20240229_Thursday Men's Class

[0:00] Our thanks once again for those who either provide, prepare for, or deliver the food that we enjoy here every Thursday morning.

[0:12] We really appreciate the efforts of whoever or however many are involved in that. And we just want you to know that you couldn't do it for nicer people. So, we are grateful. Join with me if you would in prayer, please.

[0:25] Loving Father, we give this morning to you and we ask that the time that we spend together will be profitable and honoring to you. We know that there are a lot of dots that need to be connected because none of us have a complete full picture as we would like.

[0:41] But each time believers meet together and focus upon your word, there are more connections that are made and more understanding that is gained. And that leads us to a greater sense of thanksgiving for who you are and what you've provided for us.

[0:56] We do continue to pray this morning for those unable to be here. And we thank John Jordan. We're grateful for the success of his surgery. We ask that as he undergoes the therapy and the treatment for follow-up that you will undertake for him and help his body to quickly respond to the treatment that it will be receiving.

[1:15] Thank you again for the meal that we've enjoyed together, for the fellowship and the camaraderie that is always special among people who are in the body of Christ, who have a common savior and a common goal and a common interest.

[1:29] We bless you for it all in his name. Amen. Just for beginners, let's take a look at Luke chapter 22. And we're going to be talking about militancy or the lack thereof and when and if the Lord's servants ought to fight and when and if we ought to surrender meekly and go along with the powers that be.

[1:58] So we've got a perfect illustration of this here in Luke chapter 22 when the Lord Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane and he is undergoing an intense time of prayer with his father and anticipation of what is coming.

[2:15] And just the night before they had what is commonly referred to as the Last Supper. And it had been a long time since these men had been awake.

[2:28] They were awake the whole day long from early morning and now all night long. And sleep has overtaken them and they're all sacked out there in the Garden of Gethsemane while our Lord is praying and sweating, as it were, those great drops of blood.

[2:44] And it will not be but a short time. And even though it isn't daylight yet, you can still see the flickering torches and lanterns carried by the Jewish temple police as they make their way up the path up to where Jesus is.

[3:07] And when they arrived there, this is the scene that we have in verse 31 of chapter 22 of Luke's gospel where Jesus is talking to Simon Peter and he has no idea what's going on.

[3:24] Peter doesn't. And he says, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat, but I've prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.

[3:38] And Peter, rambunctious like he always was, said, Lord, with you, I am ready to go both to prison and to death.

[3:49] And Jesus said, I tell you, Peter, that cock will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know me.

[4:02] Do you know how far away that was? Hours, not days, just hours, a few hours later, that is going to come true.

[4:13] Much to Peter's chagrin and embarrassment. You will deny that you even know me. And he said to them, when I sent you out without purse and bag and sandals, you did not lack anything, did you?

[4:25] And they said, no, nothing. And he said, but now, but now, let him who has a purse take it along, likewise also a bag, and let him who has no sword sell his robe and buy one.

[4:43] I tell you that this which is written must be fulfilled in me. And he was classed among criminals. For that which refers to me has its fulfillment. And they said, Lord, look, here are two swords.

[4:57] He said to them, it is enough. And he came out and proceeded as his custom to go to the Mount of Olives. The disciples followed him. And jumped down to verse 44.

[5:07] Here's Judas leading.

[5:37] And one of the twelve was preceding him. And he approached Jesus to kiss him.

[5:48] This is a common greeting. It's still used in the Arab world. You may recall, seen it on television, but Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat were meeting and so on.

[6:03] And they had the, on Time Magazine. And the kiss, they embrace each other. They kiss on this side of the cheek and then they kiss on this side of the cheek. And that's something that goes back thousands and thousands of years.

[6:14] It's strictly a Mideastern thing. And that's exactly what Judas is doing to Jesus. It's a common way of greeting. And Jesus responded to that. Judas, verse 48, Are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?

[6:29] In other words, that was probably the most inappropriate thing that he could have done. But it was the convention of the day and it was a common greeting and everything.

[6:44] It was kind of equivalent to our shaking hands. But in light of what Judas was going to do, you see, that kiss on either side is an expression of friendship.

[7:00] It's an expression of greeting. And it is wholly positive in every way. And Jesus is actually, he's calling Judas down for that.

[7:12] He's saying, you are taking a wonderful symbol of brotherhood and fellowship and love. And you are using it as an act of treachery.

[7:27] In other words, the kind of way of saying, Judas, how low can you get? But this was an expression of it. And when those who were around him saw what was going to happen, these are the other disciples.

[7:50] They're probably all 11 of them as far as we know. Lord, shall we strike with the sword? Now here are these guys willing and ready to take on this complement of men from the temple.

[8:04] And we're going to have this out right here. We'll just have a brawl right here and see who's going to win. We've got a couple of weapons here. And a certain one of them, and we know later that it was Peter, struck the slave of the high priest.

