Truth, Part 3

[0:00] To take a look into God's Word, we'll be reading, or I'll be reading, and you can follow along. It's been a while since I've done this.

[0:13] But we'll be looking at two scriptures this morning. The first is in 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 7 through 13.

[0:30] And our second reading is in the book right after that. So please take a look at 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 7 through 13.

[0:49] For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.

[1:04] Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of his mouth, and bring to an end by the appearance of his coming.

[1:19] That is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.

[1:48] For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.

[2:10] But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

[2:32] Then if you will turn there, should be about on the same page you're there, about, 1 Timothy.

[2:44] And we'll be taking a look at 1 Timothy 4, verses 1 and 2. But the Spirit explicitly says that in latter times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron.

[3:29] Thank you, Gary. We do plan to have some Q&A this morning, especially in light of what is going on in our nation today. So keep that in mind, and if you have questions you'd like to submit or observations you'd like to make, we'd be happy to hear from you.

[3:47] We have been for the past few weeks, even though it was electronically, we've been surveying and rehearsing Earth's most priceless asset, which we have defined as truth.

[4:00] And we looked, first of all, at truth from an Old Testament perspective and the way the prophets addressed the issue. Our second message dealt with truth from a New Testament perspective and what our Lord Jesus Christ had to say about it.

[4:16] And in connection with that, we need to return to John's Gospel, chapter 8. So if you would, please, we will look at a very key passage regarding the subject of truth, and it's found in John's Gospel, chapter 8, and we will begin reading with verse 31.

[4:34] We've already touched on this a little bit, so I will not elaborate on it. We'll just use it to set the stage, and we will be commenting briefly on some of the items that are found therein.

[4:46] Verse 31, Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed in him, If you abide in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

[5:01] They answered him, We are Abraham's offspring and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say you shall become free? Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin, and the slave does not remain in the house forever.

[5:21] The son does remain forever. If therefore the son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. I know that you are Abraham's offspring.

[5:33] Now here, you need to bear in mind the fact that our Lord is speaking to an audience, a mixed audience. Some of these are believers.

[5:44] Some of them, of course, are not. Some are encouraged by what he has to say, and some are arguing with him about what he says. And then he says in verse 37, I know that you are Abraham's offspring, yet you seek to kill me, because my word has no place in you.

[6:01] I speak the things which I have seen with my father, therefore you also do the things which you have heard from your father. They answered and said to him, Abraham is our father.

[6:12] Jesus said to them, If you are Abraham's children, do the deeds of Abraham. But as it is, you are seeking to kill me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God, this Abraham did not do.

[6:32] You are doing the deeds of your father. They said to him, We were not born of fornication, and that some feel that that is a reference to the birth of our Lord, having been conceived by the Virgin Mary before she was married to Joseph, and scholars are divided over that, but that does seem to be an implication.

[6:58] And they said, We have one father, even God. And Jesus said to them, If God were your father, you would love me. For I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on my own initiative, but he sent me.

[7:13] Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear my word. And I want to just inject a comment here. What Jesus is saying in actuality is, I am speaking on one wavelength, you are listening on another.

[7:31] And there is no compatibility there. That was the problem then, and it's a problem to this day too, because the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God.

[7:44] They are unknown. They are foreign to him. You might as well speak a foreign language because it does not connect with the unregenerate. They do not have the capacity or the ability to hear and take it to heart.

[7:58] You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning. And how was that?

[8:09] I suspect that's probably a reference to Cain and his, Satan's influencing Cain to slay his brother Abel.

[8:21] This is about as far back in the beginning as you can get. And he does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Not even a little bit.

[8:34] Satan and his minions are totally devoid of truth. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature. And the implication is all Satan can do is lie.

[8:48] He doesn't even have the ability to tell the truth because it just, that the ability is not in him. He is a liar and the father of lies. But because I speak the truth, you do not believe me.

[9:01] And the implication, of course, is you're on a different wavelength also than what I am. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe me?

[9:13] He who is of God hears the words of God. For this reason, you do not hear them because you are not of God.

[9:25] I wish I better understood the mechanics of how it is that the word of God does open some hearts, to be sure.

[9:35] Otherwise, it would be impossible for anyone to believe. And he does. And of course, our Calvinist friends pick up on this and they say this is just proof positive that no one can believe unless God enables them to believe.

[9:48] And we've addressed that in times past. And the material is still available in CDs if anybody would like to pursue it. So today, our interest is in pursuing the relevance of truth to our present time.

