Myth-busters: Obedience is Legalism

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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 apostle
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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 king.
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Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. After Steve's Shabbat and after my vacation in California, it's good to see you,
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Steve. It's good to see you too. How was California? Well, I did visit Yosemite, but when
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I visited Yosemite, there was not a lot of soot in the air. Hmm, did you start anything while you were there?
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No, I did not. Actually, what I did do though is we were camping and I'm not really a big camper or anything.
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And partly, part of the reason is I don't have the tools. I don't have the little
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Coleman camp stoves, special mattresses.
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Oh, it's an investment. I mean, you know, you can spend a lot of money doing all that stuff. Yes, but I did for $5 buy a fire striker.
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So in case the Bear Grylls within me wanted to light a fire with just some lint from my pocket,
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I could do it. Wow, that sounds pretty MacGyver -ish. That's Boy Scout -ish.
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That was a Weebelo. What's Weebelo stand for again? We'll be loyal scouts. There you go. Steve, tell us,
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I think you've been on since your sabbatical, but what's new with you? What's going on with you? What's new with me?
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Well - Nothing funny though, because we've been criticized that there's too much jocularity to use the term that you just,
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I've just stole from you. I mean, I know the term, but I've forgotten about it. Yes, but it's quite the fun term, but we don't want to have any fun.
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So we don't want to do that at all. I just got back from Colorado from visiting my mom and she's in a rest home there.
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So, you know, had a good visit, shared the gospel with her a couple of times. And, you know, I was very much encouraged by her response, which was for the first time,
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I'll just put it this way. She was not hostile and she did not choose a subject. So that was good. I love it.
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I love it. I love it that you went to visit. And I know one of the things you love to do is to buy her her favorite foods and confectionary items.
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Yep, I mean, my goal is just to make her happy. And, you know, while I'm there and she was just like, she goes,
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I'm really going to miss this. And, you know, I want to say, I'm sure you will.
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And I just said, though, and it's true, you know, I'm going to miss it too. So looking into moving around here, but there's just so many, there's just a lot of red tape and a lot of steps in between here and there, but we'll see what we can do.
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Well, you know what we should do? We should appeal to the local No Compromise Radio audience and say, if you're a lawyer or know some special way we can get
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Pastor Steve Tuesday guy's mom from Colorado to Massachusetts, you need to write us at infonocompromiseradio .com.
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We should appeal to our audience. And, you know, it's really sad. I mean, not just, it's not just sad for me as her son, but, you know, we have no family.
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She has no friends in the Denver area. And so, I mean, here she is bound to this place and she has nobody to come visit her.
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So, you know, I can't, it's not like I can just leave all the time and go out there. So, if for no other reason than the economic reason, but it's challenging.
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I guess the only backup plan is if you're listening to No Compromise Radio and you live close to Denver, you could go visit
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Steve's mom. That would be great. That'd be awesome. I'd love that. You don't even have to take her any food. You know, mostly
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I think she just likes to talk and she really doesn't have, if you were at that place, you'd understand it. She really doesn't have anybody to talk to, so.
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Steve, when my mother was sick and dying of cancer, her taste buds were all messed up because of the chemo.
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And I was kind of doing what you would do. And I would, I'd get online and then
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I would read her the menu from different restaurants, PF Chang's or something. Does this sound good?
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Does that sound good? And not many things sounded good because she just lost her taste buds. And then
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I'd go, I'd call it in, go pick it up and deliver it home. And most of the time she didn't really eat it anyway.
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And then I ate it. But I thought, you know what? After all those meals, my mother had cooked for me, growing up, lots of gravy bread, lots of grilled cheese, but still with loving care.
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I thought that's the least I could do. So I'm really thankful for you and your ministry to your mom. And I'm proud of you.
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Thank you. Should have seen her face when I brought her an A &W root beer freeze. She was just like, she goes, oh, this is the best.
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And it was like 90 degrees back there in Denver anyway. So she was loving it. Well, Steve, don't you think, are we wasting radio time, valuable time now?
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Do you think we should get to the Bible? You know, we've had a caller just recently saying we're wasting valuable radio time.
