Truth and Our Present Crisis

[0:00] James chapter 2. We'll be reading verses 1 through 10, or I will be. You can follow along. My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, you sit here in a good place, and you say to the poor man, you stand over there or sit down by my footstool. Have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil motives? Listen, my beloved brethren, did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him. But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called?

[1:41] If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. You are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.

[2:15] Thank you. That, of course, is a classic passage that deals with the issue of discrimination. And in this particular case, it's one, I guess we would say, of economic discrimination. And we'll be dealing with that subject this morning, not the economic, but the racial and what goes with it. I have this one very brief announcement to make, and I'm limiting our announcements because most of you already know, or it's in the bulletin. But I do need to meet with all of the men who are participating in the men's Thursday morning Bible class. If we could meet in the extreme rear as soon as the service is dismissed, I've got to give you an update regarding our well smoothed out plans that have developed a wrinkle. So we'll brief you on that. And it won't be a lengthy meeting, just a few minutes. But thank you for being here this morning and sharing your morning with us.

[3:18] I have a scripted message that I'm going to deliver to you for a couple of reasons. And I hope before too long we can get back to our regular verse-by-verse teaching, which is something that I definitely prefer because, and the reason that I've scripted this and written it out is simply because it is too easy to misspeak and say things that you do not mean to say, that are sometimes taken in a way that you did not mean them to be taken.

[3:53] And even when they are scripted, you can still do that, but it's safer. And when we get into the scriptures and are going verse-by-verse like in an expositional passage, which is my forte and that which I definitely prefer, then you have the text of scripture to protect you and garrison you about, which you do not have with a script like this.

[4:19] But because there is such great opportunity for misspeaking, I've taken the pains to write out what I want to share with you. And we will plan to have Q&A when we finish.

[4:31] That's another reason for dispensing with the announcements for this morning. We have been focusing on the subject of and the need for truth.

[4:48] Notice has been made of Proverbs 23, 23, Buy the truth and sell it not. We have noted the scripture affirming Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life.

[5:03] It was he who said, You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. Our nation has been described by me and others as one undergoing a perpetual crisis or lack of truth.

[5:24] Is there anything that would serve our nation more than for all our leaders and those led by them, namely we the people, to enjoy a rebirth of every man speaking truth to his neighbor?

[5:44] A la Ephesians chapter 4. In Congress, a man or woman's neighbor is the person at the desk next to them.

[5:57] What would happen if all from any party affiliation were solidly committed to truth and rejected the temptation to lie just in order to get their way?

[6:10] But aren't all these honorable people already committed to that? I'm listening for your laughter.

[6:24] Yeah. We have already pointed out the flaws, the weakness of our government, that is the people we elect to represent us.

[6:36] And I have told you time and again, the problem is they are us. How committed are we, the people, the electorate, to the concept of truth which we expect our elected officials to uphold?

[6:58] Let me say that again. How committed are we, the electorate, to the concept of truth which we expect our elected officials to uphold?

[7:14] Do you know? Do you know this present crisis we are facing across our nation is actually an attempt on the part of some to overthrow the present government and replace it with a version of the USA to their liking?

[7:42] A lot of Americans do not have a clue that this is what's underfoot. I just don't want any of them to be here. As I speak, I'm not exaggerating and I'm not trying to be dramatic.

[7:57] This is precisely what is underway right now. It is well organized and it is well funded. And the goal, which some of them freely admit, is to actually dismantle this nation as we know it and as it has always been and remake it in an image that is more to their liking.

[8:26] That is underfoot as we speak and it is going on in various parts of the country that is the declared, sworn motivation of many.

[8:43] What's wrong with the USA the way it is? That they would want to do that. And I'm going to say some of the things that I say at the risk of making some of my people angry.

[9:00] But I would rather you be angry because I've told you the truth than to be angry for any other reason. What's wrong with the USA as it is?

[9:13] Plenty. More than anything else, we suffer from an absence and a disrespect for truth.

[9:23] And the many who want to replace what this nation is all about simply want to replace it with lies of their own rather than the lies that are out there now.

[9:38] And it isn't going to be progress if you replace a lying society with a different lying society. That's not going to accomplish anything. Can you get any more basic than truth?

[9:53] After all, truth is what is. Truth is real. Truth is that which conforms to reality. Is there something wrong with that?