[10:03] And in many respects, it's a lot more timely than I would hope because of what's going on in our culture. we have already addressed the issue of truth being the parent of freedom.

[10:18] And we have made the point that we tend to express our desire for freedom and liberty. And that's about as American as you can get.

[10:28] And I would be right up there at the front of the pack hearing it for truth and freedom. But never forget the fact that truth and freedom, that freedom and liberty can only exist when truth is in position and leading the way.

[10:48] Because truth is the parent of freedom. It's not the child, but it's the parent. And you cannot have real freedom and real liberty without truth having been in place.

[11:02] our founding fathers had a handle on this. And they valued truth very highly because they saw it as part of what is set forth in the Word of God.

[11:16] And it is axiomatic to the character and nature of God and to the Word of God to set forth truth in a way that is authoritative and that corresponds to reality.

[11:29] Consequently, they picked up on that. They valued truth and held it dearly because they realized that we cannot and will not have freedom without truth prevailing.

[11:43] We do not have a generation in Washington today that is as convinced of that as were our founding fathers. And I'm talking about Washington and the whole of it.

[11:57] The entire government, which some refer to as the swamp. Frankly, it has rapidly lost its designation as a swamp.

[12:09] It would be better called a cesspool with what we're dealing with today. It is an element where their truth is expedient.

[12:21] If it is expedient, tell it. If it isn't expedient, ignore it. And that's pretty much the way the game of politics is played today. And I hasten to add that both political parties as well as some of the independents are guilty of that kind of attitude.

[12:38] And the nation suffers as a result of it. Our Lord is the embodiment and the personification of truth as is expressed in John 14 and verse 6.

[12:50] He is the way, the truth, and the life. And by the way, I don't know whether you are aware of it or not, and I don't think that it isn't brought out so much in the English, but in the Greek, it's very clear that all three of these are articulated.

[13:04] And what that simply means is that Jesus was not saying he is a truth in a way in a life. He is saying he is the truth. The definite article is there.

[13:15] And it means the truth to the exclusion of all others. And it's that way in the Greek. It is spelled out each time the definite article is used. He is the way and the truth and the life and that particularizes it so that all others who claim to be that have to, of necessity, be foreign to that element.

[13:36] They are not true at all. So today, our intent is to pursue the relevance of truth to our present time. We've already looked at it a little bit in the Old Testament and in New and now we want to concern ourselves with how it is today, truth as it is today.

[13:57] And all three of these, Old Testament, New Testament, and today, have the same basis for their existence in that they all reflect current reality.

[14:09] There is an anticipated and a necessary commonality in everything that reflects reality. Truth has always struggled to survive because a fallen world is energized by what made it fallen in the beginning and that is the lie.

[14:31] That's where it began. Someone has said regarding some people who have established a kind of reputation for being untruthful, I'm not so sure that I can believe him.

[14:44] How do you know if he's lying? And the standard answer is if his lips are moving. And that sometimes seems to be the way it is.

[14:55] Satan is the purveyor and the guardian of the lie. And truth has never fallen upon harder times than what it is facing today.

[15:11] Technology, communication, and social media plus fake news has made truth and error harder and harder to separate.

[15:26] Multiple voices all claiming to be true and authoritative produce confusion. And I want to talk a little bit about confusion because it's very important and very key.

[15:44] Confusion exists when you have multiple voices claiming to speak from knowledge and authority so that those who are hearing the multiple voices don't know and can't determine which one to go with.

[16:05] that produces uncertainty and confusion in the community however small or large the community is. And what it boils down to is simply this.

[16:17] People don't know what to believe. If you don't know what to believe you are unable to establish an agenda. You cannot formulate a game plan because everywhere you look is chaos and confusion there's nothing you can zero in on and say this is it.

[16:39] All of these conflicting things are floating around out there and the adversary loves it.

[16:52] This is where he makes his greatest gains and this is what is going on in this nation as we speak.

[17:03] confusion is proliferating. More and more uncertainty is out there. Nothing is buttoned down.

[17:13] Everything is up for grabs and all of these different voices are clamoring for attention and each one claims to have answers. There is a verse in 1 Corinthians that Paul uses when he is talking about the kind of confusion that existed in the Corinthian assembly in connection with his speaking in other languages and some interpreting and some speaking and all the kind of confusion that was going on and Paul kind of summed up the whole thing when he said, if the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who will prepare himself for battle?

