The NXR Podcast - SUNDAY SERMON - Dispensationalism, Zionism, & Christian Nationalism

00:00:00.000 Amen. This morning we're continuing with our series through the book of Joshua. Our text for

00:00:03.800 today is Joshua chapter 10 verses 29 through 43. Again that's Joshua chapter 10 verses 39

00:00:10.620 or 29 through 43. Let's go ahead and stand now to show reverence to God and how he has chosen to

00:00:19.080 reveal himself in holy scripture. I'll read our text for us in its entirety when I finish reading

00:00:24.340 the text. I'm going to say this is the word of the Lord at which point I would appreciate very much

00:00:28.940 if you would respond by saying thanks be to God.

00:00:32.060 One more time, our text for today

00:00:33.420 is Joshua chapter 10, verses 29 through 43.

00:00:36.960 The Bible says this,

00:00:38.620 Then Joshua and all Israel with him

00:00:40.940 passed on from Makeda to Libna

00:00:43.360 and fought against Libna.

00:00:45.440 And the Lord gave it also and its king

00:00:47.840 into the hand of Israel.

00:00:49.460 And he struck it with the edge of the sword

00:00:51.340 and every person in it.

00:00:52.920 He left none remaining in it.

00:00:55.060 And he did to its king

00:00:56.380 as he had done to the king of Jericho.

00:00:58.940 Then Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Libna to Lachish, and laid siege to it, and fought against it.

00:01:06.420 And the Lord gave Lachish into the hand of Israel, and he captured it on the second day,

00:01:12.180 and struck it with the edge of the sword, and every person in it, as he had done to Libna.

00:01:18.020 Then Hoream king of Gezer came up to help Lachish, and Joshua struck him and his people, until he left none remaining.

00:01:26.040 Then Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Lachish to Eglon, and they laid siege to it

00:01:32.380 and fought against it. And they captured it on that day and struck it with the edge of the sword.

00:01:37.640 And he devoted every person in it to destruction that day, as he had done to Lachish. Then Joshua

00:01:43.960 and all Israel with him went up from Eglon to Hebron, and they fought against it and captured

00:01:49.500 it and struck it with the edge of the sword and its king and its towns and every person in it.

00:01:55.040 He left none of it remaining, as he had done with Eglon, and he devoted it to destruction

00:02:00.980 and every person in it.

00:02:02.740 Then Joshua and all Israel with him turned back to Deber and fought against it, and he

00:02:08.720 captured it with its king and all its towns, and they struck them with the edge of the

00:02:12.940 sword and devoted to destruction every person in it.

00:02:16.320 He left none remaining, just as he had done to Hebron and to Libna and its king.

00:02:21.680 so he did to Deber and to its king. So Joshua struck the whole land, the hill country, and the

00:02:28.760 Negev, and the low land, and the slopes, and all their kings. He left none remaining, but devoted

00:02:34.760 to destruction all that breathed, just as the Lord God of Israel commanded. And Joshua struck them

00:02:41.400 from Kadesh Barnea, as far as Gaza, and all the country of Goshen, as far as Gibeon. And Joshua

00:02:49.460 captured all these kings in their land at one time because the Lord God of Israel fought for

00:02:55.680 Israel. Then Joshua returned and all Israel with him to the camp at Gilgal. This is the word of the

00:03:02.360 Lord. All right, please be seated. Let's go ahead and dive right in. There's one main point that I

00:03:08.040 want us to understand thoroughly from our text today. And that point is this, that God judged

00:03:15.460 the Canaanites through Israel. God is just. He brings just judgments to those who are evil and

00:03:22.640 do wicked things in his sight. God is using Israel as his instrument to bring and execute

00:03:29.980 his just judgments upon a pagan and wicked land. One of the big things that we need to understand

00:03:37.200 is this. As much as everything that takes place in the Old Testament, whether it be in Genesis

00:03:45.060 or Exodus or Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Numbers, Joshua, Judges, as much as these things are about

00:03:51.620 God fulfilling his good and prosperous promises that he made to Israel, it is also about God

00:03:59.680 fulfilling his promise of just and terrible judgments to those who are against him. It's

00:04:07.840 not just that God is fulfilling his promise to give to Israel an inheritance of a land flowing

00:04:14.580 with milk and honey. It's not just God's, merely God's focus on bringing Israel into the promised

00:04:21.040 land and doing good things for them. It is also about God expelling and destroying and putting

00:04:28.360 to death at the edge of the sword all those wicked inhabitants of the land of Canaan who were 0.98

00:04:33.360 previously there. It's important that we understand that. There are two things happening. God is

00:04:39.440 fulfilling good promises for Israel and God is executing justice for all those pagan nations

00:04:46.540 who have been wicked and rebellious towards him. The reason why I want to drive that point home is

00:04:52.720 this. There is no nation like Israel today, including Israel. I would actually say especially

00:05:01.760 Israel. Israel today is further from Israel under the old covenant than most western nations

00:05:09.180 such as the United States of America. There is no nation today like Israel under the Old Covenant,

00:05:16.540 but there are many nations today like the Canaanites. So what I'm saying is that God is not

00:05:24.660 today fulfilling prophetic promises for a particular nation, a new Israel, America,

00:05:33.340 or whatever it might be, bringing them into a land of milk and honey. That's not happening.