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Yeah, we need to get serious. It's honoring your father and your mother. Let's go to the phones. Maybe that's one of the reasons why we still don't take phone calls, right?
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Because they're gonna be talking about things like that. Yeah, this is
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Phil from Philadelphia. I'm wondering why you guys waste so much time on the phone. On the air. Hi, this is
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Louie from Sheboygan. Sheboygan, sounds like he's from the
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Bronx, I don't know. So today on No Compromise Radio, Pastor Steve and I are going to talk about common myths that Christians are tempted to believe.
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Maybe some Christians do believe them, but I believe there's a secular show called
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Mythbusters. And is that on History Channel or Sci -Fi Channel? What's it on, Food Channel?
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I'm too spiritual to watch it, so. I bet you are. Well, I think
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Mythbusters is on History Channel. That sounds right to me. Okay, so this is going to be the
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Christian version of Mythbusters. I'd started a series a few Sunday nights ago because it's kind of fun to look at myths and then see what the real story is behind the veritable curtain.
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Should we play like the Ghostbusters theme song and then just go, Mythbusters! If we had some more technology here in the beautiful downtown
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Burbank studios of No Compromise, we could. Burbank. So if you have myths out there that Christians tend to believe, you can always write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com.
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But these are some of the myths that we have, and then Steve and I will just talk back and forth as we do in our
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Steve -Mike way. Yes. Yes, okay. I mean, who else would we talk like? I don't know.
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All right, first one, because I think you came up with this one, Steve. Obedience is legalism.
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Is that a myth that when we, let's phrase it in a myth way, though. How do we phrase this in a myth?
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That stressing obedience to God's revealed law, New Testament law of Christ, stressing that means you're a legalist.
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Right, for example, well, I mean, let's see. Is it legalism to suggest that people ought to go to church on Sunday?
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Ooh, now you've gone from preaching to meddling. Got all up in his kitchen.
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Well, here's what happens. I think we all know people who seem to have more self -imposed rules than we do, and of course, how do you spot a legalist?
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Somebody that's more legalistic than you are, right? It's easy, that's right. And so when churches preach both the indicative of the gospel, the good news heralded about Christ, His life,
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His death, His resurrection, then they also preach the response, believe and repent.
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And of course, once you've believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, there are other things that you're supposed to do in light of your salvation.
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Like what? Let's just pick a few, there's so many. Well, like go to church is one. Okay. Be baptized is one.
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Don't complain. Yeah, no grumbling. Serve in the body. Serve, yep. Okay, pray.
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Give, give to the local church. And so not one of those things is legalistic because they flow from God who cares for us and wants our best, and this is the way we glorify
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Him in light of our salvation. So at Bethlehem Bible Church, Steve, I think we regularly get the slam.
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I mean, we could be slammed on lots of things, I'm sure, but we get slammed because they'll say
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Bethlehem Bible Church is legalistic. Now, I'm trying to think of some self -imposed, our
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Mike, our Steve, imposed law that we give to people to say, you're not justified unless you do it, nor are you sanctified unless you do it.
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And it's pretty rough to come up with one because we don't do that. I mean, here's, I was about to say the golden rule.
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Here's the rule that, here's a show on legalism and liberty and obedience.
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Let me give you a rule or two, bub. Well, I mean, really, here is the dividing line and what
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I try to keep in mind. We are bound by scripture. And if we try to impose, that's what legalism is.
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If I go beyond what the Bible says, but if I can point to a verse, if I can give a direct command or a direct implication from the text, like you take a month off of church because you're just a little burned out and you need more time to rest on Sundays or your favorite -
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It's family time. Yeah, your favorite soccer team is on four weeks in a row and how could you live without that or whatever, and you listen online.
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Well, I don't wanna - I'm sorry, Steve, to interrupt you. I just don't listen online. I actually watch online.
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Oh, well, if you watch. And when they tell me to go get a wafer, I just go get some Wonder Bread and then it's all together now.
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And when the offering plate comes by - Yeah, I just give to myself. I write out my check to myself.
