WEBVTT 00:00:37.040 --> 00:00:39.520 Welcome to the Stone Choir Podcast. 00:00:39.520 --> 00:00:40.720 I am Corey J. 00:00:40.720 --> 00:00:41.680 Mahler. 00:00:41.680 --> 00:00:43.520 And I'm still Wo. 00:00:43.760 --> 00:00:48.480 On today's Stone Choir, we're going to be discussing friend and enemy. 00:00:48.480 --> 00:00:51.120 These are terms that get used all the time, and we're gonna 00:00:51.120 --> 00:00:55.760 be talking about the different contexts in our lives where we should 00:00:55.760 --> 00:00:57.360 be looking for them. 00:00:57.360 --> 00:01:00.880 I want to say at the outset that this is supposed to 00:01:00.880 --> 00:01:06.400 be an episode where we're giving tools for how to think, not 00:01:06.560 --> 00:01:08.240 tools for what to do. 00:01:08.240 --> 00:01:10.800 We're not going to say, okay, here's your friend, so treat them 00:01:10.800 --> 00:01:13.040 one way, here's your enemy, treat them another. 00:01:13.360 --> 00:01:16.640 going to talk a lot about scripture today as well as politics. 00:01:16.720 --> 00:01:21.760 We're going to begin mostly in some mundane secular things before we 00:01:21.760 --> 00:01:23.840 move into the scripture. 00:01:24.160 --> 00:01:28.800 The reason that it is important to think about this is not 00:01:28.800 --> 00:01:31.120 to make people paranoid, not to make you suddenly start looking for 00:01:31.680 --> 00:01:37.520 enemies everywhere, but specifically because Christians are incredibly bad at understanding and 00:01:37.520 --> 00:01:41.200 believing what God has told us, which is that we do have 00:01:41.200 --> 00:01:43.840 enemies. We have enemies in our churches. 00:01:43.840 --> 00:01:45.680 We have enemies in our families. 00:01:45.680 --> 00:01:49.040 And that is what God has prophesied would occur. 00:01:49.040 --> 00:01:50.560 And has always been the case. 00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:54.880 It's not some huge spiritual thing that no one can understand we 00:01:54.880 --> 00:01:56.400 see it all the time. 00:01:56.400 --> 00:01:59.280 And the fact that we see it and the fact that it's 00:01:59.280 --> 00:02:02.400 real means it's something that we have to deal with as men 00:02:02.640 --> 00:02:05.680 and as Christians, we have to deal with it as Christian men. 00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:08.320 We don't get to deal with it as the world would deal 00:02:08.320 --> 00:02:10.000 with those things. 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:12.800 So as we lay these things out, I don't want people to 00:02:12.800 --> 00:02:16.000 get paranoid or to start hunting for enemies. 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:20.000 The point is simply to acknowledge that this stuff actually happens and 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:23.520 it matters because when you have real friends and you have real 00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:30.080 enemies and they're operating in your life, there are significant consequences to 00:02:30.080 --> 00:02:34.400 that. So I want you to imagine a continuum where they're going 00:02:34.400 --> 00:02:35.520 to be five points. 00:02:35.520 --> 00:02:37.760 In the center, you have neutrality. 00:02:37.760 --> 00:02:40.720 On one end, you have a strong friend. 00:02:40.720 --> 00:02:46.160 A strong friend is contrasted with a weak friend, which is between 00:02:46.160 --> 00:02:48.320 the strong friend and neutrality. 00:02:48.320 --> 00:02:51.040 And when I say weak here, I don't mean in the pejorative 00:02:51.120 --> 00:02:54.640 sense. Thinking like in the terms of, you know, nuclear strong force 00:02:54.640 --> 00:02:55.840 and weak force. 00:02:55.840 --> 00:02:59.520 Weak is in contrast to strong, but it doesn't mean crappy, terrible 00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:02.080 friend. It's just there are different types of friends and there are 00:03:02.160 --> 00:03:04.000 two grades that we're going to focus on. 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:05.760 And then the same is true for enemies. 00:03:05.760 --> 00:03:09.280 You have neutral people who just don't take aside their lukewarm. 00:03:09.280 --> 00:03:12.080 And then you have weak enemies and you have strong enemies. 00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:15.600 It's important for every man to understand that each of these exist 00:03:16.080 --> 00:03:19.440 and to be able to accurately identify them in his own life 00:03:19.760 --> 00:03:23.600 because if you don't, you're just not equipped to be a good 00:03:23.600 --> 00:03:27.440 man. You're not equipped to be a strong friend to those to 00:03:27.440 --> 00:03:31.440 whom it's owed or to whom you choose, and you're not equipped 00:03:31.440 --> 00:03:34.400 to understand that your strong enemies are prowling and are trying to 00:03:34.400 --> 00:03:35.360 hurt you. 00:03:35.360 --> 00:03:40.320 So we're defining today a strong friend in terms, as I said, 00:03:40.480 --> 00:03:47.040 the mundane example would be two countries form a an alliance, mutual 00:03:47.040 --> 00:03:48.320 defense treaty. 00:03:48.320 --> 00:03:52.800 So for example, Article V of NATO says that an armed attack 00:03:52.800 --> 00:03:57.040 on any member of NATO is treated as an armed attack on 00:03:57.040 --> 00:03:58.320 every member of NATO. 00:03:58.320 --> 00:04:02.800 So as I mean it means that if someone bombs Germany, the 00:04:02.800 --> 00:04:05.680 United States is in a de facto state of war with whoever 00:04:05.680 --> 00:04:08.560 bombed Germany, just as if they had bombed us. 00:04:08.560 --> 00:04:12.960 There's no legal difference in terms of that treaty being triggered. 00:04:12.960 --> 00:04:15.600 So there's a de facto state of war regardless of how you 00:04:15.600 --> 00:04:17.360 respond. That's what we're talking about. 00:04:17.840 --> 00:04:19.520 We're talking about a strong friend. 00:04:19.520 --> 00:04:23.120 A strong friend is someone where there's identity. 00:04:23.120 --> 00:04:26.960 I posted recently that anytime you hear somebody talking about identity, it's 00:04:26.880 --> 00:04:29.520 a weasel word and they're trying to scam you. 00:04:29.520 --> 00:04:32.640 The distinction is that when the world talks about, oh, I, you 00:04:32.640 --> 00:04:39.600 know, my identity is LGBT or whatever, that's basically etymologically hypocrisy. 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:44.800 That's a mask to say I identify as something isn't saying that 00:04:44.800 --> 00:04:48.960 you actually are the thing, it's saying that you're adopting an identity. 00:04:48.960 --> 00:04:51.280 You know, we think of identity as being adopted where you sort 00:04:51.280 --> 00:04:53.040 of put something on like it's a suit. 00:04:53.120 --> 00:04:54.960 We talk about skin suits a lot. 00:04:54.960 --> 00:04:58.160 Identity is usually how that's used by leftists. 00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:02.320 The way I'm using it here is in the original etymological sense. 00:05:02.320 --> 00:05:05.760 Edem is Latin for same, the same. 00:05:05.760 --> 00:05:08.800 It's abbreviated id, period, in writing. 00:05:08.800 --> 00:05:11.680 So when you see ID, it's short for Edem, means the same. 00:05:11.680 --> 00:05:14.160 The same as a thing previously referenced. 00:05:14.160 --> 00:05:19.600 So when the United States and Germany identify as NATO partners, it 00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:20.960 means that it's the same thing. 00:05:20.960 --> 00:05:22.560 That sameness carries over. 00:05:22.560 --> 00:05:25.440 An attack on Germany is an attack on the United States because 00:05:25.520 --> 00:05:28.080 per the treaty, it's the same thing. 00:05:28.080 --> 00:05:32.480 Friendship, real strong friendship, functions in the same way. 00:05:32.480 --> 00:05:37.600 And the reason it's important to understand strong friends versus weak friends 00:05:37.600 --> 00:05:42.480 and strong versus weak enemies is that unlike some ontological categories that 00:05:42.480 --> 00:05:45.760 are absolutely fixed, these are opt-in. 00:05:45.760 --> 00:05:48.400 You choose to be someone's strong friend. 00:05:48.400 --> 00:05:49.200 You don't have to. 00:05:49.520 --> 00:05:51.280 Maybe you're they're a weak friend and that's fine. 00:05:51.280 --> 00:05:54.640 And I'll talk about that in a second, but you deliberately choose, 00:05:54.640 --> 00:05:56.720 I want to be a strong friend of this man. 00:05:56.720 --> 00:06:01.280 Not necessarily consciously, but when you identify with a man and say 00:06:01.600 --> 00:06:04.640 an attack on this man is an attack on me, if you 00:06:04.640 --> 00:06:06.800 come after him, you have to get through me. 00:06:06.800 --> 00:06:08.800 That is he de that's the sameness. 00:06:08.800 --> 00:06:09.600 That's identity. 00:06:09.600 --> 00:06:13.360 You're saying he is me for the purposes of anyone else messing 00:06:13.360 --> 00:06:15.600 with either one of us. 00:06:15.600 --> 00:06:20.320 So that's a very particular bond that's stronger, even than some family 00:06:20.320 --> 00:06:22.480 bonds. I think we've all experienced that. 00:06:22.480 --> 00:06:25.120 You have family you're very close to and family you're more distant 00:06:25.120 --> 00:06:27.120 from. The same is true of friends. 00:06:27.120 --> 00:06:30.880 The difference between family and friends is that friends are entirely opt-in. 00:06:30.880 --> 00:06:32.560 Nobody has to be your friend. 00:06:32.560 --> 00:06:34.640 And there's no character flaw in them. 00:06:34.640 --> 00:06:37.600 They're not betraying anything if they don't want to be your friend. 00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:39.840 That's distinct from a family, which is ontological. 00:06:39.920 --> 00:06:42.960 Family is family because how God made you. 00:06:42.960 --> 00:06:45.040 You don't get to opt out of that. 00:06:45.040 --> 00:06:46.720 No, without sinning. 00:06:46.720 --> 00:06:48.320 But you can opt out of being someone's friend. 00:06:48.320 --> 00:06:50.560 You don't have to be my friend or Corey's friend or anybody's. 00:06:50.560 --> 00:06:51.280 That's fine. 00:06:51.280 --> 00:06:54.160 You have no prior obligation to cut either way. 00:06:54.160 --> 00:06:56.400 You can be neutral. 00:06:56.400 --> 00:07:01.120 When, however, you decide to strongly identify to be a strong friend 00:07:01.120 --> 00:07:05.760 to someone, at that point, it does I don't want to abuse 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:08.560 the term ontological, but it becomes a real thing just as a 00:07:08.560 --> 00:07:11.200 treaty is a real thing with another country. 00:07:11.200 --> 00:07:15.120 To violate that treaty or to violate that strong friendship once it's 00:07:15.120 --> 00:07:17.840 established is in fact a betrayal. 00:07:17.840 --> 00:07:19.680 It's a betrayal of oneself. 00:07:19.680 --> 00:07:22.240 That's why recently I've gotten a lot of mileage out of using 00:07:22.240 --> 00:07:26.720 the Dostoevsky quote: your worst sin is that you have destroyed and 00:07:26.720 --> 00:07:29.600 betrayed yourself for nothing. 00:07:29.600 --> 00:07:32.960 When you do something that is a betrayal of another and you 00:07:32.960 --> 00:07:35.760 were a strong friend of them, you're an ally to them, you're 00:07:35.760 --> 00:07:39.680 betraying yourself because there is a sense of identity between you and 00:07:39.680 --> 00:07:42.080 them. So when you cross them, when you cut them out of 00:07:42.080 --> 00:07:46.080 your life or whatever, in a very fundamental sense, you are betraying 00:07:46.080 --> 00:07:47.840 yourself. And 00:07:48.800 --> 00:07:51.840 I don't think we take that nearly seriously enough. 00:07:51.840 --> 00:07:53.680 You don't have to be someone's strong friend. 00:07:53.680 --> 00:07:55.920 You don't have to consider someone an ally. 00:07:55.920 --> 00:07:59.840 But once you make that sort of commitment, it sticks. 00:07:59.840 --> 00:08:01.520 It is a permanent state. 00:08:01.520 --> 00:08:04.800 You can't walk that back, just like you can't break a treaty 00:08:04.800 --> 00:08:07.040 without being seen as a traitor. 00:08:07.040 --> 00:08:09.120 Weak friends, on the other hand, as I said, you know, weak 00:08:09.200 --> 00:08:12.480 it's not pejorative, it's just someone who's gonna be friendly with you, 00:08:12.480 --> 00:08:14.160 but he's not gonna help you move. 00:08:14.160 --> 00:08:17.680 He's not the guy who is going to go the extra mile 00:08:17.680 --> 00:08:18.960 when you're in trouble. 00:08:18.960 --> 00:08:21.600 You know, he might send you a card or something, but he's 00:08:21.520 --> 00:08:22.640 not gonna show up. 00:08:22.640 --> 00:08:24.880 He's not the guy who's gonna be at your bedside after you 00:08:25.360 --> 00:08:27.120 are hospitalized for days. 00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:29.440 That's a real friend, that's a strong bond. 00:08:29.440 --> 00:08:32.160 And there's nothing wrong with weak friends in this sense. 00:08:32.160 --> 00:08:34.720 You need friends who are just you know, you get along with 00:08:34.720 --> 00:08:35.600 them, that's fine. 00:08:35.600 --> 00:08:38.240 Most of the people you work with, you know, probably hopefully if 00:08:38.240 --> 00:08:40.960 you have a good workplace, you have some, you know, weak friends 00:08:40.960 --> 00:08:44.320 there. You have people you get along with, you enjoy lunch with, 00:08:44.320 --> 00:08:47.760 and after you leave, you probably won't much keep in contact. 00:08:47.920 --> 00:08:49.600 Doesn't mean anyone's betrayed anyone else. 00:08:49.600 --> 00:08:52.560 It's just it's not that strong of a connection. 00:08:52.560 --> 00:08:57.200 On the opposite end of the spectrum, we have weak enemies and 00:08:57.200 --> 00:08:58.720 strong enemies. 00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:03.120 And the reason that the friend-enemy distinction is so crucial is at 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:04.240 the extremes. 00:09:04.240 --> 00:09:06.720 The people are just kind of wishy washy and they're nice to 00:09:06.720 --> 00:09:07.680 you, but whatever. 00:09:07.680 --> 00:09:10.080 If they stop being nice to you, they don't particularly like you, 00:09:10.080 --> 00:09:12.720 if you know they don't think your politics are great, and so 00:09:12.720 --> 00:09:14.400 they just I don't like that guy. 00:09:14.400 --> 00:09:15.200 That's fine. 00:09:15.200 --> 00:09:17.920 That's not what we're talking about when we talk about enemy. 00:09:17.920 --> 00:09:22.560 When we talk about a strong enemy, we're talking about the opposite 00:09:22.560 --> 00:09:25.360 of that treaty situation. 00:09:25.360 --> 00:09:29.520 So the reason that your strong friendship with someone is so important 00:09:29.760 --> 00:09:33.440 is when he gets into trouble, you show up and that trouble, 00:09:33.440 --> 00:09:38.400 that jeopardy is what proves the friendship, the strong friendship. 00:09:38.400 --> 00:09:40.640 And it's what proves the strong enemy. 00:09:40.640 --> 00:09:44.240 Because a strong enemy is the one who's creating that jeopardy. 00:09:44.240 --> 00:09:49.280 He's the vector sending terrible vibes into your life with your friend. 00:09:49.280 --> 00:09:50.800 He's hurting you somehow. 00:09:51.040 --> 00:09:54.800 I'm not talking about vibes here, actual enemies doing actual harm to 00:09:54.800 --> 00:09:57.120 you, destroying reputation, you know, whatever. 00:09:57.120 --> 00:10:01.120 You can pick any sort of beyond slight, any sort of actual 00:10:01.120 --> 00:10:05.120 evil malicious act, strong enemies are the ones who actually doing that. 00:10:05.120 --> 00:10:07.840 They get up in the morning and they want to hurt people. 00:10:07.840 --> 00:10:10.720 If it's your strong enemy, they want to hurt you. 00:10:10.720 --> 00:10:15.440 And so at these opposite ends of the spectrum, you have jeopardy. 00:10:15.440 --> 00:10:18.240 The enemy, the strong enemy, creates the jeopardy. 00:10:18.240 --> 00:10:21.200 The strong friend says, I share your jeopardy. 00:10:21.200 --> 00:10:23.120 If you're in trouble, I'm in trouble. 00:10:23.120 --> 00:10:25.840 If you hurt, I hurt. 00:10:25.840 --> 00:10:28.960 Whatever it is, it doesn't matter the context, it can be political, 00:10:28.960 --> 00:10:30.720 it can be personal. 00:10:30.720 --> 00:10:34.000 When someone says that I identify with you. 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:35.600 We are the same. 00:10:35.600 --> 00:10:40.000 That is the sort of brotherhood that is necessary to sustain men. 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:42.960 It's almost impossible to get through life without anyone like that. 00:10:42.960 --> 00:10:45.840 In periods of time, you maybe don't have it, but if you're 00:10:45.840 --> 00:10:49.040 blessed, you're gonna have a couple people like that at various points 00:10:49.280 --> 00:10:52.720 because you need it, because sometimes one guy just isn't enough. 00:10:52.960 --> 00:10:55.440 It's not a question of you know having a weakness of faith, 00:10:55.440 --> 00:10:58.480 it's just you can pray to God and you can trust in 00:10:58.480 --> 00:11:02.160 God, but you need someone who can talk back, someone who can 00:11:02.160 --> 00:11:05.280 yell at you, who can support you, can comfort you, whatever you 00:11:05.280 --> 00:11:07.600 need. You know, a friend is going to do what you need, 00:11:07.600 --> 00:11:09.840 not necessarily what you want them to do. 00:11:09.840 --> 00:11:11.920 An enemy is always going to do things that are going to 00:11:11.920 --> 00:11:12.800 hurt you. 00:11:12.800 --> 00:11:15.680 And so the purpose of us talking about this today, particularly to 00:11:15.680 --> 00:11:19.760 a Christian audience, is that we as Christians in the church don't 00:11:19.680 --> 00:11:21.840 really believe that we can have enemies. 00:11:21.840 --> 00:11:24.640 That's something that a lot of pastors actually say now. 00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:26.640 So your only enemy is Satan. 00:11:26.640 --> 00:11:28.480 You don't have any earthly enemies. 00:11:28.480 --> 00:11:31.280 There's no man who is your enemy. 00:11:31.280 --> 00:11:33.840 The emphatic point that we're trying to make here today is that 00:11:33.840 --> 00:11:36.720 you do have enemies and they're trying to hurt you. 00:11:36.720 --> 00:11:39.280 And pastors who are telling you, oh, that doesn't exist are also 00:11:39.280 --> 00:11:40.560 trying to hurt you. 00:11:40.560 --> 00:11:44.800 Whether they're strong or weak enemies by falsely preaching, it is doing 00:11:44.800 --> 00:11:48.480 harm. Because to the extent that as a Christian, you behave as 00:11:48.480 --> 00:11:51.120 a Christian and you forgive them and you don't seek vengeance, which 00:11:51.120 --> 00:11:55.120 we'll talk about later, doesn't make them stop being your enemy. 00:11:55.120 --> 00:11:57.120 The enemy always gets a vote. 00:11:57.120 --> 00:11:58.800 The word itself is kind of ugly. 00:11:58.800 --> 00:12:01.120 I've probably said enemy 30 times at this point. 00:12:01.120 --> 00:12:04.000 It's a nasty thing that creates kind of a visceral response. 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:06.400 And we don't want this to be an ugly episode, but we 00:12:06.400 --> 00:12:10.880 need it to be something that reminds people these things are real, 00:12:10.880 --> 00:12:15.600 they're consequential, both at the macro level, at the international scale, and 00:12:15.600 --> 00:12:18.960 in your interpersonal scale, within your family, within your church, within your 00:12:19.360 --> 00:12:21.280 neighborhood, you have friends and enemies. 00:12:21.280 --> 00:12:23.920 Now, hopefully you have a lot more friends than enemies. 00:12:23.920 --> 00:12:27.360 Having an enemy is not natural in the sense that it just 00:12:27.360 --> 00:12:28.640 sort of happens. 00:12:28.640 --> 00:12:31.200 Someone has to decide to do it. 00:12:31.200 --> 00:12:35.200 But for whatever reason, when someone is possessed to act in a 00:12:35.200 --> 00:12:38.800 way that brings jeopardy into your life or into the life of 00:12:38.800 --> 00:12:42.000 one of your friends, one of your real friends, you then have 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:43.120 to deal with that. 00:12:43.120 --> 00:12:46.960 And as Christians today, we have been almost completely stripped of the 00:12:46.960 --> 00:12:49.760 ability to believe that these categories are real. 00:12:49.760 --> 00:12:53.360 You know, real friends maybe, although we're so wishy-washy, I don't think 00:12:53.680 --> 00:12:56.640 even the real friendship thing is alien to most Christians. 00:12:56.640 --> 00:13:00.160 But certainly the real enemy thing is lost entirely. 00:13:00.160 --> 00:13:03.920 When we talk about having enemies, people think that's that's pagan talk. 00:13:03.920 --> 00:13:06.800 That's these people are you know, they're nuts or something. 00:13:06.800 --> 00:13:08.880 No, it's how Jesus talks. 