The NXR Podcast - September 23, 2023


BONUS EPISODE - Christian Nationalism, Blasphemy Laws, & The End Of America ｜ Live with Pastor Joel


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Length

38 minutes

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159.24263

Word count

6,075

Sentence count

223

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1

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Toxicity

6

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57

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Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Civil Magistrates enforce both the Ten Commandments and the Ten Table of the Law, but not the second table of the Decalogue. Why not the first table? Why should the government enforce both tables of the law?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Join Douglas Wilson, Dr. Joseph Boot, Brian Sauve, Eric Kahn, and myself on March 1st,
00:00:13.440 2nd, and 3rd for our 2024 conference. It's called Blueprints for Christendom 2.0.
00:00:20.300 Go and visit rightresponseconference.com to register today. We hope to see you at the conference in March.
00:00:30.000 All right, a couple quick thoughts about the civil government enforcing both tables of the law.
00:00:40.480 When I say both tables of the law, I'm referring to the Decalogue.
00:00:43.540 That is the Ten Commandments in Exodus chapter 20.
00:00:46.900 When we say tables of the law, we're talking about the first table being commandments one through four,
00:00:52.300 dealing with our obligation to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind.
00:00:57.060 So the first four of the Ten Commandments is, have no other gods before me, do not make
00:01:01.760 any graven images.
00:01:03.480 Then you also have, do not take the Lord's name in vain, and then remember the Sabbath
00:01:07.700 and keep it holy.
00:01:08.640 These four, the first four of the Ten Commandments pertain to man's moral obligation as it regards
00:01:15.140 to the Lord, his obligation to the Lord.
00:01:18.220 So that's the first table of the law of God.
00:01:20.260 The second table of the law of God would be Commandments 5 through 10.
00:01:23.860 So you've got the first four, then the final six.
00:01:26.080 So commandments five through 10. This is honor father and mother. That's the fifth commandment. Do not murder is the sixth. Then you have do not commit adultery. That is the seventh commandment. Then you have do not steal would be the eighth commandment. Do not bear false witness is the ninth commandment. And then lastly, number 10 is do not covet.
00:01:44.960 So I want to give you a couple thoughts in regards to the civil magistrate governments, national governments, the civil authorities in regards to legislating and enforcing both tables of the law of God.
00:01:59.700 That was Calvin's position, John Calvin, also on the Baptist side, John Gill.
00:02:03.800 John Gill is expressly, as put down in writing, John Gill, just for the record, if you don't
00:02:08.580 know who he is, he's one of the famous Reformed Baptist ministers that many Reformed Baptists
00:02:15.300 today admire and will often quote.
00:02:18.300 He was a minister in the very same church that Charles Spurgeon pastored in about 100
00:02:24.520 years later.
00:02:25.460 So Charles Spurgeon, the church that he pastored 100 years prior, earlier, that was John Gill's church.
00:02:31.800 And so both John Calvin and John Gill would hold to that the civil magistrate has an obligation biblically to legislate in force,
00:02:39.520 not just the second table of the law of God, which all deals with our horizontal relationships with our fellow man,
00:02:46.460 how we can love our neighbor as ourself,
00:02:48.660 but both John Calvin and John Gill would hold to the civil magistrate enforcing both tables of the law,
00:02:54.880 including the first four of the Ten Commandments, dealing with idolatry, graven images, taking the
00:03:02.440 Lord's name in veins. That would include blasphemy laws. And then, of course, remembering the Sabbath. 0.95
00:03:07.180 This would include Sabbath laws. So here's a couple thoughts. There's a lot of guys right now
00:03:12.200 in regards to the conversation that continues to go on about Christian nationalism,
00:03:17.360 saying that it is the obligation of civil authorities of the state the government to
00:03:24.760 legislate and enforce the second table of the decalogue as it pertains to our love for our
00:03:31.120 neighbor commandments five through ten the second table of the decalogue but not the first and i
00:03:37.660 think that this is precisely the wrong distinction the reformers would agree the puritans would agree
00:03:43.920 Calvin Gill they would agree so this is not a novel position I didn't come up with this on my
00:03:49.780 own they were all both table guys they were saying no the civil magistrate should enforce
00:03:55.500 both tables of the law and the distinction that I've noticed is this instead of saying
00:04:01.640 you should the civil magistrate should distinguish between the second and the first table
00:04:06.700 instead where they put the distinction is between public and private let me say that again
00:04:12.820 for the civil magistrate in his duty before god to be righteous in his laws that he legislates
00:04:20.000 and enforces with civil authority with the sword that's been given to him romans 13 the distinction
00:04:26.780 that the civil magistrate should make is not between the first and second table of the law of
00:04:32.280 god but between private and public between private and public and here's what i mean the easiest way
00:04:40.060 that I could put it is like this. No government, no, even if it's a Christian nation, no Christian 0.94
00:04:47.560 government, no Christian civil magistrate, no Christian prince should be policing and enforcing 0.84
00:04:54.200 laws by punishment with fines or imprisonment or death or whatever it may be. They should not be 0.99
00:05:02.300 legislating and enforcing against a breach of the 10th commandment, namely coveting.
