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[0:00] Thank you for your presence. We are rejoicing over the season of the year and it will not be long and we'll be celebrating Resurrection Sunday. And I want to remind you about that. That's something that is kind of indecisive right now because of this COVID thing and our modified service.

[0:23] But what we do need to know is at least have some kind of a rough idea as to how many, well, let me put it this way. Each year we have what we call a resurrection breakfast.

[0:37] And we dispense with the nine o'clock teaching hour. And instead we serve a sumptuous breakfast meal on Resurrection Sunday. We weren't able to do that last year because of the COVID thing.

[0:49] And we're planning to do it this year. But we need to know at least, have some kind of an idea as to how many will be here because this thing is so tentative and so iffy. We don't know what we can count on. And actually it wouldn't make any difference about knowing except when food is involved, you've got to know something. So can I see a show of hands of those of you who are planning to be here for the Easter Resurrection breakfast? Can I show you?

[1:19] Okay. Keep your hands up there. Keep them up there. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. And speaking of knowing in advance who and what, if you can, please, those of you who are going to be participating in Rebecca McConkie's wedding shower are asked to sign up back at Keith Steiger's desk, there is a sign-up sheet back there.

[1:52] And would you please get your name down on that so we'll know how many people will be planning to attend that. And that would be very helpful. Thank you. I'd like you to pray with me, would you please?

[2:14] Our Father, we pause once again in your presence, acknowledging our inability and your ability. And this is why we come to you. Because we have so many needs that we cannot begin to fulfill.

[2:29] And we appeal to you as the only source that can. And along with our petitions, we are confident that you will sift and sort among those things that we bring to you.

[2:43] And you will deign in your own good wisdom and purpose that which is in our best interest and for your glory. We'd have it no other way. We pray this morning for our nation as we continue in a state of turmoil with so much divisiveness throughout the land.

[3:00] We think of what's taking place on the southern borders and the potential for additional confusion that exists there. We can certainly understand the rationale of these people who are bending every effort to enter this great land.

[3:20] We believe it's the best place on earth despite its shortcomings, despite its faults. There's no place on the globe like the United States of America.

[3:32] And we believe it is largely due to the blessing that you poured out upon our forefathers when they established the principles under which this nation was to be governed.

[3:43] We look back in history and we examine the history books and we cannot find any other nation on earth that had a beginning, anything close to the beginning that this nation enjoyed in 1776.

[4:04] We believe that we today are stewards of what our founding fathers brought into existence. We have an obligation to maintain those principles and values under which this nation was founded.

[4:21] And we look to you for the necessary strength, the power, and above all the wisdom to be able to do that. We believe that America is a shining light on a hill and we want that beacon to shine ever so brightly.

[4:37] So we ask for our legislators, those in positions of authority, that they may reflect upon solemn responsibilities that they have not only to the nation and to the public, but to you, to govern righteously and judiciously.

[4:58] Certainly that's our prayer. We thank you again for all that you've provided for us and through the Lord Jesus Christ. It involves a scope, a length, and a breadth that we can scarcely imagine.

[5:12] To think that the God of the universe has gone to the extreme length that you have in order to secure a position for us with yourself.

[5:24] We'll never get over that. We don't expect to. So as we enter into this time of worship and information, we look to you for direction and wisdom, not only in what is given out, but what needs to be absorbed and anything of the flesh.

[5:42] May it be cast off and come to naught. Thank you for it all in Christ's name. Amen. I keep reminding myself that this service needs to be a little different because we are recording the entire thing, not just the message as we did previously.

[6:01] And we are doing this for the benefit of those who ordinarily would be here at Grace. But because of the COVID restrictions and what they believe to be their own personal safety, they are not with us.

[6:15] And we have urged from the very beginning for everyone to take responsibility for themselves as to whether they should be present or absent. And I suspect that we have more who are listening by way of computer and online than what are here in our audience.

[6:33] So it is for the benefit of these folks that we are sharing some things that I ordinarily would just leave in the bulletin and let them read for themselves. But because they are not here and can't do that and wouldn't get that material, I want to do that even now.

[6:51] And I am looking at our March 13 little insert that is from Mr. Stam's Two Minutes with the Bible. And if you like these as much as I do, the books that contain them for the whole year are back there on that shelf and the table back there.

[7:06] And March 13 here is If You Be Able. And one of the reasons I was quite fascinated about this is because we today know something about slavery. But the only slavery we know anything about historically is slavery in the Old South.

[7:24] And thankfully, that's been in history for a long time. But the Bible talks about slavery too. And yet it's an entirely different kind of slavery than what we know anything about.

[7:34] So we're going to read this. And this is the March 13. It's called If He Be Able. Under Old Testament law, one who had failed in business could sell himself or be sold into slavery, his master paying off his debts in lieu of salary.

[7:54] The slave could be redeemed, however, by his uncle or any near relative who could afford to pay off his debts. Or, says our passage, if he be able, he may redeem himself.

[8:07] And that's taken from the above passage, Leviticus 25, 49, that reads, Either his uncle or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him.

[8:19] Or, if he be able, he may redeem himself. Now, this is mysterious to us, of course, because it's not in our culture at all, but it's in biblical culture.

[8:31] And if you remember, this principle came into play back in the book of Ruth when they returned to the land. And it involved Naomi and her being able to reassume the land that had been in the family and so on.

[8:48] So that all comes into play. And Mr. Stamm goes on and says, Significant qualification for what bankrupt slave was ever able to redeem himself.

[9:01] In this way, God would teach us an important lesson about salvation from sin. All of us have failed in business, as it were. We have amassed a huge debt of sin against God and our fellow man.

[9:16] And have become morally and spiritually bankrupt. We have many who are nigh of kin to us, but they are unable to redeem us, because they themselves are bankrupt sinners.