00:13:08.880 --> 00:13:12.160 It's how Jesus warned us things would be, which is why we 00:13:12.160 --> 00:13:16.000 have permission to agree with what our own lying eyes are telling 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:20.080 us. These things actually happen, and as honest men, we have to 00:13:20.080 --> 00:13:22.240 evaluate them honestly, whatever it is. 00:13:22.240 --> 00:13:24.880 You want friends, lots of friends, real friends. 00:13:24.880 --> 00:13:26.480 You don't want any enemies. 00:13:26.480 --> 00:13:30.080 But if someone chooses to be your enemy, you are only harming 00:13:30.080 --> 00:13:33.440 both yourself and anyone to whom you have a duty if you 00:13:33.440 --> 00:13:37.120 refuse to acknowledge this guy has chosen to be my enemy and 00:13:37.120 --> 00:13:38.640 I need to act accordingly. 00:13:38.640 --> 00:13:40.400 As I said, we're not going to be talking about how you 00:13:40.400 --> 00:13:41.120 act towards them. 00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:44.480 We've talked in a number of other episodes on violence, on perfect 00:13:44.480 --> 00:13:48.880 hatred, various aspects of what to do in certain situations. 00:13:48.880 --> 00:13:52.160 None of this today really has anything to do with now you 00:13:52.160 --> 00:13:54.080 found an enemy, here's what you're gonna do. 00:13:54.080 --> 00:13:55.840 You need to be a Christian about it. 00:13:55.840 --> 00:13:59.920 Part of being a Christian about acknowledging an enemy is believing it's 00:13:59.920 --> 00:14:03.760 real. You have to believe that you have real enemies and that 00:14:03.760 --> 00:14:05.360 that can matter. 00:14:05.360 --> 00:14:07.520 If everything were working, that wouldn't. 00:14:07.520 --> 00:14:10.720 You know, this is all the product of a fallen sinful world. 00:14:10.720 --> 00:14:14.640 But Christians living in a sinful world acknowledge that the sin around 00:14:14.640 --> 00:14:18.720 us creates death, sickness, and enemies. 00:14:18.720 --> 00:14:21.680 These are the fruits of evil, they're the fruits of Satan's work 00:14:21.680 --> 00:14:24.560 in the world, and we as Christians have to deal with them. 00:14:24.560 --> 00:14:27.040 That begins and ends with not lying about it. 00:14:27.040 --> 00:14:31.200 Because when you remove the ability to identify these things, you're completely 00:14:31.200 --> 00:14:34.160 crippled. You can't behave as a Christian if you deny that it 00:14:34.160 --> 00:14:37.440 exists. So again, just as the outset, I don't want anyone to 00:14:37.440 --> 00:14:38.080 take away from this. 00:14:38.080 --> 00:14:39.040 I gotta be paranoid. 00:14:39.040 --> 00:14:41.200 I gotta I gotta suddenly start identifying enemies. 00:14:41.200 --> 00:14:43.280 I gotta find them all around me because they're hiding. 00:14:43.280 --> 00:14:46.080 I don't want people to feel that way, but you do need 00:14:46.080 --> 00:14:47.360 to believe that they're real. 00:14:47.360 --> 00:14:50.560 And if you see examples of well, yeah, I didn't understand that 00:14:50.560 --> 00:14:52.640 before, but actually that's enemy action. 00:14:52.640 --> 00:14:56.080 Maybe it's weak, maybe it's strong, but it's something that's harmful. 00:14:56.240 --> 00:14:57.440 You need to know that. 00:14:57.440 --> 00:15:00.240 And then what you do has to be informed as a Christian. 00:15:00.240 --> 00:15:03.360 But the failure to acknowledge that it is occurring and that someone 00:15:03.360 --> 00:15:07.440 is acting as an enemy is itself sinful foolishness. 00:15:07.440 --> 00:15:09.920 We don't get to be more loving than God and say I 00:15:09.920 --> 00:15:11.040 don't have any enemies. 00:15:11.040 --> 00:15:12.240 God says you do. 00:15:12.240 --> 00:15:14.400 So we're gonna deal with what that looks 00:15:14.400 --> 00:15:15.040 like. 00:15:15.680 --> 00:15:20.800 Doubtedly some of you will have heard Echoes of Carl Schmidt when 00:15:20.800 --> 00:15:26.640 we talk about friends and enemies and the friend enemy distinction. 00:15:26.640 --> 00:15:30.720 And to some degree there is a similarity there in Schmidt and 00:15:30.720 --> 00:15:34.720 related writers with what we are saying here, but they are not 00:15:34.720 --> 00:15:36.240 exactly identical. 00:15:36.240 --> 00:15:39.760 He is dealing with the concept of the political. 00:15:39.760 --> 00:15:44.080 We are dealing with perhaps in the neutral and grand sense the 00:15:44.080 --> 00:15:48.720 political, but we're dealing with something more specific, more limited in scope 00:15:49.040 --> 00:15:51.280 than what you would find in Carl Schmidt. 00:15:51.280 --> 00:15:56.480 So if you've read those works, there's a useful comparison to be 00:15:56.480 --> 00:16:00.320 made, but what we're saying and what he is saying are not 00:16:00.320 --> 00:16:04.320 identical because we are addressing different things. 00:16:04.320 --> 00:16:09.680 And on a more specifically Christian note, many of you when you 00:16:09.680 --> 00:16:14.880 hear that we have enemies, that an enemy is a real thing, 00:16:14.880 --> 00:16:19.520 you are going to instinctively recoil because you have had the very 00:16:19.520 --> 00:16:22.800 idea that you can have an enemy trained out of you by 00:16:23.120 --> 00:16:27.680 by modern eisegesis, false interpretations of scripture. 00:16:27.680 --> 00:16:31.840 And so you may think of verses bless those who persecute you, 00:16:31.840 --> 00:16:36.480 or forgive your enemies, there are various places that say almost exactly 00:16:36.480 --> 00:16:41.920 that. And then you will think How can I comply with this 00:16:41.920 --> 00:16:47.520 command from God and His Word and yet still have enemies? 00:16:47.520 --> 00:16:51.280 Well there are other parts of scripture that say that your enemies 00:16:51.280 --> 00:16:53.840 will be members of your own household. 00:16:53.840 --> 00:16:56.880 And so Scripture tells you that you will have enemies. 00:16:56.880 --> 00:16:58.800 You have to square these two things. 00:16:58.800 --> 00:17:02.400 You can't just focus on one and ignore the other. 00:17:02.400 --> 00:17:05.120 And so do you have a duty to forgive your enemies? 00:17:05.120 --> 00:17:08.160 Absolutely. But do you still have enemies? 00:17:08.160 --> 00:17:09.520 Of course. 00:17:09.520 --> 00:17:13.840 If you forgive an enemy, does he thereby cease to be an 00:17:13.840 --> 00:17:15.760 enemy? No he does not. 00:17:15.760 --> 00:17:19.120 As Wo said, the enemy gets a vote. 00:17:19.120 --> 00:17:24.320 If you forgive your enemy, that does not stop him from continuing 00:17:24.320 --> 00:17:26.000 to be an enemy. 00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:28.960 It does not mean that you stop treating him as 00:17:29.840 --> 00:17:30.960 an enemy. 00:17:30.960 --> 00:17:34.720 It is a different thing to forgive someone and to treat him 00:17:34.720 --> 00:17:37.600 as if the slate were wiped clean. 00:17:37.920 --> 00:17:42.480 Forgiveness in this sense does not mean that the slate is wiped 00:17:42.480 --> 00:17:47.120 clean. I'll give you a more concrete example to make this clearer. 00:17:47.120 --> 00:17:53.440 With regard to the punishment of crime, the godly prince, the sovereign, 00:17:53.440 --> 00:17:56.400 the authority, whatever you want to call him, has a duty to 00:17:56.960 --> 00:17:58.400 punish crime. 00:17:58.400 --> 00:18:02.800 And so if a man commits murder, yes that man can be 00:18:02.800 --> 00:18:07.920 forgiven, and in fact he must be forgiven by Christians, but he 00:18:07.920 --> 00:18:12.880 must also in the sense of God has promised forgiveness if he 00:18:12.880 --> 00:18:16.400 repents, he must be forgiven as well in that sense. 00:18:16.400 --> 00:18:20.640 And so a man may very well go to the hangman, having 00:18:20.640 --> 00:18:25.360 repented, having been forgiven for his sins, having been forgiven by the 00:18:25.360 --> 00:18:28.560 Christians he harmed, and yet he still has to go to the 00:18:28.560 --> 00:18:32.800 hangman. Because the crime must be punished. 00:18:32.800 --> 00:18:36.720 It's not the exact same thing about which we are talking today, 00:18:36.720 --> 00:18:38.720 but it is very similar. 00:18:38.720 --> 00:18:41.600 The analogy is very close. 00:18:41.600 --> 00:18:47.120 And so just because you have forgiven your enemy does not mean 00:18:47.120 --> 00:18:49.840 that he ceases to be your enemy. 00:18:49.840 --> 00:18:53.040 Now if he ceases to be your enemy, which is on him 00:18:53.280 --> 00:18:57.520 not on you, because you can't do that for him. 00:18:57.520 --> 00:18:59.920 Again, this is the enemy getting a vote. 00:18:59.920 --> 00:19:03.120 He gets to decide if he is your enemy or not. 00:19:03.120 --> 00:19:06.720 And so if he ceases to be your enemy, and you forgive 00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:09.920 him, well then he may very well become your friend. 00:19:09.920 --> 00:19:13.200 And perhaps with some weak enemies that is on the table with 00:19:13.200 --> 00:19:18.480 strong enemies it very seldom is, because more likely your strong enemy 00:19:18.480 --> 00:19:22.720 is going to continue to double down and seek your harm. 00:19:22.720 --> 00:19:24.320 You are not a better Christian 00:19:25.200 --> 00:19:30.640 if you attempt to forgive here in quotes your strong enemy by 00:19:30.640 --> 00:19:32.560 treating him as a friend. 00:19:32.560 --> 00:19:35.520 In fact, you are doing something that you are commanded not to 00:19:35.520 --> 00:19:39.200 do, because as Woe said, you are being foolish, you are being 00:19:39.200 --> 00:19:43.680 derelict in your duties with regard to others, because you are failing 00:19:43.680 --> 00:19:47.440 to treat as an enemy someone who has declared himself to be 00:19:47.440 --> 00:19:50.560 an enemy, whether that's in his words or his actions. 00:19:51.760 --> 00:19:59.360 If you treat friends and enemies identically, that's not just insane 00:19:59.360 --> 00:20:02.880 but immoral, because you have duties to your friends and you have 00:20:02.880 --> 00:20:06.880 duties Duties to your own, And if you treat an enemy as 00:20:06.880 --> 00:20:11.520 a friend, you are going to harm those around you. 00:20:11.680 --> 00:20:16.480 In the churches, many Christians have been misled to believe that you 00:20:17.360 --> 00:20:21.360 destroy here in quotes your enemies by forgiving them, in the sense 00:20:21.360 --> 00:20:25.360 of them ceasing to be an enemy because they have been forgiven. 00:20:25.360 --> 00:20:27.040 That's not how this works. 00:20:27.040 --> 00:20:33.360 We would never, for instance, believe this on the international scale. 00:20:33.360 --> 00:20:37.440 If your country goes to war with another country, and then you 00:20:37.440 --> 00:20:42.880 say, I forgive you, I forgive this other country for going to 00:20:42.880 --> 00:20:45.280 war with us. 00:20:45.280 --> 00:20:47.840 That doesn't end the war. 00:20:47.840 --> 00:20:51.840 That doesn't make the other nation, the other country, no longer an 00:20:51.840 --> 00:20:54.640 enemy. That's not how it works. 00:20:54.640 --> 00:21:00.160 Incidentally, this is another aspect of this that I'll mention here. 00:21:00.160 --> 00:21:05.680 There is a difference between a personal enemy and a public enemy. 00:21:05.680 --> 00:21:08.160 It's not exactly the point that we're making today, but it is 00:21:08.160 --> 00:21:11.200 a point that needs to be needs to be made because it 00:21:11.200 --> 00:21:14.800 is a related matter and it's something that's important for Christians to 00:21:14.800 --> 00:21:20.240 understand. This is something that is somewhat masked in English and related 00:21:20.240 --> 00:21:26.240 languages, including German, because we use the same word, the same noun, 00:21:26.240 --> 00:21:30.160 for personal enemy and public enemy. 00:21:30.160 --> 00:21:32.880 But you can see I already distinguished the two. 00:21:32.880 --> 00:21:34.720 We do it by adding an adjective. 00:21:34.720 --> 00:21:36.800 German does the exact same. 00:21:37.120 --> 00:21:41.200 We don't do what Latin and Greek do, because there there is 00:21:41.200 --> 00:21:46.080 a different term for the personal enemy and for the public enemy. 00:21:46.080 --> 00:21:49.040 In the case of the Latin, you have animicus, which is the 00:21:49.040 --> 00:21:53.200 personal enemy, and you have the hostus, which is the public enemy. 00:21:53.200 --> 00:21:56.720 And then Greek, of course, is Ectros and Polemios. 00:21:56.720 --> 00:21:59.760 These are the terms, in, of course, the Greek case that we 00:21:59.760 --> 00:22:03.920 find in Scripture, there is a difference between the personal enemy and 00:22:03.920 --> 00:22:06.160 the public enemy. 00:22:06.160 --> 00:22:12.000 In that case, you actually cannot forgive all public enemies, because it's 00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:12.720 not your place to do 00:22:13.600 --> 00:22:17.920 so. You forgive your personal enemies. 00:22:17.920 --> 00:22:20.880 So the man who keeps your lawnmower for too long, if he's 00:22:20.880 --> 00:22:23.120 done it a whole bunch of times, that rises to the level 00:22:23.120 --> 00:22:24.960 of him being your personal enemy. 00:22:24.960 --> 00:22:28.160 It's a little silly, but that sort of case, you forgive him 00:22:28.160 --> 00:22:29.760 for that. 00:22:29.760 --> 00:22:35.200 That is a matter of personal enmity, in the sort of minor 00:22:35.200 --> 00:22:37.680 sense of enmity, not in the sense of him seeking to do 00:22:37.680 --> 00:22:38.160 you harm. 00:22:38.160 --> 00:22:42.000 He's probably not seeking to do you harm by keeping your lawnmower 00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:43.760 for too long. 00:22:43.760 --> 00:22:46.480 But you forgive your personal enemy. 00:22:46.480 --> 00:22:50.000 You cannot forgive the public enemy. 00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:52.880 Because the public enemy, whether it is a matter of politics or 00:22:53.280 --> 00:22:57.120 religion, because you can have both kinds, sometimes it is both in 00:22:57.120 --> 00:23:01.920 a single case in a single enemy, but just because you are 00:23:01.920 --> 00:23:05.760 to forgive your personal enemy does not mean you are to forgive 00:23:05.760 --> 00:23:08.000 all those who are your enemies. 00:23:08.000 --> 00:23:15.200 So for instance, a more concrete example, you cannot forgive the heretic. 00:23:15.200 --> 00:23:18.720 You cannot forgive the adherent to a false religion. 00:23:19.520 --> 00:23:24.160 Because that man, that enemy, is God's enemy. 00:23:24.160 --> 00:23:27.760 You do not get to forgive God's enemies. 00:23:27.760 --> 00:23:29.920 You are not more moral than God. 00:23:29.920 --> 00:23:33.120 If you seek to be more moral than God, you are in 00:23:33.120 --> 00:23:35.600 fact sinning. 00:23:35.600 --> 00:23:39.840 These are categories that are important to bear in mind as a 00:23:39.840 --> 00:23:46.400 Christian. Most modern pastors, most modern teachers, conflate all of these things 00:23:46.400 --> 00:23:50.480 together and then simply tell you, forgive your enemies. 00:23:50.480 --> 00:23:53.920 They gloss over the fact that there are different kinds of enemies. 00:23:53.920 --> 00:23:57.120 They gloss over the fact that an enemy does not cease to 00:23:57.120 --> 00:24:00.240 be an enemy simply because you forgave him. 00:24:00.240 --> 00:24:04.160 And so what winds up happening is that you have Christians behaving 00:24:04.160 --> 00:24:08.080 in ways that are suicidal, both on the personal scale and on 00:24:08.080 --> 00:24:09.680 the civilizational scale. 00:24:09.680 --> 00:24:11.920 That's not Christianity. 00:24:11.920 --> 00:24:15.920 That is something fundamentally alien to the Christian faith. 00:24:15.920 --> 00:24:20.960 God is not a God of disorder and destruction and degeneration. 00:24:20.960 --> 00:24:25.600 But those things are the result of the modern teaching with regard 00:24:25.600 --> 00:24:27.840 to enemies and forgiveness. 00:24:27.840 --> 00:24:31.360 And so obviously that modern teaching cannot be true. 00:24:31.360 --> 00:24:33.440 A tree is known by its fruit. 00:24:33.440 --> 00:24:36.080 What is the fruit of that modern teaching? 00:24:36.080 --> 00:24:37.520 Again, it's destruction. 00:24:37.840 --> 00:24:40.080 We see our civilization collapsing. 00:24:40.080 --> 00:24:43.600 We see it falling apart, and we see individual men as well 00:24:43.760 --> 00:24:48.160 being destroyed by the fruits of that poisonous tree. 00:24:48.160 --> 00:24:50.640 And so that tree is wicked. 00:24:50.720 --> 00:24:53.680 It is not the Christian faith, it is not the truth of 00:24:53.680 --> 00:24:55.120 this matter. 00:24:55.120 --> 00:25:01.280 As a Christian, you have to distinguish personal enemies and public enemies, 00:25:01.280 --> 00:25:05.760 and you have to distinguish how you treat enemies from how you 00:25:05.760 --> 00:25:06.480 would treat friends. 00:25:06.480 --> 00:25:10.160 That's one of those things that with no other group would we 00:25:10.160 --> 00:25:13.520 ever have to say what I just said. 00:25:13.520 --> 00:25:18.160 I would never have to tell neopagans you do not treat your 00:25:18.160 --> 00:25:21.040 friends and your enemies in the same way. 00:25:21.040 --> 00:25:25.680 Because it is an absolutely absurd and insane thing, a wicked thing, 00:25:25.680 --> 00:25:29.040 to believe that you would treat enemies and friends in the same 00:25:29.040 --> 00:25:34.080 way. I'm not saying you don't forgive your personal enemies, because of 00:25:34.080 --> 00:25:38.080 course Scripture is very clear you must do so. 00:25:38.320 --> 00:25:40.880 But that does not mean that you treat them as friends As 00:25:40.880 --> 00:25:46.160 friends. Because when you treat them as friends, what is the outcome? 00:25:46.160 --> 00:25:48.320 What are the consequences of that? 00:25:48.320 --> 00:25:51.920 And not only what are the consequences, but what are you doing 00:25:51.920 --> 00:25:52.720 with scripture? 00:25:52.720 --> 00:25:56.880 You're butchering Scripture by ignoring certain parts of it. 00:25:56.880 --> 00:26:01.120 Scripture does not say forgive your enemies, because then they are your 00:26:01.120 --> 00:26:04.880 friends. Now it does say that if you go to your brother 00:26:04.880 --> 00:26:07.840 who is in error, error, and perhaps your brother is in deep 00:26:07.840 --> 00:26:11.280 enough error that he has become your enemy, if he turns from 00:26:11.280 --> 00:26:14.320 that wickedness, then you have gained a brother. 00:26:14.320 --> 00:26:19.600 But that's saying if he ceases to be your enemy, because then 00:26:19.600 --> 00:26:24.160 he is no longer an enemy because he has made that decision. 00:26:24.160 --> 00:26:26.400 You cannot make it for him. 00:26:26.400 --> 00:26:30.720 Just as you can't decide for another person to be your friend. 00:26:30.720 --> 00:26:34.400 He is your friend or not because of his own decision, not 00:26:34.400 --> 00:26:35.840 because of your decision. 00:26:35.840 --> 00:26:37.120 The same with forgiveness. 00:26:37.120 --> 00:26:43.040 Forgiveness does not magically transmute an enemy into a friend. 00:26:43.040 --> 00:26:45.360 That is a completely absurd belief. 00:26:46.160 --> 00:26:50.160 That is only something that we find in the modern churches to 00:26:50.160 --> 00:26:53.200 abuse the term churches. 00:26:53.200 --> 00:26:57.200 Because it is a new gospel, it is a novel teaching, it 00:26:57.200 --> 00:27:00.320 is something that is at odds with Scripture because it does not 00:27:00.320 --> 00:27:03.280 come from God, it does not come from his Word. 00:27:03.280 --> 00:27:08.400 It is Satan teaching these things to undermine the churches, to undermine 00:27:08.400 --> 00:27:11.840 Christendom, to destroy Christianity from within 00:27:12.880 --> 00:27:18.960 Christian men have to make the right choices pursuant to wisdom in 00:27:18.960 --> 00:27:24.720 these matters, because if we don't, everything around us will be destroyed, 00:27:24.720 --> 00:27:27.360 and we will also be personally destroyed. 00:27:27.360 --> 00:27:29.920 We see that happening all the time. 00:27:29.920 --> 00:27:34.160 There are men who have left the church because this sort of 00:27:34.160 --> 00:27:37.600 wickedness is preached from so many pulpits. 00:27:37.600 --> 00:27:41.520 There's no truth there, and they recognize there's no truth there. 00:27:41.520 --> 00:27:44.720 Because these sorts of things are written on the human heart by 00:27:44.720 --> 00:27:48.160 God. We all know that you do not treat your friends and 00:27:48.160 --> 00:27:50.640 your enemies in the same way. 00:27:50.640 --> 00:27:53.520 And yet, when you hear someone say that from the pulpit, that 00:27:53.760 --> 00:27:57.440 no, you have to treat your enemies as if they're friends, every 00:27:57.440 --> 00:27:59.360 man knows that's false. 00:27:59.360 --> 00:28:02.800 Why would he stay in that sort of church? 00:28:03.040 --> 00:28:08.400 So pastors and teachers who say those sorts of things are working 00:28:08.400 --> 00:28:09.040 for Satan. 00:28:09.040 --> 00:28:10.800 They are mouths of Satan. 00:28:10.800 --> 00:28:12.800 They are driving men out of the churches. 