00:05:08.780 christian nationalists do not want the coveting police we don't want the thought private thought
00:05:16.820 police we are not advocates of 1984 that's you know george orwell's you know fictional writing
00:05:24.020 1984 that's not what we want so we don't want even in a christian nation we do want a christian
00:05:29.700 nation that legislates and enforces the law of god but we don't want the 10th commandment coveting
00:05:36.640 to be enforced. Why? Because coveting is a sin of the heart. It is a private sin. So when does a
00:05:43.380 civil magistrate get involved with someone breaching the 10th commandment, choosing to
00:05:48.040 covet? Will they get involved when that breach, that individual person, their choice to break
00:05:55.060 God's law regarding the 10th commandment, to covet their neighbor's possessions, to covet what God
00:06:01.460 has sovereignly chosen to distribute to their neighbor rather than to them, when their coveting
00:06:06.860 becomes of such a high degree that it causes their breaking of the 10th commandment begins to
00:06:14.860 overflow and manifest as a breaking of the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, or 9th commandment. What do I mean?
00:06:23.360 Well, this is what the book of James says, right? Why are there factions and divisions among you?
00:06:28.340 is it not because of your desires, right? That sin begins at the level of desire. And then James
00:06:35.300 goes further and says, you covet, but do not have. And so you murder right there. James is telling us
00:06:42.880 the pattern. Coveting, if unchecked, apart from accountability, not from the civil magistrate,
00:06:49.580 but from the church, from brothers and sisters in Christ, and simply repenting, confessing our sins
00:06:55.280 privately in our private practices of piety, not pietism, but piety, which is a good thing
00:07:01.080 through prayer and fasting and scripture study, living a life as a Christian, an inward life as
00:07:07.780 a Christian with practices of piety. If we do not check our covetous desires, then coveting
00:07:15.540 eventually will overflow where it's no longer merely a breach of the 10th commandment, thou
00:07:21.580 shall not covet but coveting unchecked eventually will manifest in breaking one of the other
00:07:27.900 commandments namely commandment five through nine right so we we want something that god has chosen
00:07:33.380 to give to our neighbors so bad and rather than confessing that sin to the lord rather than
00:07:38.480 getting accountability from brothers and sisters in christ rather than turning to the lord in
00:07:42.540 confession and repentance in study of the scripture in prayer in fasting rather than doing these
00:07:49.040 things, we, we allow our coveting to grow to where eventually we commit murder. We so, so badly
00:07:58.300 covet something, right? I think of, you know, it's like Gollum and the Lord of the Rings, right?
00:08:02.720 That, that, you know, originally he was a hobbit, right? He wasn't a monster to begin with. He was
00:08:08.120 a hobbit, but he and his buddy hobbit were out fishing one day and, and all of a sudden they
00:08:15.240 find the ring, the one ring to rule them all at the bottom of the river. And so they pull the
00:08:22.380 ring up and it's his friend, Gollum's friend, Smeagol's friend that actually found the ring.
