Bulls and Goats and Sin

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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.

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My name is Mike Abendroth, and we are here in beautiful downtown

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West Boylston. No Burbank today, no

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Buena Vista Boulevard today, although my son said to me a while ago, he lives in Los Angeles, that he was at St.

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Joe's Burbank Hospital, and it might be called something Providence now, St. Providence Saint.

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If Providence was a saint, Burbank would be a hospital. Anyway, I said,

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Luke, 23 years ago you were born there. Luke was born with some infection in his lungs, and second child,

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I thought I was going to just go in there, Kim's going to have the baby. She would stay there to recover.

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The baby would be, the baby Luke would be in the nursery. I'd go home, teach her home Bible study that night, come back, check on everybody, take them home the next day.

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Well, I was reminded that day that I don't rule the universe, and I was also reminded in the next two weeks that the

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Lord who rules the universe was very merciful to me and my wife Kim. Luke now is a strapping young man, 23 years old.

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He teaches a Bible on Wednesdays and other times. As a matter of fact, he just told me he just got his second invite to preach at some youth thing.

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I'm going to have him on again, and then you can listen to him. You can pull up the old interviews with Luke and myself,

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NoCo Jr., and you can go, oh, you know what? We need some kind of youth retreat speaker.

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That'd be Luke Abendroth. I only just get a fee, a small finder's fee. We are talking today about Hebrews chapter 10 and forgiveness.

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As you know, I regularly talk about Hebrews as I'm using you as guinea pigs for my sermon, because I just like to talk about what

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I'm going to do in my sermon on Sundays. I talk about them out loud on usually Saturdays. Today is a Friday, a balmy day.

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Actually, it's pretty out. It's cloudy, windy, but fall. I love the fall here, autumn.

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Who loves the fall? Nobody. Autumn, though, we like the autumn. The fall reminds me of Adam. In Adam's sin, we all fell.

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We sinned all. Type up the New England Primer, and you will see, in fact, some wonderful ways to memorize the alphabet.

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We have been looking at the death of Christ, the great high priest, and what the writer is trying to do, and this, to me, makes good radio, the writer is trying to tell you that no matter what you compare

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Jesus to or hold him up against, Jesus is better.

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You'll see in Hebrews, better, better, better, better, better, better, and you will see superior.

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You will see great. You will see better than Moses, better than Aaron, better than prophets, better than angels, better than the old covenant.

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He's just better. The immediate context, of course, is don't go back to Judaism. There's that temple over there that looks so great, gold and marble and incense and trumpets and lavers and bowls, bowls, there's a difference, bowls, bowls, and therefore, don't go back.

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And of course, I could say it more generally in context, dear Christian, no matter what trial you're going through, don't go back to your old religious system.

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It's inadequate. It is insufficient. It is deficient, and therefore, no matter how hard things get, keep trusting in the

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Lord Jesus. He is superior, and he'll take you all the way, not to Jerusalem, but to a heavenly city.

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Well, Hebrews 10, he's been comparing what's going on with the day of atonement and how regular sacrifices show inadequacy.

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If it was one and effective, then it'd be done, but if it's over and over and over, this is just a shadow,

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Hebrews 10, 1, of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities. That's what the law has.

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It can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered each year, make perfect those who draw near.

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Otherwise, you can hear the preacher here, would they not have ceased to be offered since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?

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Imagine, let's say you were living back in the day, and let's say you lived longer than normal.

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You took Hebrew Geritol, remember Geritol commercials, during All -Star Wrestling, Vern Ganya.

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Who'd you watch when you were watching All -Star Wrestling? I grew up in Nebraska, and it was

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Vern Ganya. He was always the champ. He was kind of a ... He was like Johnny Weissmuller, kind of nice, moral, punctual.

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There's all the rascals, Baron Von Raschke, and I don't know, somebody with an

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H, Tommy or something. Tommy Heinsohn was the coach of the Celtics and a player, not him. Who was the

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H man? I don't know, but anyway, anyway, Barry Way. Baron Von Raschke.

