The Sin of Lent

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

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. 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.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio.

This is Mike Abendroth here with Steve Cooley, and we just did the longest section of No Compromise Radio, and then we hit the �redo� button, because that was a bad show, Steve.

Accidentally, it was an extremely bad show. Steve, it�s going to go in the archives.

I�ll take full credit for its badness. It was quite bad playhouse. It was abysmal. Bad theater. Abominable. Steve, I thought of you the other day when I was typing in the YouTube and I was trying to find Dan Aykroyd�s �Saturday Night Live� skit �Bad Playhouse.

I couldn�t find it. Dan Aykroyd. Good old Dan Aykroyd. I remember you. I�m trying to speak a little faster after my horrible start-to-last show, because speed helps.

The faster you speak, the less likely you are to make a mistake.

Steve, Michael in Australia wrote us, and he said, �I have both a background in aviation and military. So that�s nice. Put those two together, and what do you have? A job. I like that. He said, �Fuselage is not the same as fuselade.

So fuselage is a wing-tail-surface engine all-attached central structure, and then the fuselage is a continuous discharge of firearms. So remind me of that next time.

Here�s what happens like in a naval battle, one of the old naval, you know, the two ships would line up, and when they opened up with all their guns, that was called a fuselage. So that�s, of course.

Yes. You could have so many shots fired in a fuselage that it could hit the fuselage and bring down the plane. Yeah.

Well, you know what, though? You like to add �age� onto almost everything. So it doesn�t really surprise me that you do that.

Well, is there something like an omelette du fromage? Yes.

I�d like an omelette du fromage, which basically means I�d like a shoe and put cheese on it.

The Problem with Protestant Lent

Steve, tell me about Lent. Tell me how you celebrate Lent this year.

I celebrate Lent by going to the dryer and emptying it out. Oh. Oh. I see.

Very nice. Well, what�s so funny about peace, love, and Lent these days? Should a Protestant actually follow Lent, observe Lent? That�s the word I was looking for.

I think this is so foolish. I was reading somebody who was speaking, you know, in praise of Lent, kind of, you know, from an evangelical perspective, because we can it really causes us to focus on the cross, and I�m like, �No.

It�s the opposite of that.

Steve, I know why certain denominations, like the Roman Catholics, why they celebrate Lent and how they give up things for Lent and Ash Wednesday and the suffering and the Via Dolorosa. I understand their doctrine of that.

But what I don�t really get. Well, I get it, but I don�t like it. I don�t like it that the Protestants are now buying into this very thing.

I�m going to show God how serious I am by giving something up for Him.

My question is, why, when He did it all, and our response should be, just thank Him for it. How about eating extra?

Doesn�t the Bible say, �Do not eat, do not touch. It does say that, right?

It does. It gets to a bigger question. Why a church calendar at all? Well, we�ve got the Advent seasons, and we�ve got the candles for the Advent, it�s the third candle lighting during the service. I know Protestant churches still do that, and then the whole Lent deal.

What is the church calendar?

Do we even have a church calendar? Well, you know, we have the High Holy Days, you know, and Purim and...

Festival of the Booths and stuff, Feast of the Booths.

Well, certainly, and then, you know, when Ramadan comes along, we want to, you know, not skip that either. I mean, what about that? Should we, during Ramadan, not eat during the day and, you know...

Well, maybe that�ll be the next thing, because evangelicals, the hipster evangelicals especially, love to do things. They love to draw things. They love to eat things. They love to say no to things, because it�s probably a lot cooler than it is to just say no to the flesh and yes to Christ regarding holy, sanctified lives.

And so, here�s what we�re going to talk about on No Compromise Radio today. Even though Lent already passed in real time, we�d like to still discuss it, because Chuck Colson, not the Chuck Colson. This is...