00:08:27.300 And Smeagol says, I want it. Give it to me. I'm entitled to it. It's my birthday. It happened to
00:08:33.200 be his birthday that day. But his friend said, well, no, I found it and I'm not obligated to
00:08:38.140 give it to you. I want it. And so Smeagol, who's not a monster at this point, but he quickly becomes
00:08:43.500 one, he strangles and murders his friend, one of his very best friends, because he covets. So
00:08:49.860 coveting the breaking of the 10th commandment, unchecked, it bubbles up and overflows into a
00:08:57.220 breaking of, in this case, the sixth commandment, thou shall not murder. This can happen with the
00:09:01.500 eighth commandment, thou shall not steal. Your neighbor has something that you want, that you
00:09:05.500 covet, that you believe you're entitled to. And so if you allow that coveting heart to continue to
00:09:11.680 grow and grow and grow, eventually what you end up doing is you are tempted to steal, right? Thou
00:09:18.400 shall not steal. Well, now you're stealing. Or if you covet your neighbor's wife, adultery, that's
00:09:23.100 the seventh commandment. Or in coveting, it could cause you to be tempted to break the ninth
00:09:27.500 commandment, to lie, to bear false witness in order to wrongfully, in an unethical manner, get
00:09:33.440 something that you want that didn't actually belong to you. So here's the deal. The distinction
00:09:38.560 is not between second table, horizontal love for neighbor, and first table, vertical love for God.
00:09:46.480 No, the distinction for the civil magistrate as he seeks to legislate and enforce God's law
00:09:51.980 righteously is not between second table and first table of the law. The distinction has to be between
00:09:58.380 public and private. So the covet commandment, the 10th commandment, thou shalt not covet,
00:10:04.340 that is the second table of the law it pertains to our relationship horizontally with our neighbor
00:10:10.000 and yet the civil magistrate even within a christian nationalist scheme framework the
00:10:16.060 christian nationalists such as myself would still say that the civil magistrate has no authority
00:10:20.460 to enforce as a thought police against coveting but coveting eventually that's a private sin so
00:10:27.880 therefore it's not legislated against but if that private sin becomes it bubbles over and becomes a
00:10:33.240 public sin, the breaking of the 10th commandment, choosing to covet, causes you to eventually break
00:10:38.200 the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, or 9th commandment. Now the civil magistrate is involved. And my point
00:10:44.040 is, I think with the first table of the law, commandments 1 through 4, as it pertains to
00:10:48.340 loving the Lord our God, the very same principle is at play, but in reverse. So think of it like
00:10:53.980 this, all right? The first commandment is, have no other gods before me. That is a private matter.
00:11:01.680 that's something that's in the heart it's it's hard to detect it's not necessarily outward
00:11:07.180 external and witnessable however here's the deal if someone is an idolater privately at heart
00:11:14.360 they actually have other gods before the triune god yahweh the true god then eventually what
00:11:20.640 happens is if that's unchecked if there's not that accountability in the realm of the church
00:11:25.600 in the realm of Christian private practices of piety,
00:11:29.440 then having other gods privately in the heart
00:11:33.300 before the true triune God
00:11:35.580 will eventually cause you to break commandments
00:11:38.100 two, three, or four. 0.68
00:11:39.660 It'll cause you to profane the Sabbath externally, 0.73
00:11:42.820 outwardly, right?
00:11:44.040 Not keeping the Sabbath holy. 0.64
00:11:46.040 It'll cause you to take the Lord's name in vain,
00:11:48.640 to blaspheme.
00:11:49.560 That's a breach of the third commandment.
00:11:51.720 Or it would also cause you to be an idolater
00:11:55.180 in a public external witnessable way by making graven images or bowing down to other graven
00:12:03.120 images that have been made. So basically what I'm saying is this, the distinction as it pertains to
00:12:09.100 the civil magistrate and in which of the laws of God should he actually enforce. The distinction
00:12:17.100 isn't between second table, but not first table. No, it's first and second table. The distinction
00:12:23.860 is he enforces that which is public, but not private. And here's the cool thing. I was thinking
00:12:30.700 about this the other day, both in the second table and the first table of the law, you have at least
00:12:36.320 one commandment in each of them that is strictly private. And therefore it should not be enforced
00:12:42.900 or policed by the civil magistrate. But if these commandments, the 10th commandment in the second
00:12:49.080 table of the law coveting which is private if it's unchecked it'll cause you to externally
00:12:54.060 witnessably outwardly break commandments five through nine well in the first table of the law
00:12:58.900 if you break the first commandment that's private it's inward idolatry having another god before
00:13:05.140 the triune god but if it's unchecked and not accountable it'll flow over and cause you to
00:13:10.320 break commandments two three and four so you actually have the 10 commandments both the first
00:13:15.440 and second table bookended by two commandments, the very first of the 10 commandments and the
00:13:21.000 very last that are both private sins, private sins of the heart. But if these two private
00:13:27.960 sins of the heart in the heart, a breach of the first commandment, having another God that you
00:13:33.260 love more than the true God, or in the second table of the law, the 10th commandment, coveting
00:13:38.380 what God has given to your neighbor. If you break these two commandments privately and it's unchecked,
00:13:44.440 it'll flow over and cause you to break the other commandments publicly.
