I don't have long to live.

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The doctor says I'll never get out of here alive. I'd like to be baptized. I don't know if you can dunk me, but would you sprinkle me?

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No. No. I just wouldn't do it.

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I'd talk to him about what baptism is and then I'd say, you know what, I just wouldn't.

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I wouldn't do it. Okay. So, I mean, and here's the thing. I'd do it.

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Well, that's because, you know, you're, you know. I would do it on the

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Sabbath. I'd ride my bicycle there, get off the bike. I'm not part of the UFC denomination yet, so I can't.

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What is UFC? United Fight Club? Yeah. Yeah. Or something, you know. Ultimate, ultimate fighting championship.

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You know, I always bust the people's chops. Don't ever go to a church that starts with a U kind of thing. That'd be my general advice to my children, you know,

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United, Unitarian, Universalist and everything. What if it was Ultimate? Ultimate, Ultimate Bible Church.

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Right. There's a name. Why don't we go for that? Yeah. I mean, there's XL, right? Now this is

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Ultimate. But then maybe somebody would do like the penultimate. Well that's not as good though. I know.

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But they're thinking if they add a word, they're thinking maybe penultimate. See penultimate, penultimate would be our offspring, our church plant.

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Johansson. Yeah. Harry or somebody. Our church plant, because it would be almost ultimate, you know.

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Well if somebody called me and they were at the hospital and they were a new convert and they wanted to get baptized,

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I wouldn't mind sprinkling them. I'd explain what I believe and I also wouldn't mind giving them communion.

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What I would probably do, Steve, since it is something for the church to do and for officers to administrate,

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I think, I'd probably bring a group of people from the church. We'd sing some songs. Yeah.

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And it would be more of a communion, not just the one person. Yeah. I just couldn't,

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I couldn't do the baptism thing, especially knowing that I, I mean, I understand what you're saying. I'm just like, you know, my conscience would be like, okay, the thief on the cross gets in heaven without being baptized.

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I'm not going to run around sprinkling people, you know, so. What if somebody at a wedding that you were officiating said, you know, we'd like to light a unity candle and then after that we'd like to have communion together, our first communion.

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Would you do that? I'm really not, I'm really not in favor of that.

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I would say if you guys want to, I mean, I guess I've seen it. I just know because it's for the church.

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So if they said, well, we want to have the whole congregation do it, okay. You know what I mean? I don't know.

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You know, we can, we can have this be more of a church service. I've been to some weddings where I thought, where I could,

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I could think, well, that would fit right in because it's so Christ honoring and everything else. It feels like a worship service, right?

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Lots of hymns and other things going on. You mean communion for the entire church? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I, but I, you know, just for the couple alone, no, no,

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I wouldn't go for that. When I officiate weddings, I try to let the people, you know, what they'd like to do in terms of the order of service and everything else.

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I mean, it's essentially the same, but I try to give them some, some, you know, some decision making, and we'd like to have this particular passage read or whatever, but you've got singing and you've got preaching and you've got, you know, vows and stuff like that.

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But I wouldn't allow the communion of just those two because it's supposed to be for the church.

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Now, maybe on a Sunday service, you finish the worship service and you say, everybody grab your kids, come back, there's going to be a wedding.

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And then we're going to have the Lord's Supper or something together. And then those two people sitting in the front row, not up on stage someplace or the platform where they get something special.

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This is a time when we're all together. That's why we serve the Lord's Supper on the floor, not we're not seated on the floor, but the communion table is on the floor, not up on the altar.

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I've been to, I've been to weddings. I did not officiate this wedding, but I've been to weddings where, you know, the couple did have a special communion just for them.

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But they also, in this one instance that I'm thinking of, they did their own vows and I found the whole service actually a little embarrassing, you know, because it was so, it was so me centered that I just thought, this is not, this is not very

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Christ honoring, you know? And— Was there any gospel flirting involved with that? It was unfortunate.

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I mean, there, and then I've been to weddings where the guy gets, the pastor gets so close to actually giving the gospel, but doesn't quite get there.

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And I'm always like, you know, I find myself like, it's like watching a game or something and I'm like rooting for the guy and then, you know, he doesn't get there and I'm like, that's a, that's a shame.

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Steve, I am officiating a wedding this Saturday. Are you going to preach the gospel? Okay. You're going to think this is interesting.

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Yeah. Well, I mean, it makes good radio, hopefully. I have been involved in this couple's life and so too has

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Pastor Harry Deligenides, who used to be an elder here at BBC. And he's actually done some no compromise videos and did some of the blog work.