A different... Is it C-O-U? It�s the same thing. Really? How do you know it�s not the same guy? Well, because Chuck Colson died, I believe. And this Chuck Colson is rector of church, he doesn�t say of the church, rector of church of the Ascension, probably because there�s lots of those, but it�s not the church of the Ascension.

Wow. That�s probably in Israel, actually.

Church of the Ascension. It sounds like a denomination or something.

Church of the Ascension, a congregation of P-E-A-R-U-S-A. Huh. Pear USA. Uh-huh. I think this is Anglican, in Arlington, Virginia.

I�m not a big fan of pear USA, I prefer apricot USA.

Yeah, I know. It just reminds me back of S. Lewis Johnson and discussing the garden and the Garden of Eden and everything. It wasn�t the apple on the tree that caused the problem, it was the pear on the ground.

Ar-ar-ar. Ar-ar-ar. So Chuck Colson writes this Protestant appeal to celebrate Lent, now with spiritual disciplines and labyrinths and incense and prayer charts and Foster and Foster�s freeze moments and everything else, there�s a general movement of the evangelical church to go into mysticism and tangible things, touching and tasting and saying no to things.

I understand all that. My problem with this article, �Why Bother with Lent by Chuck Colson, it�s on the Gospel Coalition�s website. Lame.

Lame. I mean, come on. Gospel Coalition. Do you have a full gospel without Lent?

I�ve probably got more help from the Gospel Coalition website than I�ve gotten hurt. I love Justin Taylor�s site, I love Thabiti�s site, there are plenty of good things to read on the Gospel Coalition, but if I was in charge of the Gospel Coalition website, I wouldn�t allow this to be put on here.

Lent?

What did you give up for Lent? Oh, by the way, when I said it was in the Bible, it absolutely is in the Bible. In Colossians chapter 2, it says, �If Christ� I want to put it in context, �If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations?

Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch referring to things that all perish as they are used according to human precepts and teachings.

Oh, it says to do that in every perish, so that�s why we have to do it.

I mean, the whole, you know, being in New England, of course they used to do this in the jails too, the fish on Fridays thing, you know, because everybody becomes Roman Catholic during Lent, you know, everybody has to have fish on Fridays.

But even McDonald�s has those new little pop fish deals where you get the small little fish nuggets so you can give up meat on Friday and have a little extra grease instead. McFish. I think they�re McPopper fishes or something.

So back to your point.

Sorry to interrupt you. McGoldfish. Well, the point is, when the Bible says don�t do something, you know, and it says don�t do Lent, basically, and then people say, �Well, you know, that�s fine, but in order to reach out to our Catholic and whatever denominations follow� I can�t even consider Catholicism a denomination.

There�s a shocker for you. It�s not a Christian denomination.

Steve, you just hate people. Steve, the Hallmark has done a good job creating new holidays, and so when the cross isn�t enough, you�ll always find people adding. Legalism adds. Roman Catholics add because they don�t value the cross as sufficient.

Once and for all, it is finished. And so you can just tell when denominations or groups or sects or whatever don�t find sufficiency in the once and for all atonement of Christ Jesus, Hebrews 9 and 10, they add to things.

And so this is one of the things they like to add.

But don�t you think God will love you more if you give something up for him like meat or chocolate or, you know, cotton?

I didn�t know I had to suffer along with Jesus. I didn�t know that if I fast, I�m supposed to put a marker on my head to do exactly what Jesus said. When you do fast, don�t let anybody know about it. So then I�m going to put some cross on the top of my forehead.

It looks like I�m playing tic-tac-toe with my neighbor in the supermarket.

It shows your holiness and your righteousness, which is good. People need to know that you�re in the car, so to speak, and they�re not. Steve, what would these verses mean?

�Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

What would that mean? Shellfish. �For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected unless it�s lent.

Wait, is that you must have the updated version.

I think that�s the Douay-Rheims version or something. �Unless it�s rejected, and nothing be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the Word of God and prayer. This is a shout-out to all our friends who like to get caught up in lent.