[17:51] What is that all about? Well, it harkens back to the children of Israel in the Old Testament when they were accustomed to going into battle often with the Philistines or some other neighbor of pagan nation or whatever, and they used the ram's horn, it was called the trumpet, translated trumpet often, but it was a ram's horn, it was a big long horn, and they'd hollow that out, and someone who had the wind could blow that thing, and it could be heard for a huge distance.

[18:21] It's just like we see in our old western movies with the cavalry and the guy with the bugle. Same thing, same principle, and when the bugler gives a certain sound, one sound on the bugle, or the ram's horn, whichever it meant, whichever it was, meant charge, and it had a certain sound to it, and all of the men on your side were accustomed to what that sound was, and when you heard that sound, that was the sign to charge the enemy.

[18:55] There was a completely different sign, for retreat. They probably even had a sound for its child time, or whatever, and each one learned to interpret what that was, but if the trumpet gives a sound that nobody can distinguish, what was that?

[19:12] I think it's mess call. No, it wasn't. I think it was charge. No, maybe it was retreat. Then you've got the whole military complex in disarray, and they are ripe for being picked off by the enemy.

[19:28] This is Satan's game plan. So, enough confusion, and you get people divided, because they are segmented.

[19:41] This group follows this, this group follows this, this group follows that. You have no unity and no cohesion. Consequently, the whole array is thrown into a sphere of weakness and vulnerability, which is where the USA is today.

[20:05] People in Washington on both sides are talking about, we need to bring the nation together. We need to bring the nation together. We're all in this together, the pandemic, we're all in this together, and the riots in Washington, and Minneapolis, and Columbus, and Cincinnati, and we're all in this together.

[20:24] We need to bring the nation together. What's going to do it? What is that one trumpet sound that could put this nation together?

[20:35] And part of our problem is we have many people in the public who aren't particularly responsive to any sound.

[20:48] They're all marching to their own individual drummer. And we've got huge differences that exist out there, and there is no cohesion. And what this does, of course, is it makes us vulnerable to whoever wants to take advantage of it.

[21:04] And no one wants to take advantage of it more than the adversary. He delights in this. And he's making hay right now as we speak.

[21:14] multiple voices all claiming to be true and authoritative produce confusion. And confusion promotes chaos.

[21:27] Uncertainty produces indecision and inaction because people don't know what to do. They don't know what to believe or who to believe. And that makes us ripe for being picked off by the adversary.

[21:40] Disorder. Disorder is a necessary tool of the adversary. And he uses order of his own to disrupt the order of the majority.

[21:57] Heard an interesting quote just a couple of days ago. I don't know which communist it was from, but it was either Lenin or one of his ilk way back in the early days, but it was very simple, very profound, and it is exactly what is working right now.

[22:20] And here it is. The organization of the few will always defeat the disorganization of the many every time.

[22:35] let that sink in. The organization of the few will always defeat the disorganization of the many every time.

[22:57] Do you know how many men there were who were responsible for the birth of communism in 1917? just a handful, just a handful, but they were highly organized, they had a well-thought-out agenda, what they wanted to do.

[23:17] And the name of the game was revolution. Now I'm going to say something that is not going to be appreciated by some, but I'm going to say it anyway, because I'm convinced that it's true.

[23:29] And the truth is the only thing I have to worry about being committed to, and that is this. As we speak, there is a very concerted, deliberate intention of creating a national revolution in this country, a revolt that will result in the complete upending of our established government and the replacement of it with something else.

[24:08] But in order to do that, you have to tear down the existing government before you can rebuild it.

[24:19] And how can you do that? You do that by creating divisions, in the body politic that weakens it and makes it vulnerable.

[24:33] And it can get to the place where there is so much confusion and so much turmoil and so much difficulty that the people become desperate for order.

[24:51] Desperate for order. power. That's exactly, that is precisely what brought Adolf Hitler to power in the 1930s.

[25:04] That's exactly what brought Lenin to power in the Soviet Union in 1917. Exactly. Create enough disrest and disorganization and division within the body politic and they become hungry for anybody who can bring some order.

[25:27] And you won't like the order they bring because there goes your freedom. There goes your liberty. And by the way, truth was lost a long time ago.

[25:42] So you become ripe for picking. This is a pattern. This is a plan. This is the adversary. This is the way he works. And these nefarious individuals are working in concert with it.

[25:58] This incident that took place in Minneapolis is, well, it is a tragedy.

