Transcript: Episode 0025

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Welcome to the Stone Choir Podcast.

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I am Cori James Moller...

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and I am woe.

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Blessed are those who are perfect in the way,

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who walk in the law of the Lord.

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Blessed are those who keep his testimonies,

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who seek Him with the whole heart.

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Yea, they do know unrighteousness.

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They walk in His ways.

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You have commanded, Your precepts,

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we should observe them diligently.

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O that my ways were established, to observe Your statutes.

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Then shall I not be put to shame, when I look to all Your commandments.

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I will give thanks to You, with uprightness of heart,

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when I learn Your righteous judgments.

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I will observe Your statutes, do not forsake me utterly.

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How shall a young man cleanse his way?

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By taking heed according to Your word.

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With my whole heart have I sought You.

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Let me not wander from Your commandments.

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Your word have I laid up in my heart.

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That I might not sin against You.

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Blessed are You, O Lord.

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Teach me Your statutes.

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With my lips have I declared, all the ordinances of Your mouth.

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I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies.

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As much as in all riches.

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I will meditate on Your precepts, and look to Your ways.

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I will delight myself in Your statutes.

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I will not forget Your word.

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Those were the first two sections of Psalm 119,

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which is the longest Psalm in the Bible.

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There's some beautiful structure to it,

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and it's really almost a book unto itself.

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The reason that we opened with that

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is that those first two sections in particular

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are a testimony to the fact that the Christian life

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is one of following the precepts of God,

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which is something that is alien

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to the way a lot of Christians talk today.

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Last week, we spoke at length about the fact

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that all sins are not equal,

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because that is one of the first arguments

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that is used against the notion of saying

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something is a sin, or that we should stop sinning.

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Fundamentally, what we're talking about last week

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and this week is about the different ways

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that Satan tries to trick Christians

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into ceasing to speak as Christians,

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which in turn is ceasing to be Christian.

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So today, our discussion has moved on

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from all sins not being equal

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to a couple different things.

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One is the follow-on doctrine that comes out of that,

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which is judge not.

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Now, the way it's used in the world today

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is fundamentally satanic,

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but we have to make the case for that

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because judge not is literally a quote from Jesus.

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So one of the tricks that gets played

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by Satan himself in scripture when he quotes scripture

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is that he will say things that are true

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and yet twist them in ways that are false.

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And so as Christians, we know that in Matthew 7,

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Jesus said, judge not,

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and the world is redefining, is exegeting that for us

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in a way that's completely contrary to scripture.

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So today, we're going to be talking about

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what it means for Christians to judge

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or to refrain from judging.

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And in the second part of this episode,

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we're going to be talking about what Lutherans

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call the third use of the law and the manner

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in which all of these things come into play

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where Christians say, well, yeah, there's that law stuff,

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but I live in the gospel now, I'm free.

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And so I guess what the Bible says doesn't matter.

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And that's kind of where some people end up

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and they don't necessarily phrase it that way,

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but fundamentally that's where their version

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of Christianity takes them.

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And so when a person comes along

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and says, hey, scripture said, we should do X, Y, and Z,

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they fire right back.

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What are you saying?

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Your sins are better than mine?

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That I'm a worse sinner?

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Are you judging me?

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And so we have to deal with these piecemeal

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so that we can show the whole picture

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in which Satan tricks Christians

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into saying things that sound Christian

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in a way that fundamentally destroys Christianity.

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And I think that's one of the chief things

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that's the hardest for us to deal with

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is the idea that's in all of our heads

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that I'm a Christian, so what I think must be Christian,

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because I have a clean conscience.

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I read the Bible sometimes, I go to church most of the time,

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I pay attention, I believe it.

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So whatever I think about, whatever we're talking about,

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I must be right, because I'm a Christian.

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And that's an incredibly dangerous place to be

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because it's entirely possible to be a Christian

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and to have a malformed conscience.

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That's one of the things that scripture talks about,

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to dwell on God's teachings and his precepts

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so that we understand the ways of God.

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Because when he says, my ways are not your ways

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and my thoughts are not your thoughts, that's part of it.

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These things that God tells us to do,

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they're not instinct for a human.

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We're fallen sinful men, we naturally rebel against God.

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And even in our sanctified nature where we're given faith,

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there's still part of us that's constantly fighting it.

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And so Satan pits the part of the Christian soul

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that wants to fight God against the part

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that wants to follow God.

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And we have to listen to scripture,

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we have to listen to the thing that's outside of us

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to determine which part of us we should follow.

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Even with our conscience,

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we would never advocate that you disobey your conscience

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if you disagree with something that we say,

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but at the same time,

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if we make an argument for your conscience being malformed,

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I would hope that people would take that seriously

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wherever it comes from, if it's a credible source,

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because the Christian conscience is a powerful thing

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in the Christian's mind and in his heart.

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If your conscience says this is sin,

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for you to do it is sin.

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And James, I think James 417, I believe is where that's found.

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That's true, but it's also the case

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that your conscience can be malformed by false teachings,

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by the world.

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And so what you believe to be sin,

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which would be sinful for you if you did it,

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because you would think you were sinning,

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is in fact not sin, that happens sometimes.

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And more and more we're seeing in the world,

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things like racism and sexism

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and some of the other topics we've addressed recently,

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those are worldly sins that are imported

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into Christian consciences.

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And so when the Christian says,

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I can't do that because that would be sin,

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there's an immediate concern to figure out,

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well, is that actually true?

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Which is why we did those episodes.

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But as we talk about whether or not we can judge,

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as we talk about whether or not certain sins

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are worse than others,

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as we talk about whether God's instruction

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has any meaning for the Christian in the Christian life,

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it's fundamentally about informing our consciences

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according to God's will.

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Not according to a podcaster

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or necessarily even a sermon,

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but according to what is coming from God's word.

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And whatever you hear, if it's informative,

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if it's Christian teaching,

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it should be coming from God's word.

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But it's God's word that must be paramount.

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That is what has the sole authority

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to inform your conscience.

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Your television doesn't have the authority

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to inform your conscience.

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Your nagging spouse doesn't have the authority

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to inform your conscience.

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They will, and they do,

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because that's how human beings work.

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But a malformed conscience

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is one of the worst nightmares for a Christian

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because you think you're acting in good faith

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and in good conscience,

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when in fact you're acting sinfully.

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And I think the first example

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that we're gonna discuss is from Matthew seven,

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is part of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.

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When he says, judge not,

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the discussion there goes directly to the heart

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of what the world tells us about this.

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I'll just read that briefly

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and then we'll get into talking about it.

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Judge not, that you be not judged.

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For with the judgment you pronounce,

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you will be judged.

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And with the measure you use,

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it will be measured to you.

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Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye,

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but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

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Or how can you say to your brother,

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let me take that speck out of your eye

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when there is a log in your own eye?

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You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye

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and then you will see clearly

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to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

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Do not give dogs what is holy

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and do not throw your pearls before pigs,

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lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

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The reason I included that last verse

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is because I think the superficial reading of judge not,

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they were handed by the world

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and increasingly by some of our own pastors,

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is defied by what I think is verse six,

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do not give the dogs what is holy

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and do not cast your pearls before swine.

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If you take the world,

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it's exegesis of this passage at face value,

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that judge not means you can't judge anyone or anything.

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How can you then follow the next passage

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that says do not give dogs what is holy?

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The only way a Christian can know

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that someone is a dog or someone is a swine

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or that they're going to trample underfoot

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when you speak to them and turn and attack you

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is to judge them.

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So regardless of what that second passage means,

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we're not gonna talk about the meaning of that.

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Simply the fact that it's present

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and immediately follows the passage about judge not

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demonstrates clearly that the idea

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that you cannot judge means you cannot discern

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one thing from another or you cannot say

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that one thing is evil and another thing is not

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is false on its face.

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Jesus could not have said this in this context

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by that reading unless he was an idiot.

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He would have been telling the people

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who were listening and to us,

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do not give dogs what is holy,

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but don't judge who's a dog.

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You can't do that.

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That would be sin and then don't do this other thing.

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No.

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So just right out of the gate,

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the very context of this passage makes clear

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that everything you've been told that says judge not

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means hey man, just back off.

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You can't believe this too strongly.

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You can't condemn someone's sins.

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The very passage itself completely eliminates

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that sort of exegesis from any possible reading.

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There's a sort of inversion actually of this

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that happens in politics,

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particularly on the right wing

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and particularly amongst Christians.

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We make hypocrisy out to be everything.

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We always try to play a gotcha game with a politician

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or a public figure being a hypocrite about something.

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And then we turn around and ignore it

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in scripture in Matthew seven.

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Now in politics, someone being a hypocrite

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is not a very effective charge for a number of reasons

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at the discussion for another time,

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but here the central issue is that hypocrisy.

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And that should be obvious by the last sentence

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of Christ's words in the first part

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of this little section of Matthew.

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You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye,

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et cetera.

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The issue is that hypocrisy,

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if you are judging others,

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if you are condemning others for a sin,

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acting holier than thou,

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while you yourself are committing the same type of sin,

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you are being a rank hypocrite.

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And that's the issue here.

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So if you're engaged in an adulterous relationship

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and you spend all your time teaching

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against sexual immorality,

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this section is for you.

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So Christians do have to judge,

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of course we have to judge.

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God's law wouldn't be worth anything to us

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and we'll of course get into the law more

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in the next part of this episode,

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but God's law wouldn't be worth anything to us

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if we couldn't judge at all.

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What would you do with the law

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if you couldn't judge if something is or is not adultery,

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if it's not sexual immorality,

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or if it is sexual immorality?

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The sixth commandment wouldn't be any good to you.

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How can you judge whether or not something is slander,

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whether it runs afoul of the eighth commandment?

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If you can't judge whether or not someone

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is being slanderous, being a defamer.

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Christians have to judge,

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and there are other verses in scripture

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that instruct us to judge.

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We'll get into those in a little bit,

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but the issue here for judge not that you be not judged

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is clearly given in the second verse.

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The judgment you pronounce, if you're being a hypocrite,

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if you are committing the very sin you are condemning,

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you are going to be condemned with your own words

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because you are a hypocrite.

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And so Christians do have to judge,

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but the issue is not being a hypocritical judge,

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not being a faithless judge, not being an unjust judge.

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In the question of hypocrisy is also one of degrees of sin.

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Hypocrisy doesn't necessarily just mean

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I'm committing sexual sin and I accuse you of sexual sin,

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so that's hypocrisy.

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Maybe I'm a murderer and you're an adulterer.

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Murder is worse than adultery.

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If you know, like that's a prosperous example,

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like as sins are ranked and as sins are known

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in a community, the hypocrisy itself becomes corrosive

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because if someone comes along and says,

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hey, you need to stop what you're doing,

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and I know that you're doing something similar,

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you're doing something maybe worse,

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I'm not going to be able to receive

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that Christian admonition because of the hypocrisy.

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So the sin itself that you are committing

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by being a hypocrite is corrosive to my sanctification

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because if I am sinning and I'm sinning

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in a way that needs to be rebuked,

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I am less likely to receive the rebuke

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in a Christian fashion because of the hypocrisy.

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And so it's fundamentally destructive

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to the use of the law in the Christian life

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for someone to judge hypocritically.

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It separates the two people.

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They're no longer being Christian brothers,

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but one is being an accuser of the other,

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and that's a demolition of what should be the natural order

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inside the Christian congregation.

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And that actually ties right into one of the verses

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that tells us that we do in fact have to judge

14:54.900 --> 14:56.460
from 1 Corinthians 5,

14:56.460 --> 14:59.340
for what have I to do with judging outsiders?

14:59.340 --> 15:03.240
Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?

15:03.240 --> 15:04.820
God judges those outside,

15:04.820 --> 15:06.840
purge the evil person from among you.

15:07.780 --> 15:09.780
And so here we are commanded as Christians

15:09.780 --> 15:12.600
to judge specifically to judge fellow Christians.

15:13.500 --> 15:15.300
Part of this, of course, is going to be

15:15.300 --> 15:18.060
so that we can rebuke them from the law

15:18.060 --> 15:20.100
when they transgress, when they are living in sin,

15:20.100 --> 15:22.180
because if we do not do that,

15:22.180 --> 15:25.140
we are not behaving properly as brothers.

15:25.140 --> 15:28.140
Brothers are to look out for and to care for each other.

15:28.140 --> 15:29.620
The answer to the cry of Cain,

15:29.620 --> 15:30.700
am I my brother's keeper?

15:30.700 --> 15:33.620
Is yes, yes you are, you are your brother's keeper.

15:35.220 --> 15:36.880
And so if you cannot judge,

15:36.880 --> 15:41.000
if the world's supposed interpretation of Matthew 7

15:41.000 --> 15:43.880
is that Christians are never allowed to judge,

15:43.880 --> 15:46.240
how can you possibly rebuke a brother,

15:46.240 --> 15:47.480
according to scripture,

15:47.480 --> 15:50.800
which instructs you to rebuke a brother who is in sin?

15:50.800 --> 15:52.080
How can you do that?

15:53.040 --> 15:55.240
If you cannot judge what he is doing,

15:55.240 --> 15:56.600
and further, if you cannot discern

15:56.600 --> 15:58.200
what the law actually means,

15:58.200 --> 16:01.440
what the law instructs him to do in that scenario,

16:01.440 --> 16:03.800
what it instructs you to do in that scenario,

16:03.800 --> 16:06.400
you must as a Christian be able to judge

16:06.400 --> 16:09.860
in order to do the things that scripture instructs you to do.

16:09.900 --> 16:13.980
And so the world's isegesis of Matthew 7

16:13.980 --> 16:18.060
is indeed very clearly isegesis, not exegesis.

16:18.060 --> 16:20.540
It is a deliberate misinterpretation.

16:20.540 --> 16:24.460
It is a malicious interpretation of Jesus' words

16:24.460 --> 16:27.900
in order to get you not to act as a Christian,

16:27.900 --> 16:30.460
in order to get you not to rebuke your brother

16:30.460 --> 16:31.860
when he is in sin,

16:31.860 --> 16:34.020
in order to get you not to care for your brother

16:34.020 --> 16:36.300
by putting him back on the straight and narrow,

16:36.300 --> 16:38.780
in order to get you not to rebuke the world,

16:38.820 --> 16:43.820
which is living in heinous sin, growing worse by the day,

16:43.820 --> 16:45.300
because if you cannot judge,

16:46.860 --> 16:49.020
then you cannot actually apply the law.

16:49.020 --> 16:51.900
You cannot use God's law to rebuke sin,

16:51.900 --> 16:54.380
which is one of the things that Christians must do

16:54.380 --> 16:55.700
in this life.

16:55.700 --> 16:57.140
And that includes our own sin,

16:57.140 --> 17:00.780
which is fundamentally what's upstream from all of this.

17:00.780 --> 17:05.140
See, if all sins are equal, and if you can't judge anyone,

17:05.140 --> 17:07.780
eventually, if you adopt those beliefs

17:07.820 --> 17:10.860
as your core beliefs as a so-called Christian,

17:11.780 --> 17:13.500
Satan's gonna pay you into a corner

17:13.500 --> 17:15.820
where you're gonna be at the point where you aren't,

17:15.820 --> 17:17.380
you're gonna convince yourself

17:17.380 --> 17:19.900
that you can't actually tell if you're sinning.

17:19.900 --> 17:21.560
See, never mind what the other guy's doing,

17:21.560 --> 17:22.580
I'm not gonna be a hypocrite,

17:22.580 --> 17:24.580
I'm never gonna confront anyone else,

17:24.580 --> 17:26.900
but I'm not even sure if I'm sinning anymore.

17:26.900 --> 17:31.180
Sure, I'm doing something that used to be said was terrible,

17:31.180 --> 17:33.740
but I can judge, and no one can judge me,

17:33.740 --> 17:35.540
no one can be a judge over me.

17:35.580 --> 17:40.300
So if I'm not even sure if I'm sinning anymore,

17:40.300 --> 17:41.780
Satan's got you.

17:41.780 --> 17:45.660
That is the death of the Holy Spirit in your soul.

17:45.660 --> 17:48.100
That is you driving out the Holy Spirit

17:48.100 --> 17:49.060
by these little things,

17:49.060 --> 17:51.780
by these things that are seemingly small errors,

17:51.780 --> 17:55.380
where some people think that maybe you're quibbling.

17:55.380 --> 17:57.660
If you say, all sins are not equal,

17:57.660 --> 17:59.160
that's actually a big deal.

17:59.160 --> 18:00.980
Judge not, what are we doing,

18:00.980 --> 18:02.660
saying actually you should judge?

18:03.420 --> 18:05.660
You're a hypocrite, you're a sinner, right?

18:05.660 --> 18:07.000
Cory and I are sinners, right?

18:07.000 --> 18:10.700
So how can we tell someone to judge or not to judge?

18:10.700 --> 18:13.300
As soon as you go down the path of saying,

18:13.300 --> 18:16.820
well, it's you versus me and there's finger pointing,

18:16.820 --> 18:18.860
what has gone away?

18:18.860 --> 18:20.220
Scripture has gone away.

18:20.220 --> 18:23.420
What God has commanded us to do has gone away.

18:23.420 --> 18:26.380
And that's how all of this plays out in our lives.

18:26.380 --> 18:28.100
Because if you circle the wagons and you say,

18:28.100 --> 18:29.480
I'm not gonna go after anybody else

18:29.480 --> 18:30.940
because that would be a bridge too far,

18:30.940 --> 18:32.180
I don't wanna judge.

18:32.220 --> 18:34.860
Eventually you're gonna stop judging your own sins.

18:34.860 --> 18:37.420
And that's the Christian conscience.

18:37.420 --> 18:39.580
Your conscience is for the Christian,

18:39.580 --> 18:41.860
the Holy Spirit speaking inside you

18:41.860 --> 18:44.940
and saying what I am doing is sinful.

18:44.940 --> 18:47.700
Turn away from this, go pray,

18:47.700 --> 18:51.000
leave the room, leave the state, whatever I have to do.

