Two Religions (Part 2)

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Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Avendrop.

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Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

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Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures verse by verse with No Compromise.

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Paul is saying Christian services and pagan services are diametrically opposed.

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Pagan services, you sacrifice to get God's pleasure. Christian service, there's nothing we could do except believe in what

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God did and God gave the sacrifice for us. They're completely different religions.

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Every religion in the world, God, we will try to earn your favor. We'll abort our kids and put them on the altar of Molech.

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We'll try to be good. We'll do good. We'll do more good. We'll do extra good. We won't do bad.

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We're glad other people are worse than us. Maybe you'll choose us and we will offer to you something so you might like us.

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Every religion except Christianity that says, Adam fell and we and Adam fell and we're wicked and our hands are tainted and without faith in Christ Jesus, it's impossible to please him.

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So left to ourselves, we're undone yet God in his great eternal love gave his son for us.

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He sacrificed for us. Paul said, just run from these things.

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If communion is a covenant ratifying meal that we have with our

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Lord, the Lord's Supper, the new covenant, do this often as you drink it. Then what kind of meal is it when you go to the pagan temple?

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It is a covenant ratifying meal. Plus you're bringing everybody else in.

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Verse 17, because there's one bread, we who are many are one body for we all partake of one bread.

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And 16, why did he say blood first, the cup of wine, blood first, then bread?

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Don't we do the bread first? Yes, but he put the bread second because he wants to make this point. You have union with one another.

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Don't bring that union to pagan groups to have union with. Don't unite with pagan systems.

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You could put it this way. Here's how I think through issues. If there was that Hare Krishna service with some worship to Krishna, Krishna, Hare, Hare, or however we're going to do it, and I would say, you know, it's free food.

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I know. I'm going to call John MacArthur and R .C. Sproul, see if they'll go with me. They like free food.

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I'm going to take those guys with, and what do you think they would say? Yum. I don't think they would say that.

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I think they would say, there's got to be a better way. And now he gives some theological reasons that they should not do this, found in 18 and following.

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Look at chapter 10, verse 18, and Paul's trying to be persuasive. He's using his mind. He's taught the

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Corinthians. He's been there for 18 years, 18 months, excuse me, seemed like 18 years, as long as 18 years of his life.

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And so he says in verse 18, and by the way, ESV slaughters this, NAS slaughters this.

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I have no logical explanation why either ESV or NAS didn't put in the words according to the flesh, although you'll see them in your small print at the bottom if you have footnotes.

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Chapter 10, 18 should read, consider the people of Israel according to the flesh. Are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?

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Now, without according to the flesh in there, don't the Israelites, when they give something to be sacrificed by the priests, the priests sacrificed, the people identify with the priests doing their sacrifice, everybody's involved.

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When it comes to real righteous mosaic sacrifices, everybody's involved, one and all.

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But that's not what he's talking about here, even though that's true. This is Israel according to the flesh, like Exodus 32,

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Moses hit the mountain and the people down there are making the golden calf, rising up to eat and drink and to play.

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Are they not, in fact, those Israelites who are disobeying God while Moses is up at the mountain running around in some kind of orgiastic frenzy around the idol, are they not participating in idol worship?

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That's what Paul is saying. Look at the nation of sinful Israel at Sinai. Are they not, are not those who eat the sacrifice to share in the altar?

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Yes, they are. Affirmative answer to a rhetorical question. Don't do that.

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Yeah, but you know what? If I think that way, then that means I really think idols are real and idols aren't really real.

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So Paul says in the next two verses, even though idols aren't real, demons are. Look at verse 19 and 20.

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There's more involved than what you see. Why do I, what do I imply then that food offered to idols is anything or that an idol is anything?

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Idols aren't anything. No, I imply that what pagan sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God.

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Now, I do not want you to participate with demons. It's just a stick, just a stone, sticks and stones are not going to hurt me.

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They might not, but the demons behind them will. You know, if I go to this pagan temple and have some fellowship,

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I'm only having fellowship with a piece of cedar. No, Satan and his minions are behind the cedar.

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Demons do exist and pagan worship services are demonic. Where idolatry is, you'll be certain to find demons.

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So don't risk it. I could put it this way. You know, I'm in Christ.

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I go have a casual sexual relationship. It's just casual. It's no big deal.

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It's casual. It means nothing to me. So, Paul says, it's the same kind of thinking.

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Go to the house of a pagan worship service thinking it's just casual and you are thinking wrongly.

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You will be expressing solidarity with demons. There's nothing neutral here.