00:28:12.800 --> 00:28:16.880 They are destroying the churches by teaching that which is false, that 00:28:16.880 --> 00:28:19.680 which is at odds with God's word. 00:28:19.680 --> 00:28:24.240 Because God again does not tell you treat your enemy as a 00:28:24.240 --> 00:28:28.960 friend. He commands that you forgive your enemy, but he says, forgive 00:28:29.520 --> 00:28:30.560 your enemy. 00:28:30.560 --> 00:28:36.080 If you are forgiving your enemy, it means that enemies exist. 00:28:36.080 --> 00:28:40.000 And what does Scripture say about living with others? 00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.240 It says, if possible, so far So far as it depends on 00:28:44.240 --> 00:28:47.760 you, live peaceably with all. 00:28:47.760 --> 00:28:53.440 Notice that twice in that short verse recognizes the existence of enemies, 00:28:53.440 --> 00:28:57.120 because it says if possible, that's recognizing it is not in fact 00:28:57.120 --> 00:29:01.200 possible to live at peace with all, because some will be enemies 00:29:01.440 --> 00:29:05.840 regardless of what you do, regardless of how you behave. 00:29:05.840 --> 00:29:10.000 And then it says again, emphasizing so far as it depends on 00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.880 you. Well as scripture says so far as it depends on you, 00:29:14.880 --> 00:29:18.800 that means that not in all cases will it depend on you. 00:29:18.800 --> 00:29:22.800 There are enemies, there are those who are inveterate enemies. 00:29:22.800 --> 00:29:25.440 They will be your enemy to the grave, and there is nothing 00:29:25.440 --> 00:29:27.120 you can do about that. 00:29:27.120 --> 00:29:31.040 You do not treat them as friends, because if you do that, 00:29:31.040 --> 00:29:34.320 you are neglecting your duties with regard to others Others and you 00:29:34.320 --> 00:29:38.080 will destroy yourself and everything around you in the process. 00:29:39.200 --> 00:29:42.640 To emphasize what it means to be a good friend is equally 00:29:42.640 --> 00:29:45.840 important because frankly, I don't think we have many good examples of 00:29:45.840 --> 00:29:46.560 that anymore. 00:29:47.680 --> 00:29:52.080 fiction and whatnot, but in personal lives, it's kind of rare to 00:29:52.080 --> 00:29:56.560 see the sort of friendship that rises to the level of you 00:29:56.560 --> 00:29:58.640 know mutual protection pact. 00:29:58.640 --> 00:29:59.920 That's absurd. 00:30:00.400 --> 00:30:04.240 of all the places you would think the the churches would be 00:30:04.240 --> 00:30:07.920 the greatest examples where everyone is showing the greatest degree of friendship, 00:30:07.920 --> 00:30:10.000 yet that's rarely the case. 00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:13.840 There's a reason that we have the term fairweather friend and that's 00:30:13.840 --> 00:30:16.160 what I would call a weak friend. 00:30:16.160 --> 00:30:18.560 Fairweather friends are friends. 00:30:18.560 --> 00:30:20.320 As long as the weather's good, they're fine. 00:30:20.320 --> 00:30:20.800 They're great. 00:30:20.800 --> 00:30:22.000 You got barbecues with them. 00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:23.600 Everything's hunky-dory. 00:30:23.600 --> 00:30:26.880 A fairweather friend ceases to be a friend when the weather gets 00:30:26.880 --> 00:30:31.360 bad. When things turn south, as soon as there's trouble, if you're 00:30:31.360 --> 00:30:35.120 in personal trouble, if you're suffering, if there's a cloud over you 00:30:35.280 --> 00:30:39.920 that maybe some people are suddenly criticizing you for something, they scatter. 00:30:39.920 --> 00:30:42.640 People like I uh I'm I got other things to do. 00:30:42.640 --> 00:30:44.960 I I'm your friend, but I'm gonna be your friend from over 00:30:44.960 --> 00:30:46.720 there. See you next year. 00:30:46.720 --> 00:30:49.120 And suddenly you realize you're all alone. 00:30:49.120 --> 00:30:52.640 And that doesn't mean that they were never your friends, but they 00:30:52.640 --> 00:30:56.240 were never your strong friends or your real friends. 00:30:56.240 --> 00:30:58.960 That's most people in most people's lives. 00:30:58.960 --> 00:31:00.640 I'm that way for people. 00:31:00.640 --> 00:31:05.280 I don't think it's a personality defect to not be the strongest 00:31:05.280 --> 00:31:07.200 possible friend to every person you meet. 00:31:07.200 --> 00:31:08.640 Frankly, that would be bizarre. 00:31:08.640 --> 00:31:10.800 You can't spread yourself that thin. 00:31:10.800 --> 00:31:13.120 You can't have a mutual defense pact. 00:31:13.120 --> 00:31:16.240 You can't have an identity with every person you meet. 00:31:16.240 --> 00:31:17.760 You have to have preferences. 00:31:18.000 --> 00:31:20.640 So in no way is it a slight to say that they're 00:31:20.640 --> 00:31:22.720 degrees of friendship. 00:31:22.720 --> 00:31:26.800 But the emphasis on what a true friend looks like is precisely 00:31:26.800 --> 00:31:30.240 because when the real enemies show up, you don't want to be 00:31:30.240 --> 00:31:31.040 left alone. 00:31:31.200 --> 00:31:33.040 And that means having real friends. 00:31:33.040 --> 00:31:35.360 And you want to be that sort of friend to someone else 00:31:35.360 --> 00:31:36.720 that they count on. 00:31:36.720 --> 00:31:38.880 I'm going to give you a couple quotes from a couple of 00:31:38.880 --> 00:31:40.320 my favorite movies. 00:31:40.320 --> 00:31:43.360 The first is Master and Commander, The Far Side of the World, 00:31:43.440 --> 00:31:43.680 Bing 00:31:44.720 --> 00:31:47.360 have probably watched and loved that film. 00:31:47.360 --> 00:31:51.360 There's a scene where this English ship, which is on the far 00:31:51.360 --> 00:31:53.680 side of the world, is about to go into battle with a 00:31:53.680 --> 00:31:54.800 French ship. 00:31:54.800 --> 00:31:58.240 And there's a famous speech by the captain where he says this 00:31:58.880 --> 00:32:02.240 England is under threat of invasion, and though we be on the 00:32:02.240 --> 00:32:05.280 far side of the world, this ship is our home. 00:32:05.280 --> 00:32:08.080 This ship is England. 00:32:08.080 --> 00:32:13.200 The premise there is that the sovereignty of England's soil is carried 00:32:13.200 --> 00:32:15.680 wherever that ship goes, anywhere in the world. 00:32:15.680 --> 00:32:18.480 And we see that both with ships on the high seas today 00:32:18.560 --> 00:32:22.480 under maritime law, and we also see it with embassies. 00:32:22.720 --> 00:32:28.880 An embassy on foreign soil is de facto the country's soil to 00:32:28.880 --> 00:32:30.560 which the embassy represents. 00:32:30.560 --> 00:32:34.400 So if there's a Russian embassy in Washington, DC, you can't go 00:32:34.400 --> 00:32:38.240 in there without permission from the Russian government because it's not US 00:32:38.240 --> 00:32:44.560 soil. Even though it's technically located someplace that we have jurisdiction, the 00:32:44.560 --> 00:32:49.520 embassy has jurisdiction ceded to the country that is establishing the embassy. 00:32:49.520 --> 00:32:53.520 So it's it's a legal fiction, but it's a very real thing. 00:32:53.520 --> 00:32:56.560 If I were to break into the Russian embassy, I have not 00:32:56.560 --> 00:32:59.120 only committed, you know, breaking and entering or whatever, I have not 00:32:59.120 --> 00:33:04.960 only committed a civil violation, a criminal violation of property law, but 00:33:04.960 --> 00:33:09.760 I've also committed an international crime by invading Russia, by breaking into 00:33:09.760 --> 00:33:10.960 Russian soil. 00:33:10.960 --> 00:33:14.880 So it's a far worse thing because of the agreement of the 00:33:15.120 --> 00:33:19.360 Russian embassy is Russia, even though it's located somewhere else. 00:33:19.360 --> 00:33:22.640 That English ship on the far side of the ocean was still 00:33:22.640 --> 00:33:26.720 England. And so that rousing speech from the captain was this is 00:33:26.720 --> 00:33:27.440 our home. 00:33:27.680 --> 00:33:31.040 This ship is not only our practical home far away from where 00:33:31.040 --> 00:33:33.760 we were born, but this is England. 00:33:33.760 --> 00:33:35.520 A friendship works the same way. 00:33:35.520 --> 00:33:37.840 A real friendship is the same thing. 00:33:37.840 --> 00:33:41.520 An attack on a real friend is an attack on you. 00:33:41.520 --> 00:33:45.840 It's the identity of sameness, which is how that term is used 00:33:45.840 --> 00:33:47.280 in mathematics. 00:33:47.280 --> 00:33:48.800 It's the same thing. 00:33:48.800 --> 00:33:51.520 It's not oh I feel like that's my guy. 00:33:51.520 --> 00:33:52.720 It's the same guy. 00:33:53.360 --> 00:33:57.760 Two men, different personalities, different mothers, different everything. 00:33:57.760 --> 00:34:02.000 But when they have a mutual real friendship, that is a bond 00:34:02.000 --> 00:34:03.920 that is as strong as anything in the world. 00:34:03.920 --> 00:34:05.600 And it's rare because it has to be. 00:34:05.600 --> 00:34:07.840 You can't have that spread thin. 00:34:07.840 --> 00:34:13.360 But when that's real, it is a profound blessing because it's a 00:34:13.360 --> 00:34:14.960 profound obligation. 00:34:14.960 --> 00:34:19.680 If someone is in the military, somebody's a marine deployed overseas and 00:34:19.680 --> 00:34:22.800 they're drinking in a bar, just minding their own business. 00:34:22.800 --> 00:34:25.440 And there's somebody in the bar who really doesn't like America, does 00:34:25.520 --> 00:34:29.120 like American foreign policy, knows that this guy is a marine, and 00:34:29.120 --> 00:34:29.920 says, you know what? 00:34:29.920 --> 00:34:31.840 I'm gonna take a swipe at America. 00:34:31.840 --> 00:34:32.720 I don't like those guys. 00:34:33.760 --> 00:34:36.240 Say he sucker punches one marine, hits him in the back of 00:34:36.240 --> 00:34:38.640 the head, cold cocks him, he doesn't see it coming. 00:34:38.640 --> 00:34:42.320 What will ensue is a bar fight where they're gonna be more 00:34:42.320 --> 00:34:46.160 than just those two guys fighting, because when that guy cold cocked 00:34:46.160 --> 00:34:49.600 a marine, he did not just punch one man. 00:34:49.600 --> 00:34:51.600 It wasn't just a stand-up fight. 00:34:51.600 --> 00:34:54.080 He declared war on the entire United States Marine Corps. 00:34:54.080 --> 00:34:54.800 And guess what? 00:34:54.800 --> 00:34:59.040 Every Marine within shouting distance is gonna show up for that fight. 00:34:59.040 --> 00:35:01.920 And they're going to put a hurting on anyone who looks like 00:35:01.920 --> 00:35:04.160 he thought that was a good idea for someone to attack a 00:35:04.160 --> 00:35:07.040 marine. That's what friendship looks like. 00:35:07.040 --> 00:35:11.680 When someone attacks whoever is yours, that's sort of the most striding 00:35:11.680 --> 00:35:14.960 for, we're not advocating the people go around fighting. 00:35:14.960 --> 00:35:17.840 The point is that that identity, that y if you attack one 00:35:17.840 --> 00:35:19.680 Marine, you've attacked all Marines. 00:35:19.680 --> 00:35:21.920 That's the way it's supposed to work. 00:35:21.920 --> 00:35:25.600 In poor crappy neighborhoods, gangs tend to work the same way. 00:35:25.600 --> 00:35:28.000 They're different gangs with different colors. 00:35:28.000 --> 00:35:29.360 Everyone's getting abused. 00:35:29.360 --> 00:35:30.960 Everyone's being victimized. 00:35:30.960 --> 00:35:33.840 If you join a gang, you get protection. 00:35:33.840 --> 00:35:37.120 That identity of I'm part of a collective and therefore And therefore 00:35:37.280 --> 00:35:41.360 others will stand up for we when no one ever has, it 00:35:41.360 --> 00:35:45.440 fulfills a need that humans have that should have been met properly. 00:35:45.440 --> 00:35:48.960 It should have been met by the community, by your family, by 00:35:48.960 --> 00:35:49.840 your church. 00:35:49.840 --> 00:35:53.040 When those absences are felt, men are still going to try to 00:35:53.040 --> 00:35:55.600 find it somewhere and they're often going to find it in bad 00:35:55.600 --> 00:36:02.400 places. So it's important to understand that this is not advocating tribalism, 00:36:02.400 --> 00:36:04.480 the way that isms are thrown around. 00:36:04.720 --> 00:36:07.280 It's to say that you're going to have guys. 00:36:07.280 --> 00:36:11.200 You're going to have guys that you have a sameness with them. 00:36:11.200 --> 00:36:17.040 And that's a good identification because you need friends, you need backup, 00:36:17.040 --> 00:36:19.840 you need someone, whether it's, you know, a shoulder to cry on 00:36:19.920 --> 00:36:21.360 figuratively if you're a guy. 00:36:21.360 --> 00:36:24.000 You know, if it's a guy, you go complain to him and 00:36:24.000 --> 00:36:26.800 he tells you you're an idiot, quit being a fool. 00:36:26.800 --> 00:36:28.720 That's what friends tend to do with each other. 00:36:28.720 --> 00:36:30.400 But they're gonna be there. 00:36:30.400 --> 00:36:34.000 That willingness to actually be present and show up when everyone else 00:36:34.000 --> 00:36:37.280 scatters, when everyone else like, there's trouble now, I don't wanna be 00:36:37.280 --> 00:36:41.360 part of this, is a fundamental difference between the way most relationships 00:36:41.360 --> 00:36:41.600 work 00:36:42.640 --> 00:36:48.000 To understand how friendship works is necessary to understand how enemies work. 00:36:48.000 --> 00:36:52.720 Because typically when you have a personal enemy, someone who's actually really 00:36:52.720 --> 00:36:57.040 trying to hurt you, most of the time, it's for some reason 00:36:57.040 --> 00:36:58.320 of principle. 00:36:58.320 --> 00:37:00.560 It's not just a personality conflict. 00:37:00.560 --> 00:37:02.480 Usually they're after something. 00:37:02.480 --> 00:37:04.880 Their target is not just one person. 00:37:04.880 --> 00:37:06.800 It's a cluster of things. 00:37:06.800 --> 00:37:08.880 They hate you because you're Christian, or they hate you because you 00:37:09.200 --> 00:37:10.320 have more money than Emory. 00:37:10.560 --> 00:37:13.840 They have some reason in their head where you are actually a 00:37:13.840 --> 00:37:15.920 proxy for their greater target. 00:37:15.920 --> 00:37:19.600 But when the real enemy, the strong enemy identifies you and says, 00:37:19.600 --> 00:37:22.640 I'm gonna get this guy, I'm gonna hurt this guy. 00:37:22.640 --> 00:37:27.360 It is an attack on whatever sameness you have with others. 00:37:27.360 --> 00:37:30.000 So the guy in the bar who throws a punch at a 00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:33.840 marine, effectively, you know, for practical purposes, he hit every marine. 00:37:33.840 --> 00:37:37.120 And every marine within punching distance is going to try to hit 00:37:37.120 --> 00:37:41.360 back. An enemy is saying, I know that these are the stakes 00:37:41.440 --> 00:37:43.280 and I'm going to do it anyway. 00:37:43.280 --> 00:37:46.720 And it's part of the reason why things like slander and the 00:37:46.720 --> 00:37:52.960 Helensky attacks of isolation are so vital when they're being used against 00:37:52.960 --> 00:37:56.560 good men because that isolation means suddenly you don't have any real 00:37:56.560 --> 00:37:57.520 friends anymore. 00:37:57.520 --> 00:38:00.960 Who's gonna show up to defend you when you have a bad 00:38:00.960 --> 00:38:04.640 reputation? When everyone doesn't like you for whatever reason. 00:38:04.640 --> 00:38:09.200 A lot of you been put in those situations where suddenly, out 00:38:09.200 --> 00:38:12.720 of nowhere, you thought you were friends with somebody and they decided 00:38:12.720 --> 00:38:13.920 one day they're going to be your enemy. 00:38:13.920 --> 00:38:17.520 You didn't see it coming, but their actions proved that they were 00:38:17.520 --> 00:38:18.880 a strong enemy. 00:38:18.880 --> 00:38:20.960 They weren't doing this casually. 00:38:20.960 --> 00:38:22.880 They were doing this on a ranked level. 00:38:22.880 --> 00:38:25.200 They're trying to hurt you for real. 00:38:25.200 --> 00:38:26.320 And what happens? 00:38:26.320 --> 00:38:31.360 The slander, the Alinsky tactics of separation, of isolation. 00:38:31.360 --> 00:38:35.200 You know, pick a target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. 00:38:35.200 --> 00:38:39.440 When that plays out, the fairweather friends scatter, the weak friends are 00:38:39.440 --> 00:38:40.560 all gone. 00:38:40.560 --> 00:38:44.160 The strong friends are then put to the test. 00:38:44.160 --> 00:38:50.240 When Will Spencer had his night o' long lives with Stone Choir, 00:38:50.240 --> 00:38:53.760 he texted me afterwards and tried to split me and Corey. 00:38:53.760 --> 00:38:56.320 His final play was to say, you know, I think you're fine 00:38:56.400 --> 00:38:57.360 and I think you're reasonable. 00:38:57.360 --> 00:38:59.760 This Corey guy, he was saying this nasty stuff. 00:38:59.760 --> 00:39:01.680 I didn't know he was saying any of that. 00:39:01.680 --> 00:39:06.000 If you would distance yourself from Corey, maybe we could be friends. 00:39:06.000 --> 00:39:07.120 I'd be fine with you. 00:39:07.280 --> 00:39:10.160 You could be an upstanding member of this whole Christian thing, but 00:39:10.160 --> 00:39:11.760 you gotta get rid of him. 00:39:11.760 --> 00:39:12.880 Which was insulting. 00:39:12.880 --> 00:39:13.600 It was stupid. 00:39:13.600 --> 00:39:15.040 I don't know what he was thinking. 00:39:15.040 --> 00:39:16.000 But that's the play. 00:39:16.000 --> 00:39:18.320 That's the final Alinsky I play. 00:39:18.320 --> 00:39:21.920 Separate whoever because if men can be picked off one by one 00:39:21.920 --> 00:39:26.880 and left with no real friends, no allies, no mutual defense, then 00:39:26.880 --> 00:39:28.240 it's very easy. 00:39:28.240 --> 00:39:29.760 Because one man alone will ultimately 00:39:30.640 --> 00:39:31.600 be crushed. 00:39:31.600 --> 00:39:35.440 You can only withstand so much, no matter how tough you are. 00:39:35.440 --> 00:39:40.560 Two is an exponential amplification of the resilience present. 00:39:40.560 --> 00:39:43.280 Because whenever one guy is giving up a little, someone else can 00:39:43.280 --> 00:39:44.560 come and pick up the slack. 00:39:44.560 --> 00:39:47.840 And just knowing that there's somebody there who can help is often 00:39:47.840 --> 00:39:50.240 enough help, even to talk about it. 00:39:50.240 --> 00:39:53.120 Just the fact that you know that you can count on someone 00:39:53.440 --> 00:39:55.360 delivers what you actually need. 00:39:55.760 --> 00:39:59.760 So the purpose of being able to identify the difference between real 00:39:59.760 --> 00:40:03.360 friends, strong friends, and weak friends is not for you to suddenly 00:40:03.360 --> 00:40:06.240 be disillusioned with people who are fair weather friends. 00:40:06.240 --> 00:40:08.880 That's going to be most of the people in your life. 00:40:08.880 --> 00:40:11.680 I'm not going to say that's okay or that's the way it 00:40:11.680 --> 00:40:16.960 should be, but you can only have so many deeply devoted strong 00:40:16.960 --> 00:40:18.880 friends. It's natural. 00:40:18.880 --> 00:40:21.440 There's like you can only have a family that's so large before 00:40:21.440 --> 00:40:22.880 it ceases to have any meaning. 00:40:23.040 --> 00:40:27.680 What is important is to recognize that when you have those people, 00:40:27.680 --> 00:40:30.560 you need to make sure that you're taking care of them as 00:40:30.560 --> 00:40:31.680 best you can. 00:40:31.680 --> 00:40:36.160 And the really tough thing for Christians is that you may well 00:40:36.160 --> 00:40:37.760 find that your couple real friends 00:40:38.640 --> 00:40:39.840 are not people at church. 00:40:39.840 --> 00:40:41.920 They're not Christian at all, maybe. 00:40:41.920 --> 00:40:45.200 Maybe your very best friend in the world would fail all the 00:40:45.200 --> 00:40:48.160 tests that your pastor would give for who is going to theoretically 00:40:48.160 --> 00:40:49.200 be a good friend. 00:40:49.200 --> 00:40:52.560 But the one guy who will show up and defend you no 00:40:52.560 --> 00:40:56.480 matter what is someone that the Pharisees would say that's a tax 00:40:56.480 --> 00:40:57.600 collector and a sinner. 00:40:57.600 --> 00:40:59.280 I don't go anywhere near that guy. 00:40:59.280 --> 00:41:00.320 I would never be seen. 00:41:00.320 --> 00:41:02.560 I never be caught dead talking to him. 00:41:02.880 --> 00:41:05.440 That may be someone who's your best friend. 00:41:05.440 --> 00:41:08.480 Now, the thing about close friendship is that you can't let a 00:41:08.480 --> 00:41:11.840 friend who's like that make you less moral. 00:41:11.840 --> 00:41:14.640 You have to do your best to set a proper Christian moral 00:41:14.640 --> 00:41:15.920 example for him. 00:41:15.920 --> 00:41:18.640 And there'll often be cases where someone like that is going to 00:41:18.640 --> 00:41:21.760 put you to the test, put your faith to the test to 00:41:21.760 --> 00:41:24.240 see, is this guy serious about his principles? 