[9:28] There is one, however, who has an infinite store of righteousness with which to pay our debt and redeem us. Indeed, he did pay the penalty for all our sins when he, the Holy One, died in shame and disgrace as a sinner on Calvary's cross.

[9:46] He, the Lord Jesus Christ, is our blessed kinsman redeemer. For as Adam's children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that he might redeem Jew and Gentile, made for a little while, that is, Jesus, lower than the angels for the suffering of death, that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man and woman, I might add.

[10:20] There are many, alas, who will not face up to their condition. They somehow think that they can still redeem themselves. To them, God says, Do it, if you are able.

[10:34] To the rich young ruler who asked, What must I do to inherit eternal life? The Lord said, You know the law, this do, and you will live. And if you look at the following page, But who of us, at the bottom, who of us has perfectly kept the law of God?

[10:52] Who of us is not a repeated lawbreaker in the sight of God? Who is able to redeem himself? Why not turn from self to Christ, our rich kinsman redeemer, in whom we have redemption through his blood, that is, through his death, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.

[11:19] Wow. That is major, major. In your bulletin, would you note, please, that Tuesday, men's Bible class continues at Studebaker's at 7 o'clock in the morning.

[11:33] We are usually dismissed around 8.30. All men and boys are welcome to join us, and reservations are not required. Also, on Wednesday, small group gathers, enjoys terrific fellowship, and a time of prayer.

[11:48] At 7 o'clock here at the church, you are welcome as well to join us, if you would. And, the friendship breakfast and Bible class, also, now this is not to be confused with the resurrection breakfast, this is entirely different.

[12:06] This is on a weekday. Before this COVID thing interrupted us, we had a monthly meeting, that we called the fellowship or friendship Bible class, 9 o'clock, we had a breakfast and a Bible study, and we did away with that, because of the meeting qualifications, and that's been a year ago.

[12:24] So, we plan to resume that, and it will be, not Tuesday, but Thursday. It will be the last Thursday of the month, and if you are able to join us, we enjoy a sumptuous breakfast, and the Bible class that follows, and a time for Q&A, and you are more than welcome to join us, if you can.

[12:45] It's very informal. We just have a relaxed time, and a great meal, and good fellowship, and just enjoy each other's company immensely. Is there something that you would like to make mention of that's not in the bulletin?

[13:00] I've got a bunch of announcements here, but they're all important, and if they weren't, I wouldn't be making them. Got some handouts for you that are just really, really critical, particularly with what's going on in our culture today.

[13:20] Next to the teaching and preaching of the Word of God, I consider one of my greatest responsibilities is to do what I can to keep you adequately informed as to not only what is happening in our country, but what our Christian attitude and responsibility ought to be toward it, and because of that, we've got some handouts for you, and you've probably, get some of these at home because you're on the mailing list for Imprimus.

[13:49] It comes from Hillsdale College. This one is just about the best thing that I have read yet on the subject of the COVID strategy.

[14:01] You know, we've gotten all kinds of information from all kinds of experts, experts, and it's very difficult to follow some of it because a lot of it is contradictory information, and you don't know who to believe, but this gentleman, whose name I can't even pronounce, he's probably, he's probably either Indian or maybe Pakistani from his name, but it looks like Jay Bhattacharya, and he is a professor of medicine at Stanford University where he received both an MD and a PhD in economics.

[14:40] He's a research associate for the National Bureau of Economics, senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy, and blah, blah, blah. And this is the message that he delivered at Hillsdale College some time ago, and it is called A Sensible and Compassionate Anti-COVID Strategy.

[15:00] I really appreciated the article. It's about four or five pages long, and it makes great Sunday afternoon reading. Make sure that you pick up a copy of this.

[15:11] It's in the literature rack if you exit that back door along with several other items, and they are all there for your information. I hope you will take at least one of everything. Avail yourself of it because you know why?

[15:24] Of course you do. If you do not have information, you do not have data to process. If you don't have data to process, you have no conclusions to reach.

[15:36] You have no plan of action. You have no position to take. Information is critical. Absolutely critical. And we've got a lot of phony information as well as good information.

[15:48] And that makes good information all the more important because it has to sift it and sort it. And speaking of critical information, I want to tell you something.

[16:00] This article that I'm sharing with you, that you may have already read if you received it in the mail, is one of the most ominous things I have ever seen that affects the welfare, integrity, and stability of the United States of America.

[16:27] I have never seen anything come on the surface with this much potential and this much power. I urge you, read this article.

[16:44] You do not have to be a techie. I am far from it. I do good to send and receive emails. That's about the extent of my knowledge technology-wise.

[16:58] But I'll tell you what, I understand enough to know that this is scary. Really, really scary.

[17:11] Who is in control? The need to rein in big tech. If you don't even know what I'm talking about, then it's all the more important that you get this article.

[17:26] The information of which I just spoke is not on the threshold of, it is as I speak, being canceled, eliminated.

[17:45] It has gotten so from this article I'm also going to share with you and it is available there as well. It has gotten so on some of these social medias and I'm talking about Facebook and Google and Twitter and just about all of them.

[18:05] They engage in the selectivity that they choose to cancel anything they don't like. and they have the legal right to do that.

[18:20] They're not breaking any laws for doing that. But what they are doing, they are severely, severely limiting information on social media that they don't want you to have.

[18:37] and they can do it without any qualms at all because they have the authority to do it. Now, that isn't going to change probably at least for the next two years.

[18:54] And the reason for that is the giants who are in control of social media, all of those outlets that I just mentioned, are in bed with the liberal.

[19:08] They are thoroughly committed to the liberal agenda. They make no bones about it. It isn't difficult at all to see where they're coming from. And it is too much to expect this present Congress with its political makeup to rein in big tech.