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Food isn't the issue. Drink isn't the issue. Pieces of wood aren't the issue, but demons use people's readiness of worship through sticks and stones.

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And then what does he say in verse 21 and 22? You cannot drink the cup of the

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Lord and the cup of demons. By the way, you ever try to drink two cups at the same time? You can't do it.

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The point isn't even here you're going to spill, but this is more of a spiritual antithesis. You cannot drink the cup of the

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Lord and the cup of demons. This doesn't make any sense and I guess in postmodernism it does. It's good for you.

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It's good for you. Even that. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. And then some two wild questions.

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Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Godly, holy, jealousy.

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Are we stronger than he? Idolatry is inconsistent. It's illogical.

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It's demonic. It's satanic. And do you want God to chasten you? No. Choose this day who you're going to serve.

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If we go to the Lord's table, who's the host? Christ Jesus. If we go to pagan's table, who's the host?

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Paul says God is jealous. He gets provoked. He gets stirred up. And when you look at the

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Pentateuch, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the thing that stirs up God, jealousy is always associated with idolatry.

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Want to make God mad? Then give less devotion to the Son than he deserves.

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And give any amount of devotion to money, success, sex, fame, fill in the blank.

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Don't provoke the Lord to jealousy. Now I have a question for you in application.

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If you were going to try to teach this, what would be a situation today that would be analogous to some degree, application -oriented, pagan services?

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Are there pagan services around? I guess you could go find some Hindu temples and other places.

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That would be fair. You ought not to go to those things. But let's talk about something that is a little more indirect, but still with the same principles.

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What do we do when it comes to pagan institutions that call themselves

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Christian, but who are not worshiping Christ alone?

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What do we do? So I get asked regularly, and I get asked often, should

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I go attend a Roman Catholic service? Should I partake of communion and the bread and the wine at a

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Roman Catholic service? Now, if I were to say to you, let's just sit down and talk through all that and work through the issues, that would be one approach.

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Another approach would be, how about if I just teach you this passage and then say, I urge you to be sensible.

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I urge you to be wise. Now maybe you're not convinced that it's pagan, but if I could convince you that,

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I think that in light of 1 Corinthians chapter 10, the direct application for us today living in a place with 80 %

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Roman Catholics is, you ought not to go to a Roman Catholic mass because it's pagan and you will have communion with those pagan gods.

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That's the application. Well, I will go to your service at the

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Catholic Church if you'll come to our service at Bethlehem Bible Church. I think you ought to reconsider that as well.

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The Roman Catholic mass is not Christian. It is pagan. It worships the wrong

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Jesus and it worships Mary. And frankly,

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I want to stand up for the fame of Christ Jesus. And if anybody comes along and says, you know what,

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Jesus isn't the only intercessor, Jesus isn't the only God, Jesus isn't the only atoning sacrifice, then

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I will stand and fight. And I will stand and fight even if people say, you know what, you just bash people.

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That's not true. It is in love where we tell people this is the truth, like it or not.

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The Reformation happened for a reason. And the text says over and over and over, flee idolatry.

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And I think it's incumbent upon the person that wants to go back to a Roman system and be involved, not incumbent upon me.

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Tell me why you would want to go do that, especially if you're a new

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Christian, easily swayed, not mature. Benedict XVI teaches to pray to Mary.

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That is pagan to the core. It is idolatrous. We implore you, Mary, to have pity today on the nations that have gone astray, on all

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Europe, on the whole world, that they might repent and return to your heart. Friends, that is blasphemy.

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Christ is the only righteous one. Mankind does need to return and repent, to follow

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Christ Jesus alone. Jesus said to Satan, get thee behind me,

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Satan, for it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him alone shalt thou serve.

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Benedict XVI said, if you, Mary, will not help us because we are ungrateful and unworthy children of your protection, we will not know to whom to turn.

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I know who to turn to, Christ Jesus, the Savior, and he turns to all those who repent and believe in him.

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Ott said in Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, page 214, Mary's cooperation in the objective redemption is an indirect, promotes cooperation, and it derives from this, that she voluntarily devoted her whole life to the service of the

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Redeemer, and under the cross, suffered and sacrificed with him.

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Are you stronger than God? Do you want to provoke God to jealousy? Take away from Christ sufficient and complete work.

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So when people say, you know, shall I go to a Catholic Mass and then have the communion? I shouldn't even have to answer that question.

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Run from idolatry. Say, well, would you ever go to a funeral or a wedding?