00:41:24.240 --> 00:41:26.000 Does this Jesus stuff really matter to him? 00:41:26.000 --> 00:41:28.320 I'm going to nudge him just to see where the line is. 00:41:28.320 --> 00:41:31.760 Not that he wants to tear you down, but there's a tendency 00:41:31.760 --> 00:41:34.480 that everyone has to put others to the test. 00:41:34.480 --> 00:41:37.680 And particularly when someone's not a Christian, you know, they just think 00:41:37.680 --> 00:41:38.560 it's a gimmick. 00:41:38.560 --> 00:41:41.680 And so when you're tested in that way and your resolve as 00:41:41.680 --> 00:41:46.640 a Christian withstands those small chides from a friend, you prove what 00:41:46.640 --> 00:41:48.320 real Christianity looks like. 00:41:48.320 --> 00:41:52.320 It's important in those situations if your very closest friend is not 00:41:52.320 --> 00:41:56.000 a Christian, that you uplift him and that he doesn't drag you 00:41:56.000 --> 00:41:59.920 down. But having said that, it's likely that that's going to be 00:41:59.920 --> 00:42:02.960 one of your best guys, one of your strongest friends. 00:42:02.960 --> 00:42:06.000 You may not have anybody in your church family, if you can 00:42:06.000 --> 00:42:08.960 even call it that anymore, who would be like that. 00:42:08.960 --> 00:42:12.320 Most of those people are probably fair weather friends. 00:42:12.320 --> 00:42:16.960 And the reason for saying this is not to sow suspicion or 00:42:16.960 --> 00:42:19.760 doubt, it's to make you understand that this is simply the reality 00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:25.280 because when the weather turns south, when suddenly the accusations come for 00:42:25.280 --> 00:42:27.840 you and it turns out that you did actually have a real 00:42:27.840 --> 00:42:32.560 enemy that you had no idea about, and when those fair weather 00:42:32.560 --> 00:42:36.000 friends that you thought were good friends, when they scatter, you can't 00:42:36.000 --> 00:42:38.160 let it break you. 00:42:38.160 --> 00:42:42.320 This is in a way an extension of the normalcy bias episode. 00:42:42.320 --> 00:42:46.480 Everything's hunky-dory and everyone's fine, and there are no problems, it's easy 00:42:46.480 --> 00:42:47.920 to have strong faith. 00:42:47.920 --> 00:42:50.080 What looks like strong faith. 00:42:50.080 --> 00:42:54.080 When things get tough and all your friends scatter and there are 00:42:54.160 --> 00:42:57.360 only a couple guys left, then it's a lot harder. 00:42:57.360 --> 00:43:00.560 And the reason for talking about this stuff that doesn't sound happy, 00:43:00.560 --> 00:43:04.160 and frankly, most of it isn't, is that when those times come 00:43:04.160 --> 00:43:06.560 for you, I don't want you to be put in a position 00:43:06.560 --> 00:43:09.680 where suddenly like, well, this Christianity stuff is crap. 00:43:09.680 --> 00:43:12.640 All my friends at church betrayed me, so I don't believe in 00:43:12.640 --> 00:43:13.600 Jesus anymore. 00:43:13.600 --> 00:43:14.800 That's it's dumb. 00:43:14.800 --> 00:43:17.840 It's an easy way out, but the reality is that when we 00:43:17.840 --> 00:43:22.160 look at the scripture in a minute where God's promises, these attacks 00:43:22.240 --> 00:43:26.480 when they come to Christians will come from your family and from 00:43:26.480 --> 00:43:27.680 your church. 00:43:27.680 --> 00:43:29.840 God says that that's going to happen. 00:43:29.840 --> 00:43:32.960 So don't let it break your faith when it happens. 00:43:32.960 --> 00:43:36.000 Be confident and joyfully God called that one too. 00:43:36.320 --> 00:43:39.520 I didn't see who was gonna do it, but when it happened, 00:43:39.520 --> 00:43:44.080 okay, I'm sad, I forgive them, I mourn, but I now know 00:43:44.080 --> 00:43:46.800 that someone I thought was a friend is actually an enemy. 00:43:46.800 --> 00:43:50.160 Whether it's a weak enemy or a strong enemy, someone could have 00:43:50.160 --> 00:43:53.120 done the good thing for me and instead they chose to do 00:43:53.120 --> 00:43:54.320 the bad thing. 00:43:54.320 --> 00:43:56.960 As Christians, we can't let that break us. 00:43:56.960 --> 00:44:00.640 When the going gets tough, whatever it is, you don't just quit. 00:44:00.640 --> 00:44:03.280 You don't give up because it didn't go your way. 00:44:03.280 --> 00:44:06.080 Maybe things get bad and it never goes your way the rest 00:44:06.080 --> 00:44:07.040 of your life. 00:44:07.040 --> 00:44:11.120 Maybe every day stinks and you lose all but one friend. 00:44:11.120 --> 00:44:12.560 Maybe your only friend is Jesus. 00:44:12.560 --> 00:44:16.320 I hope not, but like in the very worst circumstances, is that 00:44:16.320 --> 00:44:19.840 an excuse to give up, to quit believing, and to quit trying 00:44:19.920 --> 00:44:21.600 and to quit doing the right thing? 00:44:21.600 --> 00:44:22.720 Absolutely not. 00:44:22.720 --> 00:44:23.840 It's gonna hurt. 00:44:23.840 --> 00:44:26.160 It's gonna be lonely maybe if it comes to that, and it 00:44:26.160 --> 00:44:29.600 shouldn't. But you know what prevents that from happening is when you're 00:44:29.520 --> 00:44:32.640 a good Christian friend to others, when you're a real friend, when 00:44:32.640 --> 00:44:35.840 you look for people who are being beset by wickedness in the 00:44:35.840 --> 00:44:37.840 world, and you say, you know what? 00:44:37.840 --> 00:44:39.440 I'm on this guy's side. 00:44:39.440 --> 00:44:42.160 I didn't even know who he was five minutes ago, but when 00:44:42.160 --> 00:44:45.520 I see the evil people arrayed against him, I'm not gonna line 00:44:45.520 --> 00:44:47.920 up with them, and I'm not gonna keep silent. 00:44:47.920 --> 00:44:49.200 I'm gonna say you know what? 00:44:49.200 --> 00:44:53.680 If you wicked monstrous people hate this man, then he's my friend. 00:44:53.680 --> 00:44:55.200 I don't know anything about him. 00:44:55.200 --> 00:44:56.240 I know one thing. 00:44:56.240 --> 00:44:58.880 I know that the absolute scum of the earth are trying to 00:44:58.880 --> 00:44:59.680 hurt him. 00:44:59.680 --> 00:45:01.600 I'm gonna be a real friend to him. 00:45:01.600 --> 00:45:04.160 I'm gonna stand beside him and you're gonna have to deal with 00:45:04.160 --> 00:45:05.120 both of us. 00:45:05.120 --> 00:45:08.800 If that would happen just a few more times, the isolation tactics 00:45:08.800 --> 00:45:10.240 wouldn't work at all. 00:45:10.240 --> 00:45:15.040 So it's both an encouragement that we should behave better as Christians. 00:45:15.040 --> 00:45:17.920 We should make sure that we are not being weak friends to 00:45:17.920 --> 00:45:20.080 those to whom we have a greater duty. 00:45:20.640 --> 00:45:24.800 And when our own weak friends betray us and just scatter, they 00:45:24.960 --> 00:45:27.600 just they're nowhere to be frowned when things get bad. 00:45:27.600 --> 00:45:28.960 Know that that's how it is. 00:45:28.960 --> 00:45:30.000 It's sad. 00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:31.600 You can't hate them for it. 00:45:31.600 --> 00:45:35.280 There's a sense of betrayal, but you can't think, okay, Jesus is 00:45:35.280 --> 00:45:38.160 canceled, Christianity is crap, I'm out of here. 00:45:38.160 --> 00:45:40.400 If this is what the church is like, I don't want any 00:45:40.400 --> 00:45:41.120 part of it. 00:45:41.120 --> 00:45:43.920 That's not what the true church is like, because the true church 00:45:43.920 --> 00:45:45.440 is all believers. 00:45:45.440 --> 00:45:49.120 The churches are filled with people who are not believers. 00:45:49.120 --> 00:45:53.520 We began a year ago's series of Stone Choir, five episodes we 00:45:53.520 --> 00:45:58.400 did on apostasy in the church, on false teachings in the church. 00:45:58.640 --> 00:46:02.480 Most of the people that you deal with are fair weather Christians. 00:46:02.480 --> 00:46:05.440 And when the going gets tough, as soon as they're put under 00:46:05.440 --> 00:46:07.920 pressure, they're probably gonna fold. 00:46:07.920 --> 00:46:09.360 I hope that's not the case. 00:46:09.360 --> 00:46:13.440 I hope that this wild overgeneralization doesn't apply to your church family, 00:46:13.440 --> 00:46:16.000 but I can tell you I talk to dozens of people every 00:46:16.000 --> 00:46:20.160 quarter, probably every month, who've gone through this situation, the one that 00:46:20.160 --> 00:46:22.480 I'm describing in hypothetical terms. 00:46:22.480 --> 00:46:24.080 I'm not speaking hypothetically. 00:46:24.240 --> 00:46:26.640 I don't need to give any details because they don't matter. 00:46:26.640 --> 00:46:29.120 The pattern is very real. 00:46:29.120 --> 00:46:32.640 And the encouragement that I offer to these men when they're subjected 00:46:32.640 --> 00:46:36.080 to the same things that Corey and I were subjected to is 00:46:36.080 --> 00:46:37.760 you can't lose your faith. 00:46:37.760 --> 00:46:39.760 You have to forgive those who are wicked. 00:46:39.760 --> 00:46:42.080 You have to identify who your real friends are. 00:46:42.080 --> 00:46:44.560 Again, maybe it's someone who's not at church at all. 00:46:44.560 --> 00:46:48.000 If it turns out you don't have a single friend at church, 00:46:48.000 --> 00:46:49.840 okay, that's the truth. 00:46:49.840 --> 00:46:54.080 If you have a single friend anywhere, turn to him, rely on 00:46:54.080 --> 00:46:57.200 him, and show him through your perseverance. 00:46:57.200 --> 00:47:00.160 Cause you know, when these things happen, especially if things get ugly 00:47:00.160 --> 00:47:03.360 inside a church, someone who's not a Christian, we see this all 00:47:03.360 --> 00:47:06.400 the time right now online and sure everywhere. 00:47:06.400 --> 00:47:10.400 When church members turn on each other and do wicked things, everyone 00:47:10.400 --> 00:47:13.040 who's outside the church says, see, it's garbage. 00:47:13.040 --> 00:47:16.000 This Christianity stuff was all crap to begin with. 00:47:16.000 --> 00:47:18.560 This is why I was never a Christian in the first place. 00:47:18.560 --> 00:47:21.040 That's what the world wants to believe. 00:47:21.040 --> 00:47:25.440 You will establish the truth of their claim if you cave. 00:47:25.440 --> 00:47:28.640 If you don't think about these things before that time comes, you're 00:47:28.640 --> 00:47:32.480 probably going to break because it's incredibly difficult pressure to be put 00:47:32.480 --> 00:47:36.400 under without having real friends, with real enemies. 00:47:36.400 --> 00:47:39.440 The world is gonna mock and scoff and say your faith was 00:47:39.440 --> 00:47:43.520 in vain, your actions are foolish, you loser. 00:47:43.520 --> 00:47:46.000 What a piece of crap that all these people who are supposed 00:47:46.000 --> 00:47:48.240 to be your closest friends don't like you. 00:47:48.240 --> 00:47:50.560 You have to be ready for that possibility. 00:47:50.560 --> 00:47:53.840 I pray it never comes for anyone, but again, it's coming all 00:47:53.840 --> 00:47:56.880 the time to people that I know, people who come and tell 00:47:56.880 --> 00:47:57.200 me about. 00:47:57.520 --> 00:48:00.080 I'm sure more will reach out after this because you're gonna say, 00:48:00.080 --> 00:48:01.360 yeah, that happened to me. 00:48:01.360 --> 00:48:03.440 I thought I was the only one. 00:48:03.440 --> 00:48:05.760 Part of the purpose of talking about some of these things that 00:48:05.760 --> 00:48:08.720 are ugly and seem hypothetical is I don't want you to lose 00:48:08.720 --> 00:48:10.240 faith when it happens to you. 00:48:10.240 --> 00:48:12.640 Because you know what God says that it will? 00:48:12.640 --> 00:48:16.400 In Matthew ten, Jesus preaches Do not think that I have come 00:48:16.400 --> 00:48:17.760 to bring peace to the earth. 00:48:17.760 --> 00:48:20.400 I have not come to bring peace but a sword, for I 00:48:20.400 --> 00:48:22.320 have come to set a man against his father and a daughter 00:48:22.880 --> 00:48:25.760 against her mother, and a daughter in law against her mother in 00:48:25.760 --> 00:48:29.840 law, and a person's enemies will be those of his own household. 00:48:29.840 --> 00:48:33.040 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of 00:48:33.040 --> 00:48:36.480 me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not 00:48:36.480 --> 00:48:37.520 worthy of me. 00:48:37.520 --> 00:48:40.560 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not 00:48:40.560 --> 00:48:41.760 worthy of me. 00:48:41.760 --> 00:48:45.600 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life 00:48:45.600 --> 00:48:47.840 for my sake will find it. 00:48:47.840 --> 00:48:51.680 Jesus Jesus says himself, a person's enemies will be those of his 00:48:51.760 --> 00:48:52.880 own household. 00:48:52.880 --> 00:48:54.560 Are you gonna have enemies? 00:48:54.560 --> 00:48:57.360 Yes. God says so. 00:48:57.360 --> 00:49:00.880 So this isn't a curse or a wish, certainly of my own, 00:49:00.880 --> 00:49:03.520 but it's a promise from God that it will be the case. 00:49:03.520 --> 00:49:06.560 And when it is the case, what is a Christian response? 00:49:06.560 --> 00:49:08.160 Not to give up. 00:49:08.160 --> 00:49:11.280 If you are the subject, if you are the target of one 00:49:11.280 --> 00:49:15.360 of these attacks from real enemies in your family, in your church, 00:49:15.920 --> 00:49:18.240 you need to be resolute as a Christian. 00:49:18.240 --> 00:49:21.920 You can't let that be an excuse to waver. 00:49:21.920 --> 00:49:26.320 The important thing to keep in mind is that we live Christian 00:49:26.320 --> 00:49:27.200 lives every day. 00:49:27.200 --> 00:49:30.800 We don't just live 'em on Sunday, as we've said many times. 00:49:30.800 --> 00:49:34.800 And so you as a man are living in a circumstance where 00:49:34.800 --> 00:49:36.400 everyone else gets a vote. 00:49:36.400 --> 00:49:38.480 They can choose to be a close friend, they can choose to 00:49:38.480 --> 00:49:41.040 be a fair weather friend, they can choose to be neutral and 00:49:41.040 --> 00:49:43.440 just never talk to you and okay, that's fine. 00:49:43.440 --> 00:49:47.040 They can choose to be a weak enemy who will spread the 00:49:47.040 --> 00:49:50.000 slander and the gossip about you, but they didn't start it. 00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:53.600 They just think it's funny that somebody caught you out with something 00:49:53.600 --> 00:49:56.240 bad. And so gonna amplify that because you know what? 00:49:56.240 --> 00:49:57.920 It's safe to be part of the crowd. 00:49:57.920 --> 00:50:01.520 And as long as they're talking about you, nobody's talking about them. 00:50:01.520 --> 00:50:03.680 That's a safe place for a weekend me. 00:50:03.680 --> 00:50:05.440 That's someone who's not necessarily committed to it. 00:50:05.440 --> 00:50:07.200 They didn't get up in the morning and say, I'm going to 00:50:07.200 --> 00:50:08.480 hurt this person. 00:50:08.480 --> 00:50:10.400 But your strong enemy did. 00:50:10.400 --> 00:50:14.480 Your strong enemy is the one who, for whatever reason, picked you 00:50:14.480 --> 00:50:16.880 out of the crowd and said, This person I'm going to hurt, 00:50:16.880 --> 00:50:20.160 and I'm going to spread whatever filth, I'm gonna do whatever harm, 00:50:20.160 --> 00:50:23.200 and I'm gonna entail others who are gonna want to participate because 00:50:23.200 --> 00:50:24.640 of their sinful nature. 00:50:24.640 --> 00:50:28.080 And the neutral people are gonna stay neutral, and your fair weather 00:50:28.080 --> 00:50:32.240 friends are gonna scatter, and you're left, God willing, with one or 00:50:32.240 --> 00:50:36.080 two real friends who say, No, everything that you're saying and doing 00:50:36.080 --> 00:50:38.480 to this man, you have to do to me too, because we 00:50:38.480 --> 00:50:39.280 are the same. 00:50:39.280 --> 00:50:41.760 You cannot hurt him without hurting me. 00:50:41.760 --> 00:50:44.000 And where there's one, there's two, where there's two, there can be 00:50:44.000 --> 00:50:45.440 three or four. 00:50:45.440 --> 00:50:48.800 And suddenly it's a whole lot harder for evil men to do 00:50:48.800 --> 00:50:53.760 evil. The positive message of this episode is that all the vote 00:50:53.760 --> 00:50:57.280 that you get is a to obey God and forgive those who 00:50:57.280 --> 00:51:01.120 harm you, and B, to try to be a real friend, especially 00:51:01.120 --> 00:51:03.280 to those who are actually in need. 00:51:03.280 --> 00:51:05.440 Because you want it to be there for you. 00:51:05.440 --> 00:51:08.400 You want somebody to show up in your defense. 00:51:08.400 --> 00:51:10.000 It doesn't usually happen. 00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:11.520 It often doesn't happen. 00:51:11.520 --> 00:51:14.320 Many of you who've been subjected to this treatment didn't see it 00:51:14.320 --> 00:51:16.960 happen. No one stood up for you in your defense. 00:51:16.960 --> 00:51:18.800 You can't let it break you. 00:51:18.800 --> 00:51:21.840 But you should know that if a single man had stood up 00:51:21.840 --> 00:51:24.560 for you, or if you saw it happen to someone and said 00:51:24.560 --> 00:51:28.000 nothing, you should bear the guilt that you remained silent, that you 00:51:28.000 --> 00:51:30.720 were the Pharisee who crossed to the other side of the road 00:51:30.960 --> 00:51:33.840 while a man was lying there bloodied and beaten. 00:51:33.840 --> 00:51:36.000 And sure the Samaritan came along and took care of him and 00:51:36.080 --> 00:51:37.040 bandaged him up. 00:51:37.040 --> 00:51:39.920 And so you think that means you're off the hook. 00:51:39.920 --> 00:51:43.200 You did nothing while someone was under attack, and you need to 00:51:43.200 --> 00:51:45.360 repent for that because I was evil. 00:51:45.360 --> 00:51:46.960 It's easy to do that. 00:51:46.960 --> 00:51:48.160 It's easy to be neutral. 00:51:48.160 --> 00:51:49.760 It's easy to scatter. 00:51:49.760 --> 00:51:52.720 No one's even gonna notice cause everybody's doing it. 00:51:52.720 --> 00:51:55.840 It's the easiest thing in the world to betray someone to whom 00:51:55.840 --> 00:51:58.800 you didn't have an open duty, but the betrayal is to the 00:51:58.800 --> 00:52:00.560 general duty to neighbor. 00:52:00.560 --> 00:52:03.680 See, neighbor is not a moral category. 00:52:03.680 --> 00:52:05.840 Neighbor's just whoever's nearby. 00:52:05.840 --> 00:52:10.000 You have a duty to defend and protect whoever is nearby. 00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:14.080 And that certainly means that if someone is an actual friend, you 00:52:14.080 --> 00:52:15.840 show up and help them. 00:52:16.320 --> 00:52:20.320 Christians need to understand that if we don't operate this way, there's 00:52:20.320 --> 00:52:22.000 no Christianity in the world. 00:52:22.000 --> 00:52:23.360 There just isn't. 00:52:23.360 --> 00:52:26.960 You can talk about the so-called gospel all you want and Jesus 00:52:27.120 --> 00:52:28.400 love all you want. 00:52:28.400 --> 00:52:33.120 And if you never exemplify it by going to bat for someone, 00:52:33.120 --> 00:52:34.560 there is no love. 00:52:34.560 --> 00:52:37.440 There's no love at all if you will not stand for someone 00:52:37.440 --> 00:52:39.280 when he's being attacked. 00:52:39.280 --> 00:52:40.640 It's cowardice. 00:52:40.640 --> 00:52:41.600 And it's normal. 00:52:41.600 --> 00:52:44.160 It's normal and it's easy and we're all guilty of it. 00:52:44.160 --> 00:52:44.720 I am. 00:52:44.720 --> 00:52:47.840 I've stood aside in the past and not gotten involved when I 00:52:47.840 --> 00:52:48.800 should have. 00:52:48.800 --> 00:52:51.760 The notion of friend and enemy is a real thing. 00:52:51.760 --> 00:52:55.200 It's writ large in politics and at the national level and at 00:52:55.200 --> 00:52:59.040 the local level, but we're talking about the personal level. 00:52:59.040 --> 00:53:01.200 It's these aren't hypotheticals. 00:53:01.200 --> 00:53:05.920 This is your family, your friends, your church will be guilty of 00:53:05.920 --> 00:53:07.280 some of these things. 00:53:07.280 --> 00:53:08.800 Now or in the future. 00:53:08.800 --> 00:53:12.880 The and then of the Christian life begins right in that moment. 00:53:12.880 --> 00:53:16.080 It's really easy to be Christian when everything's hunky dory. 00:53:16.080 --> 00:53:19.200 Suddenly when you're faced with those circumstances, how you deal with it 00:53:19.120 --> 00:53:19.840 deal with it. 00:53:19.840 --> 00:53:22.640 Part of the reason for doing episodes like this is to help 00:53:22.640 --> 00:53:27.040 prepare men to think in these categories, realize, yeah, this guy's my 00:53:27.040 --> 00:53:27.760 real friend. 00:53:27.760 --> 00:53:29.840 There may be only one guy in my life right now that 00:53:29.840 --> 00:53:30.560 I can count on. 00:53:30.560 --> 00:53:32.240 And maybe he's not even a Christian. 00:53:32.240 --> 00:53:34.000 Maybe everybody at church scattered. 00:53:34.000 --> 00:53:37.680 Maybe all my Christian friends believe the slander and they don't want 00:53:37.680 --> 00:53:38.640 to help me. 00:53:38.640 --> 00:53:41.120 The one guy, that's your real friend. 00:53:41.120 --> 00:53:43.920 And the people who line up to be your enemies, you need 00:53:43.920 --> 00:53:44.880 to take that seriously. 00:53:44.880 --> 00:53:46.400 It's a real thing. 