[26:09] There's no question about it. It's an absolute tragedy. tragedy. But I want you to be advised that while many of us are looking upon it as a tragedy, you'd be surprised how many are looking upon it as an opportunity.

[26:31] An opportunity. This situation is tailor-made for the enemy to really make some headway.

[26:45] And that's exactly what they're doing, even as we speak. The question is whether John Q. America will wake up and smell the coffee.

[26:56] And I want to say this, and I'm absolutely convinced that this is the case. The big item here, the big item here, is not, not, absolutely not, racism.

[27:13] Don't let anybody sell you that. Of course, it was a white officer that caused the death of this black man, and that causes some people to say, well, that's as racist as you can get.

[27:27] What do you think about it? All I'm saying is that was just an unfortunate, never-should-have-happened incident. But what it is used for, what it is propelling us into, is something far more than the racist agenda.

[27:46] This thing is a lot bigger than racism. And I am satisfied, although there are those who would, of course, disagree, that we have made incredible strides in reducing, racism.

[28:04] No, we haven't eliminated racism. And you know something? We never will, we never will completely erase racism because we can't erase all the stupid people.

[28:18] So you just can't do it. It's impossible because of human nature. But we have made incredible inroads in reducing racism the way we have, and it's just, and we get almost zero credit for that.

[28:37] It's as if, it's as if, it's as if the gain has been so little as to be incidental. And it's been enormous. It's been enormous. When you look at how many African Americans occupy positions now of prestige and authority and responsibility and influence as compared to just one generation ago, it's amazing.

[29:01] and I applaud it, and I wouldn't have thought it could happen, but it did. And some of it came about because it was a forced thing, but it's still realized.

[29:15] And for those who think this is a racist country, come on, could a racist country elect an African American to the office of president president and then reelect him and you call that racism?

[29:31] That's nuts. It's just plain nuts. We're not a racist country. Are we a country that has racists in it? Yeah, sure. Sure we do.

[29:42] Like I said, some people you just cannot educate. You just cannot tell them anything. And there's that element there. But by and large, we have made such enormous strides that I would not have thought it could be done.

[29:55] And I'll tell you who we've got to thank for it probably more than anybody else. It's Martin Luther King Jr. The man was flawed.

[30:08] Of course he was. He was a human being. Your preacher's flawed too. We're all flawed. But Martin Luther King with his peaceful resistance was responsible for propelling this nation further out of a racist bound nation than probably any other individual who ever lived.

[30:36] And you know who was right with him? It was not a liberal. And it was not a Democrat. It was Dwight Eisenhower.

[30:50] Little Rock, remember? Remember? Orville Faubus, remember? Bull Connor, remember? Some of you are old enough to remember that.

[31:02] That was a big turnaround. And the next thing you know, we've got an African-American four-star general in the military.

[31:19] A four-star general in the military serving as Secretary of State, serving in the capacity that he did.

[31:33] Amazing. For a racist country? Don't let anybody sell you that bill of goods. And if you hear someone talk about America being, I hope you will have the courage to stand up and say, hey, we're not a perfect country, but we're far removed from being the racist country we were a generation or two ago.

[31:54] We've made enormous progress. And I say that to say this, this thing that's going on in Minneapolis, don't let anybody tell you, it's all about racism.

[32:08] It isn't. racism is the convenient, ready-made cover for the whole thing. And those who are lurking behind the scenes are taking advantage of it.

[32:22] We've got situations where individuals have crossed state lines to come in to Minnesota to participate in the uprising there.

[32:34] these are professional agitators. They have not shed a tear over George Floyd, and that is not a concern of theirs at all.

[32:46] They're just using it to their own advantage. And their own advantage is they are on the payroll of leftist radicals who have deep pockets who want to overthrow this nation and rebuild it the way they want it.

[33:08] Talk about social justice and economic justice. Do you know what that means? Do you know what economic justice, these are code words. Do you know what economic justice means?

[33:23] It means everybody's equal. Well, how do you get everybody equal? Well, you take from what people have and you give that to people that don't have it.

[33:37] And the big mantra is equality, equality. Social justice is equality. Everybody's supposed to be the same. This is what I remember years ago when we were in Israel and we stayed at, I can't even think of the name of it now.

[34:06] It'll come to me when I'm thinking of something else. But it was a place where everybody worked together, all the families and everybody did the same thing. Some were a fish hatchery and some were manufacturing and some were this, some were that.