I�ve got some Bob Newhart advice for you. Just stop it.

Yeah. I really have no time for this. I mean, this is so contrary to the spirit of the New Testament. This is like, I�m going to put myself back under some kind of law, only this is even better. I get to make it up.

I get to decide what I�m going to do. You know, God doesn�t really I�m going to decide what�s valuable to me, and then I�m going to sacrifice it to God.

How cool is that? Steve, as you know, I�m using the MyFitnessPal app to try to restrict some calorie intake that I have. Yeah, the Bataan Death March Diet. And so, Steve, I guess I�m giving up quite a few calories for lent now.

Nice. So far, yeah. Good job. Since Ash Wednesday, I�ve given up quite a few calories.

Giving up sugar and fat and common sense.

Steve, this article by Chuck Colson, �Why Bother with Lent has five benefits from practicing lent, and everyone starts off with lent. Now, here�s the thing. Our friend Ted Bigelow, friend of the ministry.

Very good friend.

He�s even going to allow me to preach a couple times for him.

I think that�s good. He�s actually been on No Compromise Radio. Has he really? Yeah. For his book. Wow. He came on this show. That book of his sold about as many as I sold of mine. I think I just let�s see.

I just got a $42 royalty check in the mail. Yeah. Where did you spend it? Or are you allowed to spend it during lent? I was going to spend it on bittersweet chocolate, but I remembered it was lent. I accidentally forgot.

You know what most Christians give up for lent? Reading the Bible. Yeah. So Ted Bigelow wrote via comments on the blog site on the Gospel Coalition, and he said,. �Why don�t we just take these five benefits, and every time where it says lent gives us this benefit?

Let�s just put the cross in there. Okay. And let�s see how that works. So benefit number one, according to Chuck Colson. By the way, he starts off,. �Typically evangelicals are shy about lent. That�s his intro.

You know, probably until about seven or eight years ago, I didn�t even know what lent was. I had no clue.

So I mean, why would I? Number one, lent affords us the opportunity to search the depths of our sin and experience the heights of God�s love. How?

How? I mean, you know, if I could find lent in the Bible, and it said, you know what? I mean, I would love to read Peter or Paul or James or somebody, John, say, �Lent allows you to explore the depths of your sin and to experience.

The psalmist could have said that, you know. I don�t know how he would have said that looking forward to the cross, but that�s neither here nor there.

Steve, Chuck Colson says, �With Good Friday approaching, visions of Jesus� gruesome death remind us of the dreadful reality of sin. Here, our individual and corporate brokenness is on display.

Uh-oh. Uh-oh. There�s the buzzword, brokenness.

I�m just broken. Steve, I read Hebrews chapter 12, and it says, �Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

I believe that if you�re into lent like this, it basically denies those verses in Romans chapter 12. He did it all so I don�t have to. Hebrews chapter 12? Did I say Romans 12? Yes. Yeah. Hebrews 12.

If Jesus is still in the tomb, let�s celebrate lent. What did you say it was? The founder and author?

The founder and perfecter. Founder and perfecter. Shouldn�t it be more like the healer of our brokenness? Wouldn�t that be a better translation? Maybe that�s the message version.

Steve, I�m wounded. I�m hurting. I�m broken. Number two, lent affords us an opportunity to probe the sincerity of our discipleship.

So I display my sincerity, first of all, by getting a cross, you know, not tattooed on my forehead, but for one day I�ll put a little bit of ash on my forehead or off somebody else to it. And then I show the sincerity of my discipleship by saying, �You know what?

For the next 40 days, I�m just going to buckle down. I mean, I know what my wife would say. If we did lent, my wife would just say, �Okay, I�m giving up chocolate which would just be brutal. I don�t know.

What would I give up? It has to cost you. You have to sacrifice. That�s why it�s called sacrifice. Hmm. I guess, oh, you know what would kill me is like 40 days with no music. Oh, yeah. See? So that�s something that you could give up.