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And now he's a pastor at Mendon Community Church. Any guesses where that city might be? Community?

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Anyway, he's been involved in their lives too. And so they said to me, you know, Mike, would you please officiate?

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Yes, I'd love to. And then they said, can we have communion? I said, no, I'm just kidding.

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They're going to have a unity candle. And then they said, we'd like to have Harry come in and he can give the gospel. I have to say in defense of the unity candle, it's so much better than the disunity candle.

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Yes. And it's better than the Roman candle. That's good. That was better than what

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I was going to say. I was going to talk about some kind of butane torch or something like that. Can you imagine? And so they're asking

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Harry to come in and preach the gospel and give the congregational address is what we call it. Right. I'm addressing the couple.

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These are the charges for what the Bible calls the husband to be and do, et cetera, and then the wife.

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But of course, I'm going to preach the gospel in light of that because I know Harry will, but if I'm going to officiate a wedding,

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I'm preaching the gospel no matter what. I'm not going to have anybody go, well, his job was to do such and such.

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So they're going to get the gospel at least twice. I like, you know, I was just teaching on vows and stuff at, uh, in Sunday school.

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And he says, you know, there's a reason why the first things that we say are, you know, we're gathered here together in the sight of God and all that, because God is a witness to the vows that they're going to make.

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And, you know, he talks about, or the confession talks about not taking the name of the Lord in vain. And, you know, we, we think about that being a curse word or whatever, but it's actually making a promise, a vow, an oath before God and not following through on that.

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You know, that's the ultimate meaning of that. That would be taking God's name in vain, a lot more than saying some kind of, you know.

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Absolutely. I mean, pagans run around all the time, you know, blaspheming the Lord, but it's not blasphemy that we're talking about.

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We're talking about believers failing to live up to what they've promised before God to do.

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I think it was Carl Truman that said every wedding ends in a tragedy, right?

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Short of the Lord's return. One of those is going to die. Well, unless they, unless they die together.

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Yeah. You know, like a car wreck, plane crash. Right. But that would still be a double tragedy maybe. But anyway, there's going to most, as generally things go, one will die first and then the other will die.

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And so you have to be ready. Plus there are trials that go on. I mean, there are certain things that you think, I don't think

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I've ever thought I've got to get divorced, but I've got this little dumb vow hanging over my head. I haven't thought that.

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A little dumb vow. But I have thought, you know what? I did promise. You know, I'd say to the kids, I promised your mother that no matter what happens.

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And that I'm going to stay. And that's why sometimes when I think, and the finger could be pointed at me too, but when

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I'm dealing with people that really are immature husbands and they treat their wives immaturely or, you know, wrongly,

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I'm thinking, you know, what if your wife was like Johnny Erickson Tata, Johnny, and she, she, she got paralyzed.

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Would you treat her any differently? I hope you just love her and bend over backwards for her and all that.

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So why don't you do it now while she's not paralyzed? I try not to, and maybe I should just load on the guilt when

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I'm talking to guys, but you know, I'll never, I mean, it's hard for me to even talk about this, but I'll never forget when we just got the diagnosis, a diagnosis of my wife with cancer.

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And I could just remember just sitting there, you know, like we normally sit in our front room and me just looking across at her and just crying, you know, because did

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I think she was going to die? No, I did not. But just the reality, you know, of cancer and the possibility of that, it's, there's just a weight and an emotion and everything.

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And I'm like, so all these things, young husband, that you think are just so important, a day is going to come where you're going to look across the room or you're going to, you know, grab your wife's hand or whatever, and you're going to realize that she's got this terminal illness and all the things that you're struggling with right now are going to seem so stupid.

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And I'm telling you right now, they are stupid. Well, that's a fact,

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Jack. When did that slogan come up? That's a fact, Jack. The movie Stripes, which

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I saw as an unbeliever. That whole, that whole thing, you know, you see a show as an unbeliever and you think to yourself now, oh, that was not too bad.

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I think I might rewatch it. Don't do it, always go online and read the summary, you know, like go to the, what is it?

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There are places where you can review movies. International Movie Database, and they'll tell you how many swear words there were. Whatever, you know, one of those things and look at it because you'll be like, oh, oh,

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I forgot all that was in there, because I promise you, you, as an unbeliever, you watch movies and you go, oh yeah, you know, no big deal.