[8:21] His name was Malchus. It's not given here. And cut off his right ear. And as I may have showed you earlier, I think what happened was Peter was going for his head.

[8:32] And the guy ducked and the sword sliced off his ear. And there's his ear. And the blood, of course, is gushing out and this loose ear lying there on the ground. And Jesus said, stop.

[8:44] No more of this. And he touched his ear and healed him. Which, by the way, was just one more demonstration of the miraculous.

[8:58] Now how visible this was to everybody isn't clear. Because it was just breaking daylight. Probably still a little bit dark. And it might have been difficult to even make out who was who.

[9:11] But at any rate, the writer, as inspired as he was, gives us a true story here. And he says, touched his ear and healed him.

[9:23] And there isn't any indication that anybody really recognized that or saw that. Because here in another place, it's in John's Gospel, when Jesus, when they approached Jesus and he said, whom's seeking?

[9:36] And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. And he said, I am. And they all fell down backwards. Just like something mysterious had smitten them, knocked them off their feet, and they all fell down backwards.

[9:51] But Jesus didn't actually say, I am he. Although that's the way most texts render it. He simply said, I am. And if you're that familiar with John's Gospel, you'll know that there are six or eight times in it, when he uses that expression, I am.

[10:10] And it is a reference all the way back to Exodus 3 and verse 14. When Moses asked the Lord, who had called him from the burning bush to go to the people of Israel, and Moses said, well, what am I going to tell them?

[10:28] Who am I going to say sent me? And they said, you tell them that the I am has sent you. And the I am is an expression in Hebrew that means he's not the I was or the I will be, but he is the I am.

[10:44] He is the ever-present, ever-existent one. And here Jesus is identifying himself with that 314 of Exodus and the I am as virtual deity, which he demonstrates on a number of occasions.

[11:01] In fact, every time Jesus performed a miracle, it was deity in action, clothed in human flesh. And the study of the miracles of Christ is just a wonderful thing in and of itself that we'll have to reserve for a later time.

[11:16] Anyway, he touched this man's ear and healed him. And Jesus said to the chief priests and officers of the temple and elders who'd come against him, have you come out with swords and clubs as against a robber?

[11:29] While I was with you daily in the temple, you did not lay hands on me, but this hour and the power of darkness are yours.

[11:42] This hour, this hour. Jesus uses that phrase repeatedly in the Gospels and very often he connects it with, mine hour has not yet come.

[11:55] And frankly, this is the way that he escaped on two different occasions, those who were going to confront him and do away with him right there. And the first place was in his hometown of Nazareth when he made the statements that he did in the temple and they were ready to throw him off the cliff.

[12:14] And the text simply says that Jesus passed through the midst of them and left. And the reason he did was because his hour had not yet come.

[12:26] And what was his hour? His hour was the cross. And he knew he was not going to die by being flung off of a cliff or any other way. And then in the garden, this same night that we're talking about, in his high priestly prayer, he also said, Father, the hour has come.

[12:50] This is it. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. That was his human inclination.

[13:03] And then he said, but for this hour came I into the world. So nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.

[13:15] And he said that in response to out of his humanness, he cried and said, if there is any other way to get this done, let's do it that way.

[13:28] But nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. What Jesus was talking about, and you fellas, I really want you to grasp this. Yes, he was talking about the cross, but his death on the cross, as incredibly excruciating as that would be, with the fibers of every nerve screaming out in agony, that's not, that's not the thing that Jesus dreaded most.

[14:05] What he dreaded most was he's going to be separated from his father in some way that our mortal minds cannot grasp because the eternal son and the eternal father and the eternal spirit, so far as we know, had never, ever experienced any kind of separation at all, and yet something of an indescribable nature was about to take place, and this was, I'm convinced, what Jesus was dreading far more than the physical death, from which he knew he would recover three days later in the resurrection, but I think he was dreading the anticipation of some kind of rupture that we mortals can't understand that was in the offing between himself and his father, and I can't describe it any better than that because I don't know any better than that, but I think that was the real agony that he was dreading more than anything else, and I want you to notice the lack of physical militancy here,

[15:26] Jesus would not allow them to engage the enemy, even though they had come for these nefarious purposes because his hour was already appointed, and he knew this thing was in process, and how it was going to end, and this is all going to go through the trial with Caiaphas and Annas, and then they're going to pass him off to Rome because the Jews did not have the authorization to put anybody to death because Rome had taken capital punishment away from them, wouldn't let them do that, so we're going to have to hand him over to Rome because we want Jesus executed, and it'll have to be the Romans to do it, so the whole game was one of manipulation where the Jews were manipulating Pawnee's pilot to go through this whole charade and end up with the crucifixion and everything, but all of that, guys, was part of the plan.

[16:16] Now, I just want you to note here the passiveness of our Lord because had he chosen to do so, he could have dispatched that whole bunch.