00:05:37.680 but there is something that still happens today. God still decimates wicked nations today. That

00:05:46.720 was not unique. So the good things that God is doing, the prophecies that God is fulfilling on

00:05:53.700 behalf of his chosen people, Israel, in this old covenant time before the coming of Christ,

00:05:59.800 that's unique. That's not happening post Christ and his earthly ministry 2000 years ago. In this

00:06:07.140 church age, gospel age, New Testament age that we live in today, there is no substitute for Israel.

00:06:15.720 The United States of America has not replaced Israel. The nation state of Israel that exists

00:06:20.660 today is not a replacement of Israel, and it's nothing like it. Talmudic Judaism is not Israel

00:06:27.100 under the old covenant. Not even close. It's demonic. There's no, the England is not Israel.

00:06:33.800 France is not Israel.

00:06:35.360 The Sudan is not Israel.

00:06:36.600 There is no, the only replacement,

00:06:39.220 and replacement would be a pejorative just for the record,

00:06:42.120 for dispensationalists and Zionists would use this kind of terminology

00:06:45.680 to try to scare everybody that you're being, you know, anti-Semitic

00:06:49.920 if you hold to covenant theology, which is 2,000 years.

00:06:53.240 It's the position that the church has held.

00:06:55.660 Okay, but the point is that the only replacement,

00:06:59.700 and again, replacement being a pejorative,

00:07:01.340 the actual word would be fulfillment. The only fulfillment of Israel, Old Testament,

00:07:07.420 Old Covenant Israel is not a nation, but the church. The church of Jesus Christ is Israel,

00:07:14.620 not according to the flesh, but according to the promise, according to the spirit, the church,

00:07:20.020 you are Israel in the truest, most eternal, spiritual, prophetic sense. You, if you are in

00:07:28.880 Christ, you are Israel. So again, there is no equivalent is what I'm trying to say in terms of

00:07:35.220 a nation state, a literal nation state today that would replace or be equivalent or be the fulfillment

00:07:42.540 of the old nation according to the flesh under the old covenant of Israel. But there are equivalents

00:07:50.460 to Canaan. There are equivalents to Amorite tribes. God, there's two things going on

00:07:58.660 simultaneously. Two things can be true at once. God is fulfilling unique promises for Israel

00:08:04.240 according to the flesh, and that's not going on anymore today. But God's not only doing that.

00:08:10.220 He's not only blessing Israel. He is also using Israel as his instrument to execute destruction

00:08:19.060 and just judgment on Canaan, and that's something that God still does today. Absolutely, God still

00:08:28.160 does today. I've written here notes this, Joshua showed absolutely no mercy to these Canaanite

00:08:34.300 tribes. Peace treaties were not offered. Surrender was not provided as an option. Israel offered no

00:08:40.840 quarter to any man, woman, or child. Israel slaughtered them all with a sword, leaving none 0.97

00:08:47.260 remaining. Matthew Henry, a late great Puritan and commentating on our text today, says the

00:08:53.540 following, nothing could justify this military execution, but that herein they did exactly as

00:09:01.540 the Lord God of Israel commanded. We see that in verse 40 of our text, which was sufficient

00:09:07.080 not only to save them, that is Israel, to save them from the imputation of guilt and cruelty,

00:09:14.820 but also to sanctify, not only to spare them, to maintain a sense of moral innocence that they

00:09:21.500 wouldn't be guilty of cruelty, but also to sanctify what Israel did and make it an acceptable

00:09:28.760 piece of service to God's justice. So what Israel is doing, remember the text that I've just read,

00:09:35.280 what we're seeing, the whole text can be summed up in this. What we're seeing is Joshua is going

00:09:39.800 to city, to city, to city, town, to town, to town, king, to king, to king, and he's slaughtering

00:09:46.080 everyone. And the Lord loves it. It's good. It's just. It's right. Now, the point is, that's unique.

