The Terrible Tongue (Part 1)

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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 Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name is

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Mike Abendroth. I always have the microphone tilted a different way, and now it's tilted this way. I don't know why.

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The tilting of the universe. If you want to write me, you can. Mike at NoCompromiseRadio .com.

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The one thing that I have said in the past, and some people have taken me up on it, is that if you are a man and have prostate cancer, or you're a lady or a daughter or something like that, and you know someone who does, and they would like some encouragement.

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My background is I used to sell prostate cancer biopsy guns before I was a

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Christian, so I know a little bit about it, and of course I've had it, and I've seen

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God's faithful hand in my life. Not because at the moment I'm cancer -free, but just working with a fragile, frail, self -righteous sinner like me.

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God was faithful all the way through, and I've actually got to talk to some unbelievers even. This is one of those cancers where there's not an easy answer.

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You have about 10 different options, and you have to choose. It's a little more complicated than that, but that's essentially what's going on.

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If I can help you in that way, we still have not canceled the Israel trip yet.

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Israel, as of today, September 19th, is on lockdown.

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You can't go 500 meters from your house. I guess that's Shabbat Sabbath rules. So who knows how that'll all work out.

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I don't know how we can end up going to Israel if everything's shut down, maybe after the election.

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I used to say November 3rd would tell the tale, but now 14 days later, you can still look for old ballots, but that's a different story.

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Got the news last night, of course, with all of you about the

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Supreme Court justice that died, and I mean, I had all kinds of thoughts about that, and probably you did too, but while I do a lot of dumb things, these days

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I try not to do a bunch of knee -jerk things, and I saw people posting, Christians posting things that I thought, ooh,

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I don't think I would, and maybe one of the reasons I would not post certain things is because all week

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I've been studying James 3 and the tongue. What about the tongue, and how do we go about, this thing is still not set up rightly.

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I have my studio, I have it a certain way that I've done it now for 3 ,000 shows or whatever, and the

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Bible goes there, my microphone goes there, oh, I know what happened, it was when

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Ben was here, and we did the live stream, I'm blaming Ben, okay, there's my microphone, there's my stuff, everything's all set up.

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I was going to do a Facebook Live today too, maybe I'll do it next show, but I didn't really want to sit and look at the camera,

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I want to just look at my notes and see when you're doing that kind of radio, no one knows if you're making eye contact or not.

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Anyway, I was studying the tongue in James 3, and I thought, I better be careful because it's not just what comes out of my mouth, right, that's connected to my heart, but also it's coming out of my fingers and the keyboard.

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At NoCo Radio is the Twitter, and so I try to restrain myself, sometimes maybe late at night is when

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I maybe launch the scuds, but we try to be mainly positive, uplifting, lots of quizzes and surveys and polls.

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I read a while back that if you look at someone's tongue, you can tell a lot about them, that is medically, so a doctor can see different disorders and defects if he looks at the tongue, and according to what

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I found, if the tongue is black, that means you might have liver disease. If the tongue is bluish, maybe there's some, this is not surprising, impaired circulation, asthma, or heart disease.

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If it's a dark brown tongue, maybe Addison's disease, a pale tongue, anemia, red tongue, early signs of typhoid fever, strawberry tongue color, scarlet fever, yellow, jaundice, and also if a tongue looks a certain way, you can tell if a person's dehydrated.

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I thought that's interesting, you can look at the tongue and tell a lot about what's going on in the inside, and is that not true when it comes to what comes out of our mouth is really in our hearts.

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Thomas Brooks, the Puritan writer said, we know metals by their tinkling, and men by their talking.

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All of us talk a lot. I guess there's a few people that can't use their tongue to literally talk because they're mute, and so they sign, and so it's the same thing.

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Whatever way you speak, well, you just use the tongue in general, since most people use the tongue. We talk a lot, and therefore, we can say a lot of good things, or we can say a lot of bad things.

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In my research, I found that we've spent one -fifth of our lives talking. That's 13 years of continual talking.

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I think I have a radio show because my wife said, you have all these opinions. I thought to myself,

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I ought not to jam them into sermons every week, and hence, no compromise radio.

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You hear that slogan, talk is cheap, but it's really not true because talk influences, talk reflects on our own thoughts and feelings.

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When I was a kid, I'd have to learn how to drive a clutch, and you'd just sometimes pop the clutch, and that's kind of what we do.