00:53:46.400 --> 00:53:48.880 Even as you forgive them, you need to know that they remain 00:53:48.880 --> 00:53:52.800 enemies. As Corey was saying, a man does not stop being your 00:53:52.800 --> 00:53:54.800 enemy because you forgive him. 00:53:54.800 --> 00:53:57.920 You forgive him because you say, For my sake, Lord, take this 00:53:57.920 --> 00:53:59.280 off his plate. 00:53:59.280 --> 00:54:01.600 I don't want him to be held guilty for what he's doing 00:54:01.600 --> 00:54:03.680 to me, because I don't want to be held guilty for the 00:54:03.680 --> 00:54:05.040 things I've done to others. 00:54:05.040 --> 00:54:07.280 That's what the Lord's Prayer is about. 00:54:07.280 --> 00:54:09.360 It talks about debts and debtors. 00:54:09.360 --> 00:54:11.520 And all the parables about the same. 00:54:11.520 --> 00:54:15.280 Don't hold this man guilty for my sake, 'cause my bill is 00:54:15.280 --> 00:54:17.040 much bigger than that. 00:54:17.040 --> 00:54:20.320 At the same time, the man who has declared himself by his 00:54:20.320 --> 00:54:24.000 actions and his words to be your personal enemy, whether it's public 00:54:24.000 --> 00:54:28.160 or private, he's gonna keep on doing that until he repents. 00:54:28.160 --> 00:54:31.440 And in most cases, if it's a real enemy, if it's a 00:54:31.440 --> 00:54:33.920 strong enemy, that's never gonna happen. 00:54:33.920 --> 00:54:37.200 The hardness of heart that animates someone to do the most wicked 00:54:37.200 --> 00:54:41.680 things beyond imagining, certainly in a church context, those men are not 00:54:41.680 --> 00:54:42.640 gonna relent. 00:54:42.640 --> 00:54:46.160 And so we must forgive them and we must continue to treat 00:54:46.160 --> 00:54:47.920 them as enemies publicly. 00:54:47.920 --> 00:54:50.720 Because the harm that they do to you is ultimately directed at 00:54:50.720 --> 00:54:55.280 God. The purpose of attacking in the church, of spreading this dissent 00:54:55.280 --> 00:54:59.440 in families and churches, is specifically to shatter them so that there's 00:54:59.360 --> 00:55:01.040 no place for Christians to gather. 00:55:01.040 --> 00:55:04.240 And there's no place for the scoffers outside of the church to 00:55:04.240 --> 00:55:06.880 point to and even say, look how crappy this is. 00:55:06.880 --> 00:55:10.240 There's no example of them to be envious. 00:55:10.240 --> 00:55:13.760 Christian community should be the envy of the world. 00:55:13.760 --> 00:55:16.800 They should see God's love manifest in our lives. 00:55:16.800 --> 00:55:18.960 And when we fail to do that, we betray Christ. 00:55:19.520 --> 00:55:22.640 We fail to show the very thing that God has extended us 00:55:22.640 --> 00:55:24.400 to those who are closest. 00:55:24.400 --> 00:55:27.200 No one's gonna believe us when we come talking about the gospel. 00:55:27.200 --> 00:55:29.120 No one's gonna take you seriously. 00:55:29.120 --> 00:55:30.480 This is a gospel matter. 00:55:30.480 --> 00:55:33.600 You know, when people talk about gospel issues, this is it right 00:55:33.600 --> 00:55:39.840 here. If you can't exemplify true friendship in the face of assaults, 00:55:39.840 --> 00:55:42.400 no one's gonna believe you when you start talking about the other 00:55:42.400 --> 00:55:46.400 stuff. Because they don't know about Jesus and sin and forgiveness, but 00:55:46.400 --> 00:55:48.480 they know what real loyalty looks like. 00:55:48.480 --> 00:55:50.400 They know what real friendship looks like. 00:55:50.400 --> 00:55:54.000 And if a Christian can't manage to do that for anyone, what 00:55:54.000 --> 00:55:56.320 reason is there to believe he's a Christian at 00:55:56.320 --> 00:55:59.040 all? In 00:55:59.040 --> 00:56:04.240 Scripture when Christ starts his ministry, one of the first things that 00:56:04.240 --> 00:56:07.680 he says is the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God 00:56:07.680 --> 00:56:12.960 is at hand hand, repent and believe in the gospel. 00:56:12.960 --> 00:56:17.600 I've mentioned elsewhere that these days often the words, those very words 00:56:17.840 --> 00:56:22.320 repent and believe the gospel, are spoken by those who are very 00:56:22.320 --> 00:56:27.440 much not Christians, because they are usually calling you to repent and 00:56:27.440 --> 00:56:31.840 believe in a false gospel, to repent specifically of that which is 00:56:31.840 --> 00:56:35.200 not sin, which of course is sin. 00:56:35.200 --> 00:56:40.160 To repent of that which is not sin, is itself a sin. 00:56:40.160 --> 00:56:44.000 To believe in a false gospel is sin. 00:56:44.000 --> 00:56:48.800 But we gloss over this word repent Because we think we know 00:56:48.800 --> 00:56:53.200 what it means, but we don't pay attention to what it actually 00:56:53.200 --> 00:56:57.200 means. We don't pay attention to the fullness of it. 00:56:57.200 --> 00:57:01.360 Because if one is actually to repent, it means to turn from 00:57:01.360 --> 00:57:03.280 your former wickedness. 00:57:03.280 --> 00:57:06.800 It literally means a changing of one's mind. 00:57:06.800 --> 00:57:10.320 The word there in the Greek is metanoia. 00:57:10.320 --> 00:57:14.240 Well, metanaeo here because it is the verb, but it's the same 00:57:14.960 --> 00:57:18.000 word. It means to change your mind, again it means to turn 00:57:18.000 --> 00:57:20.000 from your wicked ways. 00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:22.800 And so when we see those in the churches 00:57:23.920 --> 00:57:28.480 who claim to be Christian, Christian, who go through all the motions, 00:57:28.480 --> 00:57:33.040 who attend the divine service, the liturgy, whatever you happen to call 00:57:33.040 --> 00:57:39.680 it, who pray, do all these things that Christians supposedly do. 00:57:39.760 --> 00:57:45.040 But then every time they are presented with the opportunity to behave 00:57:45.040 --> 00:57:48.800 as a Christian, they do not do so. 00:57:48.800 --> 00:57:53.040 Then all of those things that they did that were supposedly Christian 00:57:53.200 --> 00:57:55.840 were not in were not in fact good works. 00:57:55.840 --> 00:57:57.920 They do not in fact count. 00:57:57.920 --> 00:58:02.000 Each and every one of them was in fact sin. 00:58:02.000 --> 00:58:04.720 Because good works are not counted to those who do not have 00:58:04.720 --> 00:58:11.120 a living faith, and a living faith produces good works. 00:58:11.120 --> 00:58:16.160 And so if it turns out that when you are actually challenged, 00:58:16.160 --> 00:58:20.400 when you are presented with the opportunity to conduct yourself as would 00:58:20.400 --> 00:58:24.160 a Christian, you do not do so. 00:58:24.160 --> 00:58:28.080 Then all of those other things that you did are counted against 00:58:28.080 --> 00:58:31.200 you instead of for you. 00:58:31.200 --> 00:58:34.960 That should terrify those who would claim to be Christian. 00:58:34.960 --> 00:58:39.040 It is far worse to claim to be a Christian and actually 00:58:39.120 --> 00:58:42.960 in fact be a hypocrite instead of a Christian than simply to 00:58:42.960 --> 00:58:45.280 be a wicked pagan. 00:58:45.440 --> 00:58:49.040 Better to be a pagan than a false Christian. 00:58:49.040 --> 00:58:51.680 This is all over the Old Testament. 00:58:51.680 --> 00:58:55.600 We should probably pay closer attention when we read these things. 00:58:55.600 --> 00:58:58.400 For instance, we could turn to Isaiah. 00:58:58.400 --> 00:59:01.520 Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. 00:59:01.520 --> 00:59:05.440 Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah. 00:59:05.440 --> 00:59:09.520 What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices, says the Lord. 00:59:09.520 --> 00:59:13.200 I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams, and the fat 00:59:13.200 --> 00:59:14.800 of well fed beast. 00:59:14.800 --> 00:59:18.320 I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, 00:59:18.320 --> 00:59:19.680 or of goats. 00:59:19.680 --> 00:59:23.280 When you come to appear before me, who has required of you 00:59:23.280 --> 00:59:25.520 this trampling of my courts? 00:59:25.520 --> 00:59:30.400 Bring no more vain offerings incense is an abomination to me, new 00:59:30.400 --> 00:59:35.440 moon and sabbath and the calling of convocations I cannot endure iniquity 00:59:35.440 --> 00:59:37.120 and solemn assembly. 00:59:37.120 --> 00:59:41.040 Your new moons and your appointed feast my soul hates. 00:59:41.040 --> 00:59:44.480 They have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing 00:59:44.480 --> 00:59:47.840 them. When you spread out your hands I will hide my eyes 00:59:47.840 --> 00:59:48.240 from you. 00:59:48.880 --> 00:59:52.880 Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen, your hands 00:59:52.880 --> 00:59:54.400 are full of blood. 00:59:54.400 --> 00:59:59.760 Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, remove the evil of your deeds from 00:59:59.760 --> 01:00:04.640 before my eyes, see Cease to do evil, learn to do good, 01:00:04.640 --> 01:00:10.560 seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's 01:00:10.560 --> 01:00:17.040 cause. What we see there in those verses is a call to 01:00:17.040 --> 01:00:19.840 actual repentance. 01:00:19.840 --> 01:00:24.720 We see a call to behave as Christians would behave, to seek 01:00:24.720 --> 01:00:29.120 justice, to correct oppression, to put To plead for those who are 01:00:29.120 --> 01:00:33.600 in a vulnerable position, to defend those who are defenseless. 01:00:33.600 --> 01:00:36.800 And yet, what do we see in the churches today? 01:00:36.800 --> 01:00:40.480 We see the very same sort of hypocrisy for which God is 01:00:40.480 --> 01:00:43.760 condemning the Old Testament Israelites here. 01:00:43.760 --> 01:00:49.280 We see those who solemnly gather together, and worship God, so they 01:00:49.280 --> 01:00:53.360 think, and then turn around and stab their brother in the back. 01:00:53.360 --> 01:00:56.080 We know of many cases where men have been driven out of 01:00:56.080 --> 01:01:00.480 the churches for simply saying the things that are found in Scripture, 01:01:00.480 --> 01:01:04.160 and they have been attacked by supposed Christians, and no one stood 01:01:04.160 --> 01:01:05.840 up to defend them. 01:01:07.360 --> 01:01:13.360 Every Christian man certainly, who is standing there, and remains silent, is 01:01:13.360 --> 01:01:17.760 living in sin until he repents of that wickedness. 01:01:17.760 --> 01:01:21.600 There is no promise, there is no guarantee of salvation for a 01:01:21.600 --> 01:01:25.200 man who is living in that sin. 01:01:25.200 --> 01:01:28.400 And yet this doesn't seem to terrify those who have engaged in 01:01:28.400 --> 01:01:29.840 that behavior. 01:01:29.840 --> 01:01:32.720 Well it's probably because they have a dead faith. 01:01:32.720 --> 01:01:35.840 If they had a living faith, they would hear the word of 01:01:35.840 --> 01:01:38.720 God, and they would be terrified, and they would turn from their 01:01:38.720 --> 01:01:42.320 wickedness. But they do not do so. 01:01:42.320 --> 01:01:46.960 Because the churches are full of those who are not Christian. 01:01:46.960 --> 01:01:50.880 The church is full of those who are wicked, who are hypocrites, 01:01:50.880 --> 01:01:54.560 who believe themselves to be holy, because they are the Pharisee who 01:01:54.560 --> 01:01:59.040 stands there and says thankfully, I am not like other men. 01:01:59.040 --> 01:02:00.240 That's true. 01:02:00.240 --> 01:02:03.920 The Pharisee isn't like the man who actually comes and repents, who 01:02:04.000 --> 01:02:08.640 actually has that changing of his mind, the man who actually turns 01:02:08.640 --> 01:02:11.040 from his wicked ways. 01:02:11.680 --> 01:02:15.440 God does not want you to come into his courts and sing 01:02:15.440 --> 01:02:20.800 his praises while you betray his sheep, while you attack your brother, 01:02:20.800 --> 01:02:24.080 the man who should be your brother at least, but you've chosen 01:02:24.080 --> 01:02:26.480 to be his enemy. 01:02:26.480 --> 01:02:30.080 This is something that is vitally important to note. 01:02:30.080 --> 01:02:34.320 This scale that Wo laid out with regard to the strong enemy, 01:02:34.320 --> 01:02:38.880 the weak enemy, the neutral, I want to focus on the neutral, 01:02:38.880 --> 01:02:43.040 because there are many who are going to be effectively neutral. 01:02:43.040 --> 01:02:46.480 There's a certain percentage I won't give an actual range because it 01:02:46.480 --> 01:02:49.600 varies from one matter to the next, and from one group to 01:02:49.600 --> 01:02:50.720 the next. 01:02:50.720 --> 01:02:55.840 But But those who are neutral are not excused by their neutrality. 01:02:55.840 --> 01:02:59.520 If you remain neutral in a matter, and the crowd happens to 01:02:59.520 --> 01:03:01.840 be going in the right direction. 01:03:01.840 --> 01:03:04.480 Well good news for you, you were carried along by the tide, 01:03:04.400 --> 01:03:08.640 and it happened to be going the direction you should be going. 01:03:08.640 --> 01:03:11.600 But it could just as easily go the other direction. 01:03:11.600 --> 01:03:14.640 You could just as easily be carried along by the crowd, by 01:03:14.480 --> 01:03:18.800 the tide, by the river, by the currents, into wickedness, into evil, 01:03:18.800 --> 01:03:21.600 into apostasy. 01:03:21.600 --> 01:03:25.120 Being neutral should not be an option for Christian men. 01:03:25.120 --> 01:03:28.240 You should never view that as being an option. 01:03:28.240 --> 01:03:32.480 If there is good, you should pursue it, if there is wickedness, 01:03:32.480 --> 01:03:34.560 you should oppose it. 01:03:34.560 --> 01:03:40.080 And so effectively how this winds up playing out in reality is 01:03:40.080 --> 01:03:45.600 that on any given issue, you have an alliance, starting with neutral 01:03:45.760 --> 01:03:49.200 and going to one end of this spectrum. 01:03:49.200 --> 01:03:51.920 And so if the crowd is doing that which is wicked and 01:03:51.920 --> 01:03:54.640 you are neutral, you are part of the enemies. 01:03:54.800 --> 01:03:57.680 You are part of the evil group. 01:03:57.680 --> 01:03:59.600 It doesn't really count for you. 01:03:59.600 --> 01:04:02.880 It's not really so much to your benefit if the crowd happens 01:04:02.880 --> 01:04:05.520 to do that which is good, because you were just carried along. 01:04:05.520 --> 01:04:07.520 You were along for the ride. 01:04:07.920 --> 01:04:12.880 You should not aspire to things so low as a Christian. 01:04:12.880 --> 01:04:15.920 You should aspire to greater things. 01:04:15.920 --> 01:04:19.200 And so you are going to be given the option, if you 01:04:19.200 --> 01:04:25.840 are that weak friend, when someone is attacked, to either fall back 01:04:25.840 --> 01:04:31.200 into neutrality and therefore into wickedness, or become the strong friend, at 01:04:31.200 --> 01:04:35.040 least in this instance, become the one who actually stands up and 01:04:35.040 --> 01:04:39.200 defends the man who is being wrongfully attacked. 01:04:39.200 --> 01:04:42.160 There's only one Christian choice there. 01:04:42.160 --> 01:04:45.600 As it turns out, and as many have now seen first hand, 01:04:46.080 --> 01:04:50.160 Most of those in the churches are going to pick the broad 01:04:50.160 --> 01:04:56.800 path. They are going to pick wickedness because ultimately they're hypocrites. 01:04:56.800 --> 01:04:58.480 They have a dead faith. 01:04:58.480 --> 01:05:02.160 They're going to go along with the crowd as long as it's 01:05:02.160 --> 01:05:05.440 easy if the crowd is going in the right direction. 01:05:05.440 --> 01:05:07.600 But they are still going to follow the crowd when the crowd 01:05:07.600 --> 01:05:11.440 is doing that which is wicked, because it's still easy. 01:05:11.440 --> 01:05:15.120 Maybe they won't be the one who throws the stone. 01:05:15.120 --> 01:05:18.160 Maybe they won't be the one who plunges in the dagger. 01:05:18.160 --> 01:05:22.240 They'll just be standing there holding the stone or holding the dagger. 01:05:22.240 --> 01:05:27.200 You don't get excused because you were a passive participant in wickedness. 01:05:27.200 --> 01:05:30.320 Certainly it's not as evil as being an active participant. 01:05:30.320 --> 01:05:33.040 Throwing the stone is worse. 01:05:33.040 --> 01:05:37.200 But you could have defended that man, and so you are complicit 01:05:37.200 --> 01:05:41.360 in the wickedness, you are guilty of the sin of those who 01:05:41.360 --> 01:05:44.480 threw the stones. 01:05:44.480 --> 01:05:46.320 That is not Christian. 01:05:46.320 --> 01:05:50.320 That is hypocrisy, that is wickedness, that is something that is condemned 01:05:50.480 --> 01:05:55.440 throughout the pages of Scripture, in many places. 01:05:55.440 --> 01:05:59.680 We can find similar language to what I read in Isaiah in 01:05:59.680 --> 01:06:04.160 Amos. Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord. 01:06:04.160 --> 01:06:06.640 Why would you have the day of the Lord? 01:06:06.640 --> 01:06:09.920 It is darkness and not light, as if a man fled from 01:06:09.920 --> 01:06:12.800 a lion and a bear met him, or went into the house 01:06:12.800 --> 01:06:16.640 and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him? 01:06:16.640 --> 01:06:19.840 Is not the day of the Lord darkness and not light, and 01:06:19.840 --> 01:06:22.160 gloom with no brightness in it? 01:06:22.160 --> 01:06:26.400 I hate, I despise your feast, and I take no delight in 01:06:26.400 --> 01:06:28.080 your solemn assemblies. 01:06:28.080 --> 01:06:31.120 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I 01:06:31.680 --> 01:06:35.520 will not accept them, and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, 01:06:35.520 --> 01:06:37.360 I will not look upon them. 01:06:37.360 --> 01:06:40.640 Take away from me the noise of your songs, to the melody 01:06:40.640 --> 01:06:44.400 of your harps I will not listen, but let justice roll down 01:06:44.400 --> 01:06:50.400 like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream. 01:06:51.040 --> 01:06:56.320 The things that God actually desires from his people are clear in 01:06:56.320 --> 01:06:59.120 the pages of scripture. 01:06:59.120 --> 01:07:03.840 In the Old Testament, there's the contrast between the sacrifices which yes 01:07:04.000 --> 01:07:05.600 God did command. 01:07:05.600 --> 01:07:09.600 Just as He commands worship today, we do go into His house 01:07:09.600 --> 01:07:15.120 and worship him in thanksgiving for receiving his gifts. 01:07:15.360 --> 01:07:18.960 But what is the actual worship of God? 01:07:18.960 --> 01:07:22.480 The actual worship of God is that repentance and then living the 01:07:22.480 --> 01:07:24.000 Christian life. 01:07:24.000 --> 01:07:28.720 When you are faced with choosing between good and evil, it is 01:07:28.720 --> 01:07:30.240 choosing the good. 01:07:30.240 --> 01:07:34.000 It is not just being passively carried along by the crowd and 01:07:34.000 --> 01:07:36.800 hoping the crowd goes in the right direction. 01:07:37.840 --> 01:07:44.480 In fact, any given thing, whether it's metal or a man, proves 01:07:44.480 --> 01:07:49.520 its character, proves its worth only when it is tested. 01:07:49.520 --> 01:07:54.160 That which is untested is unproven, and so in so far as 01:07:54.160 --> 01:07:59.360 your faith has been untested, it remains unproven. 01:07:59.360 --> 01:08:03.760 Perhaps thankfully, in these days your faith is not going to remain 01:08:03.760 --> 01:08:08.080 untested, and so you will have the opportunity to prove whether your 01:08:08.080 --> 01:08:11.280 faith is true or false, whether you are the one who is 01:08:11.280 --> 01:08:13.680 simply being carried along, or if you are the one who is 01:08:14.160 --> 01:08:17.280 willing to stand up and do what is right, even if it 01:08:17.280 --> 01:08:21.840 means standing against the crowd who will hate you for it, because 01:08:21.840 --> 01:08:24.480 they will turn on you the same as they turned on that 01:08:24.480 --> 01:08:25.680 other man. 01:08:25.680 --> 01:08:29.680 But it's still your duty to do the right thing. 01:08:29.680 --> 01:08:33.600 It is still your duty to defend that man. 01:08:33.600 --> 01:08:37.680 Why do you think Scripture speaks of the widow and the fatherless 01:08:37.680 --> 01:08:38.960 and the poor? 01:08:38.960 --> 01:08:43.120 It is speaking of those who are in a vulnerable position, those 01:08:43.120 --> 01:08:46.080 who need others to come to their defense. 01:08:46.080 --> 01:08:49.680 The same thing is true when a large crowd of the wicked 01:08:49.680 --> 01:08:51.440 turns against a single man. 01:08:51.440 --> 01:08:53.440 It may be that he's the sort of man who can stand 01:08:54.000 --> 01:08:58.240 up under that sort of assault, but most men aren't. 01:08:58.240 --> 01:09:00.240 Most men need friends. 01:09:00.240 --> 01:09:02.160 They need allies. 01:09:02.160 --> 01:09:05.840 Every man would certainly like to have friends and allies. 01:09:06.080 --> 01:09:09.520 If you are in a position to be that friend, to be 01:09:09.520 --> 01:09:13.520 that ally, it is incumbent on you, it is your Christian duty 01:09:13.760 --> 01:09:18.400 to do so, and it is sin to fail to do it. 01:09:18.400 --> 01:09:19.440 Neutrality 01:09:20.400 --> 01:09:24.960 When faced with the option, when faced with the choice between good 01:09:24.960 --> 01:09:29.760 and evil, is wickedness, you cannot remain neutral in the face of 01:09:29.760 --> 01:09:31.600 these matters. 