18:51.000 --> 18:54.220
I need to separate from this evil and flee from it.

18:54.220 --> 18:56.880
Flee from temptation and flee from evil.

18:56.880 --> 18:59.460
Well, if I can't even tell what sin is anymore,

18:59.460 --> 19:00.980
how am I gonna know to run?

19:01.020 --> 19:03.500
And besides, I'm still a Christian, so I'll be all right.

19:03.500 --> 19:05.180
I'm living in Christian freedom.

19:05.180 --> 19:07.300
So what could possibly go wrong?

19:07.300 --> 19:09.320
I'm baptized, Jesus died for me.

19:10.340 --> 19:11.780
The further you go down that path,

19:11.780 --> 19:15.940
the easier it is to just gobble up all the evil in the world

19:15.940 --> 19:17.900
and to say, yeah, this is mine.

19:17.900 --> 19:19.980
And eventually you're just gonna forget about God.

19:19.980 --> 19:22.140
It won't be an act of repudiation,

19:22.140 --> 19:23.980
like some Reddit atheist.

19:23.980 --> 19:26.020
You're just gonna think that you belong to Jesus

19:26.020 --> 19:28.100
and you're a Christian and you'll quit caring

19:28.100 --> 19:30.540
about what any of those words actually mean.

19:31.660 --> 19:35.020
In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul again amplifies that.

19:35.020 --> 19:37.460
When one of you has a grievance against another,

19:37.460 --> 19:40.140
does he dare go to the law before the unrighteous

19:40.140 --> 19:41.740
instead of the saints?

19:41.740 --> 19:44.460
Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world?

19:44.460 --> 19:46.620
And if the world is to be judged by you,

19:46.620 --> 19:49.820
are you incompetent to try trivial cases?

19:49.820 --> 19:52.140
Do you not know that we are to judge angels?

19:52.140 --> 19:55.180
How much more then matters pertaining to this life?

19:55.180 --> 19:56.620
So if you have such cases,

19:56.620 --> 19:58.020
why do you lay them before those

19:58.020 --> 20:00.760
who have no standing in the church?

20:00.760 --> 20:05.280
So this on its face completely eliminates

20:05.280 --> 20:08.600
the question of whether or not Christians are to judge.

20:08.600 --> 20:11.920
We are absolutely to judge, we are commanded to.

20:11.920 --> 20:13.840
We have no choice.

20:13.840 --> 20:15.480
And the second thing I wanna highlight in here,

20:15.480 --> 20:17.560
which goes to something Corey was saying,

20:17.560 --> 20:20.240
is that this in particular is also talking

20:20.240 --> 20:22.440
about church discipline.

20:22.440 --> 20:26.120
It's not talking about an individual having a grievance

20:26.120 --> 20:30.080
and going and accusing someone directly.

20:30.080 --> 20:32.720
Now, Matthew 18 says if you have a problem

20:32.720 --> 20:34.480
with someone, you go to them first.

20:34.480 --> 20:37.760
This is talking about the next step of Matthew 18.

20:37.760 --> 20:39.760
First Corinthians six is talking about

20:39.760 --> 20:41.080
if you have a problem with someone,

20:41.080 --> 20:43.580
you've gone to them privately, you take it to the church.

20:43.580 --> 20:45.500
You don't try to judge it yourself.

20:45.500 --> 20:47.380
You say, look, as a Christian body,

20:47.380 --> 20:49.320
we need to deal with this together

20:49.320 --> 20:51.420
because it's what Christ commands.

20:51.420 --> 20:54.120
So this is important because again,

20:54.120 --> 20:56.480
it goes to the question of how are you to judge

20:56.480 --> 20:59.120
whether or not the church is to judge?

20:59.120 --> 21:01.880
Even if you say that the church collectively

21:01.880 --> 21:04.560
has the right to judge these matters, which is true.

21:04.560 --> 21:06.480
The only way something can be brought

21:06.480 --> 21:08.240
before the church righteously

21:08.240 --> 21:10.360
is if you individually have judged it privately

21:10.360 --> 21:13.680
to be a matter to be brought before the church.

21:13.680 --> 21:16.400
Do you see what happens if you say you can't judge?

21:16.400 --> 21:18.360
If you can't know if something's sin,

21:18.360 --> 21:21.400
how can you even obey the Bible and bring it

21:21.400 --> 21:23.640
to the church, to the elders or to whoever

21:23.640 --> 21:27.360
to address a sin between you and another believer?

21:27.400 --> 21:29.340
It's only possible if you're capable

21:29.340 --> 21:32.960
of actually discerning God's law, obeying God's commands

21:32.960 --> 21:34.480
and confronting evil where it's found,

21:34.480 --> 21:36.660
even when it's found within the church.

21:36.660 --> 21:39.040
To give one more verse that relates

21:39.040 --> 21:41.960
to the very clear requirement,

21:41.960 --> 21:44.540
the duty of Christians to judge other Christians

21:44.540 --> 21:49.080
and to rebuke them when they sin, Luke 17.3,

21:49.080 --> 21:50.880
pay attention to yourselves.

21:50.880 --> 21:53.480
If your brother sins, rebuke him.

21:53.480 --> 21:55.600
And if he repents, forgive him.

21:56.600 --> 22:00.600
Again, if the world's supposed interpretation

22:00.600 --> 22:03.160
of judge not as accurate, there's no way

22:03.160 --> 22:06.360
to know if your brother sins.

22:06.360 --> 22:09.180
Because if you determine that he has sinned,

22:09.180 --> 22:12.520
you are judging what he did to have been a sin.

22:13.960 --> 22:16.360
And if you cannot judge that he has sinned,

22:16.360 --> 22:18.640
then you cannot rebuke him.

22:18.640 --> 22:21.560
So very clearly, what the world says

22:21.560 --> 22:23.360
about judge not cannot be true

22:23.400 --> 22:26.720
because scripture does not conflict with scripture.

22:26.720 --> 22:29.720
Scripture is not going to tell you to do two things

22:29.720 --> 22:32.640
that cannot be done simultaneously.

22:32.640 --> 22:34.440
Scripture is going to tell you to do things

22:34.440 --> 22:37.240
that you cannot do because in your fallen state,

22:37.240 --> 22:39.320
you cannot uphold the law.

22:39.320 --> 22:42.000
But scripture is not going to tell you to do A

22:42.000 --> 22:44.880
and not A at the same time.

22:44.880 --> 22:46.800
And so scripture is not going to tell you,

22:46.800 --> 22:49.140
you cannot ever judge, you can never judge anyone,

22:49.140 --> 22:50.780
you can never judge anything.

22:50.780 --> 22:52.760
You have to stay in your own lane,

22:52.800 --> 22:54.720
you have to ignore these other sins.

22:54.720 --> 22:56.920
It's not your place to judge.

22:56.920 --> 23:00.600
And then turn around and tell you here in Luke and elsewhere,

23:00.600 --> 23:02.800
rebuke your brother when he sins.

23:02.800 --> 23:05.080
That's telling you to judge.

23:05.080 --> 23:08.240
So you must be able to judge what is sin.

23:08.240 --> 23:12.480
You must be able to judge the actions of fellow Christians

23:12.480 --> 23:13.640
in order to rebuke them.

23:13.640 --> 23:16.680
And then if they repent, forgive them.

23:16.680 --> 23:18.880
Part of the reason why it's so important

23:18.920 --> 23:23.760
to get this right is that going to a brother in Christ

23:23.760 --> 23:25.840
privately and saying, you are sinning,

23:25.840 --> 23:28.680
whether you've sinned against me or you're sinning

23:28.680 --> 23:31.760
in some other contexts that I become aware of.

23:31.760 --> 23:33.400
When someone comes to you privately

23:33.400 --> 23:35.280
or perhaps it's gone beyond that

23:35.280 --> 23:37.160
and it's a matter of some church discipline

23:37.160 --> 23:40.440
where the church elders or whomever else are coming to you

23:40.440 --> 23:41.920
as a group and saying,

23:41.920 --> 23:45.160
what you are doing is sinful, you need to repent.

23:45.160 --> 23:48.560
The reason it's so important to get everything up front right

23:48.560 --> 23:51.760
is that our natural inclination is to shout hypocrite.

23:51.760 --> 23:53.200
It's to say, judge not.

23:53.200 --> 23:56.600
As soon as the light is shown on your sins,

23:56.600 --> 23:58.880
that's exactly where your heart's gonna go.

23:58.880 --> 24:00.800
And it's gonna say, how dare you judge me?

24:00.800 --> 24:02.520
Aren't you a sinner too?

24:02.520 --> 24:04.960
And Jesus is teaching us these things

24:04.960 --> 24:08.240
so that when we are confronted with our own sins,

24:08.240 --> 24:11.120
our first response is not additional sin.

24:11.120 --> 24:14.640
Whenever anyone comes to you, whether they're right or wrong,

24:14.640 --> 24:16.040
and we're gonna talk about that in a second,

24:16.560 --> 24:21.320
but simply the fact that someone would come to you privately

24:21.320 --> 24:26.320
or in a court with Matthew 18 to admonish you of your sin,

24:28.080 --> 24:31.080
per se, that is a Christian act.

24:31.080 --> 24:34.240
Now, what's going on behind the scenes may not be.

24:34.240 --> 24:36.320
And so there are things that you may know

24:36.320 --> 24:38.400
that may change the context of it,

24:38.400 --> 24:40.640
but by itself, by default,

24:40.640 --> 24:43.160
the simple fact that a Christian would approach you privately

24:43.160 --> 24:45.600
and say, hey man, I'm concerned for your soul,

24:45.600 --> 24:47.400
I'm concerned about what you're doing.

24:47.400 --> 24:50.560
Can we talk about what I think is a sin in your life?

24:50.560 --> 24:54.520
Your first response must necessarily be humility.

24:54.520 --> 24:58.520
It must be to listen and to receive that humbly.

24:58.520 --> 25:00.800
Even if they're wrong, your first response

25:00.800 --> 25:03.920
can be to get your hackles up and to say let's fight

25:03.920 --> 25:08.920
because if you're wrong and you are sinning

25:09.320 --> 25:11.420
and they're admonishing you appropriately,

25:11.420 --> 25:14.160
you're going to resist their admonition.

25:14.200 --> 25:18.400
If you're right and they were falsely accusing you of sin,

25:18.400 --> 25:20.160
you've still set the wrong tone

25:20.160 --> 25:23.300
by eliminating the possibility that sin could be confronted

25:23.300 --> 25:25.900
because what will happen in some cases,

25:25.900 --> 25:28.880
someone will come to you and accuse you of racism

25:28.880 --> 25:32.200
or sexism, one of these other made up modern sins

25:32.200 --> 25:35.160
that is not a sin against God, whatever it is,

25:35.160 --> 25:37.920
whatever has occurred, if someone comes to you

25:37.920 --> 25:40.840
and says I'm concerned about you, which is Christian,

25:40.840 --> 25:41.960
it is Christian to be concerned

25:41.960 --> 25:43.360
about the souls of our brothers.

25:43.400 --> 25:45.080
We should all have that concern.

25:45.080 --> 25:47.240
That is the Christian part of that.

25:47.240 --> 25:50.440
If their conscience is malformed,

25:50.440 --> 25:53.280
if they are adopting false, worldly beliefs

25:53.280 --> 25:56.480
into their own version of Christianity

25:56.480 --> 25:58.520
and then holding you to a moral standard,

25:58.520 --> 26:02.720
the scripture does not hold, you have to be patient

26:02.720 --> 26:05.200
and you have to understand that they're coming to you

26:05.200 --> 26:07.820
in Christian concern, in some cases,

26:07.820 --> 26:10.360
there may be unbelievers who will do the same things

26:10.360 --> 26:12.480
and that's another matter for discernment.

26:12.480 --> 26:14.520
You may have someone who's an absolute liar

26:14.520 --> 26:17.600
who's using these things as a weapon to destroy you

26:17.600 --> 26:20.520
and to drive you from the church because they are evil

26:20.520 --> 26:23.800
and they do not want you to be where God wants you.

26:23.800 --> 26:26.720
So all of these things may happen

26:26.720 --> 26:28.900
but the first default response of anyone

26:28.900 --> 26:31.320
in the situation of being confronted

26:31.320 --> 26:36.320
cannot be resistance and rebuke and refutation.

26:36.640 --> 26:40.440
However, in the cases where there's error by the accuser,

26:40.440 --> 26:44.480
then you are now in the position that they are in.

26:44.480 --> 26:46.600
They have come to you accusing you of a sin

26:46.600 --> 26:50.200
that if it's a false sin, you must now gently rebuke

26:50.200 --> 26:53.440
but firmly rebuke their sin against you

26:53.440 --> 26:55.820
because they are bringing to you a false confession

26:55.820 --> 26:57.040
that's in their heart.

26:57.040 --> 27:00.160
They're accusing you of a sin that's not really a sin

27:00.160 --> 27:02.460
which means they're trying to get you

27:02.460 --> 27:05.800
to confess a false sin to a false God.

27:05.800 --> 27:09.140
They're trying to get you to apostatize in that moment,

27:09.180 --> 27:10.460
even by degrees.

27:10.460 --> 27:13.620
And so you as a Christian brother to them

27:13.620 --> 27:15.380
must be concerned for their soul

27:15.380 --> 27:18.740
because the fact that they came to you first as an accuser

27:18.740 --> 27:21.580
doesn't, maybe they're right, maybe they're wrong.

27:21.580 --> 27:22.620
And that's the first question.

27:22.620 --> 27:23.860
Are they right or are they wrong?

27:23.860 --> 27:25.540
If they're right, repent.

27:25.540 --> 27:26.460
Let that be the end of it

27:26.460 --> 27:28.860
so that you can be reunited with your brother.

27:28.860 --> 27:31.940
If they're wrong, there's still a problem there.

27:31.940 --> 27:33.420
And you as a Christian,

27:33.420 --> 27:36.140
don't solve that problem by just shouting at them

27:36.140 --> 27:38.700
or by haranguing them saying, you're a hypocrite.

27:38.700 --> 27:40.780
You have to clearly show them their sin

27:40.780 --> 27:42.740
just as they were trying to do to you

27:42.740 --> 27:45.540
because when they come to you with Christian concern,

27:45.540 --> 27:46.420
if they're in error,

27:46.420 --> 27:49.460
you then must have Christian concern for them.

27:49.460 --> 27:52.140
You see, there's an obligation in both directions.

27:52.140 --> 27:54.340
When we are part of the body of Christ,

27:54.340 --> 27:56.160
when we're brothers in Christ,

27:56.160 --> 27:58.420
we are our brother's keeper.

27:58.420 --> 28:02.060
And if he's erring by coming to you with false accusations,

28:02.060 --> 28:03.520
that's now your problem.

28:03.520 --> 28:06.740
His soul is now something that you have to be concerned about

28:06.780 --> 28:07.780
for his sake.

28:07.780 --> 28:09.700
And that gets incredibly tricky

28:09.700 --> 28:14.380
because he must listen to those administers as well.

28:14.380 --> 28:16.700
And that's something that's going to be missing in most cases

28:16.700 --> 28:19.180
because while he may have a Christian heart

28:19.180 --> 28:23.100
when it comes to confronting your sin,

28:23.100 --> 28:25.340
if you say, actually, you're sinning,

28:25.340 --> 28:27.860
it's very easy for someone to see that

28:27.860 --> 28:30.700
as someone getting their knuckles up,

28:30.700 --> 28:31.980
of stiffening their back,

28:31.980 --> 28:34.840
of being heart-hearted and unrepentant.

28:34.840 --> 28:36.220
Because if they accuse you of sin

28:36.220 --> 28:37.300
and you say, I don't repent of that,

28:37.300 --> 28:38.780
that's no sin at all.

28:38.780 --> 28:40.620
Their first instinct is going to be,

28:40.620 --> 28:42.300
well, that's unrepentant, you're a sinner,

28:42.300 --> 28:43.880
you're even worse than I thought.

28:43.880 --> 28:47.920
Well, if it were a real sin, yes, it was a false sin,

28:47.920 --> 28:49.660
then the tables have turned.

28:49.660 --> 28:51.020
The Christian duty is still there,

28:51.020 --> 28:52.820
but the direction is reversed.

28:52.820 --> 28:55.420
And so understanding all of this upfront

28:55.420 --> 28:57.180
is the only way to navigate

28:57.180 --> 29:00.280
these incredibly tricky situations

29:00.280 --> 29:02.780
that are ultimately, if they're dealt with

29:02.780 --> 29:04.140
in a Christian fashion,

29:04.180 --> 29:06.900
it's for the benefit of the church.

29:06.900 --> 29:09.100
It's for the benefit of your soul

29:09.100 --> 29:10.540
and the other man's soul.

29:10.540 --> 29:12.460
Because everyone should walk away

29:12.460 --> 29:16.060
from those interactions back on the same page as God.

29:16.060 --> 29:17.660
But everyone in those interactions,

29:17.660 --> 29:19.180
everyone who's not a hypocrite,

29:19.180 --> 29:21.760
must listen to the voice of God.

29:21.760 --> 29:24.300
And the fact that someone else was the first mover,

29:24.300 --> 29:26.820
if they're saying something that's false,

29:26.820 --> 29:28.100
you still have to deal with that.

29:28.100 --> 29:29.180
You have to deal with it gently,

29:29.180 --> 29:30.500
but it must be rebuked

29:30.500 --> 29:32.840
as the same sort of unrepentant sin

29:32.880 --> 29:34.400
that has brought them to you.

29:34.400 --> 29:36.520
And that's where the hypocrisy comes into play

29:36.520 --> 29:39.560
because they can't say, well, you can't accuse me.

29:39.560 --> 29:41.020
They're there accusing you.

29:41.020 --> 29:44.280
And it's not bad per se to accuse someone of sin.

29:44.280 --> 29:45.980
It is a hard thing to do.

29:45.980 --> 29:48.320
It's incredibly hard to do it faithfully,

29:48.320 --> 29:49.880
to go to a brother and say,

29:49.880 --> 29:53.240
I'm concerned about you, what you're doing is bad.