[16:30] I mean, when he said, I am, and they all fell down backwards, it was the power of God that simply tumbled those men, stumbling over one another, and of course, they probably had no idea really what was going on because, as I said, it was likely still dark or almost daylight, and it was a time of confusion, and when the other apostles saw that Jesus was not going to allow them to fight and required Peter to put down his sword, they're confused, and they don't know what's going on, and here they were ready to fight these men for the honor and the presence of their Lord, and Jesus rebuked them and would not allow them to engage in this militancy, and these guys are standing there stunned and confused, and they don't know what to do, so they all head for the tall weeds.

[17:29] They take off running in every different direction, and I can just see Peter, I can even hear him panting as he's running down the hillside trying to get away from all of this, and after he's running he's exhausted and he's out of breath and he's saying, I wonder what they're doing, I wonder what's going on, he's trying to recollect his senses and try to figure out what's going on, and he knows where they're going, so he starts following off at a distance, and it won't be long until he'll get to the same place where they're going, they're going to Caiaphas and Annas, and they've already been alerted because they knew that Judas was going to do this early in the morning like that, and they wanted to avoid the crowds of people, so they're doing it under the cover of darkness, and Peter's following afar off, and when they get there, then that's where the denial will begin with those three Jewish maidens, and Peter denies that he even knows him, so keep that in mind, and if you will, we've already looked at Romans 13, and we won't go back there now in dealing with the government and the powers that be, but I do want you to go to 1

[18:34] Peter chapter 2, and we'll see more of that principle that is set forth, and it's a very important one, as we pointed out earlier in our study in Acts chapter 4 and 5, where the Jewish authorities confront the disciples, and there is no hint of, what shall I say, of militancy or of resistance, because they have, I think they have really grasped the Lord's intent and the idea of being submissive to the powers that be, you recall that from Romans chapter 13, and there were some questions that arose, maybe we can discuss this a little bit later, because one of the outcroppings of this is, well, where does this put the American Revolution in 1776 and our founding fathers, and were they right or were they wrong in opposing

[19:38] England, and so on, that's all part of the mix, but we'll talk about that later. So, we've got the establishment and the recognition of governmental authority that the scriptures in general require those who know the Lord to be submissive to.

[19:59] Let every soul be submissive to the powers that be, Romans 13, for there is no power that is not ordained of God, and this does not mean, this does not mean that God establishes in a direct, personal way, the powers that be, that he brings evil men and evil women to the throne, or to the seat of government, but it does mean, it does, it's another example of God utilizing to the fullest this dynamic we call human volition, and I wish we had a better handle on that, because it explains so much, and yes, God is all-powerful, and God can overrule human volition anytime he chooses to, but fellas, you need to understand, and this is a very important point, that as far as I can determine, with very few exceptions,

[21:02] God allows human volition to run its course, force, and guys, there isn't anything that can be more ugly than negative human volition in action, it's capable of murder, of lying, of theft, of rape, of you name it, it is the baser sort of humanity, humanity, and the world is overflowing with this, I do not know exactly how or to what extent the adversary, Satan and his minions, is able to influence and impact people, I only know that he does, and no, I'm not taking the position where we blame everything on the devil, because we have our own demons, if you will, in our old fallen nature, the old

[22:02] Adamic nature, that's the part of us that was not redeemed, that is not redeemable, and that's the part of us that is going to be done away with in the final analysis when we have a glorified body, but right now, right now there is a struggle that goes on within the mind and heart of every one of us, and that's the old man and the new man, and before you came to faith in Jesus Christ, you didn't have the new man, all you had was the old man, and he ruled the roost, and when you came to faith in Jesus Christ, and he baptized you without water, by the way, baptized you into the body of Christ with the spirit of God, you became a new creation in Christ, and now that old man that formerly ruled the roost has got a competitor, and he doesn't like it, so the old nature is always ready and willing to leap into action and take charge of whatever he can, because he cannot and will not do anything that is pleasing to

[23:13] God. The new man will not and cannot do anything that is displeasing to God, so you've got this contest going, and by the way, this is what Romans 7 is all about.

[23:25] Paul says, there is a great conflict within me. The old and the new are in constant battle, and which one wins? I remember hearing Dr. Walter Wilson, a physician that I had the privilege of chauffeuring around many years ago when he came to town, but he would go to one of the Indian reservations every year and conduct Bible conferences, and he was teaching one time on the new nature and the old nature, and trying to explain to this particular Indian tribe that he ministered to every year what the difference was and how it worked, and he said after the session was over, he said one of the elder chieftains came up to him and thanked him for the message, and he said, he said, I know what you're talking about, Dr. Wilson, he says, it's like I have in me two dogs, and Dr. Wilson said, two dogs?