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When I do, I sit in the back, I don't try to make a fuss, but I don't sit down, I don't stand up,

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I don't sing, I don't take communion, and I don't pray. It is a different God. You say, well, yeah, but what about those people who are in the

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Catholic Church? I ask you in light of 1 Corinthians chapter 10, what would you tell them to do?

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Stay? What would you tell them? Flee idolatry. You say, well, they don't really worship

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Mary, they venerate her. Friends, that is a word game. That is a Roman Catholic word game.

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You can bow to her, you can pray to her, she gives atonement, but you don't call it worship, you call it veneration.

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That's a word game. Pope Leo said that through Mary you have divine access to God.

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Catholic Catechism 966, that Mary delivers your soul from death. Catholic Catechism 969, her intercession brings us salvation.

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Roman Catholic Encyclopedia, from the beginning of Christianity, special veneration was paid to the mother of God.

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She deserves from us, the Catholic Encyclopedia says, higher recognition and deeper veneration than any of the other saints.

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Catechism paragraph 2675, churches that develop their prayer to the holy mother of God.

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Paragraph 966, you, Mary, conceive the living God and by your prayers will deliver our souls from death.

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When Mary is the subject of preaching, Vatican Council says, and worship, she prompts the faithful to come to her son.

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That is idolatry. And you ought to run from that. You ought to flee.

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You ought to love the people in the system, obviously. But when

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Saint Kolb, who was canonized by Pope John Paul II, said, the third person of the blessed trinity never took flesh, still our human word spouse is too weak to express the reality of the relationship between the immaculate and the

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Holy Spirit. We can affirm that Mary is, in a certain sense, the incarnation of the

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Holy Spirit. Friends, I could go on and on and on. Why do

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Muslims think that Roman Catholics believe in the trinity, the father, son, and Mary? Why is that?

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It's an erroneous belief. But there's so much focus on Mary, so much veneration, so much hyperdulia, that of course it's easy for them to think that.

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So who's the basher? Who's the hater? Paul? Jesus? I've said many, many times on the radio,

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I'm still waiting for one Roman Catholic that would love me enough to write me or call me and say, for the sake of your soul going to purgatory forever and then hell, we want to reconsider by telling you the truth.

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It's far easier to just say, oh, Mike, you just hate Catholics. I don't talk about this. I haven't talked about this for a long time.

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But that is exactly the closest thing that I could think of when it comes to idolatry. Run. Well, we go back once in a while.

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Run. Well, we like to go there and take the communion because that's what we like to do, and we might stand out if we don't do it.

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Run. Run. St. Bonaventure took the

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Psalms and made them songs to Mary. Blessed is the man, Psalm 1,

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O Virgin Mary, who loves thy name. Thy grace, Mary, will comfort his soul. He will be refreshed as fountains of water.

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Blessed art thou among women by the faith of thy holy heart. We praise thee,

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O Mother of God. We confess thee, Mary ever -virgin. Thou art the spouse of the Eternal Father. The whole earth venerates thee.

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The all angels and archangels, thrones and principalities serve. The all powers and all virtues of heaven and all denominations obey.

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Before thee, all the angelic choirs sing. The cherubim and seraphim exultingly stand.

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Holy, holy, holy Mary, Mother of God and Virgin. Do O intercede for us,

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O Virgin Mary, with him who we believe will come to judge us. O Lady, please make it that we be partakers of thy inheritance of thy son.

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Rule us and keep us forever, O loving one. We salute thee. O sweet Mary, now and forever to keep us without sin, have mercy on us.

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O loving one, have mercy on us. Let thy great mercy be upon us because we trust in thee.

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There's a bigger danger than having a group of people say, do you know what?

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We don't want contraceptive forced upon our employees. So we will stand in spiritual camaraderie and fellowship with other pagans to stand against that.

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That's not what we do. The problem isn't President Obama's healthcare deal. It's what unwitting

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Protestants would do to try to get that overturned. Say, well, we needed kind of an upper today and you gave us this.

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My heart breaks for people who worship false gods named Mary who are demons.

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Mary was a neat lady. Mary was a blessed lady. Mary was a sinner forgiven by Christ Jesus, her son.

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And I'd like to meet Mary because she's got so much bad rap in the Protestant air circles. That somehow maybe we've relegated her over here.

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That God would pick Mary and she would stay a virgin and she would obey. I commend Mary. But I'll tell you what, over my dead body will

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I worship her or commend those who do. You tell me you're in a Roman Catholic system, my default is this.