01:09:31.600 --> 01:09:34.560 If it has not come to your church yet, then it probably 01:09:34.560 --> 01:09:38.320 will in the not too distant future. 01:09:38.320 --> 01:09:42.000 Some group in your church, perhaps it's most of those in your 01:09:42.000 --> 01:09:46.080 church, will latch onto something that is wicked, and they'll probably pick 01:09:46.080 --> 01:09:50.400 a particular man to attack for it, and they'll seek to drive 01:09:50.400 --> 01:09:53.120 him out of the church or otherwise destroy him. 01:09:53.120 --> 01:09:56.160 It is your duty to stand with him. 01:09:57.120 --> 01:09:59.840 Be that you both get cast out. 01:09:59.840 --> 01:10:04.080 But God looks on that favorably, because you did the right thing. 01:10:04.080 --> 01:10:06.640 You stood up for your brother. 01:10:06.640 --> 01:10:09.600 You stood up for your friend. 01:10:09.600 --> 01:10:14.720 Or it may be that because you stood with that man, that 01:10:14.720 --> 01:10:17.840 others will find it in themselves to do the same, and you 01:10:17.840 --> 01:10:19.760 may stem that tide. 01:10:19.760 --> 01:10:23.680 You may be able to drive out that evil, you may be 01:10:23.680 --> 01:10:28.320 able to rescue your congregation, to rescue the others around you, which 01:10:28.320 --> 01:10:30.080 is also a good work. 01:10:30.080 --> 01:10:34.800 Not every man has the same level of strength or fortitude, particularly 01:10:34.800 --> 01:10:37.280 when it comes to these sorts of matters. 01:10:37.280 --> 01:10:40.880 But in so far as God has given you any measure of 01:10:40.880 --> 01:10:46.160 fortitude, any measure of personal resilience, it is incumbent on you to 01:10:46.160 --> 01:10:48.080 exercise it in these matters. 01:10:48.080 --> 01:10:48.800 And you know what? 01:10:48.800 --> 01:10:51.680 God promises that He will give you what you need in the 01:10:51.680 --> 01:10:53.280 day of testing. 01:10:53.280 --> 01:10:55.360 So believe that He will. 01:10:55.360 --> 01:10:58.320 Stand up and say that what is being done is wrong and 01:10:58.320 --> 01:11:00.000 it is anti-Christian. 01:11:00.000 --> 01:11:02.640 It is wicked and it comes from the devil. 01:11:02.800 --> 01:11:06.640 If you stand with that man you are stronger together, God will 01:11:06.640 --> 01:11:11.040 look favorably on what you have done, but if you remain silent, 01:11:11.040 --> 01:11:15.840 then you are among those hypocrites that are so strongly and staunchly 01:11:15.840 --> 01:11:21.040 and vehemently condemned, you are among those God mentions as saying, I 01:11:21.040 --> 01:11:24.160 hate, I despise your feast. 01:11:24.160 --> 01:11:27.440 That is not where you want to find yourself at any point. 01:11:27.760 --> 01:11:30.560 And it's certainly not where you want to find yourself on the 01:11:30.560 --> 01:11:32.320 day of judgment. 01:11:32.320 --> 01:11:34.960 These are not matters that are trivial. 01:11:34.960 --> 01:11:38.960 These are not matters that can be ignored by Christians. 01:11:38.960 --> 01:11:42.080 These are matters of the greatest weight and of the greatest 01:11:42.960 --> 01:11:49.760 importance, because these are matters where your faith is tested and proven, 01:11:49.760 --> 01:11:52.960 and whether it is proven to be true or false is what 01:11:52.960 --> 01:11:55.040 is on the line. 01:11:55.040 --> 01:12:00.320 Again that which has not been tested is in fact untested. 01:12:00.320 --> 01:12:03.280 And the nature of it, the reality of it, the truth of 01:12:03.280 --> 01:12:06.000 it is shown in the testing. 01:12:06.000 --> 01:12:08.560 And so in the day of testing Of testing of your faith 01:12:08.560 --> 01:12:12.640 comes, and it will undoubtedly come in this life. 01:12:12.640 --> 01:12:17.680 Do the right thing, do the Christian thing, do your duty, and 01:12:17.680 --> 01:12:22.480 prove that your faith is true, because your faith is demonstrated by 01:12:22.480 --> 01:12:27.520 the works it produces, because a living faith will produce works. 01:12:27.520 --> 01:12:29.600 A dead faith will not. 01:12:29.600 --> 01:12:32.960 The dead faith is the one held by the man who stands 01:12:32.960 --> 01:12:38.160 there and does nothing when the crowd is wickedly persecuting a good 01:12:38.160 --> 01:12:42.560 man. Because the man with a living faith will stand up and 01:12:42.560 --> 01:12:46.000 defend that other man, because that is what God calls us to 01:12:46.000 --> 01:12:50.800 do. It is our Christian duty, and it is not optional. 01:12:52.320 --> 01:12:58.000 It's important to reiterate the distinction between the types of enemies that 01:12:58.000 --> 01:13:01.040 God distinguishes in Scripture. 01:13:01.040 --> 01:13:04.880 In Romans five it says, For if while we were enemies we 01:13:04.880 --> 01:13:08.000 were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more 01:13:08.080 --> 01:13:11.200 now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life 01:13:11.920 --> 01:13:15.760 So in multiple places, Scripture makes very clear that every one of 01:13:15.760 --> 01:13:17.920 us is born an enemy of God. 01:13:17.920 --> 01:13:19.760 That's undeniably true. 01:13:19.760 --> 01:13:23.600 That's why Christ died on the cross, because we were the enemies 01:13:23.600 --> 01:13:28.880 of God until he reconciled us to himself by shedding his blood 01:13:28.880 --> 01:13:30.400 on the cross. 01:13:30.400 --> 01:13:32.640 That's one sense of the enemy. 01:13:32.640 --> 01:13:35.600 Enemies of God are anyone who is born under the curse of 01:13:35.600 --> 01:13:36.560 original sin. 01:13:36.560 --> 01:13:38.080 That's everybody. 01:13:38.080 --> 01:13:42.320 There's a second sense of the enemies of God, those who are 01:13:42.320 --> 01:13:47.200 not the elect, those who have not received the forgiveness shed for 01:13:47.200 --> 01:13:49.440 all on the cross. 01:13:49.440 --> 01:13:51.840 We are talking about the latter. 01:13:51.840 --> 01:13:54.720 God speaks of the latter. 01:13:54.720 --> 01:14:00.160 Someone who is an enemy of God in spite of Christ reconciling 01:14:00.160 --> 01:14:04.240 on the cross is the type who is referenced in Psalm 110 01:14:04.400 --> 01:14:05.920 one ten. 01:14:05.920 --> 01:14:09.680 The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand, until 01:14:09.680 --> 01:14:12.960 I make your enemies your footstool. 01:14:12.960 --> 01:14:14.320 That's the other kind. 01:14:14.320 --> 01:14:16.400 We're not going to be a footstool of God. 01:14:16.640 --> 01:14:21.600 We are God's brothers adopted through his sacrifice on the cross. 01:14:21.600 --> 01:14:25.760 The footstool, the enemies that are going to be the footstool of 01:14:25.760 --> 01:14:31.200 God, those are the unbelievers, those are those who reject Christ's sacrifice, 01:14:31.200 --> 01:14:35.520 those are the damned, because they chose to continue to hate God 01:14:35.520 --> 01:14:38.080 in spite of his perfect sacrifice. 01:14:38.080 --> 01:14:42.880 This passage talking about God's enemies being made his footstool is referenced 01:14:42.880 --> 01:14:48.240 in Matthew and Mark and Luke and Acts and twice in Hebrews. 01:14:48.240 --> 01:14:51.440 God made sure to put it there, and he made multiple points 01:14:51.600 --> 01:14:53.280 when he made that. 01:14:53.280 --> 01:14:56.960 When he says that these people are his enemies and he's going 01:14:56.960 --> 01:15:02.000 to make them his footstool, that's a promise of judgment day. 01:15:02.000 --> 01:15:06.080 That is not what we talk about as Christian love. 01:15:06.080 --> 01:15:10.560 When people say, oh gospel, oh love, Jesus is loving and things 01:15:10.560 --> 01:15:13.840 that are so played out that they cease to have had any 01:15:13.840 --> 01:15:15.200 meaning in our ears. 01:15:15.200 --> 01:15:18.720 And it's not that the words themselves were not true. 01:15:18.720 --> 01:15:20.880 When I say these things, it's very important that 01:15:21.840 --> 01:15:26.240 I make clear that those who despise what God is saying are 01:15:26.240 --> 01:15:27.520 the blasphemers. 01:15:27.520 --> 01:15:31.680 To point out that it's blasphemy is not, but it sometimes can 01:15:31.680 --> 01:15:35.280 sound like it's one be very careful, makes me uncomfortable even to 01:15:35.280 --> 01:15:36.240 say that. 01:15:36.240 --> 01:15:41.520 But the way the gospel is now portrayed is itself blasphemous by 01:15:41.520 --> 01:15:42.800 most of these people. 01:15:42.800 --> 01:15:45.520 Because they run around saying, You have no enemies, God has no 01:15:45.520 --> 01:15:47.600 enemies. God loves everyone. 01:15:47.600 --> 01:15:50.560 God is going to kill all of his enemies and make them 01:15:50.560 --> 01:15:52.560 a footstool under his feet. 01:15:52.560 --> 01:15:55.200 God's very clear what he thinks about these enemies. 01:15:55.200 --> 01:16:00.160 Not us, not the elect whom he has given salvation, but those 01:16:00.160 --> 01:16:01.920 who have rejected it. 01:16:01.920 --> 01:16:05.920 And In Luke nineteen there's the parable of the Minas. 01:16:05.920 --> 01:16:09.840 Jesus says at the end of that parable, I tell you that 01:16:09.840 --> 01:16:13.120 to every one who has more will be given, but from the 01:16:13.120 --> 01:16:17.200 one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 01:16:17.200 --> 01:16:20.880 But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me 01:16:20.880 --> 01:16:25.520 to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me. 01:16:25.520 --> 01:16:27.840 That's what God thinks about his enemies. 01:16:27.840 --> 01:16:31.520 That's what God thinks about the enemies that we're talking about today. 01:16:31.520 --> 01:16:36.880 Which is why when God says, Vengeance is mine, do not avenge, 01:16:36.880 --> 01:16:38.960 that's a warning to us. 01:16:38.960 --> 01:16:42.640 When you have an enemy who is God's enemy, you don't need 01:16:42.640 --> 01:16:44.000 to worry about it. 01:16:44.320 --> 01:16:47.360 The only way that we can be confident that our faith will 01:16:47.360 --> 01:16:51.280 be sustained in these moments when this wickedness is done among us, 01:16:51.280 --> 01:16:53.920 in front of us, and especially to us, is to is to 01:16:53.920 --> 01:16:55.120 believe that. 01:16:55.120 --> 01:16:59.440 To believe that no matter the degree of injustice and wickedness that 01:16:59.440 --> 01:17:04.640 we see or perhaps ourselves are subjected to, God will avenge. 01:17:04.640 --> 01:17:07.440 And that is what we as Christians are to desire. 01:17:07.440 --> 01:17:11.440 We are to desire God's enemies to be destroyed, because it's what 01:17:11.440 --> 01:17:12.800 he says he wants. 01:17:12.800 --> 01:17:15.920 If he said he wanted something else, then we would say we 01:17:15.920 --> 01:17:17.280 wanted that instead. 01:17:17.280 --> 01:17:20.720 We are to pray praise and give thanks for the destruction he 01:17:20.720 --> 01:17:23.760 is going to bring on wicked men. 01:17:23.760 --> 01:17:28.480 Romans twelve has an admonition to all of us that circumscribes everything 01:17:28.480 --> 01:17:31.680 that we will ever say about enemies or hatred or anything else 01:17:31.760 --> 01:17:35.040 in the It's a tough teaching because it's hard not to violate 01:17:35.040 --> 01:17:36.640 it when you're dealing with these things. 01:17:36.640 --> 01:17:40.800 When you're seeing wickedness, when you're subjected to it, it's really difficult 01:17:40.800 --> 01:17:43.040 to live up to what God says here. 01:17:43.040 --> 01:17:44.960 So I'm going to read it out loud for all of us. 01:17:44.960 --> 01:17:46.240 I need to hear it too. 01:17:46.240 --> 01:17:50.720 Because it is the frame for this discussion. 01:17:50.720 --> 01:17:53.760 But I'm going to highlight a couple things that are often glossed 01:17:53.760 --> 01:17:59.840 over. Let love be genuine, abhor what is evil, hold fast to 01:17:59.840 --> 01:18:04.480 what is good, love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another 01:18:04.480 --> 01:18:05.920 in showing honor. 01:18:05.920 --> 01:18:10.080 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the 01:18:10.080 --> 01:18:15.520 Lord, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 01:18:15.520 --> 01:18:19.680 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. 01:18:19.680 --> 01:18:24.240 Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them. 01:18:24.240 --> 01:18:27.680 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 01:18:27.680 --> 01:18:29.600 Live in harmony with one another. 01:18:29.600 --> 01:18:32.720 Do not be haughty but associate with the lowly. 01:18:32.720 --> 01:18:34.960 Never be wise in your own sight. 01:18:34.960 --> 01:18:39.760 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what 01:18:39.760 --> 01:18:41.840 is honorable in the sight of all. 01:18:41.840 --> 01:18:46.320 If possible, so far as depends on you, live peaceably with all. 01:18:46.320 --> 01:18:51.040 Beloved never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, 01:18:51.040 --> 01:18:54.160 for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the 01:18:54.160 --> 01:18:58.000 Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him, if 01:18:58.000 --> 01:19:01.040 he is thirsty, give him something to drink, for by so doing 01:19:02.000 --> 01:19:05.200 you will heap burning coals on his head. 01:19:05.200 --> 01:19:09.600 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. 01:19:09.600 --> 01:19:12.960 We as Christians are not to come over the top of the 01:19:12.960 --> 01:19:16.400 evil of others with even more evil of our own. 01:19:16.400 --> 01:19:17.920 Even if it's justified. 01:19:17.920 --> 01:19:21.520 That's part of the reason for the necessity of this admonition. 01:19:21.520 --> 01:19:24.160 Is God is saying these people are evil. 01:19:24.160 --> 01:19:27.440 Don't repay their evil with your own evil. 01:19:27.440 --> 01:19:28.720 Why does he say that? 01:19:29.120 --> 01:19:31.440 Leave it to the wrath of God. 01:19:31.440 --> 01:19:33.600 He doesn't say God forgives them, that's fine. 01:19:33.600 --> 01:19:36.720 They're gonna get off scot free, and then you're gonna sit there 01:19:36.720 --> 01:19:40.640 and wonder why they had more sins forgiven than you did. 01:19:40.640 --> 01:19:43.520 God promises that he will avenge. 01:19:43.520 --> 01:19:45.040 Vengeance is his. 01:19:45.040 --> 01:19:46.400 That's jealousy. 01:19:46.400 --> 01:19:51.200 When God says vengeance is mine, he is being jealous of vengeance. 01:19:51.200 --> 01:19:53.920 He's saying, I don't want you to seek vengeance because I'm going 01:19:53.920 --> 01:19:54.720 to do it to him. 01:19:54.720 --> 01:19:57.840 I'm going to do it to him for me, because you belong 01:19:57.840 --> 01:19:58.320 to me. 01:19:58.320 --> 01:20:00.720 And so when I do it to them for me, I'm doing 01:20:00.720 --> 01:20:01.520 it for you. 01:20:01.520 --> 01:20:05.120 But I'm doing it because they sinned against me with their wickedness. 01:20:05.120 --> 01:20:09.440 So this passage that absolutely says that we don't go around identifying 01:20:09.440 --> 01:20:14.960 your enemies and then hurting them as much as possible simultaneously promises 01:20:15.280 --> 01:20:19.040 God is going to destroy them, which is why we don't have 01:20:19.040 --> 01:20:20.400 to worry about it. 01:20:20.400 --> 01:20:24.080 And even the admonition to if he's thirsty, give him something to 01:20:24.080 --> 01:20:27.920 drink, for by so doing, you will heap burning coals on his 01:20:27.920 --> 01:20:31.520 head. That's quite the purpose, isn't it? 01:20:31.760 --> 01:20:34.240 Your admonition enemy is thirsty and so what do you do? 01:20:34.240 --> 01:20:37.440 You give him something to drink, so that his thirst will be 01:20:37.440 --> 01:20:38.800 slaked? No. 01:20:38.800 --> 01:20:42.320 So the heaping burning coals will be on his head. 01:20:42.320 --> 01:20:43.600 That stinks. 01:20:43.600 --> 01:20:46.160 What God is saying is that that's worse for you to do 01:20:46.160 --> 01:20:48.880 than if you were to revile him back. 01:20:48.880 --> 01:20:51.760 So it's a hard teaching, but it's kind of hard in both 01:20:51.760 --> 01:20:55.520 directions. On one hand, we don't get to satisfy our own bloodlust, 01:20:55.520 --> 01:20:57.920 to say I'm gonna avenge my own indignities. 01:20:58.160 --> 01:21:01.440 Someone wronged me, I'm gonna wrong them twice as hard. 01:21:01.440 --> 01:21:03.280 We don't get to do that. 01:21:03.280 --> 01:21:07.680 But God also says, look how much I despise and hate these 01:21:07.680 --> 01:21:10.720 people. When it says abore what is evil, I don't really like 01:21:10.720 --> 01:21:13.920 that word because people don't know what it means anymore, it basically 01:21:13.920 --> 01:21:16.000 means hate with perfect hatred. 01:21:16.000 --> 01:21:21.360 It means revile as much as you possibly can, unlimited scorn and 01:21:21.360 --> 01:21:24.000 contempt for what is evil. 01:21:24.000 --> 01:21:27.840 And when it's talking about evil here, it's not talking about Satan. 01:21:27.840 --> 01:21:30.160 It's talking about men's actions. 01:21:30.160 --> 01:21:33.200 It's talking about those who are around you. 01:21:33.200 --> 01:21:36.880 And the other passages that specifically deal with these evil acts make 01:21:36.880 --> 01:21:40.480 clear that while Satan is the author of this evil, he's not 01:21:40.480 --> 01:21:42.240 the one committing it. 01:21:42.240 --> 01:21:46.160 John sixteen says I have said all these things to you to 01:21:46.160 --> 01:21:47.920 keep you from falling away. 01:21:47.920 --> 01:21:50.160 They will put you out of the synagogues. 01:21:50.160 --> 01:21:54.000 Indeed the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he 01:21:54.000 --> 01:21:57.600 is offering service to God, and they will do these things because 01:21:57.600 --> 01:21:59.760 they have not known the Father nor me. 01:21:59.760 --> 01:22:02.400 But I have said these things to you, that when their hour 01:22:02.400 --> 01:22:06.320 comes you may remember that I told them to you. 01:22:06.320 --> 01:22:09.840 As we've pointed out in the past, what is Jesus saying is 01:22:09.840 --> 01:22:11.440 going to be the source of evil? 01:22:11.440 --> 01:22:13.200 It's going to be inside the church. 01:22:13.200 --> 01:22:17.520 When they throw you out of synagogues and kill you, they're gonna 01:22:17.520 --> 01:22:19.280 think they're serving me. 01:22:19.280 --> 01:22:20.800 That's not the pagan. 01:22:20.800 --> 01:22:22.400 That's not the state. 01:22:22.400 --> 01:22:26.240 That's not some wicked man who, by all accounts in the world, 01:22:26.240 --> 01:22:28.320 is just absolutely godless. 01:22:28.320 --> 01:22:32.720 That's not Harvey Weinstein killing you, it's someone in your own church 01:22:32.720 --> 01:22:36.000 killing you, and they're gonna do it thinking they're serving God. 01:22:36.000 --> 01:22:39.120 And this is not euphemistic either. 01:22:39.120 --> 01:22:43.920 This encompasses all manner of hatred and murder, including murder itself. 01:22:44.240 --> 01:22:46.400 It's going to come from inside the church. 01:22:46.400 --> 01:22:50.240 So the evil that God says to hate, to abore with perfect 01:22:50.240 --> 01:22:54.400 hatred, is this evil that's going to occur by the hands of 01:22:54.400 --> 01:22:59.280 Christians, against you, against believers, in your sight. 01:22:59.280 --> 01:23:02.800 And as we say often, the reason we do these episodes is 01:23:02.800 --> 01:23:04.640 what Jesus says here. 01:23:04.640 --> 01:23:07.680 I have said these things to you to keep you from falling 01:23:07.680 --> 01:23:11.040 away Jesus told us these things so that we would remember when 01:23:11.040 --> 01:23:12.480 things get bad. 01:23:12.480 --> 01:23:14.480 That's why we do these episodes. 01:23:14.480 --> 01:23:18.160 It's a reminder that when things get bad, that's no excuse to 01:23:18.160 --> 01:23:22.160 start being evil, to stop believing, to give up your faith, to 01:23:22.160 --> 01:23:26.000 just wander off in disgust, none of those are options for the 01:23:26.000 --> 01:23:27.360 Christian man. 01:23:27.360 --> 01:23:31.040 But you don't react in that moment if you don't remember the 01:23:31.040 --> 01:23:34.480 teaching. And if no one's ever told you these things, there's nothing 01:23:34.480 --> 01:23:35.600 to remember. 01:23:35.600 --> 01:23:40.320 Which is why the malice of weak and strong enemies and pulpits 01:23:40.320 --> 01:23:43.440 is unparalleled in its destructive force. 01:23:43.440 --> 01:23:45.920 Because when men have never heard the truth, what are they going 01:23:45.920 --> 01:23:46.800 to believe? 01:23:46.800 --> 01:23:49.280 Anything from the mouth of Satan and nothing from the mouth of 01:23:49.280 --> 01:23:50.880 God, because they haven't even heard it. 01:23:50.880 --> 01:23:53.760 Or the one time they heard one of these words, they were 01:23:53.760 --> 01:23:56.000 told it actually means the exact opposite. 