[34:19] And we were talking to the fellow who was showing us through now. It was a kibbutz, a kibbutz. And the people who lived there are called kibbutzim. And everybody shares and shares alike.

[34:30] Nobody has anything that anybody else doesn't have. And they had in the office as we walked in, they had what looked like a 12 or 14 inch TV mounted up on the wall and the TV was on and somebody was giving the news and everything.

[34:48] And I said, made some comment about a TV or a TV announcement or something and the guy said, yes, he said, we're working on this TV.

[34:59] He said, we put this TV up here to kind of entice all of our kibbutzim. And when we are able to realize enough money, enough profit from what it was that they were doing, then everybody gets one.

[35:15] And I said, oh, well, how many do you have so far? And he said, well, we've got enough money. And he mentioned to purchase maybe half of them or something like that. And I said, so the other half have to wait a while before they get theirs.

[35:29] And he says, no, no. He says, nobody waits. I said, what do you mean nobody waits? He said, nobody gets any until everybody gets one.

[35:41] That's their way of making everything equal. And you know, there is something that has a nice ring to that where everybody is equal.

[35:53] people. But what inevitably happens is what has happened in the Soviet Union. It's what's happened in every communist country, without exception. Everybody's equal, except some are more equal than others, if you get my drift.

[36:10] And they are the ones who form the Politburo. They are the ones who are in charge. They are the ones who decide how many millions of people in Ukraine are purposely going to be allowed to die of starvation.

[36:24] They are the ones who make those kind of decisions and have made them in the past. It is nothing but an evil, evil system. And it is a system that many want to bring to this country.

[36:39] But they won't call it communism. You see, the word communism is related to the word common. And a commune, or a kibbutz, a commune is where everybody has all things equal.

[36:57] This was an experiment that our pilgrim fathers tried to put into practice shortly after arriving here on the Mayflower. And they soon discovered that it was a colossal failure because there's one basic thing that the communists refused to take into consideration.

[37:15] You know what that is? It's human nature. And there is where the parting occurs. This is why this is so basic, so gut level difference that every Christian really needs to understand this.

[37:30] Communism is rooted in, is dependent upon, is committed to, is solidly behind the whole concept, there is no God.

[37:42] Period. That's the first and most basic premise of communism. There is no God. And if there is no God, man is in charge. And if man is in charge, it is the most powerful, it is the most whatever, that is in charge, that makes the rules for everybody else.

[38:01] This is where your freedom and your liberty goes right out the window. Every single nation that has been brought online under communism has been a colossal failure.

[38:16] You can look at them right now, including Cuba, including Venezuela, including a half dozen others, including Russia itself, which is like the mother of communism.

[38:27] They are all colossal experiments of failure. But does that dissuade those who are promoting that for this country? No, not at all.

[38:38] But because you know what their answer is for that? Well, they are not as successful as they ought to be because the right people are not in charge. That's all you need, is the right people in charge.

[38:52] And you can have utopia right here on earth. It's when everybody is equal. You see, when everybody is equal, that eliminates greed, it eliminates theft, it eliminates all of these wonderful things because humanity is perfectible.

[39:14] And if you take God out of the equation, then you are reduced to humanity, and as I've often quoted from the brothers Karamazov, if there is no God, all things are permitted.

[39:28] This is what we are dealing with on such a broad scale. A lot of Americans don't even realize it's happening. This big hubbub we've got going with China right now. There are those who insist, and I don't know, I'm not saying that this is the case because I just, I don't know.

[39:47] It's hard to believe. It's hard to believe that it could come even from those who are thoroughgoing atheists.

[39:57] It's hard to believe that the powers that be in China could have deliberately, and there's the key word, deliberately loosed what they knew would be a deadly virus that would actually eliminate tens of thousands of people across the globe and bring more into line parity economically, militarily, and every other way by weakening, by weakening Western nations.

[40:30] there are those in our government who believe that was purposely done by them with that intent, and they insist that that is the case.

[40:46] I would hope that's not true. I would hope that even an atheistic humanity could not sink to that level where you are going to deliberately eliminate people like that.

[41:01] That's unthinkable. I would think it would be unthinkable even for an atheist. If that were the case, if that could be demonstrated, what else could you call that but an act of war?

[41:19] That's exactly what it would be, an act of war. war. And with all of the trade deficit and imbalance that's been going on now for decades that our president has been trying to address, the theft of intellectual property and all that goes along with it, what's going on there?