29:53.240 --> 29:54.800
Let's talk about this.

29:54.800 --> 29:57.520
I want to make sure that you are still in the faith

29:57.520 --> 30:00.360
and you're not making things worse for yourself.

30:00.360 --> 30:01.360
That's a hard thing to do.

30:01.400 --> 30:02.960
And you have to do it for them,

30:02.960 --> 30:06.560
even when they are in error and accusing you

30:06.560 --> 30:09.360
because the alternative is to multiply one sin

30:09.360 --> 30:10.880
into many sins.

30:10.880 --> 30:14.200
And that's why Jesus warned about the hypocrisy.

30:14.200 --> 30:15.560
It just makes things worse

30:15.560 --> 30:17.400
and it can very easily blow up

30:17.400 --> 30:20.320
an entire Christian congregation.

30:20.320 --> 30:23.580
And this tends to become a particular challenge

30:23.580 --> 30:26.560
when that initial party,

30:26.560 --> 30:29.840
the first man who comes to you to tell you

30:29.880 --> 30:31.640
that he believes you are sinning,

30:32.720 --> 30:37.720
either has or believes that he has a particular office

30:38.440 --> 30:41.200
that gives him that authority to rebuke sin.

30:41.200 --> 30:45.700
Now, of course, all Christians are told to rebuke sin.

30:46.560 --> 30:47.480
Scripture is very clear.

30:47.480 --> 30:49.680
We went over some of the verses

30:49.680 --> 30:51.920
that mentioned that it's all throughout scripture,

30:51.920 --> 30:54.400
but it is very clear that all Christians are to rebuke sin,

30:54.400 --> 30:56.480
but for instance, pastors and teachers,

30:57.440 --> 31:01.640
part of what they do in their office,

31:01.640 --> 31:04.760
part of their task is to rebuke sin

31:04.760 --> 31:07.720
because part of their task is to teach rightly.

31:07.720 --> 31:10.080
And if you teach rightly, if you are using the word,

31:10.080 --> 31:12.080
you are going to convict others of sin.

31:13.360 --> 31:14.480
In the case of a pastor,

31:14.480 --> 31:17.280
if you know that there is a particular sin

31:18.840 --> 31:22.440
in which some members of your flock are engaging,

31:22.440 --> 31:24.360
then you have a duty to go to them

31:24.360 --> 31:26.720
and to rebuke them for that sin,

31:26.720 --> 31:29.560
to teach them what scripture says about that sin,

31:29.560 --> 31:31.480
to help lead them out of that sin.

31:32.640 --> 31:35.640
But if you're pastor, if you're on the other side now,

31:35.640 --> 31:38.640
if your pastor is confused about what scripture means,

31:38.640 --> 31:40.280
if he has a false belief,

31:40.280 --> 31:43.280
if he has something he's imported from the world,

31:43.280 --> 31:46.520
which is very much the case today with many pastors,

31:47.760 --> 31:48.840
that is going to put you

31:48.840 --> 31:52.000
in a particularly difficult situation

31:52.000 --> 31:54.840
because now you are having to tell a man

31:54.840 --> 31:57.440
whose duty it is, whose special duty it is

31:57.440 --> 32:00.200
to rebuke sin, to know the word correctly,

32:00.200 --> 32:01.760
to speak to these issues.

32:01.760 --> 32:05.280
You are having to tell him, no, actually, you are an error.

32:06.320 --> 32:09.360
I can show you from scripture why you were wrong,

32:09.360 --> 32:11.920
where God says you are wrong.

32:13.160 --> 32:16.280
And now instead of just having the issue

32:16.280 --> 32:19.360
of that immediate reaction when someone

32:19.360 --> 32:21.320
is perceived to be doubling down,

32:22.320 --> 32:25.320
instead of repenting, there's that initial reaction,

32:26.200 --> 32:28.040
that's exacerbated by the fact

32:29.040 --> 32:31.680
that not only are you saying, no, I'm not sinning,

32:31.680 --> 32:34.520
you are in fact sinning, but you are saying it to someone

32:34.520 --> 32:36.720
who is in a position of some authority,

32:36.720 --> 32:38.560
who is in a position where it is his duty

32:38.560 --> 32:42.280
to rebuke these things, and at least theoretically,

32:42.280 --> 32:45.320
and in reality, in terms of the duty,

32:45.320 --> 32:47.760
he should know these things better than you.

32:49.200 --> 32:51.280
That makes for a very difficult situation,

32:51.280 --> 32:54.480
but many, and particularly those listening

32:54.480 --> 32:57.640
to this podcast, perhaps, are going to find themselves

32:57.640 --> 33:01.280
in such a situation in the not too distant future.

33:02.320 --> 33:05.080
And so it is incumbent on you to understand

33:05.080 --> 33:06.560
these things from scripture.

33:07.720 --> 33:11.200
And if you get into one of these situations

33:11.200 --> 33:14.200
with a pastor, a teacher, anyone like that,

33:14.200 --> 33:16.240
don't go looking for them, don't do that,

33:16.240 --> 33:19.240
that's just going to cause you undue trouble.

33:19.320 --> 33:22.360
But if you wind up in one of those situations,

33:22.360 --> 33:24.760
stick to the plain words of scripture.

33:24.760 --> 33:29.480
Don't get involved in complicated theological

33:29.480 --> 33:32.360
doctrinal discussions, don't follow the rabbit trails,

33:32.360 --> 33:34.400
insist on the words of scripture.

33:34.400 --> 33:36.520
If someone tells you, judge not,

33:36.520 --> 33:38.960
point out that scripture very clearly tells you,

33:38.960 --> 33:40.560
no, I have to rebuke brothers,

33:40.560 --> 33:43.880
and so it is necessary for me to be able to judge them.

33:43.880 --> 33:46.360
If I don't judge them, I cannot rebuke them.

33:46.360 --> 33:48.960
I cannot obey what God tells me to do.

33:50.760 --> 33:53.040
Your best bet is always to rely

33:53.040 --> 33:55.680
on the clear words of scripture,

33:55.680 --> 33:57.080
particularly in matters like this,

33:57.080 --> 33:59.400
where scripture is incredibly clear.

33:59.400 --> 34:02.160
This is not a complicated matter.

34:02.160 --> 34:05.560
The only reason that it gets supposedly complicated

34:05.560 --> 34:09.240
is that so many for so long have bought into

34:09.240 --> 34:11.960
what the world says about judge not.

34:11.960 --> 34:13.400
The world doesn't want you to judge

34:13.400 --> 34:15.720
because the world wants to be able to go on

34:15.720 --> 34:18.720
and keep sinning and committing worse sins

34:18.720 --> 34:22.480
and merrily waltzing down the road straight into hell.

34:22.480 --> 34:23.320
That's what the world wants.

34:23.320 --> 34:24.280
That's what Satan wants.

34:24.280 --> 34:26.800
It's what the sinful fallen flesh wants.

34:29.120 --> 34:30.360
But scripture is clear.

34:31.240 --> 34:34.920
As a Christian, you must judge and rebuke sin.

34:34.920 --> 34:36.240
That is part of your duty.

34:38.000 --> 34:40.400
And I would like to read a little bit here

34:40.400 --> 34:41.920
from the large catechism.

34:41.920 --> 34:44.280
Martin Luther does a great job dealing

34:44.280 --> 34:48.320
with this issue of rebuking sin.

34:48.320 --> 34:50.880
This is from the, like I said, the large catechism,

34:50.880 --> 34:52.520
part one on the Ten Commandments,

34:52.520 --> 34:54.960
dealing with the Eighth Commandment.

34:54.960 --> 34:56.600
The true way in this matter would be

34:56.600 --> 34:58.440
to keep the order in the gospel.

34:58.440 --> 35:00.760
In Matthew 18, Christ says,

35:00.760 --> 35:02.880
if your brother sins against you,

35:02.880 --> 35:06.720
go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.

35:06.720 --> 35:09.120
Here you have a precious and excellent teaching

35:09.120 --> 35:11.040
for governing well the tongue,

35:11.040 --> 35:12.400
which is to be carefully kept

35:12.400 --> 35:14.720
against this detestable misuse.

35:14.720 --> 35:16.840
Let this then be your rule,

35:16.840 --> 35:18.840
that you do not too quickly spread evil

35:18.840 --> 35:21.600
about your neighbor and slander him to others.

35:21.600 --> 35:23.920
Instead, admonish him privately

35:23.920 --> 35:25.840
that he may amend his life.

35:25.840 --> 35:28.640
Likewise, if someone reports to you

35:28.640 --> 35:30.640
what this or that person has done,

35:30.640 --> 35:34.040
teach him too to go and admonish that person personally.

35:34.040 --> 35:36.200
If he has seen the deed himself,

35:36.200 --> 35:39.320
but if he has not seen it, then let him hold his tongue.

35:40.280 --> 35:41.880
You can learn the same thing also

35:41.880 --> 35:43.840
from the daily government of the household.

35:43.840 --> 35:46.040
When the master of the house sees that the servant

35:46.040 --> 35:47.680
does not do what he ought,

35:47.680 --> 35:50.200
he admonishes him personally.

35:50.200 --> 35:53.320
But if he were so foolish as to let the servant sit at home

35:53.320 --> 35:55.200
and went on the streets to complain about him

35:55.200 --> 35:57.920
to his neighbors, he would no doubt be told,

35:57.920 --> 36:00.480
you fool, how does that concern us?

36:00.480 --> 36:02.560
Why don't you tell it to the servant?

36:02.560 --> 36:05.400
Look, that would be acting quite brotherly,

36:05.400 --> 36:07.080
so that the evil would be stopped

36:07.080 --> 36:09.480
and your neighbor would retain his honor.

36:09.480 --> 36:12.000
As Christ also says in the same place,

36:12.000 --> 36:15.520
if he listens to you, you have gained a brother.

36:15.520 --> 36:18.200
Then you have done a great and excellent work,

36:18.200 --> 36:21.160
for do you think it is a small matter to gain a brother?

36:21.160 --> 36:23.680
Let all monks and holy orders step forth

36:23.680 --> 36:26.600
with all their works melted together into one mass

36:26.600 --> 36:30.200
and see if they can boast that they have gained a brother.

36:30.200 --> 36:33.600
Further, Christ teaches, but if he does not listen,

36:33.600 --> 36:35.560
take one or two others along with you,

36:35.560 --> 36:37.280
that every charge may be established

36:37.280 --> 36:39.800
by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

36:39.800 --> 36:41.720
So the person concerned in this matter

36:41.720 --> 36:43.960
must always be dealt with personally

36:43.960 --> 36:46.720
and must not be spoken of without his knowledge.

36:46.720 --> 36:48.400
But if that does not work,

36:48.400 --> 36:51.000
then bring it publicly before the community,

36:51.000 --> 36:53.440
whether before the civil or the church court,

36:53.440 --> 36:55.480
for then you do not stand alone,

36:55.480 --> 36:57.360
but you have those witnesses with you

36:57.360 --> 37:00.120
by whom you can convict the guilty one.

37:00.120 --> 37:01.480
Relying on their testimony,

37:01.480 --> 37:04.000
the judge can pronounce sentence and punish.

37:04.000 --> 37:05.680
This is the right and regular course

37:05.680 --> 37:08.320
for checking and reforming a wicked person.

37:08.320 --> 37:10.800
But if we gossip about another in all corners

37:10.800 --> 37:14.080
and stir the filth, no one will be reformed.

37:14.080 --> 37:16.680
Later, when we are to stand up and bear witness,

37:16.680 --> 37:18.880
we deny having said so.

37:18.880 --> 37:20.800
Therefore it would serve such tongues right

37:20.800 --> 37:23.440
if their itch for slander were severely punished

37:23.440 --> 37:25.440
as a warning to others.

37:25.440 --> 37:27.800
If you were acting for your neighbor's reformation

37:27.800 --> 37:29.440
or from love of the truth,

37:29.440 --> 37:31.360
you would not sneak about secretly

37:31.400 --> 37:33.160
nor shun the day and the light.

37:35.240 --> 37:37.720
And this is another problem that we have today

37:37.720 --> 37:40.200
running rampant in the church.

37:40.200 --> 37:43.880
Instead of going to our brothers when they sin

37:43.880 --> 37:46.080
and rebuking them privately,

37:46.080 --> 37:49.400
we have all sorts of little networks of gossip.

37:49.400 --> 37:52.440
We spread rumors, slander, lies.

37:52.440 --> 37:54.760
We see that happening in all quarters.

37:55.640 --> 37:57.960
That is not what scripture tells us to do.

37:57.960 --> 37:59.920
We are to judge.

37:59.920 --> 38:02.200
But there is a way to do it properly.

38:02.200 --> 38:04.440
Yes, when it comes to public sins,

38:04.440 --> 38:06.120
it is a different matter.

38:06.120 --> 38:08.440
But right now we are dealing with sins

38:08.440 --> 38:11.720
that are not public, private sins, secret sins.

38:11.720 --> 38:14.920
In that case, you are to go to your brother personally.

38:15.760 --> 38:18.160
If indeed he will not reform himself

38:18.160 --> 38:20.800
or he will not repent, then you take others with you

38:20.800 --> 38:22.320
and eventually you take it to the church

38:22.320 --> 38:26.160
and eventually, if he all along the way refuses to repent,

38:26.160 --> 38:27.880
you must treat him as an unbeliever.

38:28.720 --> 38:31.800
But that first step is not happening.

38:31.800 --> 38:35.320
We do not have men who are going to other men

38:35.320 --> 38:36.560
when those other men are sinning

38:36.560 --> 38:38.120
and telling them privately,

38:38.120 --> 38:39.920
you need to amend your ways.

38:39.920 --> 38:41.640
You are sinning against God.

38:41.640 --> 38:44.480
You are not obeying this or that commandment.

38:44.480 --> 38:47.480
You are not obeying this or that section of scripture.

38:47.480 --> 38:49.600
You are doing these things

38:49.600 --> 38:52.120
that are incompatible with the Christian life.

38:52.120 --> 38:54.440
We don't have that happening.

38:54.440 --> 38:57.280
We have plenty of slander, plenty of rumor

38:57.880 --> 39:00.320
plenty of those things happening

39:00.320 --> 39:02.760
that are specifically what is not supposed to happen,

39:02.760 --> 39:06.160
specifically what Christians are not supposed to do,

39:06.160 --> 39:08.760
violations of the eighth commandment.

39:10.520 --> 39:13.120
And so if your brother sins against you,

39:13.120 --> 39:14.760
yes, you have to judge him,

39:14.760 --> 39:17.200
but you need to go to him personally

39:17.200 --> 39:19.680
to rebuke him for that sin.

39:19.680 --> 39:21.640
It may escalate from there,

39:21.640 --> 39:24.040
but you have to take that first step.

39:24.040 --> 39:25.880
And to take that first step,

39:25.920 --> 39:27.280
you have to know scripture.

39:27.280 --> 39:30.080
You have to know, yes, I need to judge him.

39:30.080 --> 39:32.000
Yes, I need to rebuke him,

39:32.000 --> 39:34.520
but you have to know according to what standard.

39:35.440 --> 39:37.560
And so spend time in your scripture,

39:37.560 --> 39:39.320
spend time in your Bible,

39:39.320 --> 39:40.960
listen to the word of God.

39:40.960 --> 39:43.240
You have to hear God's voice,

39:43.240 --> 39:45.400
know what he says about these things

39:45.400 --> 39:48.960
if you aren't then in turn to speak them to your brother.

39:48.960 --> 39:50.520
As we've mentioned in the past,

39:50.520 --> 39:55.120
one of the tricky things about the word judge in English

39:55.360 --> 39:58.760
is that we know that it has two different connotations,

39:58.760 --> 40:01.240
but we only really focus on one of them

40:01.240 --> 40:03.160
when we're reading these passages.

40:04.200 --> 40:06.060
We all know that in a courtroom,

40:06.060 --> 40:08.280
I've used this example before,

40:08.280 --> 40:10.680
the jury is judging facts,

40:10.680 --> 40:12.400
they're the triers of fact,

40:12.400 --> 40:16.320
and the judge determines the sentence.

40:16.320 --> 40:18.400
In some cases, the jury also passes

40:18.400 --> 40:20.880
the guilty or innocent verdict,

40:20.880 --> 40:23.920
and then the judge passes a sentence on that.

40:23.920 --> 40:26.860
What the juror is doing in the case of a courtroom

40:26.860 --> 40:29.240
is what Christians are called to do.

40:29.240 --> 40:32.840
We are not called to pass the final judgment

40:32.840 --> 40:35.800
on the person who is accused.

40:35.800 --> 40:39.340
What we are to do is to weigh the law,

40:39.340 --> 40:43.260
God's law, against the actions of a person,

40:43.260 --> 40:45.440
whether it's another person or it's ourselves.

40:45.440 --> 40:47.680
You were to do this to yourself too,

40:47.680 --> 40:50.320
to be a juror of your own actions,

40:50.320 --> 40:53.600
to weigh what God says in his law,

40:53.600 --> 40:57.720
in his eternal will, versus what you have done.

40:57.720 --> 40:59.840
And where you find there's a mismatch,

40:59.840 --> 41:01.520
you find yourself guilty.

41:01.520 --> 41:04.880
That's the sort of judgment that is permissible.

41:04.880 --> 41:07.580
The sort of judgment that is not permissible

41:07.580 --> 41:10.480
is the ultimate judgment on judgment day.

41:10.480 --> 41:14.440
We don't know the disposition of most men's souls.

41:14.440 --> 41:17.800
In some cases, it's reasonable to infer

41:17.800 --> 41:20.000
based on their confession and their lives.

41:20.000 --> 41:22.160
In other cases, we don't know.

41:22.160 --> 41:24.720
You can say that a man who never heard the gospel,

41:24.720 --> 41:27.520
who lived 3,000 years ago in North America,

41:27.520 --> 41:31.400
cannot be in heaven because he never heard the word of God.