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You're not supposed to - The right hand's not supposed to know what the left hand does, so I pull out my money with my right hand and then
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I put it in my other pocket with my left hand. I think you just created a rule. That sounds like legalism to me and bad hermeneutics.
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Steve, we do believe here at No Compromise Radio that historically speaking, legalism would be more in tune with Galatians adding works to the gospel, but legalism today in modern vernacular, modern parlance has meant adding rules that are not biblical to the biblical set of rules, to the biblical corpus.
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And so we don't want these added rules. If you don't have devotions in the morning, you're not allowed to have breakfast.
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I think that'd be kind of legalistic. Yeah, I would agree. Yeah. But when I read this in 1
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John 3, and this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he has commanded us.
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Whoever keeps his commandments abides in him and God in him. And by this, we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us.
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Isn't it a loving response to God to obey him in all his revealed will for the
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New Testament church? Well, Jesus said, if you love me, ignore my commandments, didn't he? Oh, wait.
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No, no, if you love me, when you find somebody who is trying to strive to keep the commandments, call them a legalist.
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Yes, absolutely do that. Maybe, you know, when kids put their hand in a backward -shaped
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L to their forehead so people can look at it and they think of loser, we do that to people now, and it means legalist.
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In fact, I held up two Ls. That's loser legalist. No, okay.
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It is never legalistic to obey by the spirit's power.
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Here's what God says, and if the Lord says in 1 Peter 4, the end is at hand, you know, the last days are here, be hospitable.
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That's one of the things he tells us to do. I think it was Luther who said, when asked the question, if Jesus is gonna come back tomorrow, what do you do today?
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And he said, well, I plant a tree today because I'm just supposed to live the life I'm living now.
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And same thing with the end times. I have to be hospitable. Jesus could come back tomorrow. I need to be welcoming strangers.
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But that's legalistic, Steve. Who are you to tell me? Pray without ceasing. Well, let me ask you something. When was the last time you prayed?
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Are you a legalist? I don't have to pray. God knows what I'm thinking. So when we tell people we, in light of our salvation, ought to want to obey
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God, this isn't trying to earn status or keep status. This is trying to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
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Legalist. I've got the L to my head. All right, any other comments before we move on to that?
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Well, yeah, I just think it's an easy thing to do. Somebody says something, especially your pastor, your pastor says something that you're not really sure that you agree with.
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So instead of asking a question, what do you do? He's being a legalist.
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He's just trying to, I mean, I think that's a very destructive myth.
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And it's something that's become so pervasive in our culture today, because we basically have the majority of churches will tell you that it doesn't really matter what you do, you know, within reason.
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I mean, there are certain horrible sins, right? I mean, we've almost become Roman Catholic.
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There are mortal sins, and then there are venial sins, you know, and you just go right down the list. Is that true?
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And then there are legalistic sins. Steve, don't you think it shows the bigger problem or reveals a bigger problem?
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And here's the problem. People want to just join churches like they join clubs today, and there are no dues, there are no requirements, there are no applications.
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You can just quickly join. I don't have to be put on a newsletter, nothing expected. There are high expectations for people who live in the local organism called
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Christ's Church in a local body. There are expectations. Well, yeah, but you know, here's one of them that we should not expect, which is loyalty, right?
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In other words, you just join and you're free to leave anytime you want. You don't have to say anything. And by the way, throw a few bombs on the way out.
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That's fine. Well, we have these clubs these days, and let's say I want to join the Fisherman's Sports Club and I want to go down the street so I can shoot a gun.
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And then I can just come and go as I please. A fish, you're gonna shoot? It reminds me of the story when my dad,
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I think he was in Minnesota and he was trying to get some fish and I think he'd been drinking something and so he strapped some explosive devices to the bottom of the oar and then lit it.
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And it was a fuse that was waterproof and then jammed the oar down really far underneath the boat and then it would explode, make the fish get knocked out and get knocked senseless.
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They'd float to the top and then he'd nab them with a net. Hmm, I think that's illegal nowadays,
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I don't know. Might've been illegal back in the day. Kind of sketchy. All right, let's go to myth number two here on No Compromise Radio with Pastor Steve Tuesday.