00:13:48.200 In the case of the first commandment, you break that privately, having other gods.
00:13:52.760 Eventually, you make graven images, you blaspheme, and you profane the Sabbath.
00:13:57.520 You covet over here, unchecked.
00:13:59.420 Eventually, you bear false witness, you steal, you commit adultery, you murder, or you dishonor your parents.
00:14:11.920 I think that's the way it works.
00:14:13.420 So it's really not, oh, well, the first table, that doesn't make sense for the civil magistrate
00:14:17.800 to be involved at all, because that's just religious, and we don't talk about religious
00:14:21.460 things. No, that's silly. That's the myth of neutrality. The issue is not first table versus 0.97
00:14:27.500 second table. The distinction of what the civil magistrate should be involved in is private versus
00:14:33.180 public. There's a private commandment in the first table, namely commandment number one,
00:14:37.600 and a private commandment in the second table, namely the last, commandment number 10. And both
00:14:42.620 of these will become public if unchecked. And that's where the civil magistrate steps in. I
00:14:47.720 think it's fairly straightforward and simple, but we have to read some dead old theologians before
00:14:52.760 the 1960s, before the post-war sentiment. And we have to be okay with God's word and not 0.62
00:15:01.520 apologize for it and give into this myth of neutrality. All right, we're going to pick up
00:15:07.140 a little bit more with our nation, particularly these United States of America and what could
00:15:13.840 very possibly be the end of our nation and how nations in general in scripture and throughout
00:15:19.700 history have imploded in the past and a starking similarity that I see between Israel and what's
00:15:28.640 going on in America today. But real quick, here is a brief word from a couple of our sponsors. 0.80
00:15:37.140 all right we're going to go ahead and pick back up if you're watching live the commercials didn't
00:15:48.040 work but uh if you're watching the video later on we'll put them in uh but this is where i want
00:15:52.260 to pick up actually i have some slides prepared so let's go ahead and start with the first i want
00:15:56.600 to work from a text okay so let's put the first one up here we go we've got um this is i believe
00:16:03.120 psalm go ahead and skip to the next one so i can see the reference this is psalm the book of psalms
00:16:08.600 next slide uh 106 so this is psalm 106 uh verses 34 through 42 so let's start with verse 34 it says
00:16:16.980 this what we're going to see here is a progression of sin in a corporate sense it's it's corporate
00:16:24.180 effects on societies as a whole on nations there is a progression it's not just overnight you know
00:16:29.740 people sin and then the very next day they're destroyed there is a progression so here we go
00:16:34.260 verse 34 psalm 106 34 they did not destroy the peoples as the lord commanded them but they mixed
00:16:40.620 with the nations and learned to do as they did they served their idols which became a snare to
00:16:47.040 them they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons they poured out innocent blood the 0.81
00:16:55.180 blood of their sons and daughters whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. Continuing, 0.92
00:17:02.340 then the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people and he abhorred his heritage. He gave
00:17:09.860 them into the hands of the nations so that those who hated them ruled over them. Their enemies
00:17:16.880 oppressed them and they were brought into subjection under their power. All right, so let's
00:17:23.580 go ahead and go to the the first of i think there's four steps here okay what we see in this
00:17:28.680 text the first one is you want to think of it the words not explicitly used in the text but this is
00:17:33.460 what it is it's pity um remember uh in deuteronomy i believe it is it says your eye shall not pity
00:17:40.440 it's talking about dealing out uh just retribution for those who break god's law that there should be
00:17:47.180 swift justice it should be proportional it should be uh unbiased right that it's um that there's
00:17:53.560 no favoritism that's being shown. So it's proportional, it's unbiased, and it's also
00:17:59.600 swift, right? Proportional meaning eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Without showing favoritism,
00:18:04.420 you shall not pity. And right here in Deuteronomy, it says, you shall not show favor to the rich,
00:18:10.240 nor pity the poor, right? Your eye shall not pity the one who has transgressed the law of God,
00:18:16.900 but you are to carry out just retribution, the just judgments of God. 0.86
00:18:22.380 In Israel, what they're doing essentially is showing pity.