[24:30] And he said, yes, two dogs, he said, a white dog and a black dog. A white dog is good, a black dog is evil, they fight all the time, they fight, and he said, well, which one wins the fight?

[24:51] And he said, the one to whom I say, sick him. He's the one that wins the fight. So guys, this is a curious mix wherein an old nature and a new nature dwells within us, and guess what is in between them.

[25:15] Volition, the human will, is there. It's not part of either of those. And this is also part of the dynamic of how we are made, that I wish I understood better, but this is what the scriptures tell us.

[25:28] So here, regarding this physicality and the resistance and everything that goes along with evil, look at verse 13 if we may. submit yourselves for the Lord's sake.

[25:43] Now notice, it's not for your sake, it's for the Lord's sake. What does that mean? It means God is to some degree depending on you and counting on you to take a right stand for him that will reflect his positive influence on you.

[26:10] And it's not an uncommon thing for a believer to act contrary to God's will. And here he says, submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and the praise of those who do right.

[26:31] for such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.

[26:43] Act as free men and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bond slaves of God.

[26:54] A bond slave, this harkens back to the Old Testament concept, but a bond slave, was one who had been a slave owned by someone else.

[27:07] And by the way, biblical slavery has very little connection or semblance to the slavery that we were familiar with in the 1800s here with the blacks in Africa, etc.

[27:18] It's a completely, totally different thing. For instance, most of the slaves in biblical days were the same skin color as the person who owned them, and it had nothing to do with race, it had everything to do with economics.

[27:33] So here he's talking about the principle of being a bond slave, and a bond slave was one who had been a regular slave before, but when the time came for him to be set free, when his term was up, if you will, and he could declare his freedom and go out from his master, instead of doing that, he would say, I love my master, I do not wish to be free, and they would conduct a little ceremony in the town, and the man would go to the home of his master, and put his ear, put his earlobe, upon the lintel, or upon the doorpost of the residence, and his owner would come over, and with an awl, A-W-L, with an awl, would bore a hole in the lobe of his ear, and insert an earring there, and that was kind of like a badge to the public that that person was a bond slave, so a bond slave was a willing servant, one who had had the opportunity to be set free, and chose not to, because of love for his master, respect for his master, he wanted to remain in the voluntary service of his master, and that's what Paul is talking about, and that's why Paul often identifies himself as a bond slave of

[29:06] Jesus Christ, and he's saying, I'm in this thing willingly, I am a willing servant of his, so continuing on if we may, okay, verse 18, servants, be submissive to your masters, with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, and it's not difficult to be submissive to that, by the way, you can make an analogy here between an employer and an employee, the analogy isn't 100%, but the principle is there regarding authority and one under authority, as opposed to, you can be an employee, and you're not a slave, but you're still subject to the authority of the master, and that's what he's talking about here, responsible to those who are over you, and he says, to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable.

[30:14] Now, right away, there comes into play our predictable opposition, because who wants to be an authority to an unreasonable master? If he's unreasonable, he doesn't deserve your obedience, but that's exactly what he's saying here.

[30:33] Even if he is undeserving, he is owed your obedience. For this finds favor, for if sake of conscience toward God, a man bears up under sorrows, when suffering unjustly.

[30:52] Now, there is something within us that rears up and says, well, why should anybody have to put up with that? You tell the so-and-so off, and tell him to kiss off, and you leave, and you get out of there, and whatnot.

[31:06] And that's a natural human response. And guys, that is the flesh response. That's the way the old man wants to respond. You can't treat me that way.

[31:16] I quit! We walk out the door. Well, let's face it, there are plenty of employers that deserve that kind of a response, but we are called upon to be submissive.

[31:31] Now, what is involved here is a divine dynamic that transcends human nature. Jesus Christ is calling us to not be like the world.

[31:48] We are not to think like the world. We're not to respond like the world. We're not to act like the world. We are supposed to be different because of the dynamic that now resides in us as a believer in Jesus Christ.

[32:06] We march to a different drummer than the world does. and guys, you'd be surprised how many honest Christians who are going to die and be in heaven when they die, they never understood that, live a whole lifetime.

[32:25] They live a life of contention and conflict and contradiction and they never pick up on this principle because all they can think about, you can't treat me that way, and we give them what for.

[32:39] You know what that is? That's the flesh. That's the old Adam, and that old Adam resides in every one of us, and I don't know about you, but in the 70 or so years, almost 70 years that I have been a believer, I have more than once been embarrassed by my old Adam, and by my behavior that I later regretted when cooler heads prevailed and I said stupid things or did something that I know I shouldn't have done, and afterward I just felt terrible, and you know how I felt?

[33:21] I felt, Lord, I let you down. I fumbled the ball. I had a good opportunity there, and I let my flesh and my rights get carried away, and I blew it.

[33:42] You ever been there, done that? It's part of our humanity. It's an embarrassing part of our humanity. What credit is there if when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience?