[19:24] They don't have the votes. They cannot do it even if they want to. That means that for the next two years, this dissemination of information that they choose, that they want you to read, and that which they don't want you to read, they simply eliminate it.

[19:42] It never gets on. They never see it. That can go on for the next two years. And let me tell you something. By way of disseminating bad information and by way of withholding good information, an awful lot of damage can be done in the next two years.

[20:03] Because we, the public, are dependent upon viable, accurate information sources. And the phrase that's been around for the last few years, fake news, isn't fake.

[20:17] It's real. Fake news is real. And sometimes there's more of it out there than there is real news. And you've got to have a discerning mind. And do you know what, you know where most Americans are coming from?

[20:33] They don't care. They simply don't care. I'm too busy trying to make a living and trying to make ends meet, blah, blah, blah, and I don't have anything to do with that and I just forget it all and I just, and that's where most of us are.

[20:48] Frankly, that's where most of us are. And that's what allows, that's what allows the opposition to run wild. So we've got to be serious about this if you're serious about this country.

[20:59] Who is in control? The need to rein in big tech. And I do not know anything about Alam Bokari, that's another name I can hardly pronounce, but copies of this are back there.

[21:11] This is an extraordinary publication. There aren't very many publications that have 5,600,000 copies every month go out.

[21:24] Hillsdale College up in Michigan is an educational institution that accepts and receives no government funds or money for anything.

[21:37] My hat's off to them. And you know what that means? That means they are not obligated to jump through all of the hoops that the government requires in order to get their money. So they have a freedom that other institutions do not have.

[21:50] Who is in control? The need to rein in big tech. There's a quantity of them back there, and I made up an extra supply of them with the hopes that you'll not only take one for yourself, but you'll take a handful for somebody else because this is information that is vital and really, really does need to get out.

[22:10] And speaking about information, by the way, one of the things that's being canceled on Google, Facebook, and these others, anybody who posts information questioning, questioning the legitimacy of the last election out, you're gone.

[22:32] You're scrapped. You don't get on. Doesn't make any difference what you, if you even question the legitimacy or whether there was corruption in the last election, you don't get posted.

[22:45] You're eliminated. What's this got to do with the First Amendment and freedom of information and free speech? In actuality, everything, but insofar as these organizations are concerned, legally, it's got nothing to do with them because they're not bound by it.

[23:04] They're not bound by it. So, this is from Judicial Watch. I don't know if you know anything about Judicial Watch or not, but the most important thing about Judicial Watch is it is not partisan.

[23:21] It is not Democrat. It is not Republican. And Judicial Watch takes to task anyone they see engaged in corruption or foul play in the government, whether the Republican, Democrat, doesn't make any difference.

[23:36] They go after them. This is Tom Fitton is the head of this. I want you to listen to this. This is, this is, to give some perspective on the controversies we've witnessed in the last year's presidential election, remember that a little more than four years ago, Obama, Biden, and Comey were talking about spying on and targeting Donald Trump and his team for prosecution.

[24:07] In my view, the election results in the various battleground states were compromised by unlawful rule changes that led to votes being counted that shouldn't have been counted.

[24:18] State legislatures, the courts, and Congress failed to seriously grapple with these and other problems. It is shameful. And I tell you what, it is shameful. This nation, this nation and its 50 states should have as their number one priority the security and sanctity of the ballot box.

[24:44] that is so absolutely critical that every registered qualified person gets to vote and every one of those votes are counted and none that should be counted are counted and all of these spurious votes that come in.

[25:04] The inexcusable and deadly violence at the U.S. Capitol is being used by the left to suppress all its conservative and other principled opposition. The leftists at Big Tech are banning conservatives for even talking about election fraud.

[25:22] Twitter suspended me on January 9, for example. The left even impeached the president again. They didn't, as they claim, want to remove President Trump because he incited violence.

[25:35] He didn't. And they don't care much about violence as they endorse and use it regularly. No, they abused impeachment again to undermine someone who proved to be an effective opposition voice.

[25:47] We will continue to expose the two biggest scandals in U.S. history, the coup attempt by the deep state to overthrow President Trump and the compromised election that followed.

[25:59] And just let me say this about the deep state. It's made up of Republicans and Democrats. The deep state is made up of people who are solidly entrenched in offices to which they were never elected but appointed and they are backed by civil service and it is almost impossible to fire one unless they commit mass murder on television.

[26:26] That's about what it takes. And these people, these people, these bureaucrats have an attitude of ownership of the government.

[26:39] They are the experts. They are the pros. You are, you don't know any better. You don't really know what's going on. We make the decisions.

[26:50] We make the choices. And you know what? They do. They do. You are not able to rely on the corrupt media or Congress to hold the government to account.

[27:02] Judicial watch will be the only game in town, more or less, when it comes to investigating and litigating over government corruption in the new Biden administration. Listen, listen to this.

[27:13] You might want to get out your handkerchiefs. This is something to cry about. We collected voter data from Georgia. Remember how controversial Georgia was? Up in the air, you know, everybody had to focus on Georgia.

[27:27] Listen to this. Showing that more than 4,700 absentee voters in the presidential election, and remember how close that was?

[27:38] Remember how close it was? They were talking about the winner won by one-tenth of one percent. Remember how close that was? And it put two Democrats in Congress.

[27:51] They were the ones that were so very close. Do you remember seeing this on the screen? Sure you do. Sure you do. Listen. Residential 4,700 absentee voters in the presidential election listed non-residential addresses as their places of residence.

[28:16] Georgia law requires citizens registering to vote to reside in that place in which such person's habitation is fixed.