00:09:57.780 No country today has this kind of prescription or commandment from God today. It would be

00:10:05.340 it would be incredibly wicked to go into another nation as wicked as that nation might be and to

00:10:12.580 offer no quarter to anyone to slaughter not only the fighting men but also the women and the

00:10:18.880 children today in this gospel age church age new testament age we are to operate underneath the

00:10:27.100 principles of just war theory and just war theory well there's multiple different nuance factors

00:10:33.960 going on, but a few of them is that the war, the cause of the war itself must be just. It can't

00:10:39.860 just be to go and pillage somebody else because they have a resource that you want. There needs

00:10:45.800 to be a just cause for the war. There need to be just fighting tactics in the war, and there has

00:10:52.700 to be a quarter provided for those who would seek to surrender. There actually are, one of the

00:11:00.580 seven different factors of just war theory coming from St. Augustine and other guys who have

00:11:05.000 refined it over the centuries, is that there has to first be thorough diplomatic efforts

00:11:11.480 that have been employed. That fighting, physical warfare, is not the first effort. It's not your

00:11:18.960 first resort. There's been diplomatic efforts made. Now that said, hear me,

00:11:24.960 that doesn't mean that God has changed. Behold, I am the Lord. I change it not so that you,

00:11:31.840 the sons of Jacob are not consumed. I am the same yesterday, today, and forever more. God is not a

00:11:37.960 man that he should change his mind. God doesn't change. So God does still wipe out entire nations,

00:11:46.120 including women and children. The difference is that he doesn't use another nation and their

00:11:52.820 militia in order to do it while justifying that nation. God does this providentially. So nations

00:12:00.920 that are seeking to honor the Lord today, Joshua and Israel honored the Lord when they put women

00:12:05.980 and children to the sword. It's not only that God's commandment, it was an express, explicit

00:12:12.280 commandment from the Lord to put everyone to death. And that commandment from the Lord,

00:12:16.940 it didn't just absolve Joshua and Israel from guilt, but actually it's more than just that.

00:12:22.280 It didn't only absolve them from moral guilt, but it also sanctified what they were doing as a

00:12:29.020 pleasing service to the Lord. So not only were they not doing bad, they were doing good in the

00:12:36.280 sight of God. Not only being absolved from moral guilt, but sanctifying their warfare as a service

00:12:43.400 that was pleasing to the Lord. That's not going on anymore today. However, God has not changed.

00:12:49.940 God does still decimate nations, and at times, God does wipe out entire nations, entire populations,

00:12:57.180 including women and children, but he does not do it through another nation's militia in such a way

00:13:02.580 that that nation would be justified and morally right. God does it providentially. He might do it

00:13:10.420 through war, but then in terms of wiping out not just the fighting men in war, but wiping out an

00:13:16.540 entire nation's population, he would do it through other providential means. He would do it through

00:13:20.920 famine. He would do it through plague, right? Or he might use another nation that does put everyone

00:13:27.660 to death, not just the fighting men, but an entire population, but that nation wouldn't be just. God

00:13:32.720 would providentially be using that nation. That nation would bear its own guilt. They wouldn't

00:13:37.400 be righteous, but God would maintain his righteousness in his sovereignty using this

00:13:42.580 nation and its own sin, its own sinful warlike practices, God would still absolve his own

00:13:49.740 righteousness in doing what is good and what is just, but this nation would not be absolved of

00:13:55.040 moral guilt. They would actually be going too far. They would be doing something in the sight of God

00:13:59.880 that would be wicked. And later on, God would probably use another nation or some other

00:14:04.160 providential means such as famine or drought or plague to judge this nation. And that's what you

00:14:09.240 see in the Old Testament again and again and again, is that God will use, he'll raise up one

00:14:13.840 nation, often in order as a judgment to Israel for their hardened hearts, for the rebellion against

00:14:20.140 God. He'll raise up one nation. He'll use that nation as his rod in his sovereignty to discipline

00:14:27.060 Israel. And then later on, the very nation that he used, that he raised up, and underneath his

00:14:33.000 sovereignty, he caused them to come against Israel. He'll then use Israel going back, or another

00:14:38.620 nation to judge this nation that he used to discipline Israel. Meaning that God is

00:14:44.460 sovereignly working in such a way that he is not the author of evil. He is not the origin of

00:14:51.620 anything that is sinful. God is righteous. Let God be true and every man a liar is what the

00:14:57.460 scripture says. So God is working in such a way that all his ways are holy and he may use one

00:15:03.580 group of people to do one thing, and his purposes in doing that are holy and good and just, but the

00:15:11.060 nation that he uses, their purposes, their intent, their moral fabric is wicked and wrong. And so he

00:15:18.300 uses them to bring judgment to these people over here, and then he uses someone else to bring

00:15:22.980 judgment to these people that he just used to bring judgment to the prior. I know it's a little

00:15:28.240 bit complicated. But that's the point of what we see going on. Again, it's twofold. And the reason

00:15:34.620 why I'm laboring this is because I don't want our church to unhitch from the Old Testament. That's

00:15:39.840 why. People read the Old Testament and they render it impotent. They say, this is not who God is

00:15:48.620 anymore. God has changed. God doesn't do this. We're not Israel. And that's true. We are Israel

00:15:54.520 if we're speaking of the church. We're not Israel if we're speaking of America, right? This is Old

00:15:58.920 Covenant. Now we're under grace, New Testament. And what you effectively do is you basically just

00:16:04.740 make the entirety of the Old Testament a bunch of fables and myths and stories for kids. And that's

00:16:11.120 not how we study the scripture. That's not what the Bible is. This is the infallible word of God.