[34:00] Hmm. but if when you do what is right and suffer for it, you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.

[34:13] Now, in the first case, it's no big deal. No big deal. If for the sake of conscience toward God, a man bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly, well, that's just par for the course.

[34:29] But what makes a believer outstanding is when they are within their rights and they insist, I don't have to be treated that way, and yet, they still subject themselves willingly to that kind of treatment.

[34:48] So, what this brings up then is, well, what am I supposed to be? A Casper milk toast? Am I supposed to just let everybody push me around any way they want to, and I just humbly submit to it, and say, yes sir, and yes sir, and when I know that it's all wrong, where do you draw the line on this with the retaliation and the refusal and et cetera?

[35:13] I want you to be thinking about that. You'll have some opportunity to discuss it. If when you do what is right and suffer for it, when I was in school, this is all B.C., guys, I want you to know this is all B.C., all right, that is before Christ.

[35:33] I was considered a discipline problem all the way through school, and for different reasons, and I won't go into it, but at any rate, I can see Charlie Fox at Springfield High School, I can see Charlie Fox going this way.

[35:51] All right, Wiseman, what is it this time? I sent up to the principal's office, and I said, it's not my fault, I didn't, you know, I didn't, and I don't know how many times I got cracks from Charlie Fox, but you know what?

[36:08] Each time, each time I got disciplined for something that I knew was wrong, I never felt like I was treated unjustly.

[36:20] I never felt like, boy, I didn't have that coming, because in every case, I did have it coming. Usually I have more coming than what I got, so I often got off easy, but you know, and that, I guess that kept me from resenting the principal and the authorities because I had to be honest enough with myself, saying, Wiseman, you did it again, and you got thus and so, and you got detention, you know, 45 minutes detention for the next two weeks after everybody else goes home, and what are you going to say for yourself?

[36:57] All I could say was, I got what was coming to me. I deserved it. But when you don't deserve it, and you're mistreated, how do you respond to that?

[37:13] That's when we tend to rear up in opposition and say, I don't deserve it, I didn't have this coming out, you know, it's just natural, I want to defend yourself, and that's exactly the contrary attitude that our Lord wants us to have, and let's see, he himself is the example of that.

[37:34] You have been called, verse 21, you have been called for this purpose. What purpose? You have been called for the purpose of doing what is right, and suffering for that.

[37:48] That's what you've been called for. Well, for crying out loud, who wants to be called for that? And that's exactly what we're, guys, this means when you are in the body of Christ, you belong to a different kind of army.

[38:07] Think of that. you are called to passivity, and by the way, I'm not, what shall I say, I'm not Amish, nor the son of an Amishman, but they are not altogether wrong in their attitude of passive resistance, or not resisting, how they feel about taking up arms and so on.

[38:32] That's a different subject, and we won't get into that. Militarism is not denied by scripture, and God is not opposed to a nation taking up arms to defend itself. That's an entirely different issue, I don't want to get into that, but this is a personal thing.

[38:46] This is a personal thing, and it is how it is to affect each one of us, and Christ is being given here as the example, and we are to follow in his steps.

[38:56] You have been called for this purpose since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example to follow in his steps.

[39:13] When the Charles Sheldon that wrote the book In His Steps, a classic devotional many years ago, In His Steps, and he based the title of the book on this verse, and it has to do with a Christ-like attitude with which we are to respond when those oppose us, and it is, it isn't natural to do it.

[39:39] It's supernatural. That's the whole point, guys. That's the whole point. Our response when we are ill treated is not to get up on our hind legs and protest and fight back our response is to be that of Christ.

[40:00] And the text says, He committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth, and while being reviled, He did not revile in return.

[40:15] While suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him. That is, Jesus entrusting Himself to His Father who judges righteously, and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, for by His wounds you were healed.

[40:40] And this healing has nothing to do with the healing of the flesh. This is talking about a spiritual healing. for you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

[40:57] Long story short is, you are marching to a different drummer now, you are to have a different response, and it is not a natural response, it is not a human response, it is a superhuman response, it is spiritual as opposed to fleshly, and that's what we are called to.

[41:20] And there is something within me that doesn't like it. And you know what it is that doesn't like it? It's the old nature. Well, I know my rights. You can't treat me that way.

[41:34] This is the old man flaring up, and this is the combativeness that tends to reside in all of us, especially when we know we have been wronged by someone else, we're just not going to let them get away with that, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[41:48] And what we're doing is we are exporting the flesh and we are showing an ungodly character to everybody who's looking on, which means, bottom line, we are being a bad example for what we say we believe.

[42:03] And we are all capable of this. I don't know how many times in the 60 plus years that I've been a believer that I've blown it like this. where the old man, the old nature creeps in on you and you find yourself saying something that you shouldn't say and doing something that you shouldn't do and afterwards remorse sets in and you think, oh, blew it again.