[28:31] That's the law. We shared our data with the Georgia Secretary of State and requested an investigation. a total of 9,989 by the way do you recall hearing any of the liberals saying what liberals should do is cross over into Georgia and establish an address there and vote in the Georgia election?

[28:59] Remember them saying that? And you remember a lot of people saying oh that's silly nobody's going to do that. A total of 9,989 Georgia voters seem to be registered at non-residential addresses 1,882 at commercial addresses.

[29:26] You live at Bob Evans? You live at Arby's? 1,336 registered at county and state government buildings.

[29:42] Gave that as their address. And 6,735 at either hotels or motels. And how do you think those people were voting?

[29:58] And what difference do you think it would have made in that shaving that one tenth of one percent? Additionally 215 new registrations between November 4 and December 14 for the special runoff election for two U.S.

[30:13] senators were linked to non-residential addresses. We previously alerted the Georgia Secretary of State's office to the voter registration address issue in April of 2020.

[30:27] This issue must be immediately investigated and it gets worse. This is part of our years-long effort to clean up voter rolls in September of 2020.

[30:40] Now this is two months before the election. We released a study revealing that 353 U.S. counties had 1.8 million more registered voters than eligible voting age.

[30:58] How can that be? In other words, the registration rates of those counties exceeded 100% of eligible voters.

[31:12] How can you have more people voting than what you have people who live in the state or live in that county? Don't you smell a rat somewhere?

[31:24] And this is the stuff that people are being silenced for talking about. Here it gives a whole long list.

[31:38] I'm not going to share it, but probably 20 different counties in Georgia. List of the problematic counties we covered in Georgia. Bryan County was the largest. They had 118% of the people who lived in an area eligible to vote.

[31:56] Now, I ask you as an American who has been casting votes since the first time I voted in 19... That was a long time ago.

[32:07] Okay. What is the percentage of turnout for Americans going to the polls, especially for a presidential election?

[32:18] the authorities get almost giddy if it's even 65%. It ought to be 100%. It ought to be 100%.

[32:28] But 65% of eligible voters actually showing up to vote is virtually unheard of. It just never happens.

[32:40] There aren't that many people who care. There aren't that many who are interested. So this long list of counties here, they have counties where they have more people voting than they have people living in the county who is 18 years of age.

[32:52] And it's in multiple counties. And that's just Georgia. I tell you, if we don't get this thing cleared up, and you know what? Of course, nobody's going to listen to me.

[33:03] It's a stupid old preacher. What does he know? But if I had my way about it, I would take those blasted voting machines and throw them to the moon and come back with a paper ballot and they're counted one by one.

[33:20] And the idea of somebody breaking into it or crashing into it or somehow getting in, penetrating it, wouldn't even exist. But of course, they won't do that. Anyhow, I feel a lot better now.

[33:35] I want to give you something from Vance Havner. You don't know Vance Havner properly. Some of you might, but he's an old southern boy who preached the gospel for him.

[33:46] He started preaching when he was 12 years old. He preached for about 75 years and he was down in Hickory, North Carolina is where he held forth. But this is good.

[33:57] text was in the last issue of Israel, My Glory. It says, Whatever the circumstance, God commands us to pray.

[34:12] Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 and 18. Rather than allowing negative circumstances to overwhelm us, we should take the wonderful advice of the great Christian revivalist, Vance Havner, who preached on what he called the forgotten beatitude.

[34:36] And here it is. It's found in Matthew 11. Blessed is he who is not offended because of me. We have murmured that we pray and do not receive.

[34:50] We gave our tithe or offering and now we are in adversity. We were faithful to the Lord's house, and landed in a hospital. We prayed for our children and they became worldlings.

[35:03] We crave joy and peace, but we are despondent. While across the street is an ungodly family that has suffered no loss.

[35:15] While our dearest was taken, there is no use in praying. It reads very lovely in the devotional books, but I am unable to make it work.

[35:25] We were in distress and the Lord abode where he was. And when he did appear, we grumbled. All such grumbling means that we have not learned the forgotten beatitude.

[35:42] Anybody can believe during fair weather. There is a deeper experience and a higher state which not many reach.

[35:53] A state in which no matter what happens, we are never offended in the Lord. A state in which whether it makes sense to us or not, we still believe Romans 8 28.

[36:09] God works all things together for good for those who love him, who are the called according to his appearance. Habakkuk. Habakkuk started his book pouting and ended it praising.

[36:26] And blessed is the man who can say, though I don't get what I want, though I may sow much and reap little, though others get the plums and I get the sack, I will rejoice in the Lord.

[36:44] I will be joyful in the God of my salvation. Wow. Isn't that something?

[36:56] An embracing of that will be the end of crybaby Christians grumbling, grousing, complaining, belly aching.

[37:10] Why doesn't God do this? Why doesn't God do that? Why can't I? Isn't that something? Well, I've got one more for you.

[37:24] I've been doing some additional work with Marriage on the Rock, a series I started probably several years ago. And this is good.

[37:38] This is in your bowl. And again, I'm reading it. You can read it yourself, but people listening by computer, they can't. Fill it to the brim. Is your marriage filled to the brim?

[37:50] It can be, if you've got the faith to keep doing what's right. Jesus' first miracle occurred after a wedding party ran out of wine. He told the servants to fill six stone jars with water, each one holding 20 to 30 gallons.

[38:06] What's remarkable is the faith of the servants. remember, this was first-century Palestine. There was no plumbing or garden hose. Their task would have required repeated trips to a well, back and forth, pitcher after pitcher, likely in the heat of the day.

[38:24] At any point, they could have looked at the water in the jars and decided, this isn't working. They could have given up and only filled the jars partway, but instead, they kept doing what they knew was right until the jars were filled to the brim.