00:16:16.480 So yes, there is not a nation state like Israel was, not today, but under the Old Covenant that

00:16:23.640 God has promised to bring into a particular geographic region and give them that land as

00:16:30.380 an inheritance. It's true that that is over. No more of that. But that is not the only thing

00:16:36.720 occurring in the book of Joshua. So what I want to be on the forefront of your minds as we work

00:16:42.100 through multiple texts today is this. There are two things, not one, but two things happening

00:16:47.220 throughout the entirety of the book of Joshua. One, God is fulfilling his good promises to Israel.

00:16:53.640 Two, God is fulfilling his just judgments to non-Israel.

00:17:00.600 And that second part, that is just as alive and well today as it was 3,000 years ago.

00:17:08.800 God still raises up nations and decimates nations.

00:17:13.620 The nation whose God is Yahweh will be blessed.

00:17:17.820 The nation who fears the Lord will be exalted.

00:17:21.100 That's not a verse in the Bible that is just particular to Israel under the Old Covenant.

00:17:26.120 That is a promise that is true for any nation.

00:17:29.400 Any nation that would fear the Lord, any nation who declares his God is Yahweh,

00:17:36.300 then God will honor and exalt that nation.

00:17:39.400 Any nation that turns its back on God, God will ultimately judge that nation.

00:17:44.320 Now, God is slow in his judgments because he is long-suffering.

00:17:48.920 He is slow to anger. The character and nature of God includes incredible patience. But this is not

00:17:57.560 because God is lax. This is not because God has lowered the bar. This is only because God is kind

00:18:04.260 and because God is long-suffering. But nations today will be exalted when they fear the Lord

00:18:10.980 and they will be eventually, it may take decades, it may take centuries, but eventually they will

00:18:17.420 be decimated if they rebel against the Lord. And so now there's some verses that I want us to look

00:18:22.840 at. This is Jeremiah. Now notice the reason I'm using this is because I want us to see that

00:18:28.540 Jeremiah chapter 18 verses 6 through 11 is not speaking exclusively of one nation under the old

00:18:35.200 covenant, namely Israel, but rather it's giving a pattern, a framework, a grid that applies to

00:18:41.860 any nation, not just Israel under the old covenant, but any nation, and not just before Christ, but

00:18:48.540 even after Christ in this New Testament age as well. Jeremiah chapter 18, verse 6 through 11,

00:18:55.340 it says this, behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.

00:19:03.200 He's speaking to Israel in that instance, but now verse 7, if at any time I declare concerning a

00:19:10.160 nation or a kingdom, anytime, not just in the Old Testament, before the coming of Christ, anytime,

00:19:16.200 any nation or kingdom. If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will

00:19:23.040 pluck up and break down and destroy it. And if that nation concerning which I have spoken turns

00:19:29.420 from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. And if at any time I

00:19:36.680 declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, and if it does evil in

00:19:43.120 my sight, not listening to my voice, and we'll come back to that, not listening to my voice,

00:19:48.780 then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. Now, therefore, say to the men of

00:19:55.320 Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, thus says the Lord, behold, I am shaping disaster against

00:20:01.400 you and devising a plan against you. Return everyone from his, return everyone from his evil

00:20:08.180 way and amend your ways and deeds. God is speaking in this instance through the prophet Jeremiah to

00:20:15.340 Israel saying, I'm about to send disaster because of your wicked ways, because of your moral rebellion

00:20:24.340 against me. However, before you just decide that this is your fate and there's no way out of it,

00:20:31.060 let me give you a little lesson about my character as God. This is the kind of God that I am.

00:20:38.300 There are nations that I intend to do good to, but if they rebel, they'll receive my judgment

00:20:44.700 instead. However, there are also nations because of their rebellion and their wickedness, I am

00:20:51.420 sending disaster. And yet while disaster is still on the way before it finally arrives, if that

00:20:58.320 nation chooses to turn from their wickedness and repent and call upon my name, I will relent

00:21:05.660 in the evil that I intended to do to that nation and the judgment that I intended to place upon

00:21:12.380 that nation. That's not just Israel, right? He's speaking, God is speaking through Jeremiah to

00:21:18.140 Israel, but the example given in Jeremiah's word or God's word to Jeremiah to Israel is to say,

00:21:24.020 This is the kind of God that I am. This is the character that I possess, not just in regards to

00:21:30.320 you, O Israel, but this is the way that I work with and treat all nations, all nations. And this