[10:09] Then why is it so difficult to obtain? It's usually because something desired cannot be obtained by truth.

[10:26] A lie must be manufactured to get what you want. Anyone, whether in government or in the neighborhood, who is willing to lie in order to get what they want is a liar.

[10:42] Is that hard to understand? They are a dishonorable person. Let God be true and every man a liar.

[10:56] Romans 3, 4. And yes, that includes the man standing before you, speaking to you. None of us is lily white clean when it comes to this business of truth and upholding it.

[11:10] There isn't a one here who has not told or lived a lie under some circumstance, somewhere, sometime, someplace, somehow. We all are. And that's why the apostle could say without any contradiction, let God be true and every man a liar.

[11:26] And the meaning of the text is simply this. It's a whole lot more likely that every man is a liar than it is that God is. So, put the blame where it belongs.

[11:41] How could a campaign that even the ACLU would have difficulty opposing, how could there possibly be anything wrong with that?

[11:51] a campaign for telling the truth. And if you just will not or cannot do that, then at least shut up.

[12:08] It would be nice to simply pursue something good that the left can't cry. It's a violation of church and state. could they do that with a campaign for the truth?

[12:22] Not even they would go that far, I would hope. What about launching a campaign for truth? Once you announce it, how long would it take for people to stop laughing?

[12:44] That's how serious it is. So, let's look at our own failures. Okay? And yes, I am as red-blooded American as anybody and I love this nation as much or more than anybody and the last thing in the world I want to do is see the precious liberties and freedoms that have been fought and died for dissipate or disappear.

[13:17] so to just toss out a couple of things to think about. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.

[13:40] people. Now, I would like to think that the signers and the drafters of our Declaration of Independence were speaking generically there and had the good sense to at least think, even if it was unspoken, that it included the ladies.

[14:03] I guess there are some today who would say that all men are created equal is sexist. No doubt some would probably prefer to interpret it that way, but I would give them the benefit of the doubt.

[14:16] I would think that they were speaking generically in terms of mankind, which, by the way, has also come to be a disapproved term because that is viewed upon by some as being sexist as well.

[14:34] And all are created equal if you are the right color. Hmm?

[14:46] created equal if you are the right color. Now, it doesn't say that in the text, thank God, but is that not how it has been played out?

[15:04] Can I get an amen? Thank you. We have some embarrassing things to look upon that Dred Scott decision.

[15:16] handed down by the impeccable, and I put quotation marks around impeccable, Supreme Court that ruled that a Negro, which is the way they were identified at the time, that a Negro is not a full-fledged human being.

[15:41] God is the one. How many times have we told you in the past that part of our fallenness in our humanity is our inability to think with a clear intellect?

[15:57] We think with a warped mind, and that includes the Supreme Court. William Wilberforce was a Christian man who not only believed in truth, he wanted to do the truth.

[16:15] How do you do truth? You do truth when actions are born out of beliefs. Believing precedes doing.

[16:28] And I think this is part of what James was talking about when he says that we are to be doers of the word and not hearers only.

[16:42] Our national sins of the past were based on lies. Just about all sin is based on a lie of some kind.

[16:55] They were lies that would either create or increase wealth via human slavery. Follow the money.

[17:09] Our greatest war with the greatest loss of American lives on both sides was fought all because of a lie that was believed and acted upon.

[17:24] Think of that. there were more Americans killed in the Civil War than there were in all of World War I and World War II combined.

[17:40] And this was Americans killing Americans. whose work does all that sound like?

[18:02] And I hear almost no one say anything about this. I suspect it's because they're afraid they won't be taken seriously or they're afraid that they will be thought of as being some kind of a religious kook or somebody who is high on mythology and fairy tales.

[18:20] it is the adversary who is behind much of this.

[18:34] In the Revelation the book of the Revelation last book of the Bible his name comes to the fore and I suspect that maybe one reason it does is because he will be at his very best and most efficient during that period in the Revelation which is commonly referred to as the Tribulation when billions that is with a B billions of humanity will be destroyed during that Tribulation period and two-thirds two-thirds of the Jewish people living on the face of the earth will meet their death at the hands of the Antichrist.