00:18:26.220 What we see in the very beginning of Psalm 106, 34, starting in verse 34, 0.93
00:18:31.040 is that Israel was called to drive out these pagan, idolatrous nations from the land, 0.89
00:18:37.160 but instead they allowed them to cohabitate, to stay in the land. 0.73
00:18:42.440 Joshua initially crossed over the Jordan River with Israel, 0.76
00:18:45.440 and he was used by God as the commander in chief of Israel to drive out and to put to death many
00:18:51.900 of the people and drive out other people out of the land of Canaan, the land of promise. But Joshua
00:18:56.480 didn't drive everyone out. He did the lion's share of the work, right? He crushed all these Canaanite
00:19:03.420 kings, but there were still individual small villages and towns and tribes, men and women
00:19:09.200 and children that were still there. And then Joshua at the end of his life, he says, this is Joshua
00:19:14.440 23, I'm going the way of all the earth, right? I'm about to die. And he begins to hand out
00:19:20.840 allotments, all the different portions of land in the land of Canaan to each of the various
00:19:26.940 Israelite tribes as an inheritance. And then it was the responsibility of each individual Israelite
00:19:32.920 tribe, if there were any inhabitants left in their allotment of land, to drive them out. 0.73
00:19:38.960 But instead, these individual tribes, after Joshua had had gone on to glory and died, they became complacent and apathetic.
00:19:48.620 So I think there's there's apathy. I think there's a sense of maybe even just being tired, fatigue.
00:19:57.240 But there's also a sense of sinful pity, a sinful form of pity that they pity the Canaanites.
00:20:06.360 that they said well you know that i mean the kings of the canaanites have been put to death and most
00:20:11.080 of the soldiers and fighting men have been put to death the worst of the tribes the anakim and some 0.95
00:20:15.880 of these nephilim giants they've been put to death and others have been driven out uh so we're pretty 0.99
00:20:22.200 much we're pretty much good now right that most of the work has been done and the people who still 0.98
00:20:27.620 remain sure they they have a heritage and a history of being pagan people idolatrous people
00:20:33.760 with terrible, malicious practices, 0.98
00:20:36.940 religious practices such as human sacrifice,
00:20:41.000 but they're not really hurting us.
00:20:43.420 They're not affecting us.
00:20:44.880 The threat has been neutralized.
00:20:47.100 And so we'll just allow these people to coexist.
00:20:50.720 And so that's out of laziness, fatigue, apathy,
00:20:54.740 but I think it's also out of a sinful form of pity.
00:20:58.620 Matthew Henry, in commentating on Psalm 106
00:21:02.880 in regards to this point that i'm making right here he says the following when israel had got
00:21:07.660 to the good land that god had promised them they had no zeal against the wicked inhabitants whom
00:21:13.960 the lord commanded them to extropate pretending pity right so it's not genuine so not all pity
00:21:20.840 is sinful i'm talking about sinful pity not the sin of pity because that would imply that all pity
00:21:26.920 is sinful no but there is righteous pity but there is also a sinful kind of pity God the
00:21:33.540 scripture says that God showed pity on Israel well God doesn't sin so when God has pity it's
00:21:39.700 righteous God has pity that stems from his mercy but Israel in this case is pretending pity it's
00:21:47.620 not real righteous pity but Matthew Henry says instead of driving out the people the Canaanites
00:21:53.880 as they were commanded to do, instead rather pretending pity. They pretended pity, but so
00:22:00.740 merciful is God that no man needs to be in any case more compassionate than he. This is one of
00:22:08.060 the problems that we find among evangelical Christians for decades now. This is an age-old 1.00
00:22:14.400 problem, and it's still a problem that sadly is alive and well in the church today. We often
00:22:19.900 uh, pretend to be more compassionate than God himself. We pretend to be more tolerant than
00:22:26.720 God himself. We pretend pity, not genuine pity, not the kind of pity that God has that stems from
00:22:34.480 a righteous mercy, but instead we practice pity that is a perverse twisted pity. Uh, we, we humor
00:22:43.120 ourselves to be more merciful, more compassionate, more loving, more tolerant than God. We tolerate
00:22:50.940 things that God tells us not to tolerate. So that's the first problem with Israel. It's not 1.00
00:22:57.160 that Israel gets into the land of Canaan and under Joshua's command defeat the worst of the 0.86
00:23:02.720 Canaanites and then the very next day join the remaining Canaanites in offering their children 0.96
00:23:09.240 to Molech and passing them through the fire, right? 0.95
00:23:12.900 That doesn't, that's not the first thing that Israel does. 0.97
00:23:15.420 It's not that they come into the land
00:23:17.020 and immediately start committing human sacrifice.