01:23:56.000 --> 01:23:58.400 That's what Mot's preaching amounts to today. 01:23:58.400 --> 01:24:00.800 Here's what the verse says and here's why it actually means the 01:24:00.800 --> 01:24:02.960 opposite of what it sounds like. 01:24:02.960 --> 01:24:05.760 God did not communicate to us in riddles. 01:24:05.760 --> 01:24:09.200 He did not give us an indecipherable Bible language. 01:24:09.200 --> 01:24:14.000 He gave us plain written words in the vernacular that were to 01:24:14.000 --> 01:24:18.080 be translated to every language for everyone to understand it plainly. 01:24:18.080 --> 01:24:21.200 There's some things that are tough to understand, but most of it's 01:24:21.200 --> 01:24:25.840 not. the wicked teachers go in and they grovel around and Try 01:24:25.840 --> 01:24:28.400 to turn things that are simple into things that are complicated. 01:24:28.400 --> 01:24:30.960 Why? So that this evil may abound. 01:24:30.960 --> 01:24:34.160 So that you are incapable of abhorring the evil when you see 01:24:34.160 --> 01:24:35.840 it in your own eyes. 01:24:35.840 --> 01:24:38.720 You should hate when these things happen. 01:24:38.720 --> 01:24:43.040 And then your hatred must be circumscribed by God's command. 01:24:43.040 --> 01:24:45.680 God tells you in this passage, the very passage where he says 01:24:45.760 --> 01:24:49.200 don't seek vengeance, to live in peace, he says you need to 01:24:49.200 --> 01:24:50.480 hate evil. 01:24:50.480 --> 01:24:53.680 That's the predicate for that entire two paragraphs. 01:24:53.680 --> 01:24:54.560 Hate evil. 01:24:55.280 --> 01:24:58.720 It's a hard saying because we have not been taught as Christians 01:24:58.800 --> 01:24:59.680 how to hate. 01:24:59.680 --> 01:25:02.800 The entire episode on perfect hatred talks about that specifically. 01:25:02.800 --> 01:25:03.680 What does it mean? 01:25:03.680 --> 01:25:07.600 What does it mean to hate things as God hates them? 01:25:07.680 --> 01:25:10.800 And again, as we've said in that episode, and I'll reiterate here, 01:25:10.800 --> 01:25:13.440 none of this is about we need more hatred. 01:25:13.440 --> 01:25:16.960 We need more people seeking out enemies. 01:25:16.960 --> 01:25:18.080 These things happen. 01:25:18.080 --> 01:25:19.760 They exist already. 01:25:19.760 --> 01:25:22.160 The only thing for a Christian to do is to respond as 01:25:22.160 --> 01:25:23.040 a Christian. 01:25:23.040 --> 01:25:26.560 And that's often hard because it's sometimes unnatural. 01:25:26.560 --> 01:25:30.800 The Christian response to this sort of evil, it's unnatural to say, 01:25:30.800 --> 01:25:33.120 yeah, I'm not going to pursue that. 01:25:33.120 --> 01:25:34.080 You wronged me. 01:25:34.080 --> 01:25:35.280 You did something wicked. 01:25:35.280 --> 01:25:36.480 I forgive you. 01:25:36.480 --> 01:25:39.040 For my part, it's over. 01:25:39.040 --> 01:25:42.480 On the other hand, God makes clear that that man's still an 01:25:42.480 --> 01:25:45.920 enemy. And in the churches, while these men continue to prowl as 01:25:45.920 --> 01:25:49.680 enemies, we must view and treat and name them as such. 01:25:49.680 --> 01:25:53.680 And that is the hardest part of all in this message to 01:25:53.680 --> 01:25:57.760 believe that you have enemies and then to recognize when you see 01:25:57.760 --> 01:26:01.520 it. Because if you don't believe initially that's even possible, of course 01:26:01.520 --> 01:26:03.520 you're never gonna see it when it happens. 01:26:03.520 --> 01:26:06.880 You're gonna find every excuse in the world not to believe that 01:26:06.880 --> 01:26:10.080 this guy at church is actually an enemy of God. 01:26:10.400 --> 01:26:12.800 He's your enemy because he's God's enemy. 01:26:12.800 --> 01:26:15.600 And that's unthinkable because it's inside the church. 01:26:15.600 --> 01:26:18.720 But if you actually read the words of scripture, that's the normal 01:26:18.720 --> 01:26:20.320 place to find evil men. 01:26:20.320 --> 01:26:22.640 And I don't mean in the sense that we're all sinners and 01:26:22.640 --> 01:26:23.440 we need God. 01:26:23.760 --> 01:26:27.600 I mean people who are actively seeking to destroy God's things. 01:26:27.600 --> 01:26:29.440 Of course they're going to be in church. 01:26:29.440 --> 01:26:31.760 Why would Satan not send his people there? 01:26:31.760 --> 01:26:33.200 That's where he needs them. 01:26:33.200 --> 01:26:36.080 Satan's not going to leave us alone as Christians. 01:26:36.080 --> 01:26:40.160 He needs to have the wheat and the weeds mixed in together. 01:26:40.160 --> 01:26:45.440 Those parables about planting and sowing, the whole problem in those parables 01:26:45.440 --> 01:26:49.520 is that the weeds and the wheat are mixed in at the 01:26:49.520 --> 01:26:53.040 same time, and it's only the harvest at the end, at judgment 01:26:53.040 --> 01:26:55.600 day, that makes it possible to reap everything. 01:26:55.600 --> 01:26:59.120 And then God will make a footstool of his enemies. 01:26:59.120 --> 01:27:01.600 He will burn the chaff, he will separate it. 01:27:01.600 --> 01:27:04.480 But until the harvest, we're intermingled. 01:27:04.480 --> 01:27:08.800 And therefore, because we are intermingled, good men with wicked men, both 01:27:08.800 --> 01:27:12.960 in the world, where we have Christians and unbelievers, that's an easy 01:27:12.960 --> 01:27:14.640 category to understand understand. 01:27:14.640 --> 01:27:17.440 Within the church we see the same thing replay. 01:27:17.440 --> 01:27:20.400 We have believers and unbelievers inside the church. 01:27:20.400 --> 01:27:22.720 The difference is they're all singing the same hymns. 01:27:22.720 --> 01:27:24.640 They're all taking the same communion. 01:27:24.640 --> 01:27:26.640 They're all reading the same Bible verses. 01:27:26.640 --> 01:27:28.960 And a lot of times the most wicked people are the ones 01:27:28.960 --> 01:27:29.680 in charge. 01:27:29.680 --> 01:27:30.720 They're the ones teaching. 01:27:30.720 --> 01:27:33.440 They're the ones pushing and leading and guiding. 01:27:33.440 --> 01:27:36.720 They're the ones influencing because that's where Satan needs them to be. 01:27:36.720 --> 01:27:37.520 Not always. 01:27:37.520 --> 01:27:38.720 That's not universal either. 01:27:38.800 --> 01:27:42.480 They're good churches, they're good pastors, they're good congregations. 01:27:42.480 --> 01:27:43.440 Thank God. 01:27:43.440 --> 01:27:45.680 Thank God they still exist somewhere. 01:27:45.680 --> 01:27:47.360 But they're not universal. 01:27:47.360 --> 01:27:50.000 They're not even the norm anymore. 01:27:50.000 --> 01:27:53.760 And so when we're looking at the world and then we look 01:27:53.760 --> 01:27:59.280 inside our churches and we see these behaviors, we must know what 01:27:59.280 --> 01:28:02.560 it is to be a friend, how to act like a friend, 01:28:02.560 --> 01:28:08.960 how to not be a lukewarm, vile Spewable human being that God 01:28:08.960 --> 01:28:11.440 says he hates for their cowardice. 01:28:11.440 --> 01:28:16.000 We've got to pick a side, and we must do so strongly. 01:28:16.000 --> 01:28:22.400 That sort of resistance, godly resistance to evil, doesn't necessarily mean fighting 01:28:22.400 --> 01:28:25.040 and war and hostility or anything. 01:28:25.040 --> 01:28:29.360 It simply means you're not gonna hurt this guy alone. 01:28:29.360 --> 01:28:32.000 If you try to hurt him, you're gonna hurt me too. 01:28:32.000 --> 01:28:35.360 Whatever evil you do, you have to do to all of us. 01:28:35.360 --> 01:28:38.080 That makes it harder for some people to do evil. 01:28:38.080 --> 01:28:42.160 Because Corey was saying earlier, so many people on the board here 01:28:42.160 --> 01:28:45.600 are just sheep, as God aptly describes us. 01:28:45.600 --> 01:28:48.320 They're going to follow whoever seems to have the numbers. 01:28:48.320 --> 01:28:51.360 So if suddenly it pivots and there are enough good men that 01:28:51.440 --> 01:28:55.120 that the resistance to evil is the majority opinion or seems to 01:28:55.120 --> 01:28:56.800 be going that way, guess what? 01:28:56.800 --> 01:28:58.400 The evil people are going to lose the sheep. 01:28:59.200 --> 01:29:02.160 All the people who are lukewarm, all the people who are weak 01:29:02.160 --> 01:29:04.560 enemies will become weak friends. 01:29:04.560 --> 01:29:09.600 Not because they've had some great revelation of personal stalwartness, just they 01:29:09.600 --> 01:29:10.960 followed the crowd. 01:29:10.960 --> 01:29:14.560 They will accidentally do the right thing because they saw other people 01:29:14.560 --> 01:29:15.440 doing it. 01:29:15.440 --> 01:29:17.040 That will never happen. 01:29:17.040 --> 01:29:20.480 They will never be saved by the good example that you set 01:29:20.480 --> 01:29:21.840 if you don't set it. 01:29:21.840 --> 01:29:24.480 And all you can do is set the examples, Corey was saying 01:29:24.480 --> 01:29:28.080 they may not follow, they probably won't, but there's certainly no example 01:29:28.080 --> 01:29:30.400 for them to follow if none of us show up. 01:29:30.400 --> 01:29:32.080 That's what time it is. 01:29:32.080 --> 01:29:34.800 We have to know that evil men are going to act, that 01:29:34.800 --> 01:29:37.600 good men are going to be persecuted, that it's going to happen 01:29:37.600 --> 01:29:40.000 in the church, that it's going to be by people who call 01:29:40.000 --> 01:29:42.880 themselves Christians, and indeed Christian leaders. 01:29:42.880 --> 01:29:46.560 And if one by one men are picked off and destroyed, everything 01:29:46.560 --> 01:29:47.520 will collapse. 01:29:47.520 --> 01:29:51.360 People will lose faith who would not have otherwise lost faith. 01:29:51.360 --> 01:29:54.560 This is ultimately a message about courage in the face of these 01:29:54.560 --> 01:29:59.280 things, about confidence in God's promises, both in the promise that this 01:29:59.280 --> 01:30:04.320 torment, that this persecution will come, that we must face that persecution 01:30:04.320 --> 01:30:09.200 as Christians, not as people who are weak and brittle, that we 01:30:09.200 --> 01:30:12.400 will show our faith by how we conduct ourselves, and that we 01:30:12.400 --> 01:30:14.640 will resist evil, that we will hate evil. 01:30:14.640 --> 01:30:19.600 And that necessarily includes calling evil evil, saying this man is evil, 01:30:19.600 --> 01:30:24.880 this act is evil, this sermon is evil, this conference is evil. 01:30:24.880 --> 01:30:25.920 You take your pick. 01:30:25.920 --> 01:30:29.280 When you find it, you need to be equipped to understand you're 01:30:29.280 --> 01:30:32.000 not just looking at someone who's confused. 01:30:32.000 --> 01:30:36.480 When these people are acting as powerful enemies inside the church, it's 01:30:36.480 --> 01:30:39.200 not that they haven't listened to the right podcast episode. 01:30:39.200 --> 01:30:41.040 It's not that they haven't heard the right sermon. 01:30:41.040 --> 01:30:43.680 It's not that they haven't read the right book. 01:30:43.680 --> 01:30:49.120 They are permanently hardened of heart and disposed to doing Satan's will. 01:30:49.120 --> 01:30:50.960 And they're gonna look just like Christians. 01:30:50.960 --> 01:30:54.000 Unless you can tell the difference based on scripture. 01:30:54.000 --> 01:30:58.720 To spend time in scripture believing every word that two paragraphs from 01:30:58.720 --> 01:31:00.800 Romans twelve, go read it again. 01:31:00.800 --> 01:31:04.480 I read you know for a while there, go read it yourself. 01:31:04.480 --> 01:31:07.440 Their hard teachings is I said in both directions. 01:31:07.440 --> 01:31:10.640 Both wow, I really want to do this thing, but God says 01:31:10.640 --> 01:31:11.200 I can't. 01:31:11.200 --> 01:31:14.640 And wow, God's really going to go to town on these people. 01:31:14.640 --> 01:31:16.640 That is what is in scripture. 01:31:16.640 --> 01:31:19.120 It's not just saying we're going to be helpless and we're going 01:31:19.120 --> 01:31:21.200 to be weak and we're going to be destroyed. 01:31:21.200 --> 01:31:24.080 We're going to be faithful and resolute and God will take care 01:31:24.080 --> 01:31:25.200 of the rest. 01:31:25.200 --> 01:31:28.160 Ultimately, that's the only thing we can have confidence in. 01:31:28.160 --> 01:31:30.480 God will take care of the rest. 01:31:30.480 --> 01:31:35.600 The choices that we have to make involve knowing our friends, being 01:31:35.600 --> 01:31:39.440 good friends, encouraging others to be good friends and setting examples for 01:31:39.440 --> 01:31:42.400 them. And knowing when someone's being a weak enemy and trying to 01:31:42.400 --> 01:31:45.280 persuade them or coerce them socially if you can. 01:31:45.280 --> 01:31:48.960 And knowing when someone's a strong enemy who's seeking to devour them, 01:31:48.960 --> 01:31:53.760 seeking to divide and destroy, because they know that by setting that 01:31:53.760 --> 01:31:56.160 example, they can conquer the entire congregation. 01:31:56.160 --> 01:31:58.240 And one by one, we're seeing that happen. 01:31:58.240 --> 01:32:01.760 They will continue to prevail as long as good men stand alone. 01:32:01.760 --> 01:32:03.200 I don't want to see that happen. 01:32:03.200 --> 01:32:05.040 And I don't know how these things are going to play out 01:32:05.040 --> 01:32:05.840 in the end. 01:32:05.840 --> 01:32:08.800 It may be that all these churches are destroyed. 01:32:08.800 --> 01:32:11.520 I don't want that, but it seems to be the direction things 01:32:11.520 --> 01:32:12.160 are going. 01:32:12.160 --> 01:32:16.480 If God permits it, then we must know that God poured out 01:32:16.480 --> 01:32:20.560 his wrath against us in time for our faithlessness. 01:32:20.560 --> 01:32:22.960 And as individuals, we have to do better. 01:32:22.960 --> 01:32:26.880 We have to create institutions where these problems cannot be permitted to 01:32:26.880 --> 01:32:30.720 exist. Where evil men are called evil, good men are pointed out 01:32:30.720 --> 01:32:33.760 to be good, and we know the difference. 01:32:34.880 --> 01:32:35.040 I 01:32:35.120 --> 01:32:39.120 of course agree with Woe when he says That God did not 01:32:39.120 --> 01:32:41.760 speak to us in riddles. 01:32:41.760 --> 01:32:45.120 But I want to point out something there that is of the 01:32:45.120 --> 01:32:47.680 most vital importance. 01:32:47.680 --> 01:32:51.840 The reference for that pronoun matters a great deal. 01:32:51.840 --> 01:32:54.800 Who is the us there? 01:32:54.800 --> 01:32:56.240 That means the elect. 01:32:56.240 --> 01:32:58.000 It means Christians. 01:32:58.000 --> 01:33:02.000 Because God does in fact speak in parables in the pages of 01:33:02.000 --> 01:33:06.080 scripture even, although he explains them, but to whom does he explain 01:33:06.080 --> 01:33:09.360 them? He explains them to the elect. 01:33:09.360 --> 01:33:13.360 God speaks in riddles, he speaks in parables, he speaks in an 01:33:13.360 --> 01:33:17.520 opaque fashion to those who do not have faith, because scripture is 01:33:17.520 --> 01:33:22.000 a closed book, of course to those who do not have faith. 01:33:22.000 --> 01:33:25.600 Christ says this himself in Matthew thirteen. 01:33:25.600 --> 01:33:28.880 Then the disciples came and said to him, Why do you speak 01:33:28.880 --> 01:33:30.160 to them in parables? 01:33:30.160 --> 01:33:31.600 And he answered them. 01:33:31.600 --> 01:33:33.840 To you it has been given to know the secrets of the 01:33:34.080 --> 01:33:37.760 kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given, for 01:33:37.760 --> 01:33:41.280 to the one who has more will be given, and he will 01:33:41.280 --> 01:33:44.640 have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even when 01:33:44.800 --> 01:33:47.280 he has will be taken away. 01:33:47.280 --> 01:33:51.200 This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they 01:33:51.200 --> 01:33:55.200 do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they 01:33:55.200 --> 01:33:59.920 understand. Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that 01:33:59.920 --> 01:34:05.440 says, You will indeed hear, but never understand, and you will indeed 01:34:05.440 --> 01:34:10.160 see, but never perceive, for this people's heart has grown dull, and 01:34:10.160 --> 01:34:13.760 with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have 01:34:13.760 --> 01:34:17.840 closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their 01:34:17.840 --> 01:34:21.840 ears, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal 01:34:21.840 --> 01:34:22.000 them. 01:34:23.040 --> 01:34:27.200 But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears for 01:34:27.200 --> 01:34:28.160 they hear. 01:34:28.160 --> 01:34:32.160 For truly I say to you, many prophets and righteous people long 01:34:32.240 --> 01:34:35.600 to see what you see, and did not see it, and to 01:34:35.600 --> 01:34:39.120 hear what you hear, and did not hear it. 01:34:39.120 --> 01:34:41.840 So if you think about that for a minute, what does it 01:34:41.840 --> 01:34:46.480 mean, when a pastor or a teacher, or anyone else is telling 01:34:46.480 --> 01:34:53.200 you, that the words of Scripture are opaque, are difficult, not in 01:34:53.520 --> 01:34:57.840 just a few places, but overall you have to have this special 01:34:57.840 --> 01:35:00.560 knowledge to interpret it. 01:35:00.560 --> 01:35:01.680 What he's doing is teaching 01:35:02.560 --> 01:35:07.280 you as if you were not a Christian, as if you didn't 01:35:07.200 --> 01:35:10.880 have faith, as if Scripture were a closed book to you, because 01:35:10.880 --> 01:35:14.240 Scripture is a closed book to those who are not among the 01:35:14.240 --> 01:35:20.240 elect. And so if you have a pastor or teacher who is 01:35:20.240 --> 01:35:24.640 teaching you as if you were one, for whom that is true, 01:35:24.640 --> 01:35:28.960 you need to flee that pastor, that teacher, because he is false. 01:35:28.960 --> 01:35:32.400 What he is saying to you is that he has some special 01:35:32.400 --> 01:35:36.720 knowledge, and he can tell you what it really means. 01:35:36.720 --> 01:35:42.240 That's not what Scripture says Scripture by and large is an open 01:35:42.240 --> 01:35:46.880 book, is very straightforward, is very easy to understand. 01:35:46.880 --> 01:35:52.560 It was written to us, for us, in an understandable, in a 01:35:52.560 --> 01:35:55.520 comprehensible language Language. 01:35:55.520 --> 01:36:01.760 God didn't hide these things away in some incomprehensible set of riddles 01:36:01.920 --> 01:36:05.040 that has to be disentangled where you will never be certain of 01:36:05.040 --> 01:36:07.200 the meaning The meaning. 01:36:07.200 --> 01:36:12.080 That is the claim of many these days and down through history 01:36:12.080 --> 01:36:13.280 as well. 01:36:13.280 --> 01:36:16.640 But it's not true because it's not what God says of his 01:36:16.960 --> 01:36:22.400 word. God says that he explains his word to us in the 01:36:22.400 --> 01:36:25.920 pages of his word, because the next section of what I just 01:36:25.920 --> 01:36:30.640 read is an explanation of the parable. 01:36:30.640 --> 01:36:33.200 God explains these things to his sheep. 01:36:34.160 --> 01:36:37.440 And so false teachers are going to come in and tell you 01:36:37.440 --> 01:36:40.080 that you can't possibly understand these things. 01:36:40.080 --> 01:36:43.040 Here let me tell you what it actually means. 01:36:43.040 --> 01:36:47.040 There's a reason that when we explain something we tell you, go 01:36:47.040 --> 01:36:48.080 read it. 01:36:48.080 --> 01:36:51.840 Go compare what we have said to the words of Scripture. 01:36:51.840 --> 01:36:55.840 If we believe that the words of Scripture were incomprehensible, could not 01:36:55.840 --> 01:36:59.280 be understood by the By the average man, then we wouldn't tell 01:36:59.280 --> 01:37:01.680 you to do that because that would be a wicked thing to 01:37:01.680 --> 01:37:06.480 do. But we believe, as God says in his word, as God 01:37:06.480 --> 01:37:10.400 has promised us, that his word is understandable, and that for the 01:37:10.400 --> 01:37:13.280 Christian the Spirit will lead you into truth. 01:37:13.280 --> 01:37:18.160 And so we are perfectly comfortable telling you Go read the Word 01:37:18.160 --> 01:37:19.040 of God. 01:37:19.040 --> 01:37:22.400 Compare what it says in his Word to the things that we 01:37:22.400 --> 01:37:25.520 have said on this podcast or elsewhere. 01:37:25.520 --> 01:37:29.760 If you find that the things that we have said are inconsistent 01:37:29.760 --> 01:37:32.640 with, do not align with the Word of God, then it is 01:37:32.640 --> 01:37:35.280 incumbent on you to believe God over us 01:37:36.640 --> 01:37:40.240 Because everything God says is true. 01:37:40.240 --> 01:37:41.760 Men may err. 01:37:41.760 --> 01:37:43.760 Men commit mistakes. 01:37:43.760 --> 01:37:45.440 We endeavor not to do that. 01:37:45.440 --> 01:37:47.600 We are very careful not to do that. 01:37:47.600 --> 01:37:49.920 On this podcast and elsewhere. 