[19:26] He's given the name Apollyon and the very word means destroyer destroyer is there any way that you can get further removed from creation than destruction the adversary Satan Apollyon is the ultimate opposite of everything that God is about as the creator he is the destroyer slavery slavery was systemic to humanity long before Africans were brought to England and to the USA but slavery in general became reduced to slavery by race rather than by economics or debt we've got slavery in the Bible and slavery has been around almost as long as man has been around but it's only been over the last couple of hundred years that slavery was on the basis of skin color before that it was usually slavery as a result of a debt that you couldn't pay so you had to sell yourself as a slave or a servant in order to repay the debt very often slavery was realized because you were on the losing side of a war and the enemy made slaves of those whom they conquered that's the way slavery came about historically before it came about as a result of a color this was long before

[21:15] Africans were brought to England and the United States you know what it's all about of course Ken Ham pointed out that it's all about melanin we tend to think of ourselves most of us here as being white we are the white Caucasian race I am not white this is white this is white I haven't seen any of these it's all about melanin that's the pigment that colors human skin in various shades and you did know did you not that racism is built on a monstrous lie what or who was behind that same guy same guy

[22:18] Apollyon the destroyer the liar Jesus said he's a murderer and a liar from the beginning and there is no truth in him so many of the cataclysmic things that have happened in human history that have resulted in the death of untold millions of human beings has been through the instigation of the evil one Satan and I want to insert something here because I don't want to be misunderstood I am not saying the devil's to blame for everything I've made it clear that we have a free moral will and we as human beings are capable of doing very ugly dishonorable sinful shameful things without any help at all from the devil I don't recall who it was but some preacher of the past said that even Christians are capable of committing sins and lay the blame at the doorstep of the devil that would make him blush so I'm not saying that human beings do not have a part in this but I am saying that there is a mastermind behind it all and he is too little recognized or not at all or just dismissed as like I said fairy taleish or mythological there are any number of people to whom you can speak who would retort with you don't believe that stuff do you about a personal devil and you know a lot of those people who refuse to believe in a personal devil don't believe in a personal

[24:07] God either but I can assure you that when Jesus Christ was confronted by the evil one in the transfigure in the temptation in the wilderness mentioned in the gospels he was not confronting a fantasy he was a real live person and he is as we are told in scripture walking about the earth as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour and those he finds most delicious are those who would deny his existence few things have formed the fan the flames of racism more than a lie that is even greater than racism and it's hard to top that because that's pretty big it's the lie of human biological evolution and the western world has bought into that lie lock stock and barrel do you realize that virtually all of the medical research that takes place in

[25:27] Europe and in the United States of America and North America in general is based on the evolutionary model that medical researchers conduct their experiments and try to develop new cures for this and that all based on the obvious truth of biological evolution that's the premise under which they operate and they just have no room for creation or the God of creation which they readily dismiss as saying that's just religion that's just religion that's just faith stuff but we deal in fact stuff we just deal in facts yeah right the lie of human biological evolution it actually proposed the white race and we're going back now to the early 1900s and really just a scant hundred years ago maybe 120 years ago that's all not far not far back at all in human existence in the early 1900s

[26:47] Australian Aborigines Aborigines let me get it right Australian Aborigines were captured were captured in the wild and put in cage and brought to the United States and displayed in sideshows as a species less than human kind of between animals and people people because of their skin color because of their culture because of their appearance they were considered not fully human and as I said put on sideshows where people paid their thin dime to view for themselves a genuine less than human being not an animal not a human somewhere in between

[27:58] P.T. Barnum such a monstrous lie to make people inferior because of melanin and who else believed that Adolf Hitler believed that he was a thorough going committed biological evolutionist persuaded that the white Nordic stock saw all others as inferior Hitler was mesmerized by the writings and philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche that also propounded the nonsense of the supremacy of the white race particularly the Germanic peoples well as

[28:58] Ken Ham demonstrated with his video and I just wish that there was some way I've seen this I don't know how many times but Answers in Genesis has produced this video I would hope that everyone here at Grace has seen it at least once I know most of you have if there was some way that this video could be shown to every person in the United States of America racism on the basis of color would be dead at midnight tonight that's what the truth will do that's what the truth will do but the truth is available to the masses in such tiny tiny amounts just a little bit here and a little bit there it really points out the truth that all men really are really really are equal endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights and that doesn't make any difference what color your skin is not a bit not a bit