[38:43] And because they did, everyone at the wedding party witnessed a miracle unfold right before their eyes. That's the secret to a strong marriage.

[38:57] Keep doing what's right, even if it's taking longer than you'd like to achieve the results you want. You'll get there, but not if you stop halfway or do only enough to hold your relationship together.

[39:13] Day after day, pitcher after pitcher, keep filling your relationship with love, intimacy, and connection until it's filled to the brim.

[39:27] Good advice for the married. And speaking of the married, I don't know of anything that is so hurtful in a marriage relationship as an offense that one mate commits against the other.

[39:45] And I've characterized these as being just a dart, maybe it's just a little thing. And then there is the arrow, and it's a bigger offense. And then there is the shaft, the spear.

[39:57] And that's a really huge offense. and when that penetrates your mate's heart or spirit, it creates an enormous wound.

[40:10] And you know something? They can't reach into their spirit and pull it out because it doesn't work that way. Do you know how it gets out?

[40:21] the one who put it there has to remove it. Think of that. We all are capable of saying things and doing things that injure and wound someone else.

[40:37] And this isn't just marriage. This is relationships across the board. This is the workplace. This is a school. This is a neighborhood. This is anywhere. Anywhere people have connections and relations.

[40:48] We say things and do things that injure that hurt one another. And some are real small and some are big. But the thing that we need to understand that most people do not is that in order for that wound to be healed, in order for that hurt to be covered, the object has to be removed so healing can begin.

[41:13] But the only one who can remove it is the one who put it there. And how can they do that? You can't undo it.

[41:25] What's said is said. What's done is done. But you can do the thing that's required. You can apologize.

[41:37] Apologize. And the word apology from Greek is a compound Greek word from the Greek. And what it means is apo is from and logia is the word that means words.

[41:51] An apology is from words. It is a spoken expression of regret and sorrow and repentance.

[42:02] And this is an apology is so incredibly powerful. It can heal wounds and hurts like nothing else.

[42:14] You know what most people do when we wound or hurt someone? what we think is oh they'll get over it. Time heals all wounds.

[42:25] No it doesn't. No it doesn't. That's a lie. Time may lessen the pain of the wound but it doesn't heal it. The only thing that can heal the wound is for the one who put it there to take it away.

[42:41] And sometimes that isn't possible because sometimes the one who put it there is deceased and they no longer have that opportunity. This is just a little short thing.

[42:54] It's just one of 20 tracks on the CD and I've asked Maestro back there to play track six and it's just a couple of minutes but it'll give you an idea about an apology. An apology is not for the weak.

[43:08] The movie actor John Wayne was a favorite of millions of Americans for several decades. especially among the male population who idolized Wayne as a man's man.

[43:19] He was tough but fair and heroic to a fault. But one wonders how many men and boys were sadly misled by our idol with the part he played in one of his many westerns.

[43:32] It was called She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Wayne being a career and longtime cavalry officer he often had subordinates reporting to him in various situations.

[43:42] He had established a noble military career of unselfish service to his country and was looking forward to retirement justly deserved. However, a curt phrase used by Wayne on multiple occasions was truly regrettable.

[43:59] The line John Wayne delivered was, with a curt never apologize it's a sign of weakness. Upon hearing our rugged manly hero utter those words, I winced with regret, wondering just how many men and boys watching their favorite actor would actually believe that.

[44:21] If ever there was a line in a movie script for which the Duke should have requested a rewrite, that was it. Because the message he conveyed in saying an apology is a sign of weakness is that men of strength do not apologize.

[44:37] Only weak men do that. It's tragic. Even more tragic is that many men who idolize the Duke, especially younger men, really believe what he said.

[44:49] Could it be that some even carry that philosophy into their own relationships, especially that of marriage? I'm afraid so. It's a popular attitude among men, and we don't even have to get it from the Duke.

[45:04] We're born with it. It's bred into our ego. Oh, sure, the ladies have an ego also. But nothing can compare to the male ego, especially when it comes to protecting it.

[45:16] Truth be told, our movie idol had it all wrong. Dead wrong. A sincere apology is not a sign of weakness. It's a sign of unusual strength.

[45:27] It is weak men who never apologize. It's so easy and may even seem logical, at least on the surface, to confuse physical strength and daring with moral strength of character, but they are not nearly the same.

[45:44] In fact, one may be a 220-pound, six-foot physical specimen, playing linebacker in the NFL, bench presses 300 pounds, leads the league in quarterback sacks and running back tackles, and yet, with all of his physical prowess, he may be a 98-pound weakling in moral and character strength.

[46:05] These are the areas of strength that determines the character of one's relationships. Taking responsibility for what one says and does in offending others by being big enough and strong enough to render a sincere apology to the offended party requires strength that all too few people possess.

[46:27] But those who do will discover that an apology helps heal a wounded relationship like nothing else. Well, there are 20 tracks on that CD and that just happens to be volume six.

[46:46] And they're on the table in the back if you're interested. They're all free. Feel free to pick up anything that is of interest to you. And I trust there'll be a blessing to you like it was to me in preparing them.

[47:00] And I did that a number of years ago along with Chris Janet DeClarified with the passing of my first wife Barbara. And most of you here knew Barbara and what an incredible woman she was.

[47:14] And in 2006 she passed away very suddenly with a massive cerebral hemorrhage and there was no warning, no symptoms, anything.

[47:28] And just a matter of hours she was gone. And the good folks here at Grace Bible Church contributed $15,000 or $16,000 to her memorial fund.

[47:44] And the congregation asked me to decide how it was to be used. And Barbara's great love was for the teaching of the Word of God and for God's people.

[47:55] So that's why Christianity Clarified was born. And she also contributed mightily to an absolutely unbelievable marriage that she and I enjoyed for almost 50 years.