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As a believer, you watch these things and, you know, the weight of all the swear words and everything else, and you're just like, boy, should

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I even be here? And, you know. Wives understand and support your husbands by submitting to them in ways that honor the master.

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Husbands go all out in love for your wives. Don't take advantage of them. Colossians 3, the message, the massage, that there's some truth in that.

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I'll give him credit for that. Steve, how about there's something else I was wanting to talk about.

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Oh, since we're still talking about communion or we were just a moment ago, what about the whole intinction thing?

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So instead of, you know, it takes a long time to serve three, four, five hundred people, little pieces of bread and cups.

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So why don't we give them little pieces of bread dipped in the juice wine and then we don't have to go by twice.

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We just have to go by once and then they get both. It's an intinction. So we do that.

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Maybe that'll save. Well, you know what? Since baptism takes so long, why don't we just kind of drive by with a garden hose and just spray everybody?

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I think they've done that at certain kind of venues, right? Power hoses and you're spraying everybody with special Neuton water.

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Or how about, what about the communion cup? Have you ever been to a church where they've got the common cup and they've got the little napkin and you take a little drink of the wine and then wipe it off and pass it to the next person?

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Common cup. No, I wouldn't do that. I mean, it's just like, you know, if we're going to do things on account of time, look, your sermon takes, you know, 45 minutes.

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So why don't you record it ahead of time? We can play it on double speed and we can get it done.

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The same content in 22 and a half minutes. You know, 1 .5 speed, maybe a little fast, but 1 .25

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I would allow. There's a certain dispensation. I think we're going to go double. Yeah. Because, you know, 22 and a half minutes is plenty of time.

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Well, I think to myself, I'd like to talk fast enough that if people dare to listen to 1 .5

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speed, that they can't and they have to slow it down just a little bit. Trust me, it happens. I have a testimony of somebody, you know, if necessary,

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I would actually bring him into the NoCo studios and have him testify under oath. Would that be a vow or an oath?

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It would be an oath. And he says, I can't listen to NoCo at 1 .5. It's too fast. I can't understand what he's saying.

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It's like listening in Spanish. Oh, OK. Do you listen to yourself when you're on the show?

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Do I? Yeah, I've listened. Sometimes. Yeah. OK. And I'm like, who's that guy with that melodious voice? And then I realize it's me.

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Oh, Sonnet. Sonnet Steve. That's his new name instead of Tuesday Guy. Sonnet Steve. Steve, are there any things that you think that might be in this little booklet for pastoral resources that you might actually want to get?

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Dubious. I don't know. I haven't studied. What about the number one site for pastoral resources? The New Testament.

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You never knew N .T. Wright and Michael F. Berg DVDs. Let me think about that one for a minute. No. See, isn't that just like the kind of the pompous

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English N .T. Wright? I'm going to tell you what you don't know. You don't know.

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For all you simple minded purit. Whatever the text says, it doesn't mean that.

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It doesn't mean that rightly understood. Paul was not teaching salvation by grace alone. You imbecile.

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Yeah. In your opinion. How about the Christine Kane unexpected curriculum?

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Is that the one where she was accused of lifting certain words and sentences from other books or was it a different one?

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I don't know. But if I in my opinion, if I if I learned anything from that, that would be very unexpected.

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See what I did there? Yeah. Well, the book underneath it actually kind of got a neat cover. And I like the title.

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Karen Eman writes, keep it shut. Right. And it's got a copy of some lips that are zipped shut.

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Yeah. You know, it's funny. I just told a husband the other day, do you have any duct tape in the house? He's like, yes.

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I said, put it in your mouth. Well, that's that's that's that's a good advice.

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Let that serve as a reminder. Well, I mean, there are there are times when you just need to not talk.

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And in this particular occasion, I thought, I'm reading what he's saying. And I'm going to stop.

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Yes. But how can I get the last word in edgewise if that happens? You don't. And you know, may

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I just say that that is well, it's arrogant. It's a lot of things, but a lot of times, you know, Sometimes it's just stupid. Sometimes it's wise to just kind of sit there and go, hmm,

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I really have nothing to add, so I'm just going to be quiet. In fact, I have nothing to add for the next five minutes of the show.

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I'll take over. Steve, this couple weeks ago we celebrated the Lord's Supper, because we're talking about communion and wine and all that stuff.

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It dawned on me, and of course this is a dumb moment, but as I just was reflecting on the passage and what

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Paul was trying to get the Corinthians to do, and that is to think about the Lord Jesus and see his sacrificial work for them, and in light of who they are in Christ, shouldn't they be sacrificial too when it comes to the love feast, and you loveless people need a good example of love, and let me show you the ultimate example.