[30:13] Adolf Hitler pursued that nonsense of the superior Nordic race and of course we know what it resulted in it resulted in 50 million more people dying in World War II you see you have to understand that the adversary Satan he loves a high body count he's the destroyer after all he has a reputation to maintain and do you know what the amazing thing about it is this this just this just slays me he not only is behind so much of this instigating infiltrating but he manages to stay under the radar now you tell me how is that for evil brilliance time is coming when he will be shown up front for who and what he is but that won't be until the revelation that won't be until he meets our Lord when he returns for his second coming meanwhile he's conducting his nefarious activities under the radar so much so that most people most people probably don't even think there is a personal devil they think that that we've just characterized caricatured someone and given them a red suit and put horns on them and a pointy tail and and and that's just what that is that's that's just a symbol just a symbol of evil but it's not an actual person well the scriptures make it clear that it is an actual person he has volition and he exercises it but he does so under the cover of darkness and yet for the observer and you don't have to be all that careful of an observer but if you look closely you will see his fingerprints all over so very much speaking of

[32:44] Hitler when Jesse Owens walked away from the 1936 Olympics Olympics with multiple gold medals having won just about every event he participated in Jesse Owens was a black man who lived under the prejudice that existed in the United States of America America and he was still willing to go to Germany and represent his country in the 1936 Olympics and I think he won everything he ran in and who was sitting in the stands vibrating all the time it was happening but there are fewer Adolf Hitler you gotta love it you gotta love it well that so called black inferior specimen called

[33:57] Jesse Owens became America's hero but can America have a black hero you better believe it we got a lot of them I'll tell you what we got a lot of black heroes today that are putting on that uniform going out there and making themselves vulnerable under God only knows what kind of restraints that they're supposed to be operating under and that too is up for confusion and up for grabs because different departments have different rules and all the rest of it I cannot think of anything more challenging more difficult more dangerous more demanding than being in law enforcement today I'll tell you what you've got to be motivated by a whole lot more than the prestige which is in question and denied by a lot of people or by the money which is underpaid in many areas in many venues police today are taking a lot of heat and oh yes there are there are bad cops I told you this you know this you know there are bad cops there there are there are people wearing the uniform who cannot be trusted with authority because everywhere they go they want to make sure that everybody knows who's in charge and these are people who just throw their weight around and they can't handle authority they shouldn't be trusted with authority but you know I'm when it is so hard to recruit these people and when the authorities go into areas and try to recruit many times they're trying to recruit

[36:01] African Americans to be police officers and very often the response is are you kidding me no thanks they don't want anything to do with it because so many of them see law enforcement as the enemy and they don't want to join sides with the enemy and become a target themselves this is just a horrendous problem and it is tearing our country apart right now and what is at the base of it is one kind of untruth one kind of lie after another anger and frustration tend to produce predictable reaction works that way for just about everybody but the correction that our nation desperately needs must also be based on truth the solution is a revelation of truth that replaces the lies that are out there to further the lie by the opposition trying to combat the lie with more lies is not constructive destructive but destructive that's what we're dealing with right now so much of the chaos and destruction that is going on now is a kind of venting of anger and frustration and some of it is just plain old thievery and utilizing the confusion of the hour as an opportunity to enrich yourself by breaking into stores and stealing things that you couldn't afford to buy so the motives of people behind all of this chaos are just all over the place destruction is where we are now and in many venues in the United States this is exactly what has taken place so where do we go from here what's next and you know all of this all of this is in addition to the life threatening epidemic that we're dealing with and the coronavirus see what this is doing to the fabric of our nation hard as it is to believe there are those who have and continue to invest huge amounts of money they employ people and they bust them from one city and one location to another for the sole purpose of going into an area and raising hell that's our whole objective and many of the people that you see that are doing the looting and the firebombing and setting places on fire most of those are not at all what we would call legitimate protesters who are just trying to air a grievance and gain some redress but many of them are deliberately sent in there as paid personnel trained to do the job and this is also something that we're dealing with and law enforcement god bless them i tell you what i i just cannot i just cannot imagine i cannot begin to identify with the feelings that an honest police officer male or female i can't i can't imagine what they are dealing with when they see acts of crime taking place before their very eyes and they feel like their hands are tied to do anything about it and this situation that happened with with mr floyd has put more and more of