[48:13] And that Marie and I are continuing now and we're in our eighth year. Marie's first husband, Dave, to whom she was married for over 50 years, died one year about a year after my Barbara passed away.

[48:30] So Marie and I are carrying on the tradition of incredible marriage that both of us enjoyed from our former mates. And she had such a passion for the teaching of God's Word and for Christian people having the kind of marriage that Christ died to provide for them.

[48:52] That these two CD sets were birthed and that's what we used the money for and are still using it for. So they're all available back there.

[49:02] All the CDs back there, anything that you're interested in, they're free. If you want to take some and give it to somebody else, I appreciate you handing them out and giving to whomever you will. We've had them placed in different restaurants throughout the area.

[49:16] And for a couple of years, they were available at Collier's and well over a thousand CDs went out of there. People just took them. How many of them listened and benefited from them? We don't know, but only heaven will reveal that.

[49:28] So thank you for your kind attention and if you're interested in any of those, they are there for the taking. We'll be adding more to them later. For the time that we have left, and oh my, we've got a lot of time left because it's only 1020.

[49:47] I knew something I really liked about that clock. I only wish it were so. We're going to talk just a little bit about this cancel culture thing that is inundating our society now.

[50:02] And it is the latest social absurdity that we are dealing with. And there are a number of absurdities in our culture that seem to surface anew and every month.

[50:16] And things are just getting more and more ridiculous. When you look back at when all of this started, and I don't have any, I don't claim any special insight or anything, but all I can say is I was around then and I can remember a couple of things.

[50:34] And I'll tell you when I think it really started, when we really began hitting the skids as a nation and traversing down that hill. And what it has been like is the perpetual snowball that's going downhill.

[50:54] As it moves downhill, it moves faster and it gets bigger. And that's where the U.S. of A. is, in my opinion.

[51:05] Morally and spiritually, we are not going in the right direction. And there are real significant reasons for that. And that is because when our founding fathers put together our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution, they were coming unequivocally, unequivocally, they were coming from a theistic position.

[51:33] That is, they believed there was a God in heaven who was in charge of everything and was someone to whom everyone someday is going to answer.

[51:45] I'm not saying that our founding fathers were all Christians. They were not. They were not. But there was a good percentage of them that were. They had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

[51:57] And it becomes obvious if you just read some of their writings because most of them left voluminous writings behind. And it was easy to tell where they were coming from by what they said.

[52:08] They had that biblical worldview. They didn't understand perhaps much about Scripture as we do today because assets were not available to them back then that are available to us today.

[52:23] But they at least had an unshaken faith and confidence in theism. That is, in the principle that there is a God as opposed to when you put the alpha prefix before theism, you get atheism, which means it negates that which comes after the alpha or the A, which is theism.

[52:46] And atheism, of course, negates theism. It simply says no God. The best of my knowledge, and I'm sure there were more. There were probably quite a few. I don't know.

[52:57] But the most outstanding atheist was Tom Payne. He obviously was a brilliant man intellectually from the standpoint of human brilliance because he wrote some very significant things and was a huge contributor to the United States taking that final step of extracting themselves from the tentacles of Great Britain.

[53:23] And he had published all kinds of literature items and people who read him. He was quite a popular reader. But he was a committed, avowed atheist, one among, I'm sure, not very many.

[53:34] But nonetheless, you've got to understand that governments among men are instituted by God or brought into being by their creator. And we have certain inalienable rights.

[53:46] All of these references point to there is a God. That's changed. That's changed. That's changed. That's changed. That's changed. We embrace that as a nation and as a national mindset for a long, long time.

[54:03] And each generation that came along was taught by the generation preceding it that these things were so. And in our educational institutions, it was even reflected there.

[54:16] And there was no thought of separation of church and state. Some of you don't know this. Actually, I don't know by experience because I'm not that old. But I've seen copies of what was called the old McGuffey Reader.

[54:30] And it was the first textbook that children were given in the first grade. And as they opened that book, they're going to teach the children the alphabet.

[54:46] And do you know what A was? A. A. This was taught to American public school children all over the nation.

[54:57] A is for Adam. In Adam's, and it goes on to say, in Adam's fall, we send all.

[55:09] What? That's a violation of church and state. And that's the noise that we hear today. But that's the kind of mindset that was available then.

[55:22] And people believed it. There were most people, most people of the early pioneers, most of them were not Christians. But they had a healthy respect for those who were.

[55:36] It would never occur to them to be an atheist. They were convinced that there was a God and that one day there would be an answering to Him. And this was not doubted. This was believed pretty much across the board.

[55:47] This was the national mindset. And there was another national mindset. And that is, there is such a thing as right and wrong. There is such a thing as a lie and the truth.

[56:03] These people were committed to that. They lived by that standard. Honesty and integrity was assumed. This was back in the days when a deal was closed with a handshake.

[56:18] Because the people shaking hands had a respect for moral integrity. A man's word was his bond. That's all he needed to do.

[56:28] Say, I will pay you back. That was, you didn't even have to put it in writing. Those days have been long gone. Long gone. We've developed into a, well, years ago I showed a video here.

[56:46] In fact, we got copies of it. I was so impressed with them. We ordered a hundred copies and distributed. And this man, whose name escapes me now, I'll think of it when I wake up from my afternoon nap today.

[57:03] But at any rate, he went around to some of the leading universities and interviewed professors there. And he was in, of all places, I guess you might expect this, in California, the land of fruits and nuts.

[57:16] He was interviewing these teachers and he was asking questions about atheism, whether you believe there is a God, and some related questions to just get their viewpoint and get what they were saying because he wanted to make a case for what is actually being taught in these institutions.