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We shove our mouths in gear and pop the clutch, and off we go, talking. Probably, James, the writer, the half -brother of Jesus, the servant of the

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Lord Jesus, writes a lot about the tongue, and even back in chapter 1, he refers to it. Now in chapter 3, because probably this is the easiest way to sin, it's by what we say.

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There are certain things you might want to do sinfully, but they're hard to do, or there are consequences, or there are restrictions and limitations.

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But you can always talk, right? And even if you don't talk, you can think sinful thoughts. The Greek philosophers used to say, say something so I can see you.

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So we would all realize that the tongue is the great revealer of our hearts.

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Matthew 12, for the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.

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So today on No Compromise Radio, we're going to, and the cleaners are here, I didn't know that on Saturday.

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So if you hear vacuum cleaners, that's not my vacuum cleaner, I just have to do this anyway because I'm not going to drive back to the church on this beautiful day.

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We're just going to get it done. We want to look at what the Bible says about speaking the tongue.

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And of course, as we come to this passage, just as a quick reminder to you Christians, this is something that we should do since Jesus is alive.

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The events of the Gospels, Jesus' life and death and resurrection have occurred in time, right?

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30, 33 AD, somewhere around there, 29 to 32, however you want to mark it.

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And then about a dozen years later, James writes the book of James. It's the first New Testament book that's written, although the events of Jesus have occurred.

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So how do I live, James, law, in light of what Jesus did in the

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Gospels, gospel. And therefore we are living in light of the risen Savior. And we're very, very thankful.

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The way we come across this is not, if I don't do this, I'm going to hell, better do more.

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But this is evidence of my salvation, but it's spurred and motivated by gratitude, right?

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The law doesn't motivate, but the Lord Jesus and what he's done for us is a great motivator, a guilt, grace, gratitude.

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And so we want to be motivated by thankfulness and gratitude to obey the

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Lord, not to get into heaven, but because Jesus has secured our heavenly inheritance.

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And even if you think of the books that are talked about in the writing of John the

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Apostle, the revelation of the Lord Jesus, remember the books, you have the book of life and you have people who are judged, right?

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And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne and the books were opened. Then another book was open, which is the book of life.

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And the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done.

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And so we are in the book of life as Christians, just our name. And we don't, these people are just bothering me, the cleaners,

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I can't think, oh man, let's just see.

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If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. There we go. That's down in verse 15 of revelation 20,

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I was reading chapter 20, verse 12 earlier. So if you are going to be judged by your deeds, this is going to be awful.

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But since Jesus paid for those sinful deeds that we have done, now we just have our name written in the book of life because the deeds have been taken care of.

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So since that's the case, you'll never be judged for your sin, Christian. How do you live? Well, you want to live a life that's commensurate with your calling, worthy of the manner in which you were called,

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Ephesians 4 talks about that. And therefore you want to speak properly. He starts off in James 3 with the tongue and he talks about the tongue with teachers.

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So the tongue part isn't so odd, 1 to 12 is all talking about the tongue, but that he starts with the teachers is very interesting.

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And obviously teachers have to talk, right? They use their tongue. And so the Bible says, not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness for we all stumble in many ways.

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And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man able also to bridle his whole body.

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So before he talks about the tongue in particular or specifically to people in general, he says, you know what, let's start with teachers.

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Teaching is done with the tongue, right? Of course you would use your hand motion, your eye motion, all that stuff.

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But people talk when they teach. And the problem is you could teach a lot of false teaching, right?

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You could be saying along with the Pharisees, Jesus has a demon and he's a Samaritan. James is not trying to say, oh, you know what?

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The teacher's bad. Any kind of formal teaching's awful. If there's an office of teacher, pastor teacher, this is bad.

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That's not what he's trying to do. He's not attacking that.

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But he is saying there should be some restrictions, right? Even if you think about today, let's give a scenario here on NOCO Radio.

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People are at a church, they're a Bible teacher, they come to a new church, and right away those people at the new church are so excited to have the new people, oh, could you please serve in the nursery by yourself and could you teach a

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Bible study, because that's what you did before. And boy, we need teachers and we need helpers.

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Is that smart? But if I'm a teacher, and I am, and I go to another church and I'm a layperson,

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I'm not going to say I want to teach right away. I'm going to try to pay my dues, I'm going to try to be faithful behind the scenes,

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I'm going to do things that just show that I want to serve and I'm not in this to try to somehow wrangle prominence and preeminence, and then they can ask me, oh, would you like to teach?