[40:03] the officers on edge and it's gotten to the place now where many are afraid to conduct even a legitimate arrest against anyone who's black lest they be branded or accused of racism or whatever and if you want to neutralize anybody if you want to shut them up just use that word you're a racist boy if that won't make you back off nothing else will that is the curse that is the call that no one in public life can stand to be labeled with be called a racist it doesn't matter that you don't have a racist bone in your body that's beside the point they don't call you a racist because they think you are one they call you a racist because they know it will work it's a flat-out lie and they are experts at using it this is what we're dealing with our country is in a situation right now of chaos and confusion that is over our heads and if we do not have help serious help from the only one who is in a position to make things happen and bring things about we're toast Marv you don't need to be so negative I'm not trying to be negative I'm just trying to be a realist the writing is on the wall we need to decide about this thing called truth from whom we expect it and it needs to start with ourselves we need to be people of integrity people of truth people whose word can be trusted before we have a right to expect it from anybody else so let it begin with us well I changed my message at 430 this morning so what you just got was the revised edition and when this is over I'm going to go home take a nap but before we do that we'll take a few minutes for

[42:26] Q&A if anybody has any questions and I'm delighted to see Jim Jordan here this morning because he could probably answer any questions that you have better than I so would you mind Jim I I hate to impose on you again no I don't come on up here would the God we had a way of cloning this man come on up here and any questions that you may have you can address them to him or to me or to both of us that's quite all right okay Dolly right up here in the front or Joe this just close to you right there testing one two three so on up we live in a secular society not a

[43:27] Christian society where we fear God on the whole I'm talking about numbers here now so I'm saying why should we expect anything other than not the truth I mean the truth is in the word as Marv has pointed out numerous times in numerous ways this book is the truth Jesus is the truth and Jesus is not in our society anymore in this society so you know what's happening should not be a surprise to any of us Jesus when he was tempted Marv referred to the in the wilderness by the devil how did he answer the devil Jesus referred to the to God's word the God says it is written God says it is written you know God says so you even Jesus went to the truth that's why he didn't fall for the devil's temptations and talking about the devil being under the radar as Marv refers to it he's the great deceiver and he's under the radar because he makes lies look like truth he makes lies look like it looks good it's the truth but when it's not it's really a lie and that's how he sneaks in under the radar and this should be not a surprise to any of us what's going on and then you go to prophecy two-thirds or so of prophecy has already occurred the old testament prophecies I'm referring to have already occurred and they've all been perfectly true and right on line exactly as it was said and that's what I'm referring to and now we have some prophecy that has not occurred it has not occurred it's in revelations and now we have some prophecy that has not happened yet has not occurred it's in revelations so why can why do we expect some kind of turnaround in the world as it's going now we don't it's only going to get worse and eventually you're going to have the tribulation as you respond to the very first you're going to have a tribulation as you respond to a tribulation as you respond to the worse and eventually you're going to have the tribulation as you refer to.

[45:36] So anything is happening now should not be any kind of a surprise to any of us. Thank you Joe, thank you. Another comment or question up here?

[45:48] First of all I want to thank you so much Jim. I speak on behalf of probably everyone here for the efforts that you put forth, your integrity and your strength and I thank you for that.

[46:06] Marv has challenged us for personal integrity and our soul challenges us for prayer. Are there other things we could be doing to help?

[46:18] No, I mean that is, you know, it's amazing. I always appreciate everyone, every I can some stranger walk up to him. We're praying for you and that's that's always that's always encouraging to hear that.

[46:30] So keep praying, stay involved. Obviously as citizens, we have an election every we have elections all the time, but certainly for Congress is every two years and for the president every four years and our senator every six years.

[46:42] So and I know all of you are involved in that. So that's just just just stay involved and understand that. You know, everything that I think pastors obviously said this morning what Joe said, but still we need to be active as citizens.

[46:57] And oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm joke with our office staff. I'll I'll walk in the office and say, well, who's who's who's writing in telling me I'm terrible today?

[47:09] You know, because there's there's there's always someone doing that. So but we get encouraging letters to we get I'm always amazed. We'll get a letter sometimes from from somebody from out of state.

[47:22] And sometimes they'll still have a you can tell it's typically an older American and they'll have ten dollar check and they'll have they'll they'll they'll say many of the things that you said that we're praying for you. We're praying for others. So those are those are so encouraging.