[57:34] And he came to this one lady and she, of course, had the typical PhD and was very learned and this and respected and had tenure and all the rest. And he asked her in the process of his questioning and he says, are you an atheist?

[57:49] And you know what her answer was? Of course. Of course. Not even yes, but of course.

[58:01] And the implication was given and her other answers verified it. Am I an atheist? Well, of course I'm an atheist.

[58:12] How could I possibly be anything else? That's the impression she was giving. Anybody who knows anything has got to be an atheist.

[58:23] That's the only logical explanation for where everything, you know. And this began filtering down, began taking hold.

[58:35] And men like Richard Dawkins have come along and have written best-selling books that have been translated into multiple languages. Richard Dawkins is an intellectually brilliant atheist.

[58:48] But all he has to work with is a human mind. And it has never occurred to him, and it hasn't occurred to a lot of people, that when Adam and Eve fell morally and spiritually and became alienated from God, everything about them fell.

[59:16] Everything. Everything. Including. Their intellect and thinking and reasoning powers. They became damaged just along with everything else about them.

[59:30] And they passed the image on to the next generation, which passed it on to the next generation. It isn't flattering for me to say this.

[59:41] It sounds almost insulting. But you were born with a fallen, skewed, injured intellect.

[59:52] And so was I. And none of us has escaped it. What that means is we do not have the innate ability to assess information and reach a good, solid, truthful conclusion.

[60:09] we don't have that ability. This is why the majority of people turn a deaf and a blind eye, deaf ear and a blind eye to God because they don't have the capacity to reason with that is needed to have a relationship with him.

[60:29] Now this is stark stuff, but I'm convinced that it's true. And it became very obvious as the generations rolled on. The further removed we get from our founding fathers, the more corrupt our culture becomes in its belief systems and in what they accept as valid and true and false and so on.

[60:52] And that really began to show up when a single lady by the name of Madeline Murray O'Hare came on the scene. Who in the world would have ever thought that one woman who claimed to have hatred for a being, she says, didn't exist.

[61:15] It's kind of hard to hate somebody that doesn't exist. But anyway, and by the way, I don't know if you knew about her final endings, but Madeline Murray O'Hare's remains were found cut up, dismembered in a barrel somewhere that someone had done her in.

[61:42] And I don't know that they ever did find a guilty party. And she raised her son, I think it was William, with an atheistic mindset.

[61:57] And I don't know if you're aware of it or not, but after her death, her son, William, came to faith in Christ and has had quite a speaking ministry across the United States.

[62:12] William Murray, yeah, William Murray, I think is his name. You could Google him. If they don't cancel you, you could Google him. But she took this case all the way to the Supreme Court and nobody thought that, you know, the crazy woman trying to outlaw God.

[62:32] Well, it turns out that there were some crazy men on the Supreme Court too. And they ruled that it was a violation of church and state to have prayer in the public schools.

[62:47] And I remember when I was a kid in school, I was a little pagan. I didn't have a relationship with Christ and didn't even know such a thing existed. But I could still remember, I could still remember leading the class in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag and the Lord's Prayer that we would go through and recite that and the 23rd Psalm.

[63:09] And of course, that's all considered a violation of church and state. So that's out. And then, the next thing you know, became prayer in schools. Now, what I'm saying is, the further removed we get from our founding fathers and the principles under which they drafted the Constitution, the more and more aberrant our culture becomes.

[63:34] So we're to the place now where positions are being taken and legally enforced. about sexual identity.

[63:49] And if you don't like being the sex you are, you've got every right and the reason and every reason you need to change your sex and say, I am no longer a man, I am a woman.

[64:02] And buddy, you better refer to me as she and her or you're going to be in trouble. You will be offending me. Now, this is beyond crazy.

[64:16] Same-sex marriage, gender alteration, has the world gone nuts? Yes! Yes, they have!

[64:29] What is our response to this? Now, it's to the place of where, you know, not too many years ago, and I'm old enough that I can remember this, that Christians and Christianity and church, et cetera, was respected, often admired, even by people who didn't go, who didn't attend.

[64:50] They often admired those who did and commended them for us. Not for me, understand, but I'm glad you go. It's fine. Church is great. Oh, yes, that's wonderful. Prayer, oh, yes, that's great. But that's, Christianity is becoming more and more ostracized.

[65:13] We are becoming less and less tolerated, and I don't think we've seen anything yet. If this thing doesn't turn around, and the only thing that will turn around is a major revival, and I have my doubts.

[65:28] I'd be wonderful if we see that, but I'm not counting on it. So, what is our results? What are we supposed to do? What is our pushback? Some think Christians aren't supposed to have a pushback.

[65:42] What you're supposed to do is roll over and play dead. You are not to oppose. You are not to fight. And by the way, what do you think Paul meant when he wrote his last letter to Timothy, and he knew that his execution was perhaps hours away, and he told his young protege, I have fought a good fight.

[66:12] I have kept the faith. What do you think that meant? What was Paul fighting? There is no indication that this man ever took up a weapon, a club, a knife, a sword, ever attacked anyone?

[66:28] What was he fighting? He was fighting error. He was fighting untruth. He was fighting lies. He was fighting indecency.

[66:40] He was fighting against all of those things that the scriptures clearly forbid. And why does God give us all of these do's and don'ts? You know why? Because God loves you.

[66:53] God gives us parameters for living because he knows if we get outside of those parameters, we get hurt. We get hurt. We get injured.

[67:04] God loves people. That's why he gave us rules to go by. That's why we have a Bible. Because apart from it, we don't know straight up. But God gives us his scoop.

[67:16] He gives us his assessment. And when we line ourselves with his, we get the results that we want. And when we go against him, there's a price to pay. And by the way, there is a price to pay.