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He was the tough guy. I think he had the sleeper hold, the claw or something, and he'd put people in the sleeper. Don't let him put you in the sleeper hold.

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You'll never come out alive. Oh man, but can you imagine, you're 70 years old, and let's say you lived in Jerusalem, and you could remember 60

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Yom Kippur's. I don't know how many Christmases you can remember, or birthdays or whatever, but how about 60 days of atonement?

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What's the point? They remind you of sin, but they can't take away sin.

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Year after year after year after year, different high priest, different high priest, different animal, of course.

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It never could take away sin, so we ask in verse two, does the writer, this rhetorical question.

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It can't be permanent if you keep doing it over and over and over. And front loaded in Hebrews chapter 10 verse one in Greek is the word shadow.

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This is a shadow. This is something that's blurry. This is something that's just the outline of, the silhouette of someone greater who's going to come.

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Now, they say on no compromise radio, and on any radio, you are to never drink liquids while doing a radio show.

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Now, I want you to know that since I've upped my carbs, sorry, I've upped my protein and decreased my carbs,

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I'm not doing keto, but just I'm not having really any carbs or many carbs at night, so I have to have more protein during the day.

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I have some isopures, and I don't know if you know those drinks, isopure, I -S -O -P -U -R -E.

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They are unlike typical protein drinks that are maybe milky or chalky or creamy, or you can't really see through them, isopure, translucent, isopure, pretty pricey.

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Anyway, I found some on Amazon. I've got some isopure here, and it's for the first time ever, drinking isopure on no compromise radio.

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There you have it. Take that to the Arbitron ratings. I just saw Steve Cooley's car drive up. What's he doing?

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Anyway, Christianity, it's one sacrifice, that's it. Think about all these other sacrificial systems. There are weird systems down in Peru, Aztec, Peruvian, Incas, other places where you have sacrifices, and sometimes they happen to be people.

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Christianity, though, there's one sacrifice 2 ,000 years ago, that's it. If you're going to turn your back on that, if you're going to ignore that, then there's no hope for you, because 10 .3

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of Hebrew says, but in these sacrifices, there's a reminder of sins every year. Every time that happens, there's a

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PS, there's a postscript, there's a pointer, there's a reminder, there's a flag on your iPhone.

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Doesn't take away sin, doesn't take away sin, doesn't take away sin. Compare that to Hebrews 8, 12,

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God remembers their sin no more, quoting Jeremiah 31, I'll be merciful to their iniquities and their sins,

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I will remember no more. Reminder of sins year by year, reminder, reminder, reminder, reminder,

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I'll remember their sins no more. We're talking one is sufficient and one is obsolete.

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There is remembrance of sins. That word for remembrance is used only here and when it talks about something else.

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Two times it's used elsewhere, Luke 22 and 1 Corinthians 11, what did

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Jesus say when it comes to the Lord's Supper? Do this in remembrance of me.

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You remember sins and then you remember the sin bearer. That's the word for remember.

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And of course, when you see the word remember in the Bible, it's more than just, oh yeah, that's right.

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It includes that, but it's more than that. Genesis 8, 1, but God remembered

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Noah and sent a wind over the earth and the waters receded. God is intervening.

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God has action towards someone. He's just not thinking about them. With fondness, he does something.

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He is called upon to remember by Samson. Then Samson called to the

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Lord and said, oh Lord God, please remember me. You think he's going to forget? No, no, please do something, right?

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Jesus was approached by the thief on the cross verbally when he said, remember me when you come in your kingdom.

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God, he remembers Noah, the wind passes. Jesus remembers a thief and he takes him to paradise.

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That's the idea. Action is involved. When you remember your sins as a

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Christian, then what do you do? Then you keep going? You do more?

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No, you turn, you forsake, you repent. When God remembers sins, there's got to be a sacrifice.

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There's got to be a punishment. There's got to be death because he remembers as a just and holy

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God. This is great language here of reminder. Old Testament sacrifices in the old

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Mosaic system never could take away sin, but the sufficiency and the uniqueness and the finality of the

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Lord Jesus' death was something that those things pointed toward. God remembers their sins no more because he took it out on Jesus, the son he loved.