[41:36] And why is this great difference? Well, it's very simple. It's very simple. Just do the math. Look at the numbers. numbers. In the 1960s, 1970s, Henry Kissinger and President Nixon were largely responsible for what was called the opening of China because it got a billion people.

[42:06] You know how many people we're talking? A billion people? A billion people? What an incredible market. market for American goods and why?

[42:20] And Katie bar the door. We were responsible for the building and the growth and the modernizing of China in ways that nobody could have even imagined in 30 or 40 years.

[42:34] It's absolutely amazing. And now they've come to the place of where they are stealing our technology and it is called intellectual property theft.

[42:45] But we look upon that because we see stealing as immoral. Don't we all teach our children?

[42:57] You're not supposed to steal. You're not supposed to lie. Where did you get that idea? Who told you that anyway? Well, everybody knows that it's wrong to steal and it's wrong to lie.

[43:08] Yeah? Who says so? Who says so? Well, well, well, God says so. The Bible says so. Now, wait a minute. Wait a minute. What if there is no God?

[43:23] What if there is no Bible? What if there is no authority but what the individual establishes as an authority? You become your own authority. Who's to say that stealing is wrong?

[43:35] If you can steal the secrets from somebody else, that's the smartest thing to do. Stupid! Don't be so dumb as to think you have to expend all of this money for research and development when you can steal it and get it for nothing.

[43:51] You're crazy if you don't. That's the mindset they're coming from. That's why they don't see it as wrong at all. They see it as smart.

[44:03] We're the stupid ones. for not stealing it from somebody else. Why this difference? The difference exists because they are coming from a completely different mindset and attitude and background than we are.

[44:20] We see stealing and lying as wrong, unacceptable. The Bible makes it very clear. You ever hear the Ten Commandments and that's just for starters.

[44:31] That's the stuff that our forefathers founded this nation upon. That's called the Judeo-Christian ethic. But they don't subscribe to that.

[44:43] So what are they doing? They're doing just what comes natural. You can't fault them for that. They're doing what they are convinced is the right thing to do. So what's the answer?

[44:54] Well, the answer is, the answer is, we try to make them pay for what they've stolen. Well, how are you going to do that with any kind of, and our president is trying to use this and trying to use that and we're talking about China needs to be held accountable and everybody is saying, China needs to be held accountable and we're going to sue them in the world court and blah, blah, blah.

[45:19] And don't hold your breath. It's not likely going to happen. And do you know who part of the culprit is? Yep.

[45:32] The good old USA. Why do you think, why do you think American manufacturers and American pharmaceutical producers have sent all of these jobs overseas and put people overseas in China?

[45:50] Why have we done that? Money. Money for the market. Who's responsible? American manufacturers, American producers, because we're looking for cheap, cheap labor.

[46:06] Because the cheaper the labor, the higher our profits. And who's responsible for what is happening in China? At least to some degree, the good old USA.

[46:17] We have created a monster. And it's turned on us. And part of it is our own fault. It's American greed. Now our president is ambitious and interested in bringing back American manufacturing.

[46:32] And I say, good work if you can get it. It's great. I would applaud it. let's sometimes I think we should tell China and we should tell the Soviet Union, not even the Soviet Union anymore, it's Russia, and we should tell these other nations, look, China, it's your country.

[47:03] country. You are sovereign over that country. We have no business telling you how to run your nation. That's your decision.

[47:14] And we are not going to interfere and try to make you capitalists or anything else. But we're not able to do business with you.

[47:24] We're not able to do business with you because we have conflicting value systems that just doesn't make it feasible.

[47:36] So if you ever decide to come around and make some changes and empty your prisons of your political prisoners and allow freedom to be enjoyed by your people, give us a call and we'll see about reestablishing trade relations.

[47:52] And I think we ought to do that with every other nation. But it's not going to happen. And I'll tell you why it's not going to happen. Because there's too many powerful moneyed interests here in the United States that control our politicians who would be the only ones in a position to make a decision like that and they're not going to do it.

[48:11] So we've created a situation pretty much that we have to live with. And we can't put all of the blame on China because you know what China's doing? They're doing just exactly what you would expect someone with their mindset to do.

[48:24] And the bottom line is they don't know any better. But we do. And you know in a very real sense and I know some are going to think I'm un-American for saying this.

[48:38] But I'm more committed to speaking the truth than I even am in being an American. American. And that is American has to shoulder some responsibility for the conflicts that exist internationally.