41:31.400 --> 41:33.840
And although that seems unfair to us,

41:33.840 --> 41:35.720
we cannot say that there's any reason

41:35.720 --> 41:37.720
to believe that he would be saved.

41:37.720 --> 41:41.320
Nevertheless, we would not pronounce judgment on him.

41:41.320 --> 41:43.560
We would say based on what is given,

41:43.560 --> 41:46.840
this is the reasonable Christian conclusion.

41:46.840 --> 41:48.400
I think a prime example of this

41:48.400 --> 41:50.440
is one I mentioned before in Jude.

41:51.440 --> 41:54.120
But when the Archangel Michael contending with the devil

41:54.120 --> 41:56.480
was disputing about the body of Moses,

41:56.480 --> 41:59.800
he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment

41:59.800 --> 42:02.280
but said the Lord rebuke you.

42:02.280 --> 42:04.520
Now what's fascinating about this is,

42:04.520 --> 42:05.880
one, it's the Archangel Michael,

42:05.880 --> 42:09.320
who he stood in the presence of God Almighty.

42:09.320 --> 42:10.360
He is a perfect being.

42:10.360 --> 42:11.720
He's without sin.

42:11.720 --> 42:14.920
The Archangel Michael is morally

42:14.920 --> 42:16.960
on a different plane than us.

42:17.880 --> 42:18.960
He's fighting the devil.

42:19.000 --> 42:22.760
He's fighting Satan himself for Moses' body.

42:22.760 --> 42:24.600
Even in that circumstance,

42:24.600 --> 42:27.360
the blasphemous judgment that he would not pronounce

42:27.360 --> 42:28.200
is this one.

42:28.200 --> 42:31.080
Michael would not say to Satan, damn you.

42:31.080 --> 42:33.040
He wouldn't say go to hell,

42:33.040 --> 42:36.600
even though both of those are foregone conclusions.

42:36.600 --> 42:37.680
And everyone knows it.

42:37.680 --> 42:40.480
Like there's no doubt Satan is damned.

42:40.480 --> 42:42.560
Nevertheless, Michael would not pronounce

42:42.560 --> 42:43.920
a blasphemous judgment,

42:43.920 --> 42:45.560
not because it was not true,

42:45.560 --> 42:47.680
but because it was not his place.

42:47.680 --> 42:50.760
He was not to pronounce the final judgment on Satan.

42:50.760 --> 42:53.500
And so that's hard for me personally.

42:53.500 --> 42:56.640
I like saying, damn you.

42:56.640 --> 42:57.760
I don't do it often.

42:57.760 --> 42:59.640
I don't want to.

42:59.640 --> 43:02.560
But at the same time, confronted with evil,

43:02.560 --> 43:04.920
that is my natural inclination.

43:04.920 --> 43:06.020
It's an evil one.

43:06.020 --> 43:08.480
This verse and the other passages tell me it's evil,

43:08.480 --> 43:11.280
but that is an outflowing of part of my nature.

43:11.280 --> 43:12.800
It's part of my sinful nature.

43:12.800 --> 43:14.680
God says, no, don't do that.

43:14.680 --> 43:16.440
But there's the other side of judgment,

43:16.480 --> 43:18.160
the juror's side of judgment,

43:18.160 --> 43:22.480
that I am absolutely not only empowered to undertake,

43:22.480 --> 43:25.320
but commanded to and forbidden not to.

43:25.320 --> 43:27.840
And so that's what we're talking about.

43:27.840 --> 43:30.480
On the subject of slander, there's James four,

43:30.480 --> 43:31.320
where he writes,

43:31.320 --> 43:34.400
do not speak evil against one another brothers.

43:34.400 --> 43:37.560
The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother

43:37.560 --> 43:40.400
speaks evil against the law and judges the law.

43:40.400 --> 43:41.440
But if you judge the law,

43:41.440 --> 43:43.760
you are not a doer of the law, but a judge.

43:43.760 --> 43:46.240
There's only one lawgiver and judge.

43:46.240 --> 43:48.680
He who is able to save and to destroy,

43:48.680 --> 43:51.200
but you are you to judge your neighbor.

43:51.200 --> 43:54.520
Now I looked up on Bible Hub to look at what the Greek word

43:54.520 --> 43:56.200
was for do not speak evil.

43:56.200 --> 43:59.600
I guess that it was about blaspheming, I was wrong.

43:59.600 --> 44:02.520
It's a Greek word, katala leo,

44:02.520 --> 44:05.680
which basically means to slander, to rail at.

44:07.960 --> 44:10.520
Means to speak down on a hostile or deriding manner,

44:10.520 --> 44:15.520
to mock or revile, to defame, to slander or backbite,

44:15.640 --> 44:17.860
which as Corey was referring to,

44:17.860 --> 44:20.540
that's something that's rampant in our churches.

44:20.540 --> 44:22.280
I've seen it for the first time

44:22.280 --> 44:26.720
on a shockingly widespread scale within the Missouri Senate,

44:26.720 --> 44:30.160
where dozens of pastors whom I could name,

44:30.160 --> 44:33.380
and surely hundreds whose names are not familiar to me,

44:33.380 --> 44:35.140
some of whom I considered friends,

44:35.140 --> 44:37.480
have participated in slander,

44:37.480 --> 44:39.200
in this case against both Corey and me

44:39.200 --> 44:40.440
and some of our friends.

44:41.440 --> 44:43.520
What's interesting about this Greek word

44:43.520 --> 44:46.240
is that there's another word that's related to it,

44:46.240 --> 44:50.640
not by etymology, but by act.

44:50.640 --> 44:53.320
And this is a word that's gonna be more familiar to you,

44:53.320 --> 44:57.520
diabolos, devil, diabolos, slandering,

44:57.520 --> 45:00.800
accusing falsely, it's the agitival form of devil.

45:00.800 --> 45:03.760
So devilry is slander.

45:03.760 --> 45:06.640
And I think it's really important

45:06.640 --> 45:09.260
when we look at the places in scripture

45:09.260 --> 45:11.360
where murder appears,

45:11.400 --> 45:14.600
slander usually appears in the same breath.

45:14.600 --> 45:18.800
Murder and slander almost always go together.

45:18.800 --> 45:20.560
And as I was thinking about this

45:20.560 --> 45:22.660
while we were preparing for this episode,

45:24.160 --> 45:27.800
murder is worse in that it comes first

45:27.800 --> 45:31.900
in the Ten Commandments and it destroys the body.

45:32.960 --> 45:37.960
However, the damage done by slander I think is far greater.

45:38.000 --> 45:42.640
And I think it's the reason why God ties these two together

45:42.640 --> 45:45.880
and why the devil is called a murderer and a slander,

45:45.880 --> 45:47.720
again, in the same breath.

45:47.720 --> 45:52.000
Think about this, if I were to kill you,

45:52.000 --> 45:55.200
if I were to commit the sin of murder against you personally,

45:57.720 --> 46:01.760
there's been one sin, there's been my sin, a horrible sin.

46:01.760 --> 46:04.320
And then there's the outcome in your life.

46:04.320 --> 46:06.720
You're dead, you've been murdered unjustly,

46:06.760 --> 46:10.000
your family is injured, your friends are grieved,

46:10.000 --> 46:13.480
your community, your neighborhood is shocked

46:13.480 --> 46:15.720
that something terrible could happen like this

46:15.720 --> 46:17.680
in their community that's always unsettling

46:17.680 --> 46:18.960
whenever it happens.

46:18.960 --> 46:23.100
But the only sin would be mine acting as a murderer.

46:23.100 --> 46:26.840
If on the other hand, I commit the less serious sin

46:26.840 --> 46:29.800
of slander, if instead of going to your neighborhood

46:29.800 --> 46:33.280
and taking your life, I go to your neighborhood

46:33.280 --> 46:35.760
and I take your reputation, I slander you,

46:35.760 --> 46:38.200
I go to your friends and your family,

46:38.200 --> 46:40.940
I go to your neighbors, I go to your workplace,

46:40.940 --> 46:43.920
I go to your community, and I spread all manner

46:43.920 --> 46:45.760
of filthy lies about you.

46:45.760 --> 46:48.080
I say that you're a racist, you're a sexist,

46:48.080 --> 46:50.120
you're all of the worst things in the world,

46:50.120 --> 46:52.320
all the things that the world hates.

46:52.320 --> 46:54.940
You're not dead, you're still walking around,

46:54.940 --> 46:56.800
but what are you functionally?

46:56.800 --> 46:59.120
You're basically a dead man walking

46:59.120 --> 47:00.980
because many of your friends and family

47:00.980 --> 47:02.600
are going to believe this slander,

47:02.600 --> 47:04.120
they're going to turn against you,

47:04.120 --> 47:07.000
in many cases without ever even talking to you,

47:07.000 --> 47:08.720
they'll just never talk to you again.

47:08.720 --> 47:12.040
If some stranger comes to them with accusations,

47:12.040 --> 47:14.840
they will cut you off, they will treat you

47:14.840 --> 47:16.320
as though you are dead.

47:16.320 --> 47:19.040
So while I haven't taken your life like a murderer

47:19.040 --> 47:22.040
by taking your reputation under the eighth commandment,

47:22.040 --> 47:24.480
I have effectively rendered you dead.

47:24.480 --> 47:28.240
Now what makes it, I think in some ways a worse sin

47:28.240 --> 47:31.400
and the reason that it's one that Satan often prefers

47:31.400 --> 47:34.600
and the reason that one of his name is the devil

47:34.600 --> 47:37.400
is that how many sins are there then?

47:37.400 --> 47:40.320
If I murder you, there's one sin, there's my sin,

47:40.320 --> 47:43.480
I've committed murder, you're dead, everyone's hurt.

47:43.480 --> 47:47.960
If I slander you, everyone who entertained my slander

47:47.960 --> 47:49.720
is also a slanderer.

47:49.720 --> 47:53.560
They have received the lies that I spread to them,

47:53.560 --> 47:55.520
they believed them against you,

47:55.520 --> 47:58.380
they have robbed you of your reputation in their hearts,

47:58.380 --> 47:59.920
they have murdered you in their hearts

47:59.920 --> 48:01.920
with their hatred and anger against you.

48:02.880 --> 48:06.040
I have effectively incorporated my sin

48:06.040 --> 48:07.760
into the entire community.

48:07.760 --> 48:11.440
I've turned your entire network of friends and family

48:11.440 --> 48:14.560
in your community into a circular firing squad.

48:14.560 --> 48:17.040
Not only is your reputation murdered,

48:17.040 --> 48:19.200
not only are you socially isolated,

48:19.200 --> 48:22.720
but everyone involved is guilty of sin too.

48:22.720 --> 48:24.920
And it's a sin that many will not repent of.

48:24.920 --> 48:27.120
They're gonna think that they did justice

48:27.120 --> 48:29.900
by destroying your reputation and cutting you out,

48:29.900 --> 48:32.140
by treating you as a leper,

48:32.140 --> 48:34.020
by treating you in the worst possible way,

48:34.020 --> 48:37.820
because someone came to them and told them lies about you.

48:37.820 --> 48:42.380
So slander when the devil uses it in our lives

48:42.380 --> 48:46.580
is it's a way, it's a contagious sin.

48:46.580 --> 48:49.700
It's a sin that does damage unlike a murder

48:49.700 --> 48:51.220
or a violent crime.

48:51.220 --> 48:55.140
A murder or a other violent crime doesn't scale.

48:55.140 --> 48:58.500
If I were to kill people, it would be one at a time.

48:58.540 --> 49:01.580
It's a one sinner and then a victim.

49:01.580 --> 49:04.380
If I slander, I'm lighting a fire.

49:04.380 --> 49:07.020
I'm lighting a fire encircling my target.

49:07.020 --> 49:10.500
And everyone who participates, they catch on fire too.

49:10.500 --> 49:11.740
And they become a slander.

49:11.740 --> 49:14.140
They become a sinner just like me.

49:14.140 --> 49:15.380
Now the devil does this

49:15.380 --> 49:18.180
because it's a way to corrupt entire communities.

49:18.180 --> 49:20.500
Rather than just destroying you individually

49:20.500 --> 49:22.340
by robbing you of your reputation,

49:22.340 --> 49:24.420
it's involved everyone you know

49:24.420 --> 49:26.940
in a sin that destroys your community,

49:26.940 --> 49:30.260
destroys your family, it destroys your life

49:30.260 --> 49:34.300
in such a way that there's no way to repair that damage.

49:34.300 --> 49:38.340
In many senses, that's worse than if you'd just been killed.

49:38.340 --> 49:41.080
If you were alive one moment and dead the next,

49:41.080 --> 49:43.420
you never know, you're Christian, you go to heaven.

49:43.420 --> 49:46.660
If I come along and I slander you and I destroy your name,

49:46.660 --> 49:48.300
you'll never get it back.

49:48.300 --> 49:51.980
And that's why God spends so much time preaching against it.

49:51.980 --> 49:55.440
It's why this devil spends so much time using it

49:55.440 --> 49:57.480
as one of his favorite attacks

49:57.480 --> 49:59.560
because it indicts everyone.

49:59.560 --> 50:01.640
And it's a sin that people love to commit

50:01.640 --> 50:03.640
and they won't stop and they won't repent.

50:03.640 --> 50:06.280
And in the end, it will destroy communities

50:06.280 --> 50:09.200
in a way that if I had, for example, committed a murder,

50:09.200 --> 50:12.720
might have unified the community in a loving Christian way.

50:12.720 --> 50:14.480
If I slander you instead,

50:14.480 --> 50:17.120
I can burn your whole community down with one lie.

50:17.120 --> 50:19.000
And we see that in our churches today

50:19.000 --> 50:20.320
and we see it everywhere.

50:20.320 --> 50:21.720
Satan knows what he's doing.

50:21.720 --> 50:23.840
He doesn't just wanna destroy the body.

50:23.880 --> 50:25.960
He wants to destroy the soul forever.

50:25.960 --> 50:27.800
And slander is one of the chief ways

50:27.800 --> 50:29.680
that he accomplishes that.

50:29.680 --> 50:32.920
I'll resist the temptation to read the entirety

50:32.920 --> 50:34.920
of Luther's comments and the large catechism

50:34.920 --> 50:37.800
on the eighth commandment into this episode.

50:37.800 --> 50:39.080
But I will link it in the show notes.

50:39.080 --> 50:40.320
And I do recommend going through

50:40.320 --> 50:42.440
and reading the entirety of it.

50:43.640 --> 50:46.200
But just one additional paragraph here.

50:47.440 --> 50:49.920
Actually, I'll start with the one before it.

50:49.920 --> 50:51.360
So there's context.

50:51.360 --> 50:53.720
God therefore would have such behavior banned.

50:53.720 --> 50:55.880
That anyone should speak evil of another person

50:55.880 --> 50:57.360
even though that person is guilty

50:57.360 --> 50:59.040
and the latter knows it well.

50:59.040 --> 51:01.200
Much less if anyone does not know it

51:01.200 --> 51:03.880
and has the story only from hearsay.

51:03.880 --> 51:06.960
And the second part of this gives the context here.

51:06.960 --> 51:08.520
So bear in mind this context

51:08.520 --> 51:10.840
when interpreting what I just read.

51:10.840 --> 51:14.520
But you say, shall I not say something if it is the truth?

51:14.520 --> 51:17.480
Answer, why do you not make your accusation

51:17.480 --> 51:19.160
to regular judges?

51:19.160 --> 51:21.160
Ah, but I cannot prove it publicly.

51:21.160 --> 51:22.480
And so I might be silenced

51:22.520 --> 51:24.520
and turned away in a harsh manner.

51:24.520 --> 51:26.800
Ah, indeed, do you smell the roast?

51:27.840 --> 51:29.160
Now that, do you smell the roast?

51:29.160 --> 51:31.280
I don't know why the translators made the decision

51:31.280 --> 51:34.280
not to translate German idioms into English.

51:34.280 --> 51:37.040
But the closest English idiom is, do you smell a rat?

51:38.880 --> 51:40.120
And so the issue here

51:42.160 --> 51:44.360
is that if you bring something

51:44.360 --> 51:46.120
that is rumor and slander

51:47.400 --> 51:49.040
to whatever person,

51:49.040 --> 51:50.760
you tell it to your neighbor, you're gossiping,

51:50.760 --> 51:51.840
whatever have you.

51:51.840 --> 51:52.800
If you are doing this,

51:52.800 --> 51:53.880
but this is not something

51:53.880 --> 51:56.520
that you could prove to a proper authority.

51:56.520 --> 51:59.320
This is not something you should be spreading.

51:59.320 --> 52:01.280
You are violating the eighth commandment.

52:02.200 --> 52:06.480
You do not always have to spin something

52:07.440 --> 52:11.640
to the best construction in the wrong sense of that.

52:11.640 --> 52:12.760
We've gone over this before,

52:12.760 --> 52:15.880
but best construction properly applied

52:15.880 --> 52:19.640
is if I lend my lawn mower, weedwacker, chainsaw,

52:19.640 --> 52:22.400
whatever it happens to be to my neighbor,

52:22.400 --> 52:24.800
and he hasn't brought it back in two months.

52:26.160 --> 52:29.160
I put the best construction on that that he forgot,

52:29.160 --> 52:30.480
not that he's trying to steal it.

52:30.480 --> 52:32.080
That's best construction.

52:32.080 --> 52:34.800
Best construction is not when a politician stands up

52:34.800 --> 52:36.120
and starts lying and you say, well,

52:36.120 --> 52:38.560
he must be, he must think he's telling the truth.

52:38.560 --> 52:39.840
That's not best construction.

52:39.840 --> 52:42.240
That's stupidity, and there's a difference.

52:43.880 --> 52:46.920
So you're not supposed to spread these rumors

52:46.920 --> 52:50.120
about your neighbor, your fellow Christians,

52:50.120 --> 52:51.600
members of the congregation,

52:51.600 --> 52:55.280
these people whom God has put into your life

52:55.280 --> 52:58.940
for you to deal with them according to what scripture says.

53:00.080 --> 53:01.840
There is a difference when you are speaking

53:01.840 --> 53:05.040
about someone who is a public individual.