01:37:50.560 --> 01:37:54.000 But even in our case, even in the case of men who 01:37:54.000 --> 01:37:59.600 endeavor to be accurate, who dedicate time to being accurate, who will 01:37:59.600 --> 01:38:03.840 correct themselves if they err, even those men must be subjected to 01:38:03.840 --> 01:38:07.440 the standard that is the Word of God, because it is the 01:38:07.440 --> 01:38:10.000 only perfect standard. 01:38:10.000 --> 01:38:13.680 And so again, be careful with regard to those who tell you 01:38:13.680 --> 01:38:16.160 that the Word of God cannot be understood. 01:38:16.160 --> 01:38:18.400 In fact, be more than careful. 01:38:18.400 --> 01:38:22.960 Flee those people, flee those men, because they are false teachers. 01:38:22.960 --> 01:38:26.960 The word of God, by and large, can be understood by an 01:38:26.960 --> 01:38:30.160 average man simply by reading it. 01:38:30.160 --> 01:38:33.440 That doesn't mean everything, there are parts in some of the prophetic 01:38:33.440 --> 01:38:37.280 books that are certainly opaque to us, some of them state bluntly 01:38:37.280 --> 01:38:40.640 they are opaque, but not all of them are. 01:38:40.640 --> 01:38:44.240 The vast majority of scripture can simply be read and understood by 01:38:44.240 --> 01:38:49.120 a man of average intelligence and average abilities, because that is what 01:38:49.120 --> 01:38:50.800 God intended. 01:38:50.800 --> 01:38:54.880 God did not intend for Christianity to be some sort of mystery 01:38:55.520 --> 01:39:00.400 cult where you have these select men who understand things and then 01:39:00.400 --> 01:39:04.320 disseminate this knowledge as they see fit to everyone else. 01:39:04.320 --> 01:39:09.280 God wrote down his word in a book, in the vernacular, so 01:39:09.280 --> 01:39:12.080 that the average man could understand it. 01:39:12.080 --> 01:39:14.720 These days there are those who try to pretend that oh you 01:39:14.720 --> 01:39:18.560 can't possibly understand Scripture because it's originally in Greek and you have 01:39:18.560 --> 01:39:21.760 to know Greek and it's so impress it's not impressive to know 01:39:21.760 --> 01:39:26.240 Greek. In fact it's Koina Greek, it's a simplified version of Greek. 01:39:26.240 --> 01:39:30.240 God didn't even use a high register of Greek, it's not attic 01:39:30.320 --> 01:39:34.640 or homeric or some form of Greek that requires more knowledge. 01:39:34.640 --> 01:39:36.480 He wrote it in the vernacular. 01:39:36.480 --> 01:39:38.720 If he did it today, it would be written in the English 01:39:38.720 --> 01:39:40.320 that we are speaking now. 01:39:40.320 --> 01:39:43.520 Because that is the closest thing we have to a universal language 01:39:43.520 --> 01:39:48.880 today. God wrote his scripture and transmitted it in such a way 01:39:48.880 --> 01:39:52.640 that the average man can gain access to it, read it, and 01:39:52.640 --> 01:39:54.400 understand it. 01:39:54.400 --> 01:39:58.480 Anyone who tells you anything else is trying to mislead you. 01:39:58.480 --> 01:40:01.440 Does that mean that you shouldn't seek out faithful teachers? 01:40:01.440 --> 01:40:03.040 Of course not. 01:40:03.040 --> 01:40:06.400 The same thing is true with regard to any subject under the 01:40:06.400 --> 01:40:10.080 sun. Just because you can understand it doesn't mean that you gain 01:40:10.080 --> 01:40:12.560 nothing from listening to a faithful teacher. 01:40:12.880 --> 01:40:16.400 The faithful teacher may understand it better and be able to guide 01:40:16.400 --> 01:40:19.680 you. But it doesn't mean that you do not have access to 01:40:19.680 --> 01:40:23.760 it yourself, absent the presence of that teacher. 01:40:23.760 --> 01:40:26.960 And so as Christian men, be careful with regard to what you 01:40:26.960 --> 01:40:30.560 are being told and what you believe with regard to the Word 01:40:30.560 --> 01:40:31.760 of God. 01:40:31.760 --> 01:40:35.040 You have the ability to go and look at it for yourself, 01:40:35.040 --> 01:40:37.520 and in fact you have the duty to do so because that 01:40:37.520 --> 01:40:40.960 is part of what it means to be a Christian. 01:40:40.960 --> 01:40:45.200 And so if someone is treating you like you're some sort of 01:40:45.200 --> 01:40:49.040 alien to the Word of God, like you're not a sheep, like 01:40:49.040 --> 01:40:54.880 you don't have the Word of God accessible to you and comprehensible 01:40:54.880 --> 01:40:58.560 by you, then He is teaching you that you are something other 01:40:58.560 --> 01:41:01.600 than a Christian, and He is treating you as if you were 01:41:01.600 --> 01:41:03.920 something other than a Christian. 01:41:03.920 --> 01:41:07.040 Do not listen to those sorts of men because they are trying 01:41:07.040 --> 01:41:09.440 to deceive you. 01:41:09.440 --> 01:41:14.800 Christ speaks to those who are not among the elect in riddles, 01:41:14.800 --> 01:41:18.640 and then he explains them, the riddles, to those who are among 01:41:18.640 --> 01:41:20.640 the elect are among the elect. 01:41:20.640 --> 01:41:22.240 That is what God does. 01:41:22.240 --> 01:41:26.400 He explains his word to his sheep, because he wants us to 01:41:26.400 --> 01:41:29.520 understand his word. 01:41:30.560 --> 01:41:36.240 With regard to those who hold these positions of authority, particularly teaching 01:41:36.240 --> 01:41:40.800 authority, but also ruling authority to give that sort of distinction in 01:41:40.800 --> 01:41:47.680 the churches, these days we often see them abusing this authority. 01:41:47.680 --> 01:41:49.280 This plays into 01:41:50.160 --> 01:41:54.000 the rest of what we've been saying in this episode, that difference 01:41:54.000 --> 01:41:56.080 between a friend and an enemy. 01:41:56.080 --> 01:41:59.760 And so it may very well be the case that the man 01:41:59.760 --> 01:42:06.560 who is standing up, who appears, for all appearance's sake, to hold 01:42:06.560 --> 01:42:08.880 the authority in a congregation. 01:42:08.880 --> 01:42:11.680 Perhaps it appears that he holds it rightfully. 01:42:11.680 --> 01:42:14.800 He was called, he was ordained, he's been doing it for a 01:42:14.800 --> 01:42:16.160 period of years. 01:42:16.160 --> 01:42:19.280 It may be that he is actually the one who is going 01:42:19.280 --> 01:42:20.720 to lead the charge. 01:42:20.960 --> 01:42:23.040 In persecuting the truth. 01:42:23.040 --> 01:42:25.520 We have seen this happen in a number of churches. 01:42:25.520 --> 01:42:30.240 It is happening in basically every large church body, basically across the 01:42:30.240 --> 01:42:33.920 world. Certainly every large church body in the U.S. 01:42:35.360 --> 01:42:41.840 Just because a man supposedly has the authority does not mean that 01:42:41.840 --> 01:42:43.920 he actually has the authority. 01:42:43.920 --> 01:42:48.160 Now again, we have distinguished this previously with regard to the left 01:42:48.240 --> 01:42:52.800 hand kingdom versus the right hand kingdom, we are speaking specifically of 01:42:52.800 --> 01:42:55.600 the churches right now. 01:42:55.600 --> 01:43:00.400 Those who hold authority in the right hand kingdom, in the churches, 01:43:00.400 --> 01:43:04.560 hold it only in so far as what they do and what 01:43:04.560 --> 01:43:08.720 they say is consonant with the Word of God, because that authority 01:43:08.720 --> 01:43:10.880 flows from God. 01:43:10.880 --> 01:43:13.840 It flows from the Word of God. 01:43:13.840 --> 01:43:15.360 It cannot act contrary to 01:43:16.320 --> 01:43:22.240 the word of God, because the church is God's bride, is God's 01:43:22.240 --> 01:43:24.560 slave, depending on how we want to speak about it. 01:43:24.560 --> 01:43:26.240 Both statements are true. 01:43:26.240 --> 01:43:29.840 The church cannot say anything that God does not say. 01:43:29.840 --> 01:43:35.040 The church cannot say anything that is inconsistent with what God says. 01:43:35.040 --> 01:43:38.960 Because that would be to go outside that circumscribed authority that has 01:43:38.960 --> 01:43:40.800 been given to the churches. 01:43:41.040 --> 01:43:43.920 And so if a man stands up, even if he is the 01:43:43.920 --> 01:43:47.680 one wearing the collar or whatever it happens to be in your 01:43:47.680 --> 01:43:52.880 particular tradition or denomination, if he stands up and says something that 01:43:52.880 --> 01:43:56.800 is against Scripture, if he stands up and leads the charge against 01:43:56.800 --> 01:44:00.400 men who are saying, Wait a minute, the Word of God says 01:44:00.400 --> 01:44:05.040 this, and you have said the exact opposite, it is It is 01:44:05.040 --> 01:44:08.560 incumbent on you as a Christian man to oppose that man who 01:44:08.560 --> 01:44:11.440 supposedly holds the authority. 01:44:11.440 --> 01:44:13.040 He is your enemy. 01:44:13.040 --> 01:44:16.160 He has chosen to be your enemy. 01:44:16.160 --> 01:44:20.480 More than that, he has chosen to be an enemy of God. 01:44:20.480 --> 01:44:25.040 So not only is this an instance where you cannot forgive him 01:44:25.200 --> 01:44:28.800 insofar as he is an enemy of God, it is an instance 01:44:28.800 --> 01:44:33.520 where you must oppose him with everything you have, because he is 01:44:33.520 --> 01:44:36.240 attempting to mislead the sheep. 01:44:36.240 --> 01:44:42.160 He is attempting to destroy God's flock, attempting to destroy God's church. 01:44:42.160 --> 01:44:44.800 You may be the man that God put in that position to 01:44:44.800 --> 01:44:48.320 stop that wickedness from happening. 01:44:48.320 --> 01:44:52.480 You may be the one man who if you stand up will 01:44:52.480 --> 01:44:55.120 be able to stem that tie because you stood with the man 01:44:55.120 --> 01:44:58.560 who was being persecuted, and now there are two of you, and 01:44:58.560 --> 01:45:02.000 that gives a third man the strength that he needed to stand 01:45:02.000 --> 01:45:05.760 up. You may be the difference. 01:45:05.760 --> 01:45:08.560 Never lose sight of that fact. 01:45:08.560 --> 01:45:11.920 Again you do not have the option as a Christian man to 01:45:11.920 --> 01:45:14.320 remain neutral in these matters. 01:45:14.320 --> 01:45:17.600 You have a duty to do what is right. 01:45:17.600 --> 01:45:20.560 I'm not going to say that every man has the exact same 01:45:20.560 --> 01:45:22.800 duty, because that would be ridiculous. 01:45:22.960 --> 01:45:26.480 God has given out these abilities unequally. 01:45:26.480 --> 01:45:29.760 That is part of His wisdom, part of His design. 01:45:29.760 --> 01:45:34.400 If God has given you greater abilities, you have greater duties. 01:45:34.400 --> 01:45:38.800 However, again I would remind you that God promises to give you 01:45:38.800 --> 01:45:41.760 the words you will need in that hour, to give you the 01:45:41.760 --> 01:45:44.480 strength you will need to stand up under the trial. 01:45:44.480 --> 01:45:48.400 And so maybe you don't feel like you have the wisdom or 01:45:48.400 --> 01:45:52.880 the eloquence or whatever it happens to be, the personal strength and 01:45:52.880 --> 01:45:57.600 fortitude, maybe you don't feel like you have these things. 01:45:57.600 --> 01:46:01.360 God will give them to you as you need them. 01:46:01.360 --> 01:46:03.600 Do the right thing, and God will see you through. 01:46:03.600 --> 01:46:06.160 That doesn't mean it will be easy. 01:46:06.480 --> 01:46:11.040 No one thinks, at least no one reasonably would think, that Paul 01:46:11.040 --> 01:46:16.240 wasn't terrified when he stood before governors and other powerful men. 01:46:16.240 --> 01:46:20.640 Do remember that under that form of government at that time, those 01:46:20.640 --> 01:46:24.320 men could have ordered him executed on the spot. 01:46:24.320 --> 01:46:26.960 And no one would have told them you were wrong, because they 01:46:27.360 --> 01:46:31.520 wouldn't wrong, they had that authority, they had that power. 01:46:31.520 --> 01:46:36.240 So he was most likely terrified in many of those instances, and 01:46:36.240 --> 01:46:39.440 yet he stood up and said what he needed to say and 01:46:39.440 --> 01:46:43.680 did what he needed to do because God promised him the same 01:46:43.680 --> 01:46:47.040 as God promises you because you are a believer as much as 01:46:47.040 --> 01:46:50.480 Paul. Because faith is a free gift from God. 01:46:50.480 --> 01:46:53.520 God gave it to Paul, God has given it to you. 01:46:53.920 --> 01:46:57.200 He stood up and said what needed to be said and did 01:46:57.200 --> 01:47:01.360 what needed to be done, even though he was undoubtedly terrified. 01:47:01.360 --> 01:47:04.880 He may have been shaking when he said some of those words. 01:47:04.880 --> 01:47:08.400 Undoubtedly many Christian saints were when they stood before governors and kings 01:47:08.640 --> 01:47:12.000 and kings. 01:47:12.000 --> 01:47:15.600 You will probably not be called to stand before a governor or 01:47:15.600 --> 01:47:17.120 a king. 01:47:17.120 --> 01:47:20.640 But you may very well be called to stand up before a 01:47:20.640 --> 01:47:25.440 congregation of men who have turned hostile to the truth. 01:47:25.440 --> 01:47:29.280 One of the greatest fears in life for most men is public 01:47:29.280 --> 01:47:35.280 speaking, is being singled out and standing against the crowd, particularly when 01:47:35.280 --> 01:47:38.720 it is a hostile crowd, and you are speaking something they do 01:47:38.720 --> 01:47:40.880 not want to hear. 01:47:40.880 --> 01:47:44.240 In many surveys men would say they would rather die than have 01:47:44.240 --> 01:47:45.200 to do that. 01:47:48.720 --> 01:47:52.720 Just because it's terrifying, just because it is something you do not 01:47:52.720 --> 01:47:54.960 want to do does not mean you do not have a duty 01:47:54.960 --> 01:47:56.480 to do it. 01:47:56.480 --> 01:47:59.520 Your duty is to stand up and say what needs to be 01:47:59.520 --> 01:48:03.520 said. If you're shaking when you say it, if your voice wavers, 01:48:03.520 --> 01:48:07.120 if you are terrified, so be it. 01:48:07.120 --> 01:48:09.440 Still do it, because it needs to be done. 01:48:09.440 --> 01:48:11.200 It is part of your Christian duty 01:48:14.720 --> 01:48:19.920 I want to end this episode by focusing not on the enemies 01:48:19.920 --> 01:48:23.360 of which there are many, not on the difference between strong enemies 01:48:23.360 --> 01:48:25.120 and weak enemies. 01:48:25.120 --> 01:48:27.920 I want to focus instead on what it means to be a 01:48:27.920 --> 01:48:33.360 friend. This is something that has sort of fallen away in modern 01:48:33.360 --> 01:48:38.080 society. We have a lot of weak friends. 01:48:38.080 --> 01:48:40.880 We no longer have a lot of good friends. 01:48:40.880 --> 01:48:42.560 Strong friends. 01:48:42.560 --> 01:48:46.400 As Wo said, and I certainly strongly agree, you cannot be a 01:48:46.400 --> 01:48:50.320 strong friend to every single person who is your friend. 01:48:50.320 --> 01:48:52.160 That's impossible. 01:48:52.400 --> 01:48:56.160 We could bring up Dunbar's number or something similar, but we can 01:48:56.160 --> 01:48:58.800 just point out you do not have the energy or the time 01:48:58.800 --> 01:49:03.680 to be a strong friend for absolutely everyone in your life. 01:49:03.680 --> 01:49:06.960 You don't have the option to fly across the country and defend 01:49:08.000 --> 01:49:12.160 every man you know if he is attacked in some way. 01:49:12.160 --> 01:49:14.640 But there should certainly be some men in your life for whom 01:49:14.640 --> 01:49:16.480 you are willing to do that. 01:49:16.800 --> 01:49:19.520 You should have strong friends. 01:49:19.520 --> 01:49:23.920 And more than that, this is something specific that I want to 01:49:23.920 --> 01:49:31.040 emphasize. You will have strong friends, for whom come hell and high 01:49:31.040 --> 01:49:36.160 water. You will stand up and defend those men. 01:49:36.160 --> 01:49:39.680 But there will also be times where you find yourself in a 01:49:39.680 --> 01:49:45.200 position where you're a weak friend, or maybe you're even neutral. 01:49:45.200 --> 01:49:49.280 But as it turns out, there is a man who needs a 01:49:49.280 --> 01:49:53.840 strong friend, and you are in a position to turn from neutrality 01:49:53.840 --> 01:49:58.640 or that weak friendship into into being the strong friend, into being 01:49:58.640 --> 01:50:02.800 the resolute wall that stands between the man who is being attacked 01:50:02.800 --> 01:50:08.000 and the angry crowd. 01:50:08.000 --> 01:50:11.200 In some ways and in some cases that is almost more important 01:50:11.200 --> 01:50:14.000 than simply being the abiding strong friend. 01:50:14.000 --> 01:50:19.040 Because perhaps that strong friendship that you happen to have that is 01:50:19.200 --> 01:50:22.400 developed over a number of years, however it came to be, maybe 01:50:22.400 --> 01:50:27.360 it's with those With whom you went into combat, whatever it happens 01:50:27.360 --> 01:50:33.840 to be, that sort of friendship may not be tested. 01:50:34.160 --> 01:50:37.200 You may never find yourself in a position where you need to 01:50:37.200 --> 01:50:40.320 defend that man because he may never be attacked. 01:50:40.320 --> 01:50:43.360 But if you are in a position where someone is being attacked 01:50:43.360 --> 01:50:46.240 and you are neutral or a weak friend, that is God giving 01:50:46.240 --> 01:50:49.280 you the opportunity to do the right thing. 01:50:49.280 --> 01:50:53.360 That is God giving you the opportunity to defend the fatherless, to 01:50:53.360 --> 01:50:58.640 plead the widow's cause, to defend the poor, because that man is 01:50:58.640 --> 01:50:59.520 in need. 01:51:00.240 --> 01:51:04.400 That is the parable of the Good Samaritan. 01:51:04.400 --> 01:51:08.720 And you are given the option to be the Pharisee who walks 01:51:08.720 --> 01:51:11.840 by and looks the other way, or to be the Good Samaritan 01:51:12.400 --> 01:51:17.040 who runs to his aid and does what needs to be done. 01:51:17.040 --> 01:51:20.240 The Pharisee had a dead faith. 01:51:20.240 --> 01:51:23.360 The Pharisee did not do what needed to be done. 01:51:23.360 --> 01:51:27.040 The Pharisee did not do his duty, his faith did not produce 01:51:27.040 --> 01:51:31.200 good works, because again it was a dead faith. 01:51:31.200 --> 01:51:33.520 He had just come from Jerusalem. 01:51:33.520 --> 01:51:38.480 He had undoubtedly been praising the Lord in the temple, participating in 01:51:38.480 --> 01:51:44.720 the sacrifices, doing all the things that a good Old Testament Israel 01:51:44.720 --> 01:51:47.360 believer did. 01:51:47.360 --> 01:51:51.840 And yet when he left Jerusalem, on his way home, God gave 01:51:51.840 --> 01:51:56.560 him the opportunity to demonstrate that his faith was a true faith, 01:51:56.560 --> 01:52:01.280 not just one for public consumption, not just one where he went 01:52:01.280 --> 01:52:05.040 into the courts and sang God's praises, and then went home and 01:52:05.040 --> 01:52:07.600 lived like a heathen. 01:52:07.600 --> 01:52:10.240 And he failed. 01:52:10.240 --> 01:52:14.560 He did not do the one thing that he needed to actually 01:52:14.560 --> 01:52:17.520 do as a Christian, as a true believer. 01:52:17.520 --> 01:52:20.160 But the Samaritan did. 01:52:20.160 --> 01:52:24.320 And so if God gives you that opportunity, whatever it happens to 01:52:24.320 --> 01:52:27.040 be, maybe it will be in your church. 01:52:27.040 --> 01:52:30.640 Maybe it will be some man who is attacked in your church 01:52:30.880 --> 01:52:34.960 for pointing out that Scripture says something that your church is not 01:52:34.960 --> 01:52:41.120 teaching, or more likely something your church is teaching the exact opposite, 01:52:41.120 --> 01:52:44.560 where your church is teaching something that is diametrically opposed to the 01:52:44.640 --> 01:52:47.040 word of God. 01:52:47.040 --> 01:52:52.480 If that man is being attacked, that's God giving you an opportunity. 01:52:52.480 --> 01:52:55.440 He is giving you the choice between showing that you have a 01:52:55.440 --> 01:52:59.920 living faith that produces good works, that drives you to do that 01:52:59.920 --> 01:53:04.000 which is right, that which is your duty, or a dead faith 01:53:04.240 --> 01:53:11.360 that permits you to stand there idly by as furniture, watching as 01:53:11.360 --> 01:53:14.720 a man is persecuted for the truth and doing nothing and not 01:53:14.720 --> 01:53:19.360 coming to his aid, failing to demonstrate that you have a living 01:53:19.360 --> 01:53:21.520 faith that produces good works 01:53:23.360 --> 01:53:26.960 I hope that every one of you makes the right choice. 01:53:26.960 --> 01:53:30.400 If you find yourself in that position. 01:53:30.400 --> 01:53:33.680 And in the coming years, I suspect that many of us will 01:53:33.680 --> 01:53:36.800 find ourselves in such a position. 01:53:36.800 --> 01:53:41.520 This is a time not only of great apostasy, but also of 01:53:41.520 --> 01:53:47.200 great trials, of a testing of every man's faith, and you will 01:53:47.200 --> 01:53:50.560 undoubtedly be given the opportunity to prove whether you were true or 01:53:50.560 --> 01:53:54.000 false. God will give you the strength. 01:53:54.000 --> 01:53:56.880 God will give you what you need to stand up under the 01:53:56.880 --> 01:54:00.640 trial. But you have to stand up.