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Guys, Steve, oh, I wanted to ask you the question. Are you gonna do any more Saturday shows, Tuesday on Saturday? Yes. I know you've been busy and all that stuff.
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Yes, yes I will. I actually have several things in the pipeline, I just haven't been able to do them.
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Okay, Steve's been on the North Shore in the pipeline. All right. Thanks.
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Have you ever surfed? No. Body surfed? Yes. Yeah, see, okay, so there you go.
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It's been many a decade though. I'm kind of the anti, I'm the Tuesday guy and the anti -beach guy.
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Don't have much use for it, so. Well, see, when I go to the beach, I look at the sand on the shore and think about how many people.
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Abraham. Uh -huh. Yeah. I spiritualize. That's a bad beach hermeneutic there.
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God says to the ocean, you can go this far and no farther. Oh, that's excellent. See, so, you know what
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I try to do? I try to redeem the beach experience. Now, what if somebody said, you know what?
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You cannot go to the beach because people are dressed there improperly, and so we have a rule in that you can't go to the beach.
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Is that legalism? Yes. What if a dad says that to kids? We can't go to the beach because this is just dad's rule.
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Doesn't mean you're more my child or less my child, but we just don't go to the beach. Well, then.
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Unless it's raining and everybody has a jacket on. I guess we wouldn't be going to the beach. I do what dad says, but, you know,
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I think that's the kind of rule, though, too, that could engender rebellion. Yes, well, while we're talking about that, how about for the parents, though, that give children rules for their home, but they aren't biblical rules?
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So, let's just take the one, for example, a tattoo. We know from the study of Scripture that you can't go to Leviticus to use this, don't put a mark on your body and then have it a one -to -one correspondence with tattoos today.
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I think you could probably get some principles, et cetera. Why do you want to get a tattoo? I'd go to Revelation and Mark of the
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Beast. I'm sure you would. But what about me as a dad?
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I say to my kids, you can't get a tattoo as long as you live in this house. Now, is that legalism or what is that?
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Am I allowed to say such a thing? That's dad's rule. Dad's rule. And I'm not saying this is from the
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Bible. Matter of fact, what I don't want to do is use a Bible verse out of context with my children because who uses
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Bible verses out of context on a regular basis? Well, cults. Cults, that's exactly right.
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I mean, you know, my kids are grown and everything, and I had a lot of rules that I could not, I didn't have a verse for, but here's what
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I would say. I would say this, and this is what I would say, because I just want to reemphasize that it was just my opinion.
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You didn't say barely, barely? No, I just say, listen, there are some things that I want to protect you from.
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And, you know, one of those things is yourself. So, you know, when it comes to this tattoo thing, I'm like, you know, years from now, let's say
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I allow my child at 16 to get a tattoo. 10 years from now, when you're regretting it, you'll just go, dad, why didn't you stop me?
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And I'm like, we're not going to have that issue because there are some things that I just know are inherently foolish.
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And if you get old enough and you're on your own and you want to do it, well, knock yourself out, but you're not going to do it in my house, you know?
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So that's just the way it is. You mean to tell me, Steve, that you wouldn't want one of your two daughters to wear bell -bottom pants the rest of their life?
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Probably not. I just got back from Santa Cruz. Because it would give me the bell -bottom blues.
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And when I see bad tattoos, and you know, there are probably some that are nice. I haven't seen tons of tattoos where I'd say, man,
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I want that. But I see all the tattoo people, and I see more of them in Santa Cruz than I do here in New England, because I don't get out much here.
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I drive from my house, drive to the church building. And I would just think bell -bottoms, bell -bottoms, because it's like a fashion.
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It comes and goes, but with tattoos, it stays. It's a fashion that never ends. It's a gift that keeps giving.
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And guess what? It doesn't look better over time. You know, there's pretty much a given. 40 years from now, your tattoo is not going to look as good as it does right now.
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And if you want to have a tattoo on some unrevealed place, because you and your wife, you know, have some commitment verbally through ink or something, you could do it if you want.