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I mean, he's more than an example, but let me show you a great example of love. And then Paul would say, you know, this is what the

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Lord said, do this in remembrance of me. And it dawned on me, I think, and maybe

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I haven't said this, but I think I've done it. I've done more morbid introspection that doesn't lead me to then think about who the

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Lord is during communion versus me thinking about the Lord. Remembering my sin, I think

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I do that more while I'm kind of holding the bread versus remembering who Jesus is. Any thoughts on that?

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I think I do both. You know, in other words, I have some morbid introspection, and then

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I just think, wow, in light of who I am, wow, you know, that Jesus would die for me anyway.

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It's pretty amazing to think that that gets a little overwhelming for me. Pete Steve, I think that's the way that it should be done, and that is to say, you're thinking about yourself and you're saying to yourself, you know what?

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There is this let a person examine himself in verse 28 of 1

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Corinthians, and we wouldn't say you shouldn't, but all that self -examination has to lead you to the one who has forgiven you of those sins that you just examined, right?

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If you abort the process, it's not going to be any good. That's what we typically would do, so at the Lord's Supper, that's a good reminder of not to do that because these elements represent something that's done outside of us and for us.

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Yeah, I mean, if your introspection leads you to depression, you're not doing it right or you're not saved one or the other, right?

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Right. It's not making the connection, right? You're trying to think, okay, I've got a battery and over here and I've got a couple of wires and I've got this light bulb and the battery, you know, it's not working.

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Well, is a light bulb filament good? Yes. Is the battery good? Yes. Well, I can tell you something, that one of those two wires isn't.

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Right, because you're not making a connection. Yeah. I mean, it is good,

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I think, from time to time, certainly, because scripture says so in 2 Corinthians, to examine ourselves and see if we're in the faith.

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And as we reflect and as we examine ourselves, we're going to see a lot of dirt, right? And a lot of things that we would not care to think about or see or anything else.

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But we don't stop there. We go right to the person of the work of Jesus Christ and we think, though my sins were red like scarlet, though they were black as coal, however you want to look at them,

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Jesus has made me whiter than snow, right? He has voluntarily taken all my sin upon himself, paid the price for my sin and imputed his righteousness to me and then was raised from the dead so that I don't have to bear my sins anymore.

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He bore them on the cross. And instead of my sinful life,

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I'm wrapped in the robes of Christ's righteousness on judgment day. I get his righteousness and I stand before God declared righteous, not just innocent, but declared righteous because of the finished work of Jesus Christ.

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So that's what should happen. We should be very honest with ourselves before the Lord when it comes to sin and falling short and transgression and iniquity and not loving

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God like we should or neighbors as we ought. And then we just keep preaching to ourself more and more and more.

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You've got the bread in your hand or the cup in your hand and you're waiting and thinking. And then you do exactly what

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Pastor Steve just did and that starts making you think the right way. This is what

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God has done and how passive we are in salvation in terms of regeneration and an effectual call and then how

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God then quickened us. And the list goes on and on. That's the right way to think. And then you probably then think at the very end, and since God has done this for me, well, then shouldn't

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I be loving to other people? Absolutely. Right? Yes. And shouldn't I think about spiritual gifts rightly?

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Yes. And well, in light of what Jesus has done, what sort of person should I be? How should

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I view things? How should I live? You know, yes, these things are all true. Well, it sounds like almost to me,

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Steve, you might be some kind of lurking antinomian deep inside of you someplace. Very deep, deep, deep, deep.

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Steve, if somebody said to you, hey, you better watch out for Jerry Bridges, he could be kind of an antinomian.

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What might you respond with? I guarantee you Jerry Bridges is not an antinomian.

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Yeah, not right now. No. He gave that up for Lent. Oh, and he gave it up when he died too.

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Steve, Lent's coming up here at the church. We better be doing something. Forget this communion stuff. We got ashes to work on.

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Yeah. You know what I'm giving up for Lent? The law. That's what I'm giving up for Lent. Well, because the law needs to be broken sometimes for love.

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Speed limit. Oh boy. Sick kid. Stop. Stop. He cracked his head open.

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You don't care what the speed sign says, you just go. And that's what God did. We at No Compromise Radio celebrate how

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God didn't compromise any of his attributes because you think about the cross, they were all upheld beautifully and wonderfully and simultaneously.

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He never violates the law, but he does rescue us. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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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.

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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.

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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.