53:05.040 --> 53:08.320
So the politician really is the best example

53:08.320 --> 53:10.960
because we don't have kings and nobility and such.

53:10.960 --> 53:13.240
You should speak well of them as well,

53:13.240 --> 53:14.640
but as a different standard

53:15.000 --> 53:19.080
because that is a public forum.

53:20.000 --> 53:21.960
But privately, dealing with your neighbor,

53:21.960 --> 53:23.980
dealing with your brother in Christ,

53:23.980 --> 53:25.760
do not spread these rumors.

53:26.720 --> 53:30.120
If it is something that is a very real problem

53:30.120 --> 53:31.920
and you can very well prove it,

53:32.840 --> 53:35.340
go to him first and speak to him.

53:36.480 --> 53:39.840
And if necessary, eventually bring it to the church.

53:40.840 --> 53:45.920
But do not, again, at risk of repeating myself too much,

53:45.920 --> 53:50.920
do not spread rumors, spreading rumors, gossiping.

53:51.560 --> 53:53.840
These are violations of the Eighth Commandment.

53:53.840 --> 53:56.000
You are slandering your neighbor.

53:57.240 --> 53:59.280
If it were something that you could prove

53:59.280 --> 54:01.680
and it were something that should be proven,

54:01.680 --> 54:04.200
you would not be telling it to your neighbor.

54:05.760 --> 54:08.120
You are telling it to your neighbor, your brother,

54:08.120 --> 54:11.280
your sister, your parents, whatever person,

54:11.280 --> 54:13.360
to whomever you are speaking this.

54:13.360 --> 54:14.360
You're telling that person

54:14.360 --> 54:16.320
because you cannot properly prove it

54:16.320 --> 54:18.720
or it is something not worth properly proving.

54:19.640 --> 54:20.960
Hold your tongue.

54:20.960 --> 54:23.400
The Christian response is to hold your tongue

54:23.400 --> 54:26.460
when you cannot do things in the right way.

54:26.460 --> 54:28.000
And if someone comes you slander,

54:28.000 --> 54:30.600
the only Christian thing is to tell them to shut up

54:30.600 --> 54:34.240
if they start spreading lies about someone

54:34.240 --> 54:35.800
or even something that might be true.

54:35.800 --> 54:39.840
But as Corey said, if it can't be demonstrated

54:39.840 --> 54:42.760
and it's not appropriate for you to deal with it,

54:42.760 --> 54:43.600
tell them to be quiet.

54:43.600 --> 54:44.520
So I don't wanna hear it.

54:44.520 --> 54:46.680
If you have a problem with that person, go to them.

54:46.680 --> 54:51.000
You should not entertain slander against others.

54:51.000 --> 54:53.600
And an example of not saying that,

54:53.600 --> 54:55.040
which cannot be proven,

54:55.040 --> 54:57.960
is something that Corey and I talked about a few weeks ago

54:57.960 --> 55:00.920
in the episode against the Antichrist.

55:00.920 --> 55:04.260
We talked about the fact that Corey and I knew

55:04.300 --> 55:06.540
that Matt Harrison, the president of the Missouri Synod,

55:06.540 --> 55:09.300
was a false prophet in 2000.

55:09.300 --> 55:11.100
It was clear as day to us.

55:11.100 --> 55:13.180
We did not say it publicly

55:13.180 --> 55:15.100
because it would have violated the eighth commandment,

55:15.100 --> 55:16.620
even though it was true.

55:16.620 --> 55:20.100
And it wasn't until after Harrison published

55:20.100 --> 55:24.300
his apostate screed against us in February

55:24.300 --> 55:26.060
that he proved it to the world.

55:26.060 --> 55:29.380
That he proved it from scripture, that he rejects God.

55:29.380 --> 55:31.420
So at that point, it was permissible.

55:31.420 --> 55:32.940
And we will say from now on,

55:32.940 --> 55:34.900
Matt Harrison is a false prophet.

55:36.020 --> 55:37.780
Despite the fact that we knew

55:37.780 --> 55:40.180
this terrible thing was going on in our church,

55:40.180 --> 55:42.620
because we could not demonstrate it clearly,

55:42.620 --> 55:43.980
we kept our mouths shut.

55:43.980 --> 55:45.180
And that's unpleasant

55:45.180 --> 55:48.140
because he's been doing damage for years.

55:48.140 --> 55:49.460
And by the grace of God,

55:49.460 --> 55:52.140
the damage that he did in the large cataclysm

55:52.140 --> 55:55.300
and the pedochism has now made all of this visible

55:55.300 --> 55:56.260
to the world.

55:56.260 --> 55:58.740
And because this is public sin,

55:58.740 --> 56:00.500
we don't have to go to him privately.

56:00.500 --> 56:02.100
We have in the past.

56:02.180 --> 56:03.820
There's no longer any need to do so.

56:03.820 --> 56:06.300
He has made his willful apostasy,

56:06.300 --> 56:09.780
his false prophecy clear to the world.

56:09.780 --> 56:14.100
So there's a time and a place for dealing with things.

56:14.100 --> 56:17.180
It's sometimes impermissible to deal with things privately.

56:17.180 --> 56:20.120
It's sometimes mandatory to deal with things publicly.

56:20.120 --> 56:22.020
There's no one set rule

56:22.020 --> 56:24.940
that applies universally to all situations.

56:24.940 --> 56:27.620
That's why God spends so much time talking about this.

56:27.620 --> 56:29.740
It's why there's so many different passages

56:29.780 --> 56:32.540
dealing with different aspects of these questions.

56:33.420 --> 56:34.980
I'm actually going to read one more paragraph

56:34.980 --> 56:35.940
from the large cataclysm

56:35.940 --> 56:38.100
because it deals exactly with the issue

56:38.100 --> 56:41.300
you touched on earlier about damage reputation

56:41.300 --> 56:44.020
and emphasizes what you just said.

56:44.020 --> 56:47.420
It's just slightly on from what I read before.

56:47.420 --> 56:49.820
Therefore, if you meet an idle tongue

56:49.820 --> 56:52.100
that betrays and slanders someone,

56:52.100 --> 56:54.780
contradicts such a person promptly to his face

56:54.780 --> 56:56.600
so that he may blush,

56:56.600 --> 56:58.540
then many a person will hold his tongue

56:58.540 --> 57:01.840
who otherwise would bring some poor man into bad repute

57:01.840 --> 57:04.620
from which he would not easily free himself

57:04.620 --> 57:07.700
for honor and a good name are easily taken away

57:07.700 --> 57:09.380
but not easily restored.

57:10.800 --> 57:13.380
And that is just a simple truth.

57:13.380 --> 57:15.480
Many philosophers, statesmen,

57:15.480 --> 57:17.500
other thinkers have commented on this.

57:17.500 --> 57:19.240
We all know it to some degree.

57:20.860 --> 57:25.020
Your reputation is very easily taken away,

57:25.020 --> 57:27.620
is very easily destroyed,

57:27.620 --> 57:31.300
but it is a very difficult thing to restore a reputation

57:31.300 --> 57:33.020
after it has been destroyed.

57:34.300 --> 57:36.820
And this is one of the reasons that we have

57:36.820 --> 57:39.900
some of the protections we have in our legal system,

57:39.900 --> 57:42.340
particularly on the criminal side.

57:42.340 --> 57:45.780
Unfortunately, the media and certain politicians

57:45.780 --> 57:48.700
and others have turned it into a bit of a circus these days,

57:48.700 --> 57:51.540
but theoretically it is supposed to work

57:51.540 --> 57:54.980
where much of this is conducted

57:54.980 --> 57:57.620
publicly and privately simultaneously

57:57.620 --> 58:00.100
because you have to have public exposure

58:00.100 --> 58:03.180
to make sure that things are being done properly

58:03.180 --> 58:05.940
but privately to protect privacy,

58:05.940 --> 58:07.660
reputation, various other things.

58:08.780 --> 58:13.460
But that is why you are innocent until proven guilty.

58:13.460 --> 58:16.500
And we used to understand what that meant.

58:16.500 --> 58:18.420
Today, many of course will assume

58:18.420 --> 58:21.380
that someone who is charged is guilty,

58:21.380 --> 58:25.060
which is a violation of course of the Eighth Commandment.

58:25.060 --> 58:27.660
If you do not have evidence clearly demonstrating

58:27.660 --> 58:29.700
the guilt of the person and you simply assume

58:29.700 --> 58:32.700
that he is guilty because he has been charged,

58:32.700 --> 58:34.620
that is slander.

58:34.620 --> 58:37.980
You are believing evil about this man without adequate warrant.

58:38.900 --> 58:40.980
But it's supposed to be that you are innocent

58:40.980 --> 58:44.660
until proven guilty and that the mere fact

58:44.660 --> 58:47.680
that you have been indicted, that you have been charged,

58:47.680 --> 58:49.940
that you have been brought before a tribunal

58:49.940 --> 58:54.260
does not imply in any way, shape or form that you are guilty.

58:55.580 --> 58:57.960
Law enforcement officers make mistakes.

58:59.260 --> 59:04.260
DAs will charge and they can make mistakes.

59:04.260 --> 59:06.540
There is a reason we have the systems in place

59:06.540 --> 59:09.300
that we have and as Christians,

59:09.300 --> 59:11.420
we don't have to trust these things perfectly.

59:11.420 --> 59:12.260
I won't say that.

59:12.260 --> 59:15.020
They are deeply compromised these days.

59:15.020 --> 59:18.100
There is corruption, there are many problems.

59:18.220 --> 59:21.660
But we should at least have that foundational assumption

59:21.660 --> 59:25.100
that a man simply because he has been brought before a court,

59:25.100 --> 59:27.640
that does not mean that he is guilty.

59:27.640 --> 59:30.620
He is still innocent until he is proven guilty

59:30.620 --> 59:33.220
and we comport our behavior

59:33.220 --> 59:35.660
in the kingdom of the left hand of Christ

59:35.660 --> 59:38.820
with the commandments the same as we comport our behavior

59:38.820 --> 59:40.580
in the kingdom of the right hand of Christ

59:40.580 --> 59:42.140
with the commandments.

59:42.140 --> 59:44.820
God's law is his eternal will

59:44.820 --> 59:47.600
and we'll of course get into this more momentarily

59:47.640 --> 59:49.200
with antinomianism.

59:50.200 --> 59:52.920
Perhaps not momentarily, it won't be quite that brief

59:52.920 --> 59:57.920
but God's law is his unchanging, unchangeable eternal will.

59:59.880 --> 01:00:01.440
These are not things that pass away.

01:00:01.440 --> 01:00:04.120
These are things to which Christians are beholden

01:00:04.120 --> 01:00:06.160
because these flow from God's nature.

01:00:06.160 --> 01:00:08.180
This is the structure of reality.

01:00:08.180 --> 01:00:11.820
As a Christian, you must comport your behavior

01:00:11.820 --> 01:00:14.720
with these commandments, with these strictures,

01:00:14.720 --> 01:00:17.520
with the way that God has set things up.

01:00:17.560 --> 01:00:21.880
Incidentally, this specific sin is precisely the moment

01:00:21.880 --> 01:00:25.400
that Cori and I knew that Matt Harrison was a false prophet

01:00:25.400 --> 01:00:30.400
in 2020 when George Floyd committed suicide

01:00:31.960 --> 01:00:33.920
with a fentanyl overdose.

01:00:33.920 --> 01:00:37.080
Within a few weeks, Matt Harrison put out a press release

01:00:37.080 --> 01:00:39.000
in the name of the entire Missouri Synod

01:00:39.000 --> 01:00:43.000
where he expressly condemned the police officers

01:00:43.000 --> 01:00:45.360
of unjustly taking that man's life.

01:00:45.400 --> 01:00:46.800
He committed libel.

01:00:46.800 --> 01:00:49.320
He committed an eighth commandment violation.

01:00:49.320 --> 01:00:52.040
Unrepentantly, it was an absolutely wicked,

01:00:52.040 --> 01:00:53.360
godless thing to do.

01:00:53.360 --> 01:00:55.400
And so we knew at that moment that we were dealing

01:00:55.400 --> 01:00:57.860
with a godless man with a false prophet.

01:00:57.860 --> 01:01:01.120
Nevertheless, most people because of the political fire

01:01:01.120 --> 01:01:03.240
bound up in that situation, which say,

01:01:03.240 --> 01:01:04.520
oh, that's overblown.

01:01:04.520 --> 01:01:07.000
We know based on all the things that we've just said,

01:01:07.000 --> 01:01:10.000
based on our knowledge and belief in scripture

01:01:10.000 --> 01:01:13.280
of the things, the explanations from Martin Luther

01:01:13.400 --> 01:01:17.040
in the large catechism, Christians don't do this.

01:01:17.040 --> 01:01:20.760
Christians don't judge a police officer to be guilty

01:01:20.760 --> 01:01:24.400
of killing when the courts haven't done it yet.

01:01:24.400 --> 01:01:27.000
That is not how any Christian conducts himself.

01:01:27.000 --> 01:01:30.560
Even if you believe it in private, which you shouldn't do,

01:01:30.560 --> 01:01:33.640
for you to say it in public, for you to say it in print,

01:01:33.640 --> 01:01:36.040
for you to say it as the present of a synod

01:01:36.040 --> 01:01:39.360
is a unspeakably evil sin.

01:01:39.360 --> 01:01:42.640
I was honestly praying that Chauvin would be exonerated,

01:01:42.680 --> 01:01:44.840
specifically so that he could sue the Missouri Synod

01:01:44.840 --> 01:01:45.920
for libel.

01:01:45.920 --> 01:01:47.640
That was such a wicked act.

01:01:47.640 --> 01:01:50.520
And of course the court did an evil thing

01:01:50.520 --> 01:01:53.200
because the jury did an evil thing.

01:01:53.200 --> 01:01:55.160
That's the state of the world today.

01:01:55.160 --> 01:01:58.200
And to move on to the next part of this,

01:01:58.200 --> 01:02:00.800
the reason that we're talking about all the ways

01:02:00.800 --> 01:02:04.680
that God lays these things out, in the case of slander,

01:02:04.680 --> 01:02:08.080
in the case of whether one sin is worse than another.

01:02:08.080 --> 01:02:10.680
God has written all this down for us.

01:02:10.720 --> 01:02:12.920
I'm just gonna read briefly the introduction

01:02:12.920 --> 01:02:14.840
to the sixth part of the solid declaration

01:02:14.840 --> 01:02:17.120
from the Book of Concord.

01:02:17.120 --> 01:02:19.880
The law of God is useful, not only to the end

01:02:19.880 --> 01:02:22.960
that external discipline and decency are maintained by it

01:02:22.960 --> 01:02:25.680
against all wild disobedient men.

01:02:25.680 --> 01:02:27.400
Likewise, that through it men are brought

01:02:27.400 --> 01:02:29.000
to a knowledge of their sins.

01:02:29.000 --> 01:02:31.280
But also that, when they have been born anew

01:02:31.280 --> 01:02:33.720
by the Spirit of God, converted to the Lord

01:02:33.720 --> 01:02:36.480
and thus the veil of Moses has been lifted from them,

01:02:36.480 --> 01:02:38.880
they live and walk in the law.

01:02:38.920 --> 01:02:42.680
Now, as Lutherans, we call these the three uses of the law.

01:02:42.680 --> 01:02:46.640
The first use, the wild and disobedient man is curbed

01:02:46.640 --> 01:02:47.920
against his sin.

01:02:47.920 --> 01:02:50.440
If someone doesn't have God

01:02:50.440 --> 01:02:53.320
and doesn't even listen to his own conscience,

01:02:53.320 --> 01:02:56.800
if he goes and commits horrible crimes, the law,

01:02:56.800 --> 01:03:00.200
the laws that's enforced by the just magistrate

01:03:00.200 --> 01:03:02.200
will act as a curb.

01:03:02.200 --> 01:03:05.200
He'll be put to death if he goes far enough.

01:03:05.200 --> 01:03:06.640
The second case is the mirror.

01:03:06.680 --> 01:03:09.000
The second use of the law is when it's shown

01:03:09.000 --> 01:03:11.720
to someone knowledge of their own sins.

01:03:11.720 --> 01:03:13.720
When you read scripture and you say,

01:03:13.720 --> 01:03:18.380
wow, this is me, as I do every time I open the Bible,

01:03:18.380 --> 01:03:19.720
that's the second use of the law.

01:03:19.720 --> 01:03:22.240
That's the law of God, God's eternal will,

01:03:22.240 --> 01:03:25.040
acting as a mirror on our own hearts.

01:03:25.040 --> 01:03:28.280
Now that can apply to both believers and unbelievers.

01:03:28.280 --> 01:03:31.160
Only a believer is going to understand

01:03:31.160 --> 01:03:33.520
the full implications, but even an unbeliever,

01:03:33.520 --> 01:03:35.640
if he reads the Ten Commandments, can say,

01:03:35.640 --> 01:03:37.760
yeah, I've broken a few of these.

01:03:37.760 --> 01:03:40.880
And then once he reads what Jesus says about them,

01:03:40.880 --> 01:03:43.480
he understands he's broken all of them.

01:03:43.480 --> 01:03:44.640
And then the third use,

01:03:44.640 --> 01:03:46.980
which is principally what we're gonna talk about today,

01:03:46.980 --> 01:03:50.120
is when someone is born anew by the Spirit of God,

01:03:50.120 --> 01:03:53.160
they're able to live and walk in the law.

01:03:53.160 --> 01:03:54.880
Now, this is something that Protestants

01:03:54.880 --> 01:03:56.680
are really allergic to these days,

01:03:56.680 --> 01:03:59.640
because isn't that works righteousness?

01:03:59.640 --> 01:04:03.800
Well, no, because they're born anew in the Spirit of God.

01:04:03.840 --> 01:04:07.600
That is a rebirth through baptism,

01:04:07.600 --> 01:04:10.600
that is faith, that is having saving faith.

01:04:10.600 --> 01:04:12.160
You're already a Christian,

01:04:12.160 --> 01:04:15.760
and then you live and walk in the law.