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I'm not anti -tattoo, but here's, let's go back to our point. I know, I know you are. Back to the point.
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Parents, of course you could have rules. And you're not a legalist if you have rules. I think you could lord it over children.
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I think you could exasperate children if you have rules, rules, rules. I'm the kind of guy that if I'm not careful,
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I'm Mr. Rules, so I have to supplement the rules with a lot of fun, a lot of good times with the kids.
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That's one of the reasons why Mrs. Ebendroth is so valuable as a resource, because she provides a lot of that fun to take the edge off of Mike.
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Can you imagine, though, trying to parent and having no rules? Or, you know, trying to parent and every time you establish or announce a rule, the kid's going, you're a legalist,
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Dad. You're just a legalist. I mean, you'd go, excuse me, why did we have kids again?
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To have no rules, you have chaos. And so, you know, let's just expand on that a little bit and let's look at the church.
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You know, do churches have rules? Well, yeah, because if you don't, you have chaos. And so...
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Steve, even with things that aren't from the Bible, when we tell people, yes, we believe in church membership, we think it's implied in the
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Bible everywhere you go, we think we could prove church membership from the Scriptures, not in a prescription, but just taking a look at the list of widows in church discipline.
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But then we say, what we do here at the church is we have a four -week class on church membership, and you need to be a believer who's been baptized by immersion, post -regeneration, and you need to take these four classes and then meet with an elder to talk about that.
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You mean you have to be baptized after you're saved? After regeneration, I think is what I said. Yeah, you said post, yeah, no, you said it right, but it just sounded so technical.
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Oh, it did, okay, yeah. I wanna break it down for people like me. Saved, then baptized. Yeah, and then you have to meet with an elder because we just wanna get to know you a little bit more, hear your testimony, talk about what we expect, what you should expect, and all that.
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And somebody says, well, those are man -made rules. Well, we don't, we have more churches in this town than just one, and so in the old days, yes, you got baptized, you were in the church, but now this is what we're requesting.
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And we're telling you, it's not a biblical thing, but we just think it's the wisest. Now, are we legalistic?
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No, but I mean, imagine a church where you just showed up and became a member. I mean, that church would be, hey, thanks for coming.
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Did you wanna join? Yes, okay, well, welcome to the church. Well, those kind of churches also do something else, Steve. They say, welcome, and then they also say, we need a
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Sunday school teacher today. Why don't you go teach our kids moralistic deism? Hey, thanks for showing up.
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Would you like to teach? Somebody was visiting a while back, and they said to me, well, we really were gifted in music and stuff, and so we want to sing and do special music and stuff like that.
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And I said, do you know what? I'm so glad when the Lord brings gifted people to the church, and I love it when they serve, but in terms of getting up in front of other people, teaching or doing stuff like that, first you serve behind the scenes, show that you're faithful, and then you can do the upfront stuff.
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And the person just looked at me like, oh. Yeah, but you haven't lived until you heard them sing
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I Have Decided to follow Jesus. What was that song we sang the other day,
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I'm Gonna Go Through the Judgment with Jesus? What was that? I don't know, but we sang a few weeks ago when you weren't here, we sang
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I Have Decided, and I'm listening to it, and I'm going, I'm waiting for the worship of God sometime to burst through this song.
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Strange fire. Well, you know what? I guess technically I did decide to follow
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Jesus, but there's much more to the story than that, and if I only say I decided, then of course
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I seem to be taking the glory versus what God did in eternity past, then did at Calvary, then did in my heart, and as a response,
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I said, I decided. It was one of those warm -up songs. Warm -up songs? Yeah. Me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me.
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Steve, this is humorless. Oh, sorry. Radio. No jocularity. Humor -free radio.
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We pay money to be on this station. There's entirely too much fun going on here.
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All right, well, my name's Mike Abendroth. We're talking to Steve Cooley today. Tuesdays, we talk to Tuesday Guy about church issues, and today, the church issues, we just got through one.
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Common myth. Legalism, or obedience is legalism. So stay tuned for next
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Tuesday, and we'll get through another one. At least. 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 six. 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.
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The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff, or management.