[42:28] Did you ever blow it with your wife like that? Lose your temper, respond, retaliate, criticize, condemn. hey, we've all been there, done that, that's part of our humanity.

[42:43] But we are called to exemplify this kind of spirit. And if you say, well, that's just not natural. You're right. You're right.

[42:54] It isn't natural. It's supernatural. It's supernatural. What do you think God has called us to just be what we are? No. He's called us to be a new person.

[43:07] He's called us to be what He wants us to be as opposed to what the old nature wants us to be. And guys, my old nature in me is the same as your old nature in you.

[43:20] It wants to rule the roost and call the shots. I want to be in charge of me. That's the flesh speaking. And we're all part of that.

[43:34] But you know what? You can't combat it if you don't even know it and understand it. This is your darker side we're talking about. And it is that which wants to rule and control and dominate everything and characterize your whole life by it and makes you a self-willed, self-seeking person.

[43:57] It is nothing more than the acting out of that fleshly nature that we all have. And what we're called to do is to submit ourselves to the spirit of God.

[44:09] And I don't know about you but my problem is with my natural born temper is to not have enough time to reflect between the offense and my response so it's a de-jerk thing.

[44:30] You just come back and if you have time to think about it which you often don't have you respond in an unwise unkind way because that old nature is ready to leap and make itself known.

[44:45] And the new man is a gentleman. The old man is rambunctious and wants to control and dominate everything.

[44:57] The new man is saying, hey Marv, slow down here. Cool it man. Think of what you're saying. Think of what the situation is. Think of what your response ought to be as opposed to what it is with a knee jerk reaction.

[45:12] And that knee jerk gets my mouth and me in more trouble than anything else. And I can't say that I have learned that.

[45:23] All I can say is I'm in process and we're all in process. Guys, every one of us is an unfinished piece of work. And do you know what the finish is?

[45:35] The finish is a glorified body. We're not there yet. We're in process. We're under construction. And we're moving toward that goal. And what's our goal?

[45:47] Our goal is simply this. It's to be more like Jesus Christ today than I was yesterday. And that means more dominance and control of that new nature as opposed to the old nature.

[46:03] I need to say sicken more to the new man and deprive the old man. The old man needs to be starved out. But I'll tell you what, as long as you're living in this body, you'll always have that possibility, always have that potential.

[46:19] And one of the things that will be wonderful about a glorified body is there won't be any place there for the old man. And it's going to be entirely different. But for now, we have to contend with it.

[46:30] So, questions or comments, I'd like to open this now. Yeah, Joe? Just one. Just one. On what you've said. It's so great. I mean, it's so speaking.

[46:41] The Lord is talking to me again and again when my arm is speaking. I'm sure he has to you, too. You all feel that. And I got the basic in my life now, I've got the answer to how you respond.

[46:55] You know, he said you don't have time to think. You're going to respond right away and you respond the wrong way. You use the nature response rather than if you have more time to think, you do the right thing. Here's how you take care of that.

[47:06] You stay as close to God in your life as you can all the time. You've got God right there with you all the time.

[47:17] And you can do that if you keep him right there. Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Acknowledge him in all things you do. Even if you might want to have coffee today or not.

[47:30] All things that you do in your life, consult with God about it. Keep him close at all times. If he is close to you, you'll respond the way he wants you to.

[47:43] That's where it got back when Mark started worried about that Jesus was worried most about separation from God. That was the worst thing. What does that mean? Separation? It means you're going to have troubles.

[47:55] Things aren't going to go right. You've got to be close to him to do that. See, I have found that out in my life. In the last eight years, since I've been rightly dividing the word of God and Mark got into me, you've got to stay close to him all the time.

[48:11] Amen. Thank you. Okay. Appreciate that, Jim. Other comments or questions? Anybody feel free? How are you supposed to respond if somebody breaks into your house and you want to steal everything or heart care or something like that?

[48:26] How should you respond? Okay. Great question. How do you respond? And by the way, what you're saying, sad to say, may not be all that far-fetched with what's going on in our world today, you know?

[48:42] So what about a home invasion? And by the way, talking about home invasion with a capital home invasion, what about these squatters?

[48:53] Have you heard anything about that? Where somebody's in vacation in Florida like Jeff right now for a few weeks and you come home and you find somebody else is living in your house.

[49:07] they've moved in. They broke the door down and they set up housekeeping in your house while you were gone. That's called home invasion and I don't know.

[49:21] Hey, where are the legal beagles with this thing? I keep hearing things like authorities saying there isn't anything we can do, you know? And you can't shoot those people without paying the penalty.

[49:36] you're accused of murder or violence or whatever. That's a very good question that you brought up, that whole principle. And tell you what guys, I hate to say this but honesty compels me to, it may be a whole lot more timely than we know.