00:21:37.700 is precisely what God did in at least the case of, we might think of Nineveh. Nineveh was one of five

00:21:44.760 capital cities, one of five capital cities that was under God's judgment, or they were about to

00:21:53.440 be judged because of their wicked ways, particularly the sin of violence. When the king of Nineveh

00:21:58.500 chooses to repent, he says that every man should turn, every man, woman, and child turn from their

00:22:03.760 wicked ways, especially, and he names specifically, the violence in their hands. Nineveh was a violent

00:22:11.460 people, and they were doing violent atrocities to Israel, especially starting their pre-invasion

00:22:17.040 attacks into the northern tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel, which is precisely where Jonah

00:22:23.120 actually lived. It's likely that Jonah had seen some of these pre-invasion attacks. He probably

00:22:28.180 had friends, maybe even family members that had brutal things done to them or maybe taken captured

00:22:34.340 or maybe put to death by the Ninevites and their tribe. And so Jonah, he was hesitant, not just

00:22:41.020 hesitant, but he refused to go to Nineveh. And we always think of that story. We always think of it

00:22:46.260 in terms of Jonah didn't want to go to Nineveh because he was afraid Nineveh would not listen

00:22:50.820 to his message of repentance. Jonah wasn't afraid to refuse Jonah's message of repentance. They

00:22:57.200 would put Jonah to death and kill him. That's not what the Bible says. Jonah wasn't afraid that 0.97

00:23:03.280 Nineveh would not listen to the message and harden their hearts in their wicked rebellion and then

00:23:08.560 put Jonah to death. He was afraid that if he went to Nineveh, they would, in fact, listen to the

00:23:13.820 message of repentance, that they would repent. And then Jonah knew that God happens in his character

00:23:19.640 to be a sucker for repentance and that God would spare Nineveh, who he did not want spared. Jonah

00:23:26.640 did not want spared because Nineveh was doing atrocious things to Jonah's people, his kinsmen,

00:23:32.340 according to the flesh. Jonah wanted Nineveh to be destroyed. And he was afraid that if he was

00:23:38.420 sent by God to preach repentance, not that they wouldn't listen and they would turn on Jonah and

00:23:43.260 kill him. No, that they would listen and that God would turn from the disaster he intended to send

00:23:48.580 to Nineveh, and he would not destroy and kill Nineveh. And Jonah says exactly this. He says,

00:23:54.800 is this not what I said to you when I was in Tarshish? I knew that you were a gracious God,

00:24:01.160 slow to anger, and relenting and sending disaster. So Jonah tells us why he was hesitant, why he

00:24:09.780 refused to go to Nineveh. He doesn't say, is this not why I went to Tarshish, made haste to go to

00:24:15.540 Tarshish, is this not what I told you? I didn't want to go to Nineveh because I was afraid. They're

00:24:19.660 so wicked. I knew they wouldn't listen to my preaching and they would turn on the preacher 0.84

00:24:23.640 and put me to death. That's not what he says. He says, I knew what I was actually afraid of

00:24:28.440 is that I knew that if you were choosing to send me as a prophet, it was maybe because

00:24:33.720 maybe you were sending me as a prophet because you actually intended to produce and grant the

00:24:40.880 gift of repentance to the people i was prophesying to and i knew god i know your character these

00:24:47.340 people have been doing terrible things for centuries but i know that your character you

00:24:53.380 are such a gracious and kind and merciful god that if they repent even after centuries of evil

00:25:00.240 you would relent from sending disaster and you would spare my enemies who i don't want to be

00:25:06.560 spared. Jonah knew if you're sending a prophet to another nation, there's a high likelihood that

00:25:14.980 that in the mind of God, your purpose, your end goal, your aim, God, and sending a prophet to

00:25:20.560 another nation is that that other nation will listen to the prophet and repent, and you'll

00:25:26.000 relent in sending disaster. Jonah knows this. Jonah also knows if God intends to send a prophet to

00:25:31.180 Israel, it's probably that the prophet will be stoned and put to death. Just statistically, 0.69

00:25:38.100 when God sends a prophet to Israel, they kill them. When God sends a prophet to some other

00:25:43.560 nation outside of Israel, there's a likelihood that they might repent. A much higher statistical

00:25:49.440 likelihood that they might repent. And the capital P prophet of prophets, Jesus Christ,

00:25:54.820 the son of God himself, even says this. And Isaiah prophesies that he came to his own,

00:25:59.540 but they knew him not and they were even worried the disciples and followers of jesus don't go

00:26:05.180 over here because you'll be put to death he said no don't worry prophet can't be put to death over

00:26:09.500 here it's always in jerusalem can any prophet die outside of jerusalem don't worry i will die i will 0.95

00:26:15.040 be put to death right they build the tombs to the prophets that their fathers killed and they'll 0.97