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And so any teacher that's worth their salt, they understand that. Well, back in those days, there weren't so many restrictions as you'd think there might be.

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You'd have synagogues and people, I mean, Jesus even, it wasn't that hard for him to walk into a synagogue and teach.

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Paul and Silas go to Salamis in Acts 13, and they go into the synagogues and start preaching.

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It was a little bit different then in certain ways. Blanchard said, we are suffering now for what happened in this country a few years ago when anybody with a bright tie, flashy pair of socks, and a big

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Bible could get a job as an evangelist. One of the things

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I'd like to talk about for just a second is all the celebrities, and if you're a celebrity

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Christian, you have access and you begin to teach. I've said years ago, and I still believe it, that Tim Tebow, while I'm glad he has a

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Christian testimony, he needs to be discipled, he needs to be helped. How do you teach the Bible? Just because somebody puts a microphone in your face doesn't mean you should teach the

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Bible. I've also said that if Tom Brady were ever to get saved, now he's since moved to Tampa Bay, but if he ever got saved and wanted me to disciple him, although I'm too far from Boston, but if just theoretically speaking,

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I would teach him how to articulate the gospel, and I teach him how to not teach certain things until he's ready to be a teacher.

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And I think even when you've got people like Drew Brees, the microphone goes in front of his mouth, and then he says something that's not politically correct, and then he gets killed on social media metaphorically, and then he recants it.

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We just have to be careful. It's because you're a celebrity. I mean, think about it. Let's not even talk about Christians.

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Celebrities pontificate on all kinds of things, like politics. I mean, really? I guess celebrities could be smart, but you're an actor, and just because you know how to act like somebody that you're not, you're smart and I should listen to you?

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You have to be very careful. We have plenty of teachers in the church.

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We just don't have good teachers, hygienic teachers, sound doctrinal, doctrinal teachers that stand up and talk about who

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Jesus is instead of this moralistic, pietistic platitude with a therapeutic overtone.

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It says in the text, knowing that such we, James includes himself, shall incur a stricter judgment.

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Why would that be? Because you're influencing people. To much is given, much is required.

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You fast forward, and of course, this judgment isn't going to hell or not. This judgment isn't great white throne judgment, but certainly at the beam of seat judgment, it's going to be more particular.

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Why? Because you're influencing people. Ezekiel knew this, son of man,

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I have appointed you a watchman to the house of Israel. The book of Ezekiel, Ezekiel is not talking here, he's getting spoken to.

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Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, God said to Ezekiel, warn them from me. When I say to the wicked, you shall surely die, and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live.

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That wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. Paul, therefore,

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I testify to you this day, Acts 20, that I'm innocent of the blood of all men, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.

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Do be very careful, especially when we know that we're not faultless as teachers.

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James said, for we all stumble in many ways. We're all sinful.

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By the way, if you think progressive sanctification is up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, kind of like real estate, and that's just the way life always goes,

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I don't think you really think about sanctification properly. I think there is growth.

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I think there's maturity. I think eventually we go all the way up, i .e. glorification.

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But there, sadly, are valleys. There are, if you look at David, if you look at Abraham, lots of valleys.

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And there are some things that they, you know, did well, obviously, in terms of their trust in the

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Lord. But we all stumble in lots of ways. So I just have to think to myself, I sin a lot, and therefore if I'm teaching other people,

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I have to be careful. It makes sense. And James says, and of course this makes me think of the

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Lord Jesus, does it not? If anyone does not stumble in what he says, can you imagine Jesus never sinned?

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He never said anything. Out of all the Proverbs that you read about slander and gossip and speaking down on people and all these other things, talking behind their back, sinfully, with bad motives, with tainted motives, with blasphemous connotations,

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Jesus, he never stumbled once in what he said? And then it says, if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he's a perfect man.

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Well, that's exactly true with the Lord Jesus. While we have never arrived, we know we have shortcomings.

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Jesus was perfect. And then this text says, if you're perfect, by the way, you're able to bridle his whole body.

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So again, he's connecting the two, body, heart, a tongue, you know, we are a whole, we don't want to be

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Platonist or anything, or Neoplatonic dualist now, do we? I learned that in seminary,

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Neoplatonic dualism. It sounds cool, doesn't it? I'd hate to be one. I don't really even know what they are.