[49:54] Given what's going on in our culture, how many people are being, how many irresponsible people also are being armed, now you don't even need a permit in Ohio to carry, and that's all well and good for people who can carry a firearm and are responsible for the use of it, but it also opens the floodgates to all of the irresponsible people, and where do you go with this?

[50:22] How are we to practically apply these principles that I've been talking about in a culture that is becoming increasingly violent and open about it? Very good question.

[50:34] Yes, let's hear from the legal beagle. Exodus chapter 20 says, thou shalt murder. We know that that's against God's natural and moral law, but we know when a government executes in their administration of justice, maybe capital punishment, that's something permitted or established by God.

[50:56] So there's a difference between self-defense and murder, right? Yeah. I think we, my brother-in-law called me one time, he wanted someone who stole a bunch of tools from his garage, and he wanted to set up a spring-loaded two-by-eight with spikes on it.

[51:09] He lived in English country, near Marion, and when they opened the door, that thing would come through and take him at the knees, and he said, is that legal? I said, absolutely not. There are not cases on it. Premeditated.

[51:19] You can't take someone's life and protection of property. Think about that. That's taken something of, even if it's corrupted, of inherent value, someone made in God's image.

[51:30] And destroying it to protect something that's filthy, whatever, wood-hands double we don't take with us. Even the law goes back to English common law is really based on scripture going back in the 1700s.

[51:46] And so I think these are really difficult questions. If I have an opportunity to retreat even in my own home, I don't have to in a while. I don't have to outside of my home, but I think as a believer, if there's a pretty reasonable opportunity to choose to protect the intrinsic value of that correct broken person who's just stepping to my garage, then I think I have a moral obligation to skedaddle and let the call the police and figure it out, but not just instantly take someone's life over a piece of property.

[52:19] Yeah. And that's the squatter thing is the funny thing, because it will take forever to get a squatter somebody out of your house. I could walk in here after they and just sit there, and the police will say, this is a civil matter, Marv, you're going to have to figure out how to evict them.

[52:35] It needs to be some adjustment in that law. I don't know what it would mean, but really, there is a precious thing in American society is property rights.

[52:48] And yet, property rights dare not exceed human rights, because, like you said, you can't take someone's life in order to protect your property, but yet, to muddy the water further, if somebody's breaking into your home, you don't always know what their intent is, and you have a responsibility to protect your family.

[53:15] That's the administration of justice, so a defense. Yeah. A little love to happen. A little lead poisoning maybe, if you will. We're talking about a pretty sticky wicket here.

[53:28] In fact, everything, just about everything regarding the law and legality has a stickiness to it, an exception clause to it. Yes? Well, just like you talked about on TV the other night, there was a woman that her house got broke into, and they trashed the place, but it didn't actually steal much.

[53:53] But then a week later, because I think because it was on TV, people saw what she had in there, and they come in and stole a whole bunch of stuff.

[54:05] And I mean, you know, how's her rights? Yeah. And you know, one of the things that's fueling this in our culture today, the things you see on television where people are walking into stores, smashing and grabbing jewelry stores and things like that, what that does is it begins to unintentionally condition people and their thinking and then their ideas, and it makes that kind of behavior more prevalent because there's that verse in Ecclesiastes, I think it's 811 if it hasn't moved, and it says because, this would be a good verse to memorize, guys, because sentence against an evil work is not conducted speedily, therefore the sons of men set in their hearts to do evil continually.

[55:10] And translated into modern language, it means criminal activity that people get away with encourages it. And that's just human nature, that's the way it is, what all these people are doing, they're stealing all of these goodies, taking out shopping carts full of stuff, and any employee that even tries to stop them is going to be fired, and what do you do in a case like that?

[55:37] And there's no police around? Because the police, fellas, law enforcement, is being demoralized.

[55:50] Demoralized. Because we expect these men and women to go out there and put their lives on the line and apprehend criminals who are going to be released without even posting bombs?

[56:04] For crying out loud, what's going on? It's the continuation of our society, and it is by design.

[56:16] It is by design. It is the destabilizing of our society, and the U.S. of A. is leading the way. And where's that going to put other countries?

[56:28] They're going to fall in line with it. You'll be starting to see it in Europe and other places, and it's setting the stage for what's coming, I fear. What, Joe? What you were saying about being different, you know, being different, and what Dustin brought up, the example of somebody who robbed you, you're worried about, you go away, you come home, might be robbed in.

[56:53] I don't worry about that at all. I don't worry about that at all, about somebody robbing me or staying and coming in and rob my house, or even a fire having my house, because as the verse said here in Marvren, instead be entrusted to him who judges.

[57:10] I'm entrusted to God, 828 of Romans, 828, all things work together for good to those who love him, so I know if my house burns down or somebody robs everything out of there, I don't care, God's going to replace all that somehow for me.