[47:35] When someone sends like ten bucks, that's that's sort of like the lady in Scripture who didn't have much to give and gave her a little bit compared to the other. And so you always appreciate you always appreciate when you get those those notes and that information.

[47:50] Thank you. Back. Just to really reiterate what the pastor had said earlier. And if you see the news, it's really obvious there are legitimate attempts to provoke a violent response.

[48:08] From the authorities. Many of you may not know, but I'm from Canada. And I have. I know people who have told me that the Canadian government has been preparing and planning for a civil war in this country.

[48:24] And that's been going on for over ten years is planning. So they see things that other people may not see and they're preparing for it.

[48:35] That's something to be mindful of and certainly be considerateful of in prayer. Up here. Joe mentioned that Jesus appealed to authority of the Bible.

[48:53] And you've mentioned that many times that we have to go back to the authority. But there's there's a guy I admire quite a bit. And probably everybody knows him as Ben Shapiro.

[49:04] But he tells everybody not to appeal from authority. And I just wondered what you would think about that or what you had to say about that. Can you give me John can you give me some more context?

[49:17] I mean I've listened to Shapiro some and appreciate many of the things he writes about. Well I've heard him say that he does not appeal to the Jewish scriptures at all when he makes an argument.

[49:28] Because he he says like Joe said it's secular. The world is secular. So he does not use that kind of argument at all. And I was just wondering what you thought about that. Well you try to appear appeal to logic and and and reason.

[49:43] And as the pastor talked about truth at least that's how I try to do it. And whenever I frame a set of questions you try to walk through and lay it out. So it's just it's factual. It's logical. It makes sense. Good common sense.

[49:55] And you know we had a big hearing this week in in in D.C. And I think I think the vast majority of the American people understand four four basic facts. They understand what happened to George Floyd in Minneapolis was as wrong as wrong could be.

[50:08] Never should have happened. It's a tragedy. And his killer should face justice as swiftly as possible. They also understand what happened to Pat Underwood. A federal officer who was killed in Oakland during the riots was as wrong as wrong could be.

[50:20] His his should never should have happened. It was a tragedy and his killers should face justice as quickly as as possible. They understand that peaceful protest is consistent with with America.

[50:30] It is something that is cherished under our First Amendment liberties. And we are all supportive of that. Many of us have engaged in that when it comes to defending the sanctity of human life at pro-life rallies and marches.

[50:40] Exercise that fundamental liberty. But there is a big difference between peaceful protest and rioting and looting and violence and stealing and killing and mayhem that we have seen. They also understand that the vast majority as Pastor Wiseman just spoke on the vast majority of police officers do a great job and put their lives on the line.

[50:58] Every shift they serve night shift they shift. God bless those individuals who are willing to do that job. And and finally they understand that defunding the police is maybe the most insane policy ever put forward.

[51:09] And I've there have been lots of stupid public policy proposals that I have seen in my time and from both parties. Certainly I think more from the other side. But but in this case, this is probably the dumbest one ever.

[51:22] And yet you have the mayor of New York City saying they're going to defund the police. You have the mayor of L.A. Garcetti saying they're going to defund the police. Our two largest cities. You have a super majority of the city council in Minneapolis saying they're going to abolish the police department.

[51:34] So so again, I just try to focus on fact and logic. I think you have to do that in in in a in a political, you know, congressional kind of context.

[51:45] So that's how I try to walk through it. And I think Shapiro does it much better than me. But he is he is sharp guy. He did a parody on this. You know, there's a new country within our country now.

[51:55] Yeah. Yeah. He did this sort of just sort of making fun of it. And it would be funny if it wasn't so serious. But he walked it through that way as well. So that's that's how I try to frame the argument.

[52:08] Thank you. In the back. Scott. Yeah. Marv, you made a comment and maybe both of you can respond to what I'm going to say here.

[52:23] But you said that Satan loves a high body count. And I would add even if the bodies are the size of your thumb. Mm hmm.

[52:38] I said this in the hearing. Go ahead. I said this in the hearing. I thought there were a lot of a lot of important information at the hearing on Wednesday. But the best line actually came from from I thought from George Floyd's brother.