[48:52] We do not have lily white hands in these things. We have often moneyed interests behind it as well and we are part of the problem.

[49:03] There I've said it that it's true. And I don't like it but it's true.

[49:18] You talk about the truth hurting. This hurts. But it's true. It's true.

[49:29] It's true. What's going on in our nation now by way of this violence overturning burning police cars and rioting and all the rest that's going on with it.

[49:47] This is all part of the same mix. It's all part of the confusion that we're talking about. And we need to really be on our knees for some dramatic order to be brought out of this because I'm convinced of one thing and that is there is no political solution.

[50:08] If there were a political solution to these kind of problems we would have applied them a long time ago. But there isn't. So the ball is in our court and what it amounts to is the people of God need to get our own house in order and then we need to really be on our knees for this nation.

[50:31] If there were some way that we could remove the moneyed interests from politics in the United States, maybe that would help.

[50:41] But as the old saying goes, money is the mother's milk of politics. And you know something? It stinks to high heaven.

[50:52] It is money being the mother's milk of politics that has created and sustained the swamp. And if we cleared out the swamp completely and got rid of all of these invested bureaucrats, whether Republicans, Democrats, or liberals, if we cleared them all out, got rid of them, 15 or 20 years from now, you'd have a fresh batch of swamp dwellers.

[51:24] And you'd have to do it all over again because that's the nature of humanity. Boiled down to this, the only solution is the same as the only solution has ever been.

[51:37] solution. It's a spiritual solution. And it's going to take courage to put it across because those who are marching to the other drummer will not readily receive it.

[51:52] So our work is cut out for us. Question is, are we up to it? That's something each of us will have to decide for ourselves. And that's something this church is going to have to decide too because there are going to be some pretty, pretty heavy decisions that are going to be coming between now and the first of the year.

[52:11] And it's going to test our mettle. We'll find out what we're made of. The nation is in crisis and the crisis is increasing. And all of these things that I've shared with you are just a small part of the whole mix.

[52:28] I wish I had better news to give you. But I can console myself with this one thing when I leave this pulpit. I told you the truth.

[52:43] I told you the truth. And what are we going to do with it? I told you I'd have a Q&A but I lied.

[53:05] Physician, heal thyself. Okay. I'll tell you what I will do though. You've got something to think about now. You've got some questions. You probably have some comments.

[53:17] And you may very well have some objections. And it does not bother me in the least. I want you to feel free to voice them. And next week, I guess we'll probably on this same, we'll be on this same routine, won't we?

[53:30] Next week, same thing. Roger the Unix, 10-15 and one service. And so we'll do that next week. But next week, we're going to open with a Q&A.

[53:43] So keep that in mind. There will be announcements and there will be some canned music. Unless maybe we can prevail upon the Craigs to sing for us again. And if they could do that.

[53:56] And we can, yeah, we can have, we just won't have congregational singing. But we'll entertain anybody that wants to sing. If there are any Omars out there, we'd be glad to, we'd be glad to hear you.

[54:07] Would you stand please? We'll be dismissed. Our Father, we know that we are not at all really sufficient for these things.

[54:17] The nation is in crisis. It would be foolish not to admit it. There are forces at work that we are not even aware of. We are confident that there are those who are really intent on doing serious damage to this nation.

[54:36] And we see the United States of America called the leader of the free world as the, as the bastion of freedom and independence.

[54:52] And there isn't anything that would further the cause of the adversary more than to reduce this nation to what those are trying to make it.

[55:07] There isn't anything that would speed up the agenda of the adversary more than to bring this nation to its knees in a way that would dishonor the memory of those who've given so much to make this country what it is in a way that would dishonor you in a way that would dishonor even the pilgrim fathers and the founding fathers.

[55:36] And there are those who really want to decimate our country and remake it in the image they think it should be. And we are an impediment.

[55:51] We are an obstacle. We are a logjam to the adversary that paints a big bullseye on the back of every American.

[56:02] We pray that there will be an enlightenment and an education and an understanding of what the threat really is and a resolve to spend and be spent to get out this gospel as the spiritual answer and the only one that will suffice.

[56:24] God send us a revival. Nothing else will do. In any way that we can be instrumental as individuals or as a church we want to be completely at your disposal movable pliable malleable for you in any and every way that might be needed.

[56:47] That is our prayer and our plea and our commitment in Christ's name. Amen.