01:04:15.760 --> 01:04:18.720
Now, Christian freedom is a term

01:04:18.720 --> 01:04:21.960
that's completely twisted, warped, and misused.

01:04:21.960 --> 01:04:25.400
It is Christian freedom to live and walk in the law,

01:04:25.400 --> 01:04:29.240
because the law no longer only condemns our lives.

01:04:29.280 --> 01:04:34.200
Before, when all we had was our wild, untamed, wicked hearts,

01:04:34.200 --> 01:04:37.080
and then we were confronted with the mirror of the law,

01:04:37.080 --> 01:04:39.400
and like, I'm guilty of all this.

01:04:39.400 --> 01:04:42.360
If you were blessed to receive faith from God,

01:04:42.360 --> 01:04:45.400
you then are freed from the consequences

01:04:45.400 --> 01:04:48.760
of the eternal consequences of your sin.

01:04:48.760 --> 01:04:50.320
There are still temporal consequences

01:04:50.320 --> 01:04:52.160
for all the evil that we do, not all of it,

01:04:52.160 --> 01:04:55.760
but it is frequently the case that you will find

01:04:55.760 --> 01:04:58.560
you receive some punishment in some fashion

01:04:58.600 --> 01:05:00.760
for your sin, even as a Christian,

01:05:00.760 --> 01:05:02.200
because the temporal consequences

01:05:02.200 --> 01:05:04.960
are baked into the sins themselves.

01:05:04.960 --> 01:05:08.880
The eternal price, however, was paid by Christ on the cross.

01:05:08.880 --> 01:05:11.200
When we are covered in Christ's blood,

01:05:11.200 --> 01:05:14.880
and our robes are washed white in that blood,

01:05:14.880 --> 01:05:17.600
we appear before God as sinless

01:05:17.600 --> 01:05:20.280
for the sake of Christ's sacrifice.

01:05:20.280 --> 01:05:22.160
Having put on those robes,

01:05:22.160 --> 01:05:24.920
being renewed in the Spirit of God,

01:05:24.920 --> 01:05:27.680
we then can walk and live in the law,

01:05:28.240 --> 01:05:29.800
and the law is simply God's eternal will.

01:05:29.800 --> 01:05:31.560
It's all the stuff we're talking about.

01:05:31.560 --> 01:05:34.760
It's God says, do this, God says, don't do this.

01:05:34.760 --> 01:05:38.000
Not once in any episode, in any tweet, in any breath,

01:05:38.000 --> 01:05:40.600
from either Cory or I, will you ever hear us say,

01:05:40.600 --> 01:05:42.240
do this and you can save yourself.

01:05:42.240 --> 01:05:43.640
That's not Christian.

01:05:43.640 --> 01:05:45.480
That is not what we believe,

01:05:45.480 --> 01:05:47.640
it's not what any Christian believes.

01:05:47.640 --> 01:05:50.480
We're talking about the and then of the Christian life.

01:05:50.480 --> 01:05:52.600
And the reason that all sins are equal

01:05:52.600 --> 01:05:54.760
and judge not are so important

01:05:54.800 --> 01:05:56.160
is that they separate men

01:05:56.160 --> 01:05:59.400
from being able to look to scripture

01:05:59.400 --> 01:06:02.000
as a source of wisdom.

01:06:02.000 --> 01:06:04.280
The Psalms themselves begin in Psalm one.

01:06:04.280 --> 01:06:07.520
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

01:06:07.520 --> 01:06:09.400
nor stands in the ways of sinners,

01:06:09.400 --> 01:06:11.760
nor sits in the seats of sycophers,

01:06:11.760 --> 01:06:14.120
but his delight is in the law of the Lord.

01:06:14.120 --> 01:06:16.960
And on his law, he meditates day and night.

01:06:16.960 --> 01:06:18.840
Now the Psalms are the longest book in the Bible.

01:06:18.840 --> 01:06:20.720
It's an incredibly beautiful book.

01:06:20.720 --> 01:06:22.520
It begins right off the bat

01:06:22.520 --> 01:06:24.360
with delight in the law of the Lord

01:06:24.400 --> 01:06:26.360
and meditate on it day and night.

01:06:26.360 --> 01:06:28.680
This is the Christian life.

01:06:28.680 --> 01:06:30.080
And we're not talking about the law

01:06:30.080 --> 01:06:32.240
that says you're guilty and you're going to hell.

01:06:32.240 --> 01:06:33.480
We're talking about the law that says

01:06:33.480 --> 01:06:38.240
this is how God wants you to live a godly Christian life.

01:06:38.240 --> 01:06:42.280
It's the same law and the difference is Christ's blood.

01:06:42.280 --> 01:06:45.120
Before, all we had was condemnation.

01:06:45.120 --> 01:06:46.560
The law only accused us

01:06:46.560 --> 01:06:50.080
because without Christ's blood, we're guilty of all of it.

01:06:50.080 --> 01:06:52.440
It is only after we have received faith

01:06:52.480 --> 01:06:54.440
and salvation through Christ

01:06:54.440 --> 01:06:57.400
that meditating day and night on God's law

01:06:57.400 --> 01:06:59.920
does not bring condemnation, but brings wisdom,

01:06:59.920 --> 01:07:03.120
wisdom for a godly life that will enrich us

01:07:03.120 --> 01:07:06.840
and obedience to God has blessings attached to it.

01:07:06.840 --> 01:07:09.120
And we as Christians must return

01:07:09.120 --> 01:07:11.360
to being able to speak about things in these ways

01:07:11.360 --> 01:07:14.880
because that's where temporal peace and happiness,

01:07:14.880 --> 01:07:17.240
it's the only place you're going to find it.

01:07:17.240 --> 01:07:18.680
This is not prosperity gospel.

01:07:18.680 --> 01:07:20.920
We're not saying you're going to have a million dollars

01:07:20.920 --> 01:07:23.360
on a boat and whatever crap you want.

01:07:23.360 --> 01:07:24.960
We're saying that when you obey God,

01:07:24.960 --> 01:07:27.760
God will bless you in great ways and small ways.

01:07:27.760 --> 01:07:29.560
Maybe the blessing is simply the knowledge

01:07:29.560 --> 01:07:31.000
that you're doing what he wants

01:07:31.000 --> 01:07:33.080
and everything else is miserable.

01:07:33.080 --> 01:07:35.360
For some people, that's their lot in life.

01:07:35.360 --> 01:07:37.120
And God comforts them in scripture

01:07:37.120 --> 01:07:39.520
by saying your reward will be great in heaven.

01:07:39.520 --> 01:07:41.200
Don't worry about this stuff.

01:07:41.200 --> 01:07:44.040
Obey me, trust in God, trust in me.

01:07:44.040 --> 01:07:47.200
You will have your recompense and eternity.

01:07:47.200 --> 01:07:50.760
And for those who receive nothing more, that is sufficient.

01:07:51.520 --> 01:07:53.600
When we talk about the third use of the law,

01:07:53.600 --> 01:07:56.080
it is explicitly and only for Christians,

01:07:56.080 --> 01:07:57.600
but it's still the law.

01:07:57.600 --> 01:07:59.640
It's still God's eternal will

01:07:59.640 --> 01:08:02.720
for how we conduct our lives day to day.

01:08:02.720 --> 01:08:05.880
And so to keep with one of the themes of this episode,

01:08:05.880 --> 01:08:09.880
I guess, of frequently and pervasively

01:08:09.880 --> 01:08:12.560
misinterpreted sections of scripture,

01:08:12.560 --> 01:08:17.560
let's look at Galatians 3, starting with verse 10.

01:08:20.920 --> 01:08:23.760
Now it is evident that no one is justified before God

01:08:23.760 --> 01:08:27.200
by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith,

01:08:27.200 --> 01:08:29.280
but the law is not of faith, rather,

01:08:29.280 --> 01:08:32.240
the one who does them shall live by them.

01:08:32.240 --> 01:08:35.000
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law

01:08:35.000 --> 01:08:37.920
by becoming a curse for us, for it is written,

01:08:37.920 --> 01:08:40.640
cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree,

01:08:40.640 --> 01:08:43.120
so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham

01:08:43.120 --> 01:08:45.440
might come to the nations of the earth.

01:08:45.440 --> 01:08:47.840
And so to keep with one another in life,

01:08:47.840 --> 01:08:49.960
in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham

01:08:49.960 --> 01:08:51.560
might come to the nations,

01:08:51.560 --> 01:08:54.360
so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith.

01:08:55.560 --> 01:09:00.360
And in both the epitome and the solid declaration,

01:09:00.360 --> 01:09:02.160
just like the catechisms,

01:09:02.160 --> 01:09:04.660
there's a small catechism and a large catechism

01:09:04.660 --> 01:09:07.720
in the book of Concord, for the formula of Concord,

01:09:07.720 --> 01:09:09.720
there is a shorter version and a longer version,

01:09:09.720 --> 01:09:12.360
they're called the epitome and the solid declaration.

01:09:12.360 --> 01:09:15.440
In the epitome, there are six points

01:09:15.440 --> 01:09:17.360
related to this third use of the law

01:09:17.360 --> 01:09:18.640
that's in article six.

01:09:18.640 --> 01:09:20.740
And the first is that as Christians,

01:09:20.740 --> 01:09:24.080
we are freed from the curse of the law.

01:09:25.160 --> 01:09:28.780
We are not under the law in so far as under the law

01:09:28.780 --> 01:09:31.040
means under the curse of the law.

01:09:32.100 --> 01:09:35.520
We are under the law in so far as being under the law

01:09:35.520 --> 01:09:38.280
means being subject to God's eternal will,

01:09:39.360 --> 01:09:41.600
which that's actually the sixth point

01:09:41.600 --> 01:09:44.360
that the law is God's eternal will,

01:09:44.360 --> 01:09:47.160
which is sort of the overarching point of this.

01:09:47.160 --> 01:09:50.140
The law is unchangeable, the law is unchanging

01:09:50.140 --> 01:09:53.040
because it is God's eternal will for everything,

01:09:53.040 --> 01:09:55.000
for creation, for mankind.

01:09:55.000 --> 01:09:58.720
We are to comport ourselves with the law

01:09:58.720 --> 01:10:02.000
as unregenerate or as regenerate

01:10:02.000 --> 01:10:05.860
because it is God's will for all.

01:10:05.860 --> 01:10:10.200
Now, we cannot perfectly fulfill the law, of course,

01:10:10.200 --> 01:10:13.560
as fallen human beings, we will fall short.

01:10:14.560 --> 01:10:18.880
Unregenerate persons cannot fulfill the law at all.

01:10:18.880 --> 01:10:22.120
Now, they can do the various outward acts,

01:10:22.120 --> 01:10:23.760
they can restrain their hands

01:10:23.760 --> 01:10:25.880
from actually murdering someone,

01:10:25.880 --> 01:10:27.080
they can restrain their hands

01:10:27.080 --> 01:10:29.240
from actually committing adultery, et cetera,

01:10:29.240 --> 01:10:32.000
stealing, bearing false witness, what have you.

01:10:33.600 --> 01:10:37.040
But they cannot actually perfectly fulfill the law

01:10:37.040 --> 01:10:38.960
because of course they will commit these sins

01:10:38.960 --> 01:10:42.840
in their hearts, they will hold hatred in their hearts

01:10:42.880 --> 01:10:45.440
such that it rises to the level of murderous,

01:10:45.440 --> 01:10:47.280
violating the fifth commandment,

01:10:47.280 --> 01:10:49.320
they will desire a woman who is not theirs,

01:10:49.320 --> 01:10:50.880
violating the sixth commandment,

01:10:50.880 --> 01:10:52.480
they will desire things that are not theirs,

01:10:52.480 --> 01:10:54.280
violating the seventh commandment

01:10:54.280 --> 01:10:57.040
and also the ninth and the tenth against coveting.

01:10:57.040 --> 01:11:00.440
But the overarching issue is not that

01:11:00.440 --> 01:11:01.920
they cannot fulfill the law perfectly

01:11:01.920 --> 01:11:04.880
because of course Christians cannot do that either.

01:11:04.880 --> 01:11:08.280
The overarching issue is that the unregenerate

01:11:08.280 --> 01:11:09.960
cannot do any good works,

01:11:09.960 --> 01:11:12.560
as we have mentioned previously in other episodes,

01:11:12.560 --> 01:11:15.640
they cannot do any good works because they are not in Christ.

01:11:15.640 --> 01:11:18.960
And therefore as sinners, everything they do is sin.

01:11:18.960 --> 01:11:23.160
As Christians, we still cannot fulfill the law perfectly.

01:11:23.160 --> 01:11:27.320
However, our failures are not counted against us

01:11:27.320 --> 01:11:29.520
because we are in Christ.

01:11:29.520 --> 01:11:32.880
Insofar as we comport our behavior with is so far

01:11:32.880 --> 01:11:35.920
as we uphold the law, we are given credit

01:11:35.920 --> 01:11:38.000
for that as good works.

01:11:38.000 --> 01:11:41.280
Because again, we are in Christ for the sake of Christ,

01:11:41.320 --> 01:11:44.200
those good works are counted to us.

01:11:44.200 --> 01:11:45.800
They are credited to us.

01:11:45.800 --> 01:11:49.360
We get credit because Christ has made it possible.

01:11:50.360 --> 01:11:54.480
And so that is the point here, that third use,

01:11:54.480 --> 01:11:57.560
Christians are to organize their lives

01:11:57.560 --> 01:12:00.040
according to the law.

01:12:00.040 --> 01:12:02.760
The law remains even for Christians.

01:12:02.760 --> 01:12:05.000
It is no longer a curse.

01:12:05.000 --> 01:12:10.000
And so the law is not this thing looming over you,

01:12:10.400 --> 01:12:12.080
damning you to hell

01:12:12.080 --> 01:12:15.040
because you cannot uphold the standard.

01:12:15.040 --> 01:12:19.000
You cannot perfectly fulfill the requirements of the law.

01:12:19.000 --> 01:12:21.840
That is the case for those who are not in Christ

01:12:21.840 --> 01:12:23.920
because no matter what they do,

01:12:23.920 --> 01:12:26.480
none of it will ever be good.

01:12:26.480 --> 01:12:31.320
For Christians, the law is a way that God speaks to us

01:12:31.320 --> 01:12:35.880
so that we can order our lives according to what he wants.

01:12:36.920 --> 01:12:39.920
And again, we get credit for our good works

01:12:39.920 --> 01:12:43.760
as we order our lives according to God's eternal will,

01:12:43.760 --> 01:12:45.040
according to the law.

01:12:46.080 --> 01:12:47.720
We will fall short.

01:12:47.720 --> 01:12:48.920
We will not succeed.

01:12:48.920 --> 01:12:50.960
We will continue to sin

01:12:50.960 --> 01:12:55.760
because the old Adam is not fully removed in this life.

01:12:57.120 --> 01:13:01.200
That's actually the third point under the six points

01:13:01.200 --> 01:13:05.280
is that regeneration in this life is incomplete.

01:13:05.280 --> 01:13:07.280
The old Adam remains.

01:13:07.280 --> 01:13:11.200
We are still living in the sinful fallen flesh.

01:13:11.200 --> 01:13:14.240
We will be fully regenerated at the resurrection,

01:13:14.240 --> 01:13:18.880
but we still get credit for our good works in this life

01:13:18.880 --> 01:13:21.200
because we are in Christ.

01:13:21.200 --> 01:13:25.040
And much of what you just said is straight from Romans 8

01:13:25.040 --> 01:13:26.560
where Paul writes,

01:13:26.560 --> 01:13:28.840
there is therefore now no condemnation

01:13:28.840 --> 01:13:30.800
for those who are in Christ Jesus.

01:13:30.800 --> 01:13:32.320
For the law of the spirit of life

01:13:32.320 --> 01:13:34.000
has set you free in Christ Jesus

01:13:34.000 --> 01:13:35.840
from the law of sin and death.

01:13:35.840 --> 01:13:37.440
For God has done what the law

01:13:37.440 --> 01:13:39.640
weakened by the flesh could not do.

01:13:39.640 --> 01:13:40.920
By sending his own son

01:13:40.920 --> 01:13:43.440
in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,

01:13:43.440 --> 01:13:45.680
he condemns sin in the flesh

01:13:45.680 --> 01:13:48.120
in order that the righteous requirement of the law

01:13:48.120 --> 01:13:49.720
might be fulfilled in us

01:13:49.720 --> 01:13:51.680
who walk not according to the flesh,

01:13:51.680 --> 01:13:53.320
but according to the spirit.

01:13:53.320 --> 01:13:55.160
For those who live according to the flesh

01:13:55.160 --> 01:13:57.360
set their minds on the things of the flesh.

01:13:57.360 --> 01:13:59.640
But those who live according to the spirit

01:13:59.640 --> 01:14:02.680
set their mind on the things of the spirit.

01:14:02.680 --> 01:14:05.600
So again, that's basically straight from Psalm one.

01:14:05.640 --> 01:14:06.920
Delighting in the law of the Lord

01:14:06.920 --> 01:14:09.120
and meditating on his law day and night.

01:14:09.120 --> 01:14:12.280
The law of God, God's eternal will, the scripture,

01:14:12.280 --> 01:14:14.800
all the things that God says to do,

01:14:14.800 --> 01:14:16.560
they're still binding on us.

01:14:16.560 --> 01:14:18.640
Not binding for our salvation,

01:14:18.640 --> 01:14:20.640
but binding in the sense that this is the path

01:14:20.640 --> 01:14:22.560
that God has laid out for us.

01:14:22.560 --> 01:14:25.160
And whereas before it was condemnation

01:14:25.160 --> 01:14:26.880
when we did not have Christ,

01:14:26.880 --> 01:14:30.520
now it is a joy because forget for a moment

01:14:30.520 --> 01:14:33.880
what the law does in your own personal life

01:14:33.920 --> 01:14:36.000
is it illuminates your sins.