[57:24] He's going to take care of that. It ain't going to be bad for me, it's going to be good for me. I don't know how good comes out of that, but it's going to be good for me. I appreciate what you're saying, but at the same time, we need to recognize this.

[57:37] We are also endued with a sense of responsibility, whereby we are to take precaution, and we are to exercise judicial sense, and I remember talking to somebody one time, years ago, about I wasn't going to pay a nickel for insurance.

[58:01] Wasn't going to buy any insurance because I'm just going to trust the Lord. So if I have an accident or whatever, but that's, to me, that's behaving irresponsibly.

[58:15] That is a mistrusting the Lord. He never intended us to do. God does not want you to abdicate responsibility. responsibility. He wants you to be responsible, and in your business, in your activities, in the way you conduct your life, there are things that are common that are just a sense of responsibility, and the things that aren't we call irresponsible, and that means you do not take responsibility for protecting or for anticipating or for resolving.

[58:52] You just let catch as catch can. That's not being a responsible person, and there is a, sometimes it's a fine line to draw, but let's face it, the criminal element, the criminal element is probably suffering more from a sense of irresponsibility than they are anything else.

[59:13] They just do not take responsibility for themselves, for their own keep, for their own advancement, everything, and they take advantage of others by their irresponsibility.

[59:27] We've got a whole culture that's dealing with that. So much is on the news today about scammers. Scammers have made a career out of stealing what belongs to you, and there's a lot of times you can't do a thing about it, except take responsibility and protect yourself by, well, no, I'm talking about on your phone stuff.

[59:54] Don't answer a phone call if you don't know who it's from. Have a message on there, say, leave me a message and I'll call you back. I probably get a dozen of these a day, and sometimes my phone comes up and says, scam.

[60:08] Right away, I hang up from it. So you can protect yourself from some of these things. Some of them you can't. I mean, there's things where they're stealing people's title to their homes.

[60:20] But if you engage somebody on your telephone that you don't know, and they can get you to say, yes, they're recording all this, and you're going to get in trouble.

[60:32] So you can protect yourself by not, when somebody calls me and I'm waiting for a call and it might be them, I'll say, what is it you're calling me about?

[60:43] Who are you and what are you calling me about? And if I don't get the right answer, I hang up. That's it. So you can't protect yourself. And there are sometimes, depending on what they're doing and what they're selling, all they want to get is you saying yes on recording.

[60:58] Because it's recorded, and that means that they've got your permission to do whatever it is or to send you whatever they want to send you. And a lot of times, it's a government expense.

[61:10] The government, and by the way, don't fall for this, guys. When they say, and of no cost to you, it's free from the government. Well, who's the government anyway? I'm paying taxes for that, you know?

[61:23] And I'm the government. And they act like this is money from heaven. Oh, boy. Never in the history of humanity has there been the opportunity for scammers as there is today.

[61:35] One of the things you've talked about, didn't you just say yes? The first thing they'll say is, can you hear me? Yeah, yeah. Can you hear me? Don't answer that.

[61:45] You can say it. And my wife will. Yeah, just don't say the word yes. I've heard them ask that question before. And my response was, uh. I wanted to think about it, you know?

[61:59] And you don't say that magic word. That's what they're trying to get you to say. And God, you mean to tell me that our culture has stooped to this low? Yes, it has.

[62:10] Yeah. Yeah. There's a type of verse. Do you read Romans chapter 1? Yeah, Romans 1. It's about falling away from God.

[62:22] And God will let you do that. Yeah. Volition. Yeah. But then it goes into Romans chapter 2. It says, don't you do this.

[62:35] Yeah. In other words, you still have to acknowledge God is the creator. Absolutely. And we owe our allegiance to him. Absolutely. So we shouldn't fall away, but then you go to school systems now.

[62:47] And they're teaching them to fall away. Yeah. I, I, yeah, absolutely. Yes. And just, things have changed because, like, in the 50s, we never locked a house.

[63:00] Yeah. We went away for a week and the house was open. Yeah. And the car would set in the driveway with the keys in it. Yeah. Yeah.

[63:11] And you never thought about somebody coming in. Right. And today, and today, today, I mean, if you don't want to be. If you leave your keys in the car today and somebody steals it, it's your fault.

[63:22] Exactly. Isn't that something? It's amazing. And guys, I'll tell you what, what's behind all of this, think about this, what's behind all of this is the fact that our population is becoming more and more comprised of people who have a moral relativity viewpoint as opposed to what is right or wrong.

[63:49] Everything for them is gray. And right and wrong is determined by the individual. And if you think it's right, it's right for you.

[64:02] And that's what's governing our population in many areas now because there is more. Every year that goes by, there's more of them than there is of us.

[64:13] And with what's happening in our southern border, the them is being increased daily. So think about it. It's a worldview thing.

[64:23] Appreciate your time today. Thank you so much. We got elections coming up this November. We can turn it around.