You could give up music. Right? Couldn�t listen to �Casting Crowns� or something like that, �Casting Pearls. What are the band�s names anymore? I don�t know. �Casting Swine. �Casting Striper in the Back.

�Casting Demons. �Casting Demons. No. I like it when Ted said, �The cross gives us the opportunity to move toward our neighbor in charity. Oh, sorry. That�s the last one. Oh, okay. That�s number four.

Where am I? See, this is� You�re number two. I gave up number two, three, and four for lent. Did you? Good job. �The cross affords us an opportunity to probe the sincerity of our discipleship.

Well, it does, because in light of the cross, how should we live, right? Isn�t that what Paul does so frequently in his epistles, you know, chapter one, two, and three, or chapter four, five, and six, Ephesians?

You know, how do you live it out? So yeah, that gives you. The cross gives you the opportunity to see how serious you are about discipleship.

Number three, Chuck Colson on �The Gospel Coalition.

It just freaks me out to say Chuck Colson. I know. All right.

�Lent provides us an opportunity to reflect on our mortality.

Well, you know, for obvious reasons, I�ve been reflecting on mortality anyway, but having someone at the church here recently die, and. But you know, just as you get older, you realize that it�s getting closer and closer and closer, and you realize more and more that life is a vapor.

I don�t need lent to do that.

Chuck said, �The most difficult moment I face each year as an Anglican pastor.

Okay, so this is the most difficult. Okay, well, there�s a little insight right there, yeah.

And here�s going to be a very emotional story. My guess is that it�s going to draw us in. He�s going to capture us. Into the vortex. Yes, here we go. �Is to apply the ashes in the sign of a cross to the foreheads of my wife and children on Ash Wednesday.

Echoing the words of Genesis 3, I say, �Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. It is jarring.

Every year I cry. I�d cry too, because I�d be like, you know, getting that stuff off my kids� foreheads is not going to be easy.

The cross provides us an opportunity to reflect on our mortality. Wouldn�t that be better? Yes. Okay. Yeah. All right. Steve, but don�t you have to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, according to Philippians?

Isn�t this part of it? Yes, but I�m not working on my salvation. You know, I�m not improving it. I�m not demonstrating it by some false standard that I create, which really, when you get right down to it, Lent, if somebody could show me in the Bible why we should do Lent, I�d be all in favor of it.

But then further, if they show me that I should be in charge of deciding what I give up for Lent, you know, I don�t understand that.

Do you think of the� how many people do you know, Steve, that give up something for Lent and then actually get it all� get it all done by those 40 days? They do all the things that they said they were going to do.

Not too many. I think it�s like a New Year�s resolution, you know, has about the same impact. And, you know, I wonder how many people who are, like, superficial Christians, maybe not Christians at all, nominal Christians, pledge that for Lent they�re going to stop some kind of sin or another.

How many of you think, you know, I�m going to stop fornicating for Lent this year? Oh, wow. That�s really taking one for the team, you know?

Yeah, I�m going to give up some. It�s crazy.

I�m not going to get drunk this year for Lent. Awesome.

I�m so� you know. Number four, Lent gives us the opportunity to move toward our neighbor in charity.

I�d� again. How did that happen? How did that happen? I don�t even know. You know, I�m going to give up mowing my neighbor�s lawn for Lent. What does that mean exactly? It gives me an opportunity to move.

I don�t even get it. Can you explain that to me?

Steve, when it comes to No Compromise Radio fully explaining the depths of these folks and their machinations, I just want you to realize that� I�m out to lunch on this one too. It says� Oh, wait.

It is fitting to allocate these savings. He talks about cutting back on your spending during Lent. Yeah, so you don�t spend so much on chocolate.

You give it to your neighbor. Yes. Steve, see? I was dumbfounded for the first time on No Compromise Radio.