01:14:36.000 --> 01:14:39.280
If we loved our neighbors as ourselves

01:14:39.280 --> 01:14:42.680
and if everyone else followed the law of God,

01:14:42.680 --> 01:14:44.320
what would your life be like?

01:14:44.320 --> 01:14:46.160
You would be in no danger ever.

01:14:46.160 --> 01:14:47.520
No one would ever steal from you.

01:14:47.520 --> 01:14:49.120
No one ever lie to you.

01:14:49.120 --> 01:14:50.520
They wouldn't take anything.

01:14:50.520 --> 01:14:52.800
Your wife, any of your property,

01:14:52.800 --> 01:14:54.420
they wouldn't slander you.

01:14:55.400 --> 01:14:58.440
All the things that we have insurance for

01:14:58.440 --> 01:15:01.160
and that we worry about and that we lock our doors for,

01:15:01.200 --> 01:15:04.160
all the things that are burdens

01:15:04.160 --> 01:15:06.960
and things that have to be dealt with in this life

01:15:06.960 --> 01:15:10.720
would vanish if everyone obeyed God.

01:15:10.720 --> 01:15:12.440
That's what the blessing is.

01:15:12.440 --> 01:15:14.680
So when we say the law is a blessing,

01:15:14.680 --> 01:15:15.920
that's what we mean.

01:15:15.920 --> 01:15:17.360
It's heaven.

01:15:17.360 --> 01:15:19.040
That's what the new earth will look like.

01:15:19.040 --> 01:15:21.120
The law will be perfectly upheld

01:15:21.120 --> 01:15:23.200
by everyone in the new earth.

01:15:23.200 --> 01:15:25.960
Those who are believers will receive their bodies

01:15:25.960 --> 01:15:27.880
fully intact and restored,

01:15:27.880 --> 01:15:29.200
will be raised from the dead

01:15:29.240 --> 01:15:31.760
in the flesh that God has given us in this life.

01:15:31.760 --> 01:15:33.160
We will be perfected.

01:15:33.160 --> 01:15:35.040
We will have no more sinful nature.

01:15:35.040 --> 01:15:38.440
We will continue to obey God in eternity.

01:15:38.440 --> 01:15:40.160
We're gonna keep obeying God.

01:15:40.160 --> 01:15:41.160
I think that's the problem

01:15:41.160 --> 01:15:43.120
that the antinomians bring up.

01:15:43.120 --> 01:15:45.040
Those who hate the law then think,

01:15:45.040 --> 01:15:48.480
oh, well, freedom in Christ means just freedom,

01:15:48.480 --> 01:15:49.680
means libertine.

01:15:49.680 --> 01:15:51.520
It means the freedom of the enlightenment.

01:15:51.520 --> 01:15:54.660
No, we are still slaves to Christ

01:15:54.660 --> 01:15:56.500
because we belong to God.

01:15:56.500 --> 01:15:57.920
That is not a burden.

01:15:57.960 --> 01:16:02.960
Our slavery to Christ and our being bound to obey God

01:16:03.240 --> 01:16:04.680
is a gift.

01:16:04.680 --> 01:16:05.640
It is not a burden.

01:16:05.640 --> 01:16:06.760
It is not something,

01:16:06.760 --> 01:16:09.000
it is not a standard by which we are held

01:16:09.000 --> 01:16:10.340
or we are damned.

01:16:10.340 --> 01:16:12.160
God took care of that.

01:16:12.160 --> 01:16:16.500
It is the standard by which all good things are measured.

01:16:16.500 --> 01:16:20.520
When you interpret the law as it's found in scripture,

01:16:20.520 --> 01:16:22.120
as God's eternal will,

01:16:22.120 --> 01:16:23.940
all this stuff makes a lot more sense.

01:16:23.940 --> 01:16:24.780
And that's what it is.

01:16:24.780 --> 01:16:27.160
The law is what God wants.

01:16:27.200 --> 01:16:28.800
And because God doesn't change,

01:16:28.800 --> 01:16:30.800
what God wants doesn't change.

01:16:30.800 --> 01:16:33.840
So the mouthful of the law as God's eternal will

01:16:33.840 --> 01:16:36.920
is a way of emphasizing that we're not talking about

01:16:36.920 --> 01:16:39.040
salvation works righteousness.

01:16:39.040 --> 01:16:41.920
We're not talking about justification before God

01:16:41.920 --> 01:16:45.560
or believing that we're superior to another man.

01:16:45.560 --> 01:16:48.280
We're talking about being and living in accord

01:16:48.280 --> 01:16:50.000
with what God wants.

01:16:50.000 --> 01:16:51.620
Don't use contraception.

01:16:51.620 --> 01:16:53.240
You'll have more kids.

01:16:53.240 --> 01:16:54.560
Don't cheat.

01:16:54.560 --> 01:16:55.960
You won't get in trouble.

01:16:55.960 --> 01:16:59.200
Like all the superficial stuff that like on its face,

01:16:59.200 --> 01:17:01.040
duh, it's so obvious.

01:17:01.040 --> 01:17:04.420
That is God's temporal rewards for obeying him,

01:17:04.420 --> 01:17:06.720
which even unbelievers receive.

01:17:06.720 --> 01:17:09.400
The unbeliever who lives a godly life

01:17:09.400 --> 01:17:11.720
will by and large be blessed in this life.

01:17:11.720 --> 01:17:14.000
It's not gonna do him any good in eternity.

01:17:14.000 --> 01:17:15.000
I feel for those people

01:17:15.000 --> 01:17:16.840
because they thought they had it all figured out.

01:17:16.840 --> 01:17:19.400
And in some ways it's harder for them

01:17:19.400 --> 01:17:21.640
because if everything is good,

01:17:21.640 --> 01:17:23.440
they'll think, why would I need God?

01:17:23.440 --> 01:17:24.960
Everything's hunky dory.

01:17:25.000 --> 01:17:26.040
I'm living a good life.

01:17:26.040 --> 01:17:26.920
I'm doing what I should.

01:17:26.920 --> 01:17:28.400
I don't steal from my neighbors.

01:17:28.400 --> 01:17:30.440
Why would I need this God stuff at all?

01:17:30.440 --> 01:17:33.400
It's almost a harder sell to that person

01:17:33.400 --> 01:17:35.400
to then to a career criminal

01:17:35.400 --> 01:17:37.480
who's at rock bottom, who's in prison,

01:17:37.480 --> 01:17:39.280
maybe for the rest of his life.

01:17:39.280 --> 01:17:41.120
He knows he needs Jesus.

01:17:41.120 --> 01:17:42.960
I mean, it might not know him by name,

01:17:42.960 --> 01:17:45.440
but he knows that he has failed

01:17:45.440 --> 01:17:48.640
where the man who is superficially righteous in this life

01:17:48.640 --> 01:17:49.760
doesn't know.

01:17:49.760 --> 01:17:52.720
We're not talking about superficial righteousness.

01:17:52.760 --> 01:17:55.360
We're talking about the Christian life

01:17:55.360 --> 01:17:58.280
being in accord with what God says.

01:17:58.280 --> 01:18:01.920
Meditating day and night on God's law is a blessing.

01:18:01.920 --> 01:18:03.920
And if we did a little more of that

01:18:03.920 --> 01:18:08.560
and a little less of just ingesting nonstop worldly culture

01:18:08.560 --> 01:18:11.040
in a way that deforms our consciences,

01:18:11.040 --> 01:18:12.600
we wouldn't have as many problems

01:18:12.600 --> 01:18:14.400
in the church and in the world.

01:18:14.400 --> 01:18:17.760
You know, Christendom 500 years ago

01:18:17.760 --> 01:18:22.160
was shaped very largely by the word of God

01:18:22.200 --> 01:18:25.840
because it was the norm in daily life.

01:18:25.840 --> 01:18:27.760
People didn't stray as far from it.

01:18:27.760 --> 01:18:29.280
Even if they weren't Christian,

01:18:29.280 --> 01:18:31.160
there probably weren't many who weren't Christian.

01:18:31.160 --> 01:18:33.800
There were terrible Christians like we don't know.

01:18:33.800 --> 01:18:36.720
We know that they were baptized and that they confessed.

01:18:36.720 --> 01:18:39.000
We open pray the most in heaven.

01:18:39.000 --> 01:18:43.280
However, in Christendom, because the law of God

01:18:43.280 --> 01:18:45.400
was also the law of the land,

01:18:45.400 --> 01:18:47.800
it kept much of the evil at bay

01:18:47.800 --> 01:18:50.440
in ways that we have since sacrificed

01:18:50.440 --> 01:18:53.240
by adopting the false God of democracy,

01:18:53.240 --> 01:18:55.520
this God that has clearly failed us.

01:18:55.520 --> 01:18:58.120
And yet it's still upheld in some of our own churches

01:18:58.120 --> 01:18:59.640
as sacrosanct.

01:18:59.640 --> 01:19:02.120
Cory and I have been accused of false doctrine

01:19:02.120 --> 01:19:04.120
for disliking democracy.

01:19:05.440 --> 01:19:07.800
That's just, never mind the evil,

01:19:07.800 --> 01:19:09.960
it's just purely insane.

01:19:09.960 --> 01:19:12.720
And yet that is where the church is in many places today

01:19:12.720 --> 01:19:15.400
where people can't understand the difference

01:19:15.400 --> 01:19:17.200
between God's eternal will

01:19:17.200 --> 01:19:20.040
and this garbage that we got in our social studies book

01:19:20.080 --> 01:19:22.200
in fifth and sixth grade.

01:19:22.200 --> 01:19:23.040
You know what?

01:19:23.040 --> 01:19:24.800
The guy who wrote the social studies book

01:19:24.800 --> 01:19:26.440
didn't have the same agenda

01:19:26.440 --> 01:19:28.120
as the guy who wrote the Bible.

01:19:28.120 --> 01:19:31.920
Maybe pay more attention to your Lord and Savior.

01:19:31.920 --> 01:19:34.640
Maybe pay more attention to your Creator

01:19:34.640 --> 01:19:37.240
because when this stuff is laid out for us,

01:19:37.240 --> 01:19:40.560
it's not just a good idea and it's not judgy.

01:19:40.560 --> 01:19:42.720
It's not saying do this or you get in trouble.

01:19:42.720 --> 01:19:46.720
It's saying this is what I, God, want for you in your lives.

01:19:46.720 --> 01:19:48.720
Fear me, love me, obey me.

01:19:48.760 --> 01:19:51.120
And all of my blessings will be yours.

01:19:52.480 --> 01:19:54.760
That should be the easiest sell in the world to anyone,

01:19:54.760 --> 01:19:56.360
especially to Christians.

01:19:56.360 --> 01:20:00.040
And yet today, so many Christians are so far removed

01:20:00.040 --> 01:20:01.760
from actual Christianity

01:20:01.760 --> 01:20:04.640
that they get their hackles up at that.

01:20:04.640 --> 01:20:07.080
They get angry at hearing those words.

01:20:07.080 --> 01:20:09.520
That is a profoundly scary thing for us in the church

01:20:09.520 --> 01:20:11.920
because suddenly you realize that someone

01:20:11.920 --> 01:20:13.960
who seemed like they were Christian,

01:20:13.960 --> 01:20:16.760
when matters of conscience arise,

01:20:16.760 --> 01:20:19.720
you find that while your conscience,

01:20:19.720 --> 01:20:23.280
hopefully is informed by scripture,

01:20:23.280 --> 01:20:25.640
their consciences in many cases

01:20:25.640 --> 01:20:27.720
are barely informed by scripture at all.

01:20:27.720 --> 01:20:30.200
They're informed by CNN.

01:20:30.200 --> 01:20:31.840
They're informed by movies.

01:20:31.840 --> 01:20:34.360
They're informed by all of these worldly things

01:20:34.360 --> 01:20:36.920
that are coming from Satan to be explicit.

01:20:36.920 --> 01:20:39.760
All these other things that are not from scripture

01:20:39.760 --> 01:20:42.000
is virtually all satanic today.

01:20:42.000 --> 01:20:43.920
That wasn't the case 500 years ago

01:20:43.920 --> 01:20:45.360
because we had Christendom.

01:20:45.360 --> 01:20:47.920
We had a world in Europe

01:20:47.920 --> 01:20:50.880
that was oriented around the Christian faith.

01:20:50.880 --> 01:20:54.040
There was no room for pornography and for filth

01:20:54.040 --> 01:20:56.880
and for all these things that are corrosive to the soul.

01:20:56.880 --> 01:20:59.600
Today, that's almost all you can find.

01:20:59.600 --> 01:21:01.640
Even the so-called wholesome stuff

01:21:01.640 --> 01:21:03.960
usually has some amount of degeneracy

01:21:03.960 --> 01:21:04.840
because hey, why not?

01:21:04.840 --> 01:21:07.560
We don't want people to feel like we're judging them.

01:21:07.560 --> 01:21:09.320
We gotta include a little bit of that.

01:21:09.320 --> 01:21:11.160
And then we baptize it and sanctify it

01:21:11.160 --> 01:21:13.000
by incorporating it into something

01:21:13.000 --> 01:21:14.880
that we're saying is Christian.

01:21:14.920 --> 01:21:16.720
We can't do that.

01:21:16.720 --> 01:21:19.880
And so the things that God tells us to do

01:21:20.720 --> 01:21:23.640
should be obvious and they should be easy for us.

01:21:23.640 --> 01:21:25.720
It's not how you save yourself.

01:21:25.720 --> 01:21:28.960
It's how God is saving you from misery in this life.

01:21:28.960 --> 01:21:29.920
You'll still suffer.

01:21:29.920 --> 01:21:31.760
You'll still have bad things happen.

01:21:31.760 --> 01:21:34.120
Your family members, your pets are gonna die.

01:21:34.120 --> 01:21:36.400
That's part of the suffering in life

01:21:36.400 --> 01:21:40.420
that is the result of original sin that never goes away.

01:21:40.420 --> 01:21:42.680
But all the problems that we cause for ourselves

01:21:42.720 --> 01:21:46.600
by disobeying God are caused by not meditating day and night

01:21:46.600 --> 01:21:47.640
on his law.

01:21:47.640 --> 01:21:49.440
And then when somebody brings it up,

01:21:49.440 --> 01:21:51.760
rather than saying, hey, that sounds like a good idea.

01:21:51.760 --> 01:21:53.380
I'd like to learn more from scripture

01:21:53.380 --> 01:21:54.440
about what God says.

01:21:55.360 --> 01:21:58.280
The instinct now is to kill the messenger.

01:21:58.280 --> 01:22:02.400
A lot of what you just said goes to the second point

01:22:02.400 --> 01:22:05.240
out of the six points in article six.

01:22:06.200 --> 01:22:08.640
And that is that the preaching of the law

01:22:08.640 --> 01:22:12.660
must be encouraged and must always have a place

01:22:12.660 --> 01:22:14.300
in the church.

01:22:14.300 --> 01:22:18.260
And this is something that a number of denominations

01:22:18.260 --> 01:22:21.180
have abandoned in the modern church.

01:22:22.260 --> 01:22:25.660
And this is one of the true strains of antinomianism

01:22:25.660 --> 01:22:28.000
where they just preach the gospel,

01:22:29.540 --> 01:22:31.540
at least insofar as they perceive it

01:22:31.540 --> 01:22:33.140
and they do not preach the law.

01:22:34.380 --> 01:22:36.160
And here I have to give the reform some credit

01:22:36.160 --> 01:22:40.300
because the reformed, at least the confessional version

01:22:40.340 --> 01:22:44.020
of the reformed, the staunch ones,

01:22:44.020 --> 01:22:46.140
have avoided this problem to some degree.

01:22:46.140 --> 01:22:49.740
Yes, there are some issues with perhaps

01:22:49.740 --> 01:22:51.980
not preaching the gospel enough in some cases,

01:22:51.980 --> 01:22:55.260
but I don't think that I'm just saying that,

01:22:55.260 --> 01:22:57.700
oh, well, Lutheran law gospel, that's not it.

01:22:59.140 --> 01:23:02.820
I am willing to commend those who preach

01:23:02.820 --> 01:23:06.900
and teach extensively, exegetically, properly,

01:23:06.900 --> 01:23:08.700
on the law, that's good.

01:23:08.700 --> 01:23:11.500
But you do have to have the gospel in there as well

01:23:11.500 --> 01:23:15.500
because part of the task of the law is to kill the sinner,

01:23:15.500 --> 01:23:19.100
is to kill the old Adam, but you have to have the gospel

01:23:19.100 --> 01:23:22.100
to revive the Christian, to bring forth the new man.

01:23:22.100 --> 01:23:23.660
So both are necessary.

01:23:24.780 --> 01:23:27.100
You can fall off either side of the horse.

01:23:28.140 --> 01:23:29.900
You can fall off the left side of the horse

01:23:29.900 --> 01:23:32.500
by preaching just the law, just fire and brimstone,

01:23:32.500 --> 01:23:36.000
100% of the time, and nothing of Jesus.

01:23:36.000 --> 01:23:38.960
You fall off the left side of the horse into the ditch.

01:23:38.960 --> 01:23:40.440
But you can also fall off the right side

01:23:40.440 --> 01:23:44.520
of the horse into the ditch by just Jesus loves you,

01:23:44.520 --> 01:23:49.520
you're forgiven, Jesus loves you, go home.

01:23:49.580 --> 01:23:51.320
No, you need the law as well

01:23:51.320 --> 01:23:53.800
because even as Christians, you have to be told,

01:23:53.800 --> 01:23:56.440
this is God's eternal will, you are to do this,

01:23:56.440 --> 01:23:58.440
you are not to do that.

01:23:58.440 --> 01:24:01.960
And the new man, the renewed part of you,

01:24:01.960 --> 01:24:05.000
the regenerated part of you, loves the law of God.

01:24:05.000 --> 01:24:07.240
And so you want to hear the law of God

01:24:07.240 --> 01:24:10.000
if you are a truly regenerate Christian.

01:24:10.000 --> 01:24:13.840
If you hear the law and you immediately hate it,

01:24:13.840 --> 01:24:15.160
you should be deeply worried

01:24:16.240 --> 01:24:19.000
because that is not the reaction of a Christian to the law.