00:23:19.720 No, there is a progression of sin, right?
00:23:23.160 They devolve into worse and worse forms of sin.
00:23:28.060 And the first step in the progression is pity.
00:23:32.060 It's tolerating what was not meant to be tolerated. 0.87
00:23:35.080 it's mixing with people who ultimately hate god it's allowing these these idolaters pagan canaanites
00:23:43.980 to co-exist in israel's land of promise that they've now inherited it's well you might say 0.63
00:23:52.120 principled pluralism all right well we're not going to be idolaters we're not um muslim we're not
00:24:00.720 um you know going to practice uh talmudic judaism we're not going to do these things we're not
00:24:07.100 atheists we're christians but but we want to carve out a space for them to be here and not just be 0.94
00:24:14.240 here that's one thing but to be here and publicly exalt their false religion right we have cities 0.92
00:24:22.520 in america right now that five times a day have a city-wide audible publicly audible city-wide call
00:24:29.900 to islamic prayer right and and all in the guise of multiple pluralism being tolerant coexisting
00:24:40.260 loving our neighbor this is the language that christians some christians liberal christians
00:24:46.020 would use uh in order to justify this sinful tolerance but this should not be tolerated
00:24:52.100 it should not be tolerated that's where it starts that's where you see it start with israel that 0.90
00:24:57.700 they allowed these other tribes to exist and not just exist, but began to intermingle and intermarry
00:25:05.560 between them. That's a sign of joining their ranks. So at first it's not, hey, we'd like to
00:25:11.540 immediately starting tomorrow, go with you to your statue to Molech and sacrifice our sons and 0.72
00:25:17.380 daughters. That's not the first step. The first step is, hey, you know what? You're fine. You can 0.99
00:25:22.200 be here. In fact, some of you, my son finds your daughter attractive and maybe they could get
00:25:29.500 married. And I'm not going to worship your false gods, but we'll allow you to have some of your
00:25:35.020 own altars to your own gods because, hey, we want to play nice with others. That's the first step.
00:25:41.500 All right. So now let's look at the second progression. So pity, sinful pity. Here's the
00:25:46.860 second, compromise. Verse 35 is where we find this. Matthew Henry in commentating on verse 35 of
00:25:54.800 Psalm 106, he says the following, when they spared them, they promised themselves that notwithstanding 0.85
00:26:00.960 this, they would not join in any dangerous affinity with these foreign nations, but the way of sin 0.93
00:26:08.540 is downhill. Omissions, that is the sin of omission, not doing, neglecting to do the righteous thing
00:26:14.960 makes way for commission sins of commission that is engaging in the wicked thing when they neglect
00:26:22.480 to destroy the heathen the next news we hear is they were mingled among the heathen made leagues
00:26:30.100 with them and contracted in intimacy with them so that they learned their works right so step one
00:26:38.500 pity, allowing people who hated God to have a foothold, right? It's not just to exist,
00:26:46.700 but to have a foothold in the land. And then secondly, not just pity, not just tolerance,
00:26:53.500 but now it becomes a compromise. They're intermingling, intermarrying, and allowing
00:27:00.200 idolatrous practices and starting to even involve themselves in some of these. This leads to the
00:27:05.880 third step now. All right. So here's the third step. Go ahead and pull that up. Idolatry. This
00:27:12.180 is Matthew Henry commentating on Psalm 106 verse 36. When they mingled with them, they learned
00:27:18.360 some of their works that seemed innocent diversions and entertainments, right? You start
00:27:23.100 with the things that seem small. This isn't so bad. Yet they thought they would never join them
00:27:28.720 in their worship. Yet by degrees, they learned that too. They served their idols. So not just
00:27:35.600 interacting and joining them in some of their practices and customs, but now joining them in
00:27:41.360 their idolatry, their worship. Yet by degrees, they learned that too. They serve their idols
00:27:47.920 in the same manner and with the same rights that they served them. And they became a snare to them
00:27:54.680 that sin drew on many more. That sin drew on many more. All right. So idolatry. So first it's pity.