But see, my neighbors are more rich than I am. So what kind of sense does that make?

Steve, what would Jesus mean when He says this? �Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, �This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. In vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

What would that mean? I think what He�s trying to say is what counts is what you do on the outside, not so much what�s going on on the inside.

And Jesus said to them, �You have a fine way of rejecting the commandments of God in order to establish your tradition. I think this is the exact same thing that Jesus is talking about. It�s just the dawning of a new era, and now it�s going right in with a fusillade of attacks into the Protestant church.

Into the Protestant fusillage. Steve, what kind of ashes do you think you would use? Would that be cigarette ashes? Would that be ashes from a palm branch? I don�t know. I think it�s palm branch stuff.

It�s specially sacred. Really? Yeah. I was wondering if they maybe like raided some ossuary or something.

Well, I think what you do is you have your secretary order from where you get the communion cups and the wafers and stuff like that, and the chalice. Make sure you get the holy chalice. Then you order some holy ashes.

But if you get the holy ashes, don�t dump that back in if you�ve already not consecrated the unholy ashes.

Yeah. Do you have to set those ashes apart? Do you pray, maybe put some olive oil on them? Yes. Maybe that makes them stick more. You know, I think that could fit right into your diet. How many calories in ashes?

I think there are absolutely no calories in ashes. Nice. Number five, Lent prepares us to celebrate the wonder and promise of Jesus� resurrection on Easter Sunday.

Listen, what prepares you to celebrate the resurrection of Christ is when you think, this God and this man died for my sins, was raised on the third day to give me an assurance that I�m going to be raised and I�m going to have eternal life.

I don�t need Lent to tell me that Lent does nothing to add to that. I mean, giving up chocolate or country music or video games or comic books or whatever it is, you know, that I�m going to �sacrifice� for 40 days, what a bunch of rubbish.

Steve, my only problem with this, people can believe whatever they want to believe because it�s a free country and Anglicans can do whatever they want here in America or any place else, but it�s the Gospel Coalition actually posting this.

I just wish they would have said, �This was kind of bogus. We�re sorry that we posted it. Here�s what Colson says, �Consider fasting from types of food I guess would be like bad polysaccharides, saturated fats, �technology, no-compromise radio or sources of entertainment.

Says NOCO, huh? Yeah. Wow.

I�m not surprised. Did he put Nestle�s Quick on there too?

Well Nestle�s, it said, �Fast from the horse meat that�s found in Nestle products overseas. Okay. Yeah. So that made sense. �Live frugally and do so for the sake of charity. Find a cause, or better yet, a person, and give sacrificially.

And in doing so, may you know the joy of Jesus who gave Himself fully to us. This is absolute tripe.

Well, if I was going to respond to it, I would have just quoted a great theologian who once said, �You believe what you want to believe, but you don�t have to live like a refugee.

�O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this. Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Yep.

That�s exactly what I�m doing. I mean, this is bringing me closer to the cross by giving up. What am I giving up? I�m going to give up cashew cereal for Lent.

No, I like that because it�s low-calorie. Yeah, well, that�s why it�s got to go.

Anything that you like. So, you know, I could see your future for Lent next year. I think you�re going to have to eat at McDonald�s and Burger King every day, you know, just to prove that you�re serious about following.

Steve, I�ll do that now, and then once Lent comes up, then I can give that up, and then I can lose the weight that I gained during that time. No.

No. Yeah, yeah. No, because you naturally are inclined not to eat that, so I think you have to eat it for Lent.

Steve, why bother with Lent, according to Chuck Colson? We have no idea. The answer to that question is, don�t bother with Lent.

How many Bible verses did he list in there?

You know what? So far, �Search me, O God, and know my heart. He�s got one in there.

Psalm 139, �Search me, O God, and know my heart. That supports Lent. That�s awesome.

No Compromise Radio. You can write us at Tuesdayguyatnocompromiseradio .com.

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.