00:26:20.240 kill me just like they killed them but but they have a system here in israel they kill prophets 0.99

00:26:25.160 in the capital city of Jerusalem. So I'm good for now. 0.99

00:26:30.300 But Jonah knows that Nineveh is not Israel. Nineveh is one of these other non-Israelite nations

00:26:36.580 that might actually repent, and they do. But here's the point. The point is Nineveh is not

00:26:43.160 Israel, and God relents in sending disaster because Nineveh turns. What I'm saying is that

00:26:50.080 there is a pattern here, and Jeremiah would be an example of this. Jeremiah chapter 18,

00:26:55.000 verses 6 through 11, there is a pattern that God has set in place, not just for one nation under

00:27:01.520 the old covenant, which was unique. There's no disputing that. Israel under the old covenant,

00:27:07.020 leading up to Christ, and particularly AD 70, and the ending, the rolling up of that garment,

00:27:12.460 the completion of the old covenant, Israel under the old covenant was absolutely unique. There's

00:27:17.960 no disputing that. But what we do, I think, as New Testament Christians, now 2,000 years removed

00:27:24.380 from the ministry of Christ, is that we pretend as though Israel is a unique nation, not just then,

00:27:29.800 but still today, aka Zionism, which is wrong. And not only that, not only do we still pretend that

00:27:37.760 Israel is unique today, we pretend as though God has no plan and no promises and no judgments for

00:27:45.260 any nation outside of Israel. And that is bad theology. Before Christ, under the old covenant,

00:27:54.160 God raised up nations and he brought them low. Not just Israel, other nations. After the coming

00:28:01.240 of Christ, in our day, in this gospel age, over the last 2,000 years, God has raised up nations

00:28:08.640 and brought them low.

00:28:10.920 This is a principle that will continue

00:28:13.060 until the end of this human age.

00:28:16.140 It will continue into the end of the age

00:28:18.380 until the end of time.

00:28:20.260 And we see it plainly on the pages of scripture.

00:28:22.780 Now, notice, I said, we'll come back to this.

00:28:24.880 Jeremiah 18, six through 11.

00:28:26.740 There's one phrase, and I bolded it for you in your notes.

00:28:29.860 It says, not listening to my voice.

00:28:32.560 Let's back up, beginning of verse 10 or verse nine.

00:28:35.400 And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or kingdom, that's any nation or kingdom,

00:28:41.200 not just Israel, and at any time before the cross, after the cross, that I will build

00:28:46.200 and plant it, if I determine to do something good to raise up a nation, and if it does

00:28:51.940 evil in my sight, which is equivalent to what?

00:28:55.300 Not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I intended to do to it.

00:29:01.980 and instead the implication is sin disaster so it works both ways there may be a nation that's

00:29:08.280 been rebelling against God for centuries like Nineveh and God intends therefore because of

00:29:14.360 its rebellion to send disaster as a just judgment but if they repent if they stop doing what is evil

00:29:21.300 in his sight and start doing that which is good and right then God will relent in sending disaster

00:29:27.640 Likewise, there could be a good nation

00:29:29.280 that God determined to bless and to build and to raise up,

00:29:32.620 but they start doing evil to where not disaster on the way,

00:29:36.520 but in this instance,

00:29:37.320 it would be blessing was actually on the way,

00:29:39.680 but God will relent in sending blessing

00:29:41.540 and instead send judgment.

00:29:44.480 It works both ways.

00:29:45.860 And again, these are nations, not just Israel,

00:29:49.460 nations outside of Israel before the cross.

00:29:51.720 And this still continues to this day after the cross.

00:29:55.740 Now, one of the phrases in Jeremiah 18, 6 through 11, is if they do what is evil in my sight,

00:30:02.680 which is equivalent to another way of saying is not listening to my voice. Okay. How does God

00:30:08.620 make his voice heard? Is now the implicit question begged from this text. How is God's voice heard

00:30:15.400 by the nations? And what, particularly what message, what words, speech is coming from God's

00:30:23.280 voice. So how do the nations hear the voice of God? And what is this voice of God saying to the

00:30:29.160 nations? I'm going to give you multiple texts for this. This is Psalm chapter 19, verses 1 through

00:30:34.240 4. It says this, the heavens declare, that is the heavens talk. It's a voice. It's speech. The

00:30:42.200 heavens declare the glory of God. The sky proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech. Uses

00:30:51.540 the actual word, speech, day-to-day pours out speech, night-to-night reveals knowledge. There

00:30:58.640 is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. So there is speech coming from what?

00:31:06.380 It's God, ultimately, but what is the providential means that God's voice is being spoken through?