00:28:02.580 You can be here and you can have your altars in high places to your false gods. We'll carve out
00:28:08.580 a little niche for this, this false religion and this idolatry principle, pluralism. That's the
00:28:14.880 name of the game, right? Sinful pity. Number two, compromise. We won't join you in your idolatry, 0.79
00:28:20.940 but we'll join you in some of your customs and practices, right? Step three, now we've gone from
00:28:26.140 pity to compromise to actual idolatry. We're joining you in your worship. We're now joining
00:28:31.540 you in worshiping your false gods. And then number four, it goes from pity to compromise to idolatry
00:28:38.140 and then to slavery and suicide. And these two are two peas in a pod. They always come as a pair.
00:28:46.060 One lends towards the other, and the other lends towards the one.
00:28:50.420 This is verses 37 and 38 of Psalm 106.
00:28:53.580 Again, using Matthew Henry's commentary, he says the following. 0.75
00:28:57.240 When Israel joined with them in some of their idolatrous services, their actual pagan worship, 0.71
00:29:03.500 which they thought had least harm in them, they little thought that ever they should 0.98
00:29:08.800 be guilty of that barbarous and inhumane piece of idolatry, the sacrificing of their living 0.92
00:29:15.540 children to their dead gods but they came to that at last Israel actually eventually got all the way 0.88
00:29:24.220 to not just joining these pagan nations in their idolatry their false worship but the the most 0.88
00:29:30.640 severe and sinister disgusting degrees of their pagan false worship namely child sacrifice 0.80
00:29:39.240 and we see that in our nation today we see that with abortion we saw that just over the weekend
00:29:49.380 with uh comments from uh president donald trump and saying that a heartbeat bill uh would be a
00:29:57.720 terrible is what he said that's his oh that'd be terrible and not terrible in the way that i would
00:30:02.540 say a heartbeat bill is terrible because a heartbeat bill still says hey you know what
00:30:06.280 it's open season you're free to murder any child before you know six weeks no but trump was saying
00:30:12.340 not as an abolitionist saying no murder of any babies is permissible he's saying a heartbeat
00:30:17.560 bill is terrible because it should be uh you should be allowed to murder uh more babies for
00:30:22.840 a longer period of time all the way up until maybe 15 weeks and part of the reason i think
00:30:28.060 trump is saying this is because he knows at this point when it comes to his base uh there are
00:30:33.080 people who just die hard trump and they're never going to leave him no matter what he says he can
00:30:36.940 completely betray him uh his party uh he can completely go back against uh the convictions
00:30:42.560 of his base and they're so bought in at this point that they'll take him they'll take trump
00:30:48.000 so he probably sees it as an opportunity simply to keep his base which he probably will keep
00:30:53.800 and try to get some other you know kind of like bill clinton not hillary but like bill clinton
00:31:00.400 1990s type of Democrats to try to pick up some of those along the way. And honestly, from a
00:31:05.920 pragmatic standpoint, it may work, but it was sinful for him to say it's wrong. That is absolutely
00:31:13.400 a barbarous and it is a great perverse sin against the Lord. So my point is in our nation,
00:31:19.840 you know, obviously we all know that America loves abortion, but we saw it even this last
00:31:25.060 weekend from president trump the very guy that god used and i'm grateful for it to overturn roe
00:31:30.900 by his uh appointments of supreme court justices uh is now saying hey you know what you can you
00:31:38.860 know it's it's terrible that we wouldn't let people murder their their babies from six to 15 weeks
00:31:44.120 that's terrible we should be more uh well we should have pity on these these murderous moms
00:31:52.220 right we should be you know we should have pity we should be more compassionate um that's so
00:31:58.440 anyways all this is highly relevant all this is going on around us all the time and so this is
00:32:04.380 the process of israel coming into the good land that flowed with milk and honey that god promised
00:32:10.100 to them but it shows how they eventually fell from grace how they eventually were judged and
00:32:15.760 then went into exile god in his just judgment took israel out of the land the land spewed them
00:32:21.780 out because they began to live in the land that God promised to them, that God gave to them as
00:32:27.340 an inheritance. They began to live in the land exactly the same way the Canaanites were. The
00:32:32.580 Canaanites were, they were sent out of the land and put to death at the edge of the sword by
00:32:39.300 Israel because, not just because God wanted to bless Israel and do good things for Israel.