[67:31] You know, we all expect to pay a price, a penalty. We expect, we expect some kind of punishment come our way when we do wrong.

[67:47] That's called justice. You deserve it. You did thus and so and thus and so. Now you're going to pay the price and it might be a fine. It might be jail. It might be whatever. But the guilty are supposed to be punished.

[68:00] That's the way it works. But Christians are in a unique element whereby you may be punished for being right.

[68:13] You may be punished for doing right. You don't have to do wrong to get punished. Peter talked about that in his second epistle about those who suffer ill for doing right.

[68:24] Suffer wrong for doing right. That may very well be what we're going to be up against. And I think the screws are tightening. Christians, Christianity, churches, whatever you want to call it, the religious aspect is being more and more marginalized.

[68:41] And let me tell you something. unless there is a radical change spiritually by way of revival, that marginalization we are seeing is going to really pick up steam.

[69:01] You may very well be amazed at what society thinks of us Christians just one year from now.

[69:15] Hard to think that believers in Christ in this country could ever be looked upon with disdain or be marginalized or be simply unwelcome in a lot of places.

[69:32] That may very well be what we're in for. So what do we do? I've got one verse of scripture for you. I've given it to you before. I wish I knew better what to do with it.

[69:44] I'm trying but I haven't come to the conclusion that's needed and I want to close with this. It's in Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 5. You've heard it before. We've got these choices.

[69:57] We can roll over and play dead or we can push back. We can double down. I told a group not long ago, I don't think we need to double down with our Christianity.

[70:10] I think we need to triple down. I think the time for proclaiming the truth and insisting upon the gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ is more critical now than it has ever been.

[70:24] And when Paul wrote to the Ephesians, understand, he is writing to a group of people who were a former bunch of pagans, polytheistic worshippers, worshipped multiple gods.

[70:37] And Paul went there and won these people to Christ and now he's writing back to them and in chapter 5 he says in verse 8, well I'm sorry, we probably need to start with verse, well, I'll have to start with verse 8.

[70:51] You were formerly darkness. He's talking about spiritual darkness. You were formerly darkness but now, but now, as opposed to then, you are light in the Lord.

[71:03] Walk as children of light. How did they move from darkness to light? They came in contact with Jesus Christ who is the light of the world. He regenerated them, saved them, gave them a new passion, a new idea, new interest, new everything and now, they are children of light.

[71:21] For the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. what is pleasing.

[71:33] Do you realize our living here in this world, let's face it, in our self-centeredness, our big number one objective is to please ourself.

[71:48] Any dispute about that? I mean, we're all infected with that self-centered bug, all of us. we want to please ourself. But when you come to personal faith in Jesus Christ, you're not running the show anymore.

[72:04] You're no longer the master. He is. Your objective is to please Him. Matter of fact, the very best way that you can look out for your own best interests, more than anything else, is to be pleasing to the Lord.

[72:21] That's the way to look out for number one. Be pleasing to the Lord. Trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. And do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness.

[72:36] This is spiritual, moral darkness. And Paul says, don't get caught up in that. It's a dead-end street. All it does is injure and kill people.

[72:50] But instead, even expose them. Well, I'll tell you what, the time has come when you can't expose them on Facebook.

[73:02] You can't expose them on Google. You know why? That would be hate speech. Yeah, that would be hate speech.

[73:13] To say that Jesus Christ is God's only provision for man to come into a right relationship with himself is to eliminate every other way as bogus and that's hate speech.

[73:31] That's exactly how it's interpreted and that's how it's going to be interpreted. Truth be told, there is no greater expression of love that you can give anyone.

[73:42] and it's turned into hate speech. Little wonder the prophet said, I think it was Jeremiah, woe unto those who call evil good and good evil.

[74:04] That's where we are. that's where we are right now. That's what we are called upon to stand against and expose.

[74:17] And if you do it, you're going to pay a price. Ostracism? Criticism? How many people have lost their position, professional positions, because they were on the wrong side?

[74:36] How many godly nurses lost their job because they wouldn't participate in an abortion? That's just the beginning.

[74:50] More of this is coming and what I want you to keep in mind and the time is coming when you may look at your mate and say, you know what? I think this is what Marv was talking about and that is the rapidity with which these things are going to continue apace.

[75:10] And every month it's going to be something else that is going to make the Christian and the cause of Christ look darker and darker and darker.

[75:22] You can expect it. You've been warned. It's coming. The scriptures predict it. I don't know that this we are experiencing now and what may be coming.

[75:36] I don't know that that is what the prophecy is talking about in the end time and Christian persecution and everything. All I'm saying is I wouldn't be a bit surprised if it is. I don't know that and I'm not predicting that.

[75:48] Maybe the ultimate persecution that Christians are going to suffer is a hundred years from now. and it may also be knocking at our door as we speak.

[76:02] Would you stand please? We'll be dismissed. Father, we've been talking about some really solemn things and they are things that impinge upon our will and our conscience and our responsibility.

[76:21] And our prayer for these dear folks here at Grace Bible Church and for those listening via electronics is that there may be a recommitment, a rededication, a determination to be in the center of your will and if there is a price that is to be paid for being there, so be it.

[76:43] We need men and women of that caliber. we can only pray that they will rise to the occasion because the occasion will be coming.

[76:55] Thank you so much for every gracious provision you've already made for us and for the fact that you have told us in advance in the world we will have tribulation.

[77:10] But despite that, we are to be a good chair because you have overcome the world. How grateful we are for that and we want to take that overcoming and publish it and preach it and proclaim it everywhere we can.

[77:24] We thank you for the privilege doing so. We do so because we love our fellow human beings and we can identify with them because we at one time were right where they are now.

[77:39]  Give us, we pray, the courage that's needed in Christ's name. Amen.