00:31:12.900 Well, the heavens, the sky, day-to-day, night-to-night, and this speech that is coming from

00:31:20.000 God through what he has made, his handiwork. So creation is the instrument, the megaphone that

00:31:26.660 God is speaking through. So God's voice is coming through loud and clear by what he has made. This

00:31:33.060 is natural revelation through creation itself. And this speech and these words are heard or

00:31:40.060 said the other way, as verse three says, there is no speech from the creation, the skies. There are

00:31:46.160 no words in what God has made, his handiwork, whose voice is not heard. So one, God is speaking

00:31:53.080 through creation. Two, it's not just that God is speaking, every single person hears. It's not just

00:32:01.080 that God is speaking into the void, but people might still be able to find some kind of excuse

00:32:06.880 and absolve themselves of their refusal to listen because God was speaking, but he was speaking over

00:32:12.380 here in the void. He was speaking, you know, in a trench deep down in the ocean, but nobody was

00:32:16.960 there to hear. God was speaking, but God failed in his responsibility to make sure that man

00:32:24.880 actually received and heard God's speech. Well, this passage obliterates that possibility of an

00:32:32.260 interpretation. It says that his voice, not only does it come forth, not only does creation pour

00:32:39.480 out speech. So the implication here is creation is speaking. God's speaking to creation and not

00:32:45.580 just a little bit, but it's pouring forth speech. So God is speaking a lot. Speech is pouring forth

00:32:52.060 and not only is God speaking and speaking a lot, but his voice is being heard. It's being heard.

00:32:59.260 Now verse 4 says, their voice, there being different elements of creation that have just

00:33:04.520 been listed like the heavens and the skies and the day and the night, their voice, which is the

00:33:10.220 voice of God, but them being the means, their voice goes out through all the earth and their

00:33:15.520 words to the end of the world. So that's one more element that we need to bake into the equation.

00:33:22.460 One, God is speaking. What venue? How? Through creation. Is God speaking a little? No, pours

00:33:30.360 forth speech. So God is speaking a lot. How is he speaking? Through creation. Is man listening? Yes.

00:33:37.800 There is no speech. There are no words of God that come through creation that are not heard. So

00:33:43.600 they're heard. And who hears them? Well, it goes on, verse four, it says, their voice goes out

00:33:49.660 through all the earth. God's not just speaking to one little corner of the world. He's not just

00:33:55.560 speaking in Mesopotamia. He's not just speaking to one nation. All the earth, their voice goes out

00:34:00.800 through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. So God is speaking. He's speaking a

00:34:07.560 lot. He's speaking through creation. Man hears God's voice and not just one man in one place

00:34:14.680 in one time, but all men in all places in all times. So that all are without an excuse. Now

00:34:22.460 taking that and cross-referencing back to Jeremiah chapter 18, verse 6 through 11, one of the things,

00:34:29.020 one of the chief things that God destroys nations for is their wicked deeds in his sight, which is

00:34:36.900 equivalent to not listening to his voice. God's voice rings forth to the nations, every corner

00:34:45.860 of the world. His voice is loud. His voice is clear. His voice comes forth. His words, his speech

00:34:53.640 in abundance. It comes forth to all the corners of the earth. Not one person misses the message.

00:35:01.180 Everyone hears his voice. And those who do not listen to his voice, not just on an individual

00:35:07.100 personal basis, but corporately as groups of people, as nations, if a nation chooses to harden

00:35:13.460 their heart and not listen to the clear, abundant voice of God, which has gone forth and they have

00:35:19.520 heard, but they choose to reject the message, then Jeremiah 18 is talking to them. It's not

00:35:27.260 just talking to Israel 25 to 3,500 years ago. It's talking to them. It's talking to New Zealand.

00:35:35.440 It's talking to Canada. It's talking to England and France and these states of the United States

00:35:43.040 of America. It's talking to us. God is speaking. And if we do not listen, if we reject the message,

00:35:51.400 God will send disaster. Likewise, any nation whose God is Yahweh will be exalted. So there

00:36:00.260 is blessing for nations today that submit to the Lord, that hear his voice. And there are curses

00:36:08.060 for nations today. It's not a one-to-one ratio. It's not in the same covenantal framework as

00:36:13.820 Israel under the old covenant. I feel like I've labored that point a million times. I'm just being

00:36:18.980 abundantly clear that is not happening today. It's not a one-to-one ratio as it was with Israel

00:36:25.680 under the old covenant. But to pretend as though God is not intimately involved in the affairs of

00:36:33.300 nations today is to miss so much of the Bible. I don't even know where to begin. That is to

00:36:41.900 unhitch from the Old Testament. Nations that have Yahweh as their God. Now, even that, what does

00:36:48.100 that mean? What it means is at a national level to explicitly and specifically name the triune God

00:36:57.500 as the God of that nation.

00:37:02.440 And does that mean, I'll just get real specific here.

00:37:04.640 Does that mean that we need to get rid of the Constitution?

00:37:07.900 I don't believe so.