00:32:43.500 No, it's two things simultaneously. One, God is going to fulfill his good promises to Israel, but
00:32:48.960 secondly god is also fulfilling his justice to these pagan nations so it's not just about giving
00:32:56.480 the land to israel because they're god's people but it was also about using is israel as god's
00:33:02.800 instrument to bring his just judgment to the canaanites the land spewed out the canaanites 0.96
00:33:09.520 because they were living in an idolatrous wicked fashion manner in the land but israel it thinks 0.72
00:33:17.140 well we can live however we want because it's not about um it's not about our actions and our 0.87
00:33:22.640 behaviors and our morals and our worship whether it be idolatrous and worship of false gods or or
00:33:29.280 right worship of the triune god it's not about worship it's not about ethics it's not about
00:33:33.880 morals it's just about well it's it's about dna it's about you know our it's about the fact that 0.98
00:33:41.100 ethnically we're god's chosen people we're the jews and so god kicked out the canaanites for
00:33:46.900 just for being Canaanites. And he's given us the land just for being Jews. No, God kicked out the 0.97
00:33:52.480 Canaanites because they were wicked. And when the Jews started looking like the Canaanites, 1.00
00:33:57.940 it didn't matter that they were Jews. They were sent into exile and kicked out of the land as well. 0.89
00:34:04.100 God is not going to show favoritism simply because your ancestors or forefathers were faithful.
00:34:12.580 god god is not going to tolerate america indefinitely just because the founders and
00:34:20.640 the covenanters and the puritans were righteous that's not going to work no if if americans are
00:34:28.600 going to live like pagans with child sacrifice from not just pity pitying those and tolerating 0.80
00:34:36.700 those who have false worship but then interacting and joining them in their practices and customs
00:34:41.240 that's compromise and then joining them in their actual false worship of false gods that's idolatry
00:34:47.160 and then eventually joining them in their their their worst forms that lends towards slavery
00:34:53.380 and suicide even sacrificing our own children if if americans are going to do that then god will
00:34:59.800 spew us out of the land just like anybody else who inhabited the land who chose to live like pagans 0.90
00:35:05.280 it's not about uh your forefathers it's not about your dna it's not about your ancestors it's not
00:35:12.440 about oh well we're this race of people uh this is we're ethnic jews we're ethnic americans that's
00:35:18.980 not what it's about it's about your hearts are you circumcised in heart do you worship god are 0.88
00:35:25.980 you righteous or are you idol worshipers baby murderers wicked ruthless heartless if so god 0.90
00:35:38.400 will show no favoritism and america will be spewed and i mean literally america will be spewed out of 0.99
00:35:44.360 the land we will be taken captive by some some foreign people right god did it with israel he 0.59
00:35:52.140 could do it with us that we could be completely um enslaved and defeated and in some i mean we 0.99
00:35:58.420 could go into world war three that's entirely possible especially if we have four more years 0.90
00:36:03.140 of of democrats in office but going to world war three and russia could team up with china you
00:36:08.000 don't know god god is well within his rights long has he been at this point especially now
00:36:15.460 in 2023 with our debauchery, but God is well within his rights to justly punish the nation
00:36:22.060 of America. Absolutely. It's not about who the people are or even their ancestry and who their
00:36:31.780 forefathers were. It's about who do we worship today and what are we doing today? Are we wicked
00:36:37.640 today? It's about your morals, about your ethics, and ultimately about your heart, about your God.
00:36:43.340 Is our God Yahweh? Do we worship the triune God or are we idolaters? And if we are idolaters doing
00:36:50.700 heinous and wicked things, how do we get there? And I would argue the way we got there is the
00:36:54.900 same way that Israel did. Four easy steps. Sinful pity, then compromise, joining them in their 1.00
00:37:02.500 customs and practices, then idolatry, joining them in their false worship, and then eventually
00:37:08.980 slavery and suicide by joining them the highest degrees of their idolatrous false worship
00:37:15.820 expressly through the form of child sacrifice. All right, let's hear a couple words from our
00:37:23.900 last sponsors of the day. All right, we'll go to that. We'll cut it in post. Thank you
00:37:30.360 guys so much for joining us and we'll see you again next week.
00:37:38.980 We'll be right back.