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The son in love was the sin offering for our sins. Some things were ineffectual like these day in and day out sin offerings, the yearly day of atonement sin offering.

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Never did one of the high priests go in for the day of atonement. After he slayed the animal, slew the animal, said, it is finished.

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It is more like what we say in the work world, another day what?

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Another dollar. You just have to keep working, working, working, working. Another year, another day of atonement.

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Another year, another day of atonement. The great news is after Jesus died, the high priests and all the priests under him could just let their knives rust.

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You could take your knives home and use them for something else, maybe self -defense or for supper.

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While you are a high priest, you better keep those knives sharpened. While you are a Levitical priest and offering sacrifices, you better keep those knives sharp.

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Reminder, day after day, year after year. Of course, the text here is talking about the day of atonement, but there were other sacrifices too, and whether it's the day of the atonement or anything else, it is finished.

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The law shows you your sin, wages of sin is death. Sacrifice has to be given.

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You give it every single year. It must not be efficacious. It's good because God is using it as a shadow, as an illustration, as an outline, as a silhouette.

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But then what happens? Then you need a better sacrifice. And that's really what we're pushing for.

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I've got to have something better. Isn't there a better sacrifice? Isn't the substance going to come? Isn't the fill -in of the outline going to show up some day?

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Won't these rituals eventually lead to a final ritual? Verse four, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

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God designed the system, but he built in obsolescence.

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It was a built -in obsolescence to the system. It's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

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Isaac Watts has a song from the Trinity Hymnal. Well, not all the blood of beasts on Jewish altars slain could give the guilty conscience peace or wash away the stain.

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But Christ the heavenly lamb takes all our sins away, a sacrifice of nobler name and richer blood than they.

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Jesus came, and looking back now at all those sacrifices, we can see, and even if we were paying attention back in those days, we could see that there is a built -in obsolescence.

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We could see shadows, and types, and symbols, and a sermon illustration of the one to come.

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But now that one who has come has sacrificed himself, and the sacrifice has been accepted.

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And we know that because God has raised him from the dead. Then what? We're going back to that system?

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Don't go back! You can't go back. And of course, it's easy for me to talk about Roman Catholicism.

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Why go back to altars? If there's an altar in your church, it's going to talk about slain sacrifices.

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Now sometimes laypeople mistakenly say, oh, you know, there's an altar. You go to the altar, some kind of altar call.

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And there's no real altar. I mean, it's just a table for the Lord's Supper. Maybe they call it wrongly something, like altar.

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But there are altars in the Roman Catholic Church. And what do you do on altars? I'll tell you what you do.

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You kill things. We don't have to do that anymore. And this is one and done.

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That's why it's surprising to me, with Hebrews 9 and 10, that people can stay

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Roman Catholic. And I know the scholars, the Roman Catholic scholars, have ways to explain things.

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But just a simple reading, I'd be thinking, if I was a Catholic, why do they have to keep doing this week in and week out, slaying

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Jesus, as it were? Of course, this shows us the sacrifice, that sin is awful and deadly, right?

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But the sacrifices that were annual show us the impossibility of their actual atonement.

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Can you imagine how many drops of blood from the millions of animals slain in the

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Mosaic system actually forgave sins? Now there can be a temporary covering.

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There can be a pointing. But to erase sins? Not one. Zero. Zero.

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A side note here, which I find interesting, I think the temple still must be up when this book is written. 70

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AD, the temple comes down, Romans destroy it, General Titus whacks it, flattens the temple.

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You know, there's some of the retaining walls up. That's about it. You can go there today,

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Western Wall. What happens? It's wiped out. If I was writing this book,

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Hebrews, I would say, if it's post -70 AD, see what happened. God let this temple be destroyed.

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And therefore, he's trying to tell you, don't go back. But he didn't say that. That's why most scholars, they think the temple's still up.

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And you can see kind of beckoning the Jews and other people with its opulence and its grandeur.