[52:50] And it came in response to a colleague of mine, Congressman Gates, ask Mr. Floyd to he said, Mr. Floyd, I noticed when Miss Underwood Jacobs was speaking, she was the sister of the police officer who was the officer who was slain in Oakland.

[53:09] Congressman Gates asked Mr. Floyd, I noticed when Miss Underwood Jacobs was speaking that you had a real reaction when she when she described what happened to her brother, Pat. And he just let, you know, George Floyd's brother then speak.

[53:24] And he he kind of paused on. But he said, life is precious. And we should remember that. And I thought, so true. You know, so from from, you know, and we as people who understand the sanctity of human life have been involved in the pro-life movement.

[53:38] We all understand that life is precious. It's a gift of God. And as the pastor talked about with reciting the document that started it all, the declaration, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness.

[53:50] And I always say it's interesting. The order of the rights, the founders placed the order they placed the rights that they that they chose to mention in the document that started this thing we call America. Life, liberty, pursuit.

[54:01] You can't pursue happiness, chase goals, chase dreams, accomplish things you want to if you don't have freedom. And you don't have freedom if government doesn't protect your most fundamental liberty, your right to live.

[54:12] And that's why law and order and respect for the Constitution are important. And frankly, the committee that was having this hearing, Judiciary Committee, we are the committee most responsible, historically responsible for defending those those principles, adherence to the Constitution and the rule of law.

[54:30] So I thought I thought Mr. Floyd, he was a powerful witness, as you would expect. And I thought he summed it all up with that three sentence or three word sentence, life is precious.

[54:41] And we need to remember that. So to your point, Scott. Well, thank you, Jim. I can't thank you enough for being there and being here.

[54:54] Thank you. Thank you so much. I can't really intelligently speak to what you were talking about with Ben Shapiro without giving a little more thought on his talking about authority.

[55:09] I know he's a very capable, brilliant young man. And when he is invited into different college campuses and they get up a demonstration to prevent him from coming and won't let him speak, you can be sure that it's just for one reason, even though they won't admit it.

[55:30] And that is this. When you cannot defeat a man's arguments or his logic, don't let him speak. If you've got good answers for what he puts forth, what have you to fear?

[55:47] Put your answers up against his. They refuse to do that because they know in their heart of hearts the man is speaking the truth and they cannot refute it. David Horowitz is another Jewish man who has written a very valuable book.

[56:04] Some of you have read it and it's circulating in the congregation. I got a number of copies to circulate it. It's called Dark Agenda. Written by David Horowitz, who is an agnostic Jew.

[56:16] And the book is about how the left is destroying Christian America.

[56:28] Written by a Jew. And it's interesting in the dedication page, as you open the book, the first name that is mentioned is Barbara. I assume that's his wife.

[56:39] He says he is dedicating the book to her. And then he says, and to my three Jewish, to my three Christian buddies.

[56:51] Interesting that somebody who is a believer is having some contact with David Horowitz. Dennis Prager is another brilliant intellectual Jew who's got some good sound logic and reasoning behind his positions.

[57:06] And he draws a large audience wherever he goes. He too is doing a magnificent work. So, and it's on the basis of reason. And you can, even though, even though they will not listen to the authority of scripture, which for us is the ultimate authority.

[57:24] And even though, when you try to appeal to history for what is recorded there and what happened there, some are undertaking the task of rewriting history so that the history won't say what it used to say.

[57:41] And when you can destroy or contaminate a nation's history, you have great leverage for their present and future. And that too is what is afoot.

[57:53] So, I'll tell you the truth, folks. I would really like to be rid of this subject. I'd like to let go of this.

[58:07] But right now, my problem is it won't let go of me. So, as long as it has a hold of me, you're going to get what you get. Would you stand, please?

[58:19] We'll be dismissed. Thank you, Father, for truth. Thank you for its availability. Thank you most of all for our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the very personification of truth.

[58:32] And our prayer this morning is that each of us will go from this place with a new commitment to the simplicity and the power of truth that is honestly spoken.

[58:46] What great strength lies in the truth. There are times when we may choose to disown it because we seek to obtain something that we cannot get by the truth.

[59:00] And in our fallenness, we are tempted to resort to the lie. God, help us. God, protect us from that. Reveal it to us if and when we are tempted to do it.

[59:11] May we be people who are characterized by love of the truth and defense of the truth, the pursuit of the truth. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the truth.

[59:22] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.