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Did you know, if you sinned once a week, and you live to be 50, that's 18 ,250 sins.

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If you sinned once an hour, now remember, sin is not just don't commit adultery, but it's love God with your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

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If you sinned once an hour, and you live to be 50, it'd be 436 ,800 sins.

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If you sinned once per minute, 50 years, it'd be 26 ,208 ,000 sins.

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Pretty soon you just start thinking about all the people, all the believers in the world, before Calvary and after, and then how

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Jesus was punished for those sins. No wonder he said,

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Father, could you have this cup passed for me if it'd be your will? And the man

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Jesus knew what was going to happen and what he would have to do as a sin bearer.

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We sin a lot with our tongues, and we need to be very, very careful on what we say.

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Obviously, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and what?

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Self -control. I, along with you, listener, want to glorify

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God, the triune God, with my speech. And we think about a local church, and we talk about serving and giving and teaching and helping, and how my body life, that is, how my service to the body of Christ here locally helps the church and her health, or, if I do the wrong thing, to the detriment of the church.

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And I would like to have my tongue, what I say, be helpful to this local church,

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Bethlehem Bible Church. And I think that's what we want, and that's what you want. That's why you're listening to this show,

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I hope. Do people still listen? I don't know. So, when he's talking about tongue, remember, he's not just saying, you know, that piece of flesh in your mouth that, you know, bears sensory end organs and small glands, helpful in talking and swallowing food, according to the dictionary.

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No, no, it's more than that. It's a personification of who we are.

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And it says in Matthew 15, "...but the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man."

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From out of the heart, right, and we're going to head into the mouth, you know, out of the mouth, then. "...come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.

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These are things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man."

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So, you like to know what's in your heart? We just listen to what you say. And he goes on in James to then talk about the pros and the cons of what we say.

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Well, by the way, if you want to write me, you can, info at NoCompromiseRadio .com. I try to have guests on.

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I just had Russell Fuller on. I think I'm going to have John Fonville on the show, probably our

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Scott Clark again here soon. And I need to get my brother on the show.

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I did say years ago that I'd get my wife on the show, Kim Abendroth, and she doesn't really want to be on the show. But I think you might be encouraged by her testimony.

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And I think in all the years of the show, we haven't had that many ladies on. I don't really know why that is.

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I never really think about it. I usually run in circles. My friends are men, and so therefore,

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I have guys on. I don't know what to say. But I'm not adverse to having

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Mrs. Abendroth on that. I think that'd probably be good. I probably should get Luke Abendroth back on this.

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I was thankful to hear the updates of Luke and my other three daughters.

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Sorry, my other daughters. Luke is a boy. Maddie, Gracie, and Haley. So anyway,

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I'm just kind of, here's what I'm doing. I'm stopping right now for a second because I don't want to get into the next verse because then

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I'll be the next show. If you want to order a book, Sexual Fidelity, it doesn't mean you're perverted if you want to buy a book that helps you think about sexual purity because it's not only written from the perspective of how to deal with sexual sin.

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It's also how to think about this biblically, and therefore, if you order the book online at NoCompromiseRadio .com,

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Sexual Fidelity, I will send you a free Things to Go Bump in the Church that I co -wrote.

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And so that's, I don't know, when it came out, it was like $14 .99, and I've got several those around.

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So if you want to order Sexual Fidelity for $11 .99, you can. By the way, and several churches have done this, if you want to order 50, 60, 100 of those

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Sexual Fidelity books for men's study, just email me,

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Mike, at NoCompromiseRadio .com because I can get a lot of those shipped out for pretty cheap when it comes to media mail.

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So anyway, that's what's going on there. I try not to ask for money, so if you've got a millionaire friend, we do have a

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Patreon account. I think maybe 12, 13 people give to that. We're thankful for that. Maybe have some new equipment here coming soon, and maybe even some live -streaming stuff with Ben.

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Anyway, my name's Mike Abendroth. This is NoCompromiseRadio .com. Trying to be strong for my wife, but I'm just hurting.

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You would have the gall to come up to me and say, I don't know if you're a Christian or not, because you're not handling this trial right.

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But that's what we have now in evangelicalism. It's crazy. Oh, the show's already over. My name's

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Mike Abendroth. God bless you. 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.