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You need to be born again. And I was a slave to Lutheranism and my own sin and I'm no better than anybody else.

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But how would you like rest for your soul? How would you like to have rest? Show me a

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Roman Catholic that knows anything about Catholic doctrine and they know you can't have assurance of sins. So why don't you talk about the substitutionary death of Christ Jesus.

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So all those sins that you've ever committed, past, present, and future, placed on Christ by imputation.

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You get Christ's righteousness by imputation and God sees you guaranteeing heaven because of what

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Christ has done. Free assurance. Don't you want rest for your soul, Roman Catholic? If you're a Catholic today, don't you want rest?

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Stand up, sit down. I saw people on Wednesday with ashes on their forehead thinking, I personally,

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I told my kids, I said, God created this world for our good. And I don't give up something for lent because Jesus paid it all.

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I give up lent for lent. That's what I give up. Just to let you kind of get some kind of chuckle so we can get back to the serious thing.

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This is crazy. This is asceticism. Asceticism isn't the main issue. It's idolatry.

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If Christ Jesus isn't Lord of all, who had by a sufficient payment, made substitution for all those who had believed and was raised from the dead, then it's the wrong religion.

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And you ought not to come to me. You can, of course. Say, well, yeah, but I've got this friend and you don't understand.

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Go to that friend. Offer them rest for their souls in Christ Jesus. The burdened and heavy laden, there's rest for their souls.

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How many people here are ex -Roman Catholics? Welcome to the rest of your souls. Say, well, if I went to a mass or I went to a funeral or I went to a wedding and sat in the back, it's gonna cause a big problem.

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Well, then why don't you evangelize those people? Maybe God will save them and then you can go to a regular service instead of bowing down to baptismal regeneration and marry who's robbing

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Christ Jesus from his honor and dominion and authority. Colossians 1,

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Jesus is the image of the invisible God. Jesus is the firstborn of all. And by Jesus, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.

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All things were created through Jesus and for Jesus. And Jesus is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

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And Jesus is the head of the body, the church. Jesus is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. That in everything,

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Jesus might be preeminent. For in Jesus, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.

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And through Jesus to reconcile to himself, Jesus himself, all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

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And as the songwriter said, give me Jesus. We're not to be haughty, we're not to be high, we're not to be highly exalted.

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We are sinners receiving the grace of God because of Christ Jesus. But you have to have a heart for your

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Catholic friends. And if I lived in Utah and didn't ever tell you about the paganism of Mormonism, you would think

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I was a lunatic. I remember going to my grandmother, who was a Roman Catholic, in tears, loving her, trying to tell her what the gospel is.

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Princeton Seminary was going south about 100 years ago, and J. Gresham Machen had to leave.

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And here's the last two paragraphs he gave to his students before he left that seminary that was on its way out.

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There are many hopes that I cherish for you men, with whom I am united by such ties of affection.

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I hope that you may be gifted preachers. I hope that you may have happy lives. I hope that you may have adequate support for yourselves and for your families.

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I hope that you may have good churches. But I have something for you far more than all that.

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I hope that above all, wherever you are and however your preaching may be received, that you may be true witnesses for the

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Lord Jesus Christ. I hope that there may never be any doubt where you stand, but that always you may stand squarely for Christ Jesus.

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Not as he is offered to us in the experiences of men, but in the blessed written word of God. God grant that you may give comfort to your people as you go forth from this seminary.

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God grant that you may rejoice their hearts by giving them your hand and your voice. To do so, you will need courage.

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Far easier is it to curry favor with the world by abusing those whom the world abuses, by speaking against controversy, by taking a balcony view of the struggle in which

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God's servants are engaged. But God save you from such a neutrality as that.

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It is a certain worldly appearance of urbanity and charity, but how cruel it is to burden souls.

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How heartless it is to those little ones who are looking to the church for some clear message from God. God save you from being so heartless and so unloving and so cold.

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God grant instead that in all humility, but also in all boldness, in reliance upon God, you may fight the good fight.

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Peace is indeed yours, the peace of God which passes all understanding. But that peace is given you, not that you may be onlookers or neutrals in love's battles, but that you may be good soldiers of Jesus Christ.

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Is our desire here at the church to be witnesses for Christ Jesus alone, and that we may stand squarely for Christ Jesus and no one else.

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What about you? No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth 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 8 .30 and 11 a .m. and Sunday evenings at 6 p .m.

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We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org

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or by phone at 508 -835 -3400. The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff, or management.