01:24:19.000 --> 01:24:21.040
As a Christian, you will be convicted by the law.

01:24:21.040 --> 01:24:23.200
You will recognize the sin in your heart,

01:24:23.200 --> 01:24:25.160
you will recognize that you have not upheld it,

01:24:25.160 --> 01:24:29.520
you will perceive of it in that second sense as well

01:24:29.520 --> 01:24:32.280
as a mirror because it is held up to you

01:24:32.280 --> 01:24:33.940
and you see your sins in it.

01:24:35.240 --> 01:24:37.120
But there is also that third use

01:24:37.120 --> 01:24:39.760
and Christians will recognize that third use.

01:24:39.760 --> 01:24:42.160
This is how I can organize my life,

01:24:42.160 --> 01:24:46.240
this is how I can order my life according to what God wants.

01:24:46.240 --> 01:24:49.360
This is how I can behave as a Christian,

01:24:49.360 --> 01:24:51.640
not how I can save myself.

01:24:51.640 --> 01:24:54.800
That work is done, Christ did that, I'm saved.

01:24:54.800 --> 01:24:58.040
That's justification, that's once for all done.

01:25:00.240 --> 01:25:04.880
But what do I do after I am justified?

01:25:04.920 --> 01:25:07.600
Now that I am a Christian,

01:25:07.600 --> 01:25:09.280
now that I have faith,

01:25:09.280 --> 01:25:12.200
now that I have been given new life by the Spirit,

01:25:13.120 --> 01:25:15.040
it's the and then.

01:25:15.040 --> 01:25:16.400
What do I do as a Christian?

01:25:16.400 --> 01:25:18.000
How do I conduct myself?

01:25:18.000 --> 01:25:19.700
How do I comport my life?

01:25:20.840 --> 01:25:24.220
And that is the law and so Christians need both.

01:25:25.160 --> 01:25:27.260
Yes, the unregenerate also need both.

01:25:27.260 --> 01:25:29.660
The unregenerate need the law in full force

01:25:29.660 --> 01:25:32.240
until they repent than the gospel,

01:25:32.240 --> 01:25:34.800
but Christians also need the law in full force

01:25:34.800 --> 01:25:36.020
and then the gospel.

01:25:37.480 --> 01:25:39.280
That is one of the duties,

01:25:39.280 --> 01:25:42.960
that is the core duty of pastors and teachers,

01:25:42.960 --> 01:25:46.600
and many are falling short of that in one way or the other.

01:25:46.600 --> 01:25:50.000
There are very few today who preach the law

01:25:50.000 --> 01:25:51.820
in its full severity,

01:25:51.820 --> 01:25:54.000
and then the gospel in its full sweetness,

01:25:54.000 --> 01:25:55.320
who do that rightly,

01:25:55.320 --> 01:25:58.120
who rightly divide law and gospel

01:25:58.120 --> 01:25:59.400
without mingling them,

01:25:59.400 --> 01:26:01.920
without neglecting one or the other.

01:26:01.920 --> 01:26:03.720
And that is, as I said, the second point,

01:26:03.760 --> 01:26:07.560
this is a vitally important thing for the church.

01:26:07.560 --> 01:26:09.120
It is a live issue,

01:26:09.120 --> 01:26:12.600
it is a significant problem we face today,

01:26:12.600 --> 01:26:14.520
because we have, again,

01:26:14.520 --> 01:26:17.760
on the one side, those who are just preaching the law,

01:26:17.760 --> 01:26:20.000
largely ignoring the gospel,

01:26:20.000 --> 01:26:21.680
fewer of those, granted,

01:26:21.680 --> 01:26:23.440
and on the other side,

01:26:23.440 --> 01:26:26.320
we have many of these who are just preaching the gospel

01:26:26.320 --> 01:26:27.560
and ignoring the law.

01:26:28.400 --> 01:26:31.840
And as we keep saying, you cannot do that, point six,

01:26:31.840 --> 01:26:35.520
the law is God's eternal will.

01:26:35.520 --> 01:26:37.160
You cannot ignore it.

01:26:37.160 --> 01:26:40.680
As a Christian, you should love the law of God.

01:26:40.680 --> 01:26:43.160
Read the Psalms, it's all throughout them,

01:26:43.160 --> 01:26:46.240
particularly Psalm one and Psalm 119.

01:26:48.820 --> 01:26:50.880
And then points four and five

01:26:50.880 --> 01:26:53.000
are the only ones we really haven't touched on yet,

01:26:53.000 --> 01:26:55.520
and that is just the distinguishing between

01:26:56.520 --> 01:26:59.120
the works of the law and the fruits of the spirit.

01:26:59.120 --> 01:27:00.920
I actually went over this as well

01:27:00.920 --> 01:27:03.200
in the previous episode,

01:27:03.200 --> 01:27:04.160
but the works of the law

01:27:04.160 --> 01:27:07.560
in this specific technical sense.

01:27:07.560 --> 01:27:09.520
The works of the law are those works

01:27:09.520 --> 01:27:12.600
that are done out of fear,

01:27:12.600 --> 01:27:15.200
fear of punishment, fear of the wrath of God.

01:27:17.400 --> 01:27:19.280
You do not get commended for these.

01:27:19.280 --> 01:27:22.240
Yes, it is better to do the works of the law than not.

01:27:22.240 --> 01:27:24.840
Your eternity in hell will not be as bad

01:27:24.840 --> 01:27:28.760
if you do the works of the law in this limited sense.

01:27:28.760 --> 01:27:29.600
Again, bear in mind,

01:27:29.600 --> 01:27:32.360
this is a technical sense of that term.

01:27:32.360 --> 01:27:35.680
The fruits of the spirit are those works,

01:27:35.680 --> 01:27:39.480
those good works that flow from the regenerate

01:27:39.480 --> 01:27:43.800
because they are regenerate, because they are in Christ.

01:27:43.800 --> 01:27:48.080
Now, in a looser, less technical sense,

01:27:48.080 --> 01:27:50.880
yes, you can call those things that are done under the law,

01:27:50.880 --> 01:27:53.600
according to the law, even by the regenerate,

01:27:53.600 --> 01:27:55.560
works of the law because they are works done

01:27:55.560 --> 01:27:56.720
according to the law.

01:27:57.720 --> 01:27:59.520
But ultimately, what they actually are

01:27:59.520 --> 01:28:01.800
is fruits of the spirit.

01:28:01.800 --> 01:28:03.120
They agree with the law

01:28:03.120 --> 01:28:05.880
because, again, the law is God's eternal will.

01:28:05.880 --> 01:28:08.720
And so, good works are those things done,

01:28:08.720 --> 01:28:09.800
according to the law.

01:28:11.240 --> 01:28:14.120
Because a work is good in so far as

01:28:14.120 --> 01:28:16.800
it comports with God's eternal will,

01:28:16.800 --> 01:28:18.760
which is, again, just another way of saying,

01:28:18.760 --> 01:28:21.440
in so far as it comports with the law.

01:28:21.440 --> 01:28:23.120
And that is what the spirit is doing.

01:28:23.120 --> 01:28:24.680
That is sanctification.

01:28:25.680 --> 01:28:27.800
Justification is immediate.

01:28:27.800 --> 01:28:28.880
You're justified.

01:28:28.880 --> 01:28:29.720
It's done.

01:28:29.720 --> 01:28:30.960
The work is done.

01:28:30.960 --> 01:28:32.200
It's not progressive.

01:28:32.200 --> 01:28:35.440
You aren't more justified tomorrow than you are today.

01:28:35.440 --> 01:28:37.560
You weren't less justified yesterday.

01:28:38.480 --> 01:28:42.080
Christ's work was complete when He said it is finished.

01:28:44.400 --> 01:28:48.160
However, sanctification is progressive.

01:28:48.160 --> 01:28:50.600
As you maintain your faith in this life,

01:28:50.600 --> 01:28:52.440
as you spend time in God's word,

01:28:52.440 --> 01:28:54.160
as the spirit works in you,

01:28:54.240 --> 01:28:55.960
all these things,

01:28:55.960 --> 01:29:00.000
you will get progressively better as a Christian.

01:29:01.320 --> 01:29:03.960
Some of those sins that cling to you will fall away.

01:29:03.960 --> 01:29:07.200
Some of the temptations will taper over time.

01:29:07.200 --> 01:29:08.760
Yes, new things will spring up.

01:29:08.760 --> 01:29:10.880
Yes, you will recognize new sins.

01:29:10.880 --> 01:29:14.880
Anyone who has dedicated significant time and effort

01:29:14.880 --> 01:29:18.200
to the Christian life will tell you immediately,

01:29:19.200 --> 01:29:22.840
one of the things that will happen in the process,

01:29:22.880 --> 01:29:24.480
all along the way,

01:29:24.480 --> 01:29:26.800
is that you'll find a sin

01:29:26.800 --> 01:29:28.200
because the spirit will highlight it.

01:29:28.200 --> 01:29:29.760
God's word will show it to you.

01:29:30.680 --> 01:29:32.760
You'll get that sin under control.

01:29:32.760 --> 01:29:33.960
It may take a lot of time.

01:29:33.960 --> 01:29:34.880
It may take a little time.

01:29:34.880 --> 01:29:39.320
It depends on the kind of sin and many other factors,

01:29:39.320 --> 01:29:41.160
but you'll get that under control.

01:29:41.160 --> 01:29:42.000
You eventually will,

01:29:42.000 --> 01:29:44.480
with the help of the spirit, with God's word,

01:29:44.480 --> 01:29:47.160
time, patience, prayer, effort,

01:29:47.160 --> 01:29:48.720
you will get that under control.

01:29:50.480 --> 01:29:52.640
But then you'll read God's word,

01:29:52.640 --> 01:29:56.400
then the spirit will convict you of another sin

01:29:56.400 --> 01:29:58.640
because there is always another sin.

01:29:58.640 --> 01:30:01.040
Because in this life, you will never be perfect.

01:30:01.040 --> 01:30:04.000
The regeneration is not complete.

01:30:04.000 --> 01:30:05.880
That happens in the resurrection.

01:30:06.760 --> 01:30:10.160
And so you will continue to recognize these things

01:30:10.160 --> 01:30:11.440
in your life.

01:30:11.440 --> 01:30:13.800
Now, it may be as you go along,

01:30:13.800 --> 01:30:15.600
they are smaller sins.

01:30:15.600 --> 01:30:17.880
They are less heinous sins.

01:30:17.880 --> 01:30:20.520
There's still sin, and all sin is sin.

01:30:20.520 --> 01:30:22.360
But as we have pointed out,

01:30:22.360 --> 01:30:25.720
as is the purpose in large part of these two episodes,

01:30:25.720 --> 01:30:27.160
not all sins are equal.

01:30:27.160 --> 01:30:29.280
And so it may be when you started out,

01:30:29.280 --> 01:30:30.760
there were particularly heinous sins

01:30:30.760 --> 01:30:32.840
in which you were engaged.

01:30:32.840 --> 01:30:36.200
It may be fornication

01:30:36.200 --> 01:30:39.080
is going to be a common sin these days.

01:30:39.080 --> 01:30:40.560
It may be something like that.

01:30:40.560 --> 01:30:42.440
And you get that under control.

01:30:42.440 --> 01:30:45.560
And then it'll be rage.

01:30:45.560 --> 01:30:49.040
It'll be all these other various things as you go along.

01:30:50.040 --> 01:30:52.520
And the Spirit will continue to point these out

01:30:52.520 --> 01:30:55.160
as you spend time in God's word.

01:30:55.160 --> 01:30:57.920
You will continue to be convicted of these things.

01:30:57.920 --> 01:31:02.200
But that is the discipline that God gives to sons.

01:31:02.200 --> 01:31:03.880
Because God is your father.

01:31:03.880 --> 01:31:07.520
And fathers who love their sons discipline their sons.

01:31:07.520 --> 01:31:09.360
And so part of that discipline

01:31:09.360 --> 01:31:12.480
is going to be pointing out these sins

01:31:12.480 --> 01:31:14.680
and continuing to work through them

01:31:14.680 --> 01:31:16.120
for the entirety of your life.

01:31:16.120 --> 01:31:20.080
You are not going to reach a state of perfection in this life.

01:31:20.080 --> 01:31:22.880
Anyone who says that is a liar and a false prophet

01:31:22.880 --> 01:31:24.320
and you should burn his books.

01:31:25.680 --> 01:31:28.600
You will not reach some level of perfection

01:31:28.600 --> 01:31:31.120
whereby you no longer sin.

01:31:31.120 --> 01:31:32.880
No, you will continue to sin.

01:31:32.880 --> 01:31:35.680
And you will continue to find these sins as you go.

01:31:35.680 --> 01:31:38.040
You may even find things that you didn't really think

01:31:38.040 --> 01:31:38.880
were that bad.

01:31:38.880 --> 01:31:40.880
And then as you continue to grow in your faith

01:31:40.880 --> 01:31:42.160
and your walk with God,

01:31:42.160 --> 01:31:44.880
you realize, no, that's a sin that's been holding me back

01:31:44.920 --> 01:31:47.080
that's been separating me from God.

01:31:47.080 --> 01:31:50.600
And I should have taken that seriously long ago.

01:31:51.480 --> 01:31:52.640
But that is the Christian life.

01:31:52.640 --> 01:31:54.000
That is sanctification.

01:31:55.600 --> 01:31:58.280
As long as you are making that progress,

01:31:58.280 --> 01:32:01.080
and yes, you will backslide from time to time

01:32:01.080 --> 01:32:04.400
and you should not despair because of that.

01:32:04.400 --> 01:32:09.400
But you will overall make progress in your Christian life.

01:32:10.680 --> 01:32:14.560
If you do the things that God tells you to do.

01:32:14.560 --> 01:32:16.200
If you read his word.

01:32:16.200 --> 01:32:18.480
If you attend the divine service.

01:32:18.480 --> 01:32:21.280
If you make use of the sacrament.

01:32:22.640 --> 01:32:25.240
These are things that God instituted,

01:32:25.240 --> 01:32:27.680
that God created for your good.

01:32:27.680 --> 01:32:29.120
Make use of them.

01:32:29.120 --> 01:32:31.640
And you will grow in your Christian life

01:32:31.640 --> 01:32:33.600
and the spirit will continue

01:32:33.600 --> 01:32:35.560
that sanctification process in you.

01:32:38.360 --> 01:32:41.120
And so we've mentioned the Psalms a number of times

01:32:41.120 --> 01:32:42.000
in this episode.

01:32:42.000 --> 01:32:45.840
And you should be reading through the Psalter.

01:32:45.840 --> 01:32:48.680
I'm not going to tell you that you have to do it every week.

01:32:48.680 --> 01:32:51.560
It's not that long, but it's long enough.

01:32:51.560 --> 01:32:53.360
And most people these days do not sit down

01:32:53.360 --> 01:32:56.440
to concentrate and read for very long.

01:32:56.440 --> 01:32:59.920
But add two or three Psalms to your day.

01:32:59.920 --> 01:33:01.680
Read one in the morning, read one in the evening,

01:33:01.680 --> 01:33:04.880
whatever it takes, spend some time in the Psalter.

01:33:04.880 --> 01:33:09.760
The Psalter is the original hymnal as it were of the church.

01:33:09.800 --> 01:33:12.800
You should be spending time with the Psalms.

01:33:14.120 --> 01:33:16.320
And so after this, I recommend you go at least read

01:33:16.320 --> 01:33:17.960
Psalm 119 and Psalm one.

01:33:19.240 --> 01:33:22.320
Because they deal specifically

01:33:22.320 --> 01:33:24.000
with the goodness of God's law.

01:33:25.240 --> 01:33:28.640
But we're going to end by reading Psalm one.

01:33:28.640 --> 01:33:31.720
And we already went over Psalm one in the ESV.

01:33:31.720 --> 01:33:34.280
That was what Woe read earlier.

01:33:34.280 --> 01:33:38.840
I'm going to read it in a slightly older translation.

01:33:38.880 --> 01:33:41.320
This one, the 1650 Psalter.

01:33:44.000 --> 01:33:47.920
That man hath perfect blessedness, who walketh not astray,

01:33:47.920 --> 01:33:52.040
in counsel of ungodly men, nor stands in sinner's way,

01:33:52.040 --> 01:33:56.000
nor sitteth in the scorner's chair, but placeth his delight,

01:33:56.000 --> 01:34:00.160
upon God's law and meditates, on his law day and night.

01:34:00.160 --> 01:34:03.900
He shall be like a tree that grows near planted by a river,

01:34:03.900 --> 01:34:06.080
which in his season yields his fruit,

01:34:06.080 --> 01:34:08.160
and his leaf fadeeth never.

01:34:08.160 --> 01:34:12.440
And all he doth shall prosper well, the wicked are not so,

01:34:12.440 --> 01:34:14.280
but like they are unto the chaff,

01:34:14.280 --> 01:34:17.040
which wind drives to and fro.

01:34:17.040 --> 01:34:19.320
In judgment therefore shall not stand,

01:34:19.320 --> 01:34:23.040
such as ungodly are, nor in the assembly of the just,

01:34:23.040 --> 01:34:25.080
shall wicked men appear.

01:34:25.080 --> 01:34:29.280
For why the way of godly men unto the Lord is known?

01:34:29.280 --> 01:34:32.960
Whereas the way of wicked men shall quite be overthrown.

01:34:34.280 --> 01:34:35.120
Amen.

01:34:36.040 --> 01:34:39.060
Greetings Battler,

01:34:39.060 --> 01:34:43.120
and welcome you to a revelary妳 thorn down theため

01:34:43.120 --> 01:34:47.080
that was built upon the Lord,

01:34:47.080 --> 01:34:51.040
whom thou of thine name was made,

01:34:51.040 --> 01:34:54.560
and whom thou art made the begger,

01:34:54.560 --> 01:34:57.880
and whom thou art made the part of this kingdom.

01:34:57.880 --> 01:35:01.180
And here thy disease seleth me.