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You pick for me the most opulent, grandiose, ornamental, sensual in the sense of senses,

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Roman Catholic mass. And it has nothing, the mass does, on Judaism, Mosaic, Old Covenant.

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That temple, I mean, the temple. Therefore, I find it quite fascinating, quite quacinating, that now what do we have?

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I mean, and you can think of it back then, too. I want to go back to the temple. I'm getting persecuted. My life is more difficult.

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I might have bought into the Joe Osteen best life now, theology of glory, everything should be good now, but I'm suffering.

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And wait a second, maybe if I just go back, everything will be better. But you're going back to something that's obsolete, that was a shadow.

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Why run to the shadow when you have the substance? Don't go back. That's the point. Why would you go back to something like that?

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It's not going to do any good. Instead, I know it's harder for you to get through your mind because you've got that appeal to the senses.

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What you need now, if you want symbols, if you want elements, if you want something to taste and touch and handle when it comes to the grandiose religion of Christianity, it's going to be quite counterintuitive.

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It is going to be not gold, but water. It's going to be not marble, but bread.

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And it's not going to be incense and trumpets and all that.

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It's going to be wine. Can you think of three more common things back in the Old Testament, New Testament era?

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Water, bread, and wine. And pretty much what you had to do back in those days, if you're going to drink water, you're going to either have to boil it or you're going to have to put a little bit of wine into it to kill it, a little alcohol to kill it.

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Now, by the way, I'm not advocating that I think New Testament wine was always watered down and was some kind of grape juice type of thing.

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You can do your studies and all this stuff. It was wine, and maybe it's not

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Mad Dog 2020. And they knew what strong drink was back in those days.

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I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm not a fundamentalist that says it has to be grape juice in the

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Bible. Now, if you want to use grape juice on Sunday, as I've told you many times before, my preference would be real wine.

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Why? Because that's what was used at Passover, and wine has a unique smell to it. It has a real stain power.

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You'll taste it, and you'll keep tasting it for much longer than just if you have a sip of grape juice. Since it's got alcohol, it's got that kind of, it's not bitter taste, but it's something else.

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It's that alcohol taste, and it can remind you of the starkness of the death of Christ.

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But I understand, in our culture today, rightly or wrongly, it's not my point to argue it right now.

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People have problems with alcohol, and some believe, and if some believe, then we should be kind to them.

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Some believe that if you have a little bit of wine for communion, it's going to send you over the edge, and I never, when

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I quit drinking, I never said, after I took real wine in communion overseas someplace, that that's going to make me not drink again.

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I never said that. I mean, maybe some people do. Maybe inner rings and outer rings,

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I'm not going to change Bethlehem Bible Church now, but if I planted a new church, planted a new year, planted a new church,

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I'd probably have outer rings and inner rings, and now you have to do that for bread too, right? Gluten -free and gluten not free.

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But the point is simple, water, bread, and wine.

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That Old Testament system was inadequate. David McWilliams said simply, it was inadequate because there was repetition.

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It couldn't remove the guilt of sin. It reminded the worshipers of guilt. It's shown the inadequacy of its forgiveness in Scripture, and Jesus replaces that old system.

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That's what David McWilliams says. I think he's right. I think he's right. Mankind today tries to wash away their sin in all different kind of ways of being spiritual and being religious and civic duties and being more good than bad and baptism and church membership, and I'll take

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Jesus' fire insurance, but I'm not really going to trust in Him with a knowledge of sin and a real trust, and I'm going to work at the soup kitchen once in a while, but that's not going to solve your blindness, your darkness, your deception, your foolish heart slave to sin.

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You're going to need a Savior. Everything that Old Testament pointed to it with its symbols, its shadows, and its type, and you need to move on to the work of the

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Lord Jesus. And that's why Hebrews 10, 5 goes on to talk about why Jesus must be born.

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A, everything else is inadequate. B, only Christ's sacrifice could fulfill

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God's will. Only His life and death, all of His obedience, what we call active and passive. So my name is

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Mike Abendroth. Don't forget Israel 2021 with an extension to Rome. You can write me about that info at NoCompromiseRadio .com

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or go to sermoncritique .com. 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.