00:37:10.060 But at the end of the day, I don't worship the Constitution.

00:37:13.460 I prefer the Bible.

00:37:16.960 I don't think, because the Constitution, I think, works from the Scripture,

00:37:20.280 I don't think any of it would actually have to be changed.

00:37:22.520 I do personally think that there are a few of the amendments,

00:37:26.240 not the first 10 but a few of the amendments post the first 10 that might need to be cross off

00:37:34.180 but in terms of the constitution as it stands today including the first amendment

00:37:39.740 even that what i would argue is not for a revision but to get back to authorial intent

00:37:44.420 what does it mean for there to be a freedom of religion or what do the founders intend by that

00:37:51.280 a principle pluralism, which is just a euphemism for polytheism, the worship of a pantheon of

00:37:59.100 gods and many false, that's not what they meant. No, they meant that there should be peace between

00:38:04.780 different denominations of our common Lord. What they meant in freedom of religion is that there

00:38:11.320 would not be a national, at the federal level, a national church, that you would not have the

00:38:17.120 National Baptist Church so that a little Presbyterian church in Kansas all of a sudden

00:38:22.340 is getting sanctions and fines. But America absolutely was founded as a nation that feared

00:38:29.740 the triune God. There's no disputing that. And the First Amendment was meant to say,

00:38:34.880 hey, we're not going to be like England, the very place that we're fleeing from,

00:38:38.360 and persecuting our fellow brothers because they disagree on secondary doctrinal matters.

00:38:44.620 That's what the freedom of religion was.

00:38:46.420 It was not the freedom of religion to say,

00:38:48.480 hey, you know what?

00:38:49.320 One day we might be a Muslim country

00:38:51.300 and that would be really great.

00:38:52.600 No, it would not.

00:38:55.140 That's not what they intended.

00:38:56.760 So I don't think that the constitution should change,

00:38:58.640 but like Zambia, I think, and I pray that one day,

00:39:02.920 maybe not in my lifetime,

00:39:04.340 but the lifetime of my children or my grandchildren,

00:39:06.940 that the United States of America would adopt

00:39:09.440 a distinctly Christian preamble to the constitution.

00:39:13.700 that says we are a nation that worships and submits to the triune God, to Jesus Christ.

00:39:23.220 And I would want Jesus Christ named, not just God. In God we trust, one nation under God. No,

00:39:30.560 no, no. The Christian God, the triune God. So adopting a explicitly Christian preamble to

00:39:37.400 the constitution, I think would be a very wonderful thing. Not having a nationwide federal church,

00:39:44.200 that would be a bad thing, but saying we are a Christian nation. That's our founding. And I

00:39:49.780 believe that's where we need to get back to. Now, all that being said, with our founding,

00:39:55.020 we have received immense blessings over the last 250 to 350 years. If we go all the way back to

00:40:02.280 pilgrims and covenanters and original founders before we were ratified as a republic. So all

00:40:09.840 that being said, for about three centuries now, we have received immense blessings from the Lord,

00:40:15.380 and it's not arbitrary. It's not random. It is because of worship of the triune God. It is

00:40:23.620 because as a nation, we have sought to do that which is right in his sight. We are no longer

00:40:29.360 are doing there. We are currently in the process of apostasy, and the point is this. God will not

00:40:35.160 be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. That principle is true in every time and every place. A man will

00:40:42.600 reap what he sows. God will not be mocked. And if that principle is true for an individual man, it is

00:40:47.460 also true for a collection or group of men, women, and children. God will not be mocked. If we sow

00:40:54.320 what is good, we will reap blessing. If we sow what is evil, we will reap judgment. Now, there are a few

00:41:02.180 particular sins that I want to name that the Bible says explicitly will bring about judgment.

00:41:11.380 So now let's look a little bit more real quick, a little bit more about God's voice being heard.

00:41:16.120 So we looked at Psalm 19, one through four, God's voice. How's it heard? How's God speaking through

00:41:20.520 creation. Okay? Now let's look at Job. Job would be another example. Verse, chapter 12, verses 7

00:41:28.640 through 10. Because one of the things that we need to get into here is not just, is God speaking?

00:41:33.680 How is he speaking? Is man hearing? Are all men hearing? But we also need to get into what? The

00:41:39.700 contents of God speaking. What is the message that God's speaking? And this gets into it with natural

00:41:45.140 revelation. This is Job chapter 12, verses 7 through 10 says, but ask the beast, and they will

00:41:54.200 teach you, right? This is just a classic burn in the book of Job, where all of a sudden it's being

00:42:01.080 said, look, dumb beast, and I mean dumb in the sense of the Narnian sense, right? They're 0.99

00:42:07.600 unable to speak. They're, you know, they're just beasts of the field. The burn that's happening

00:42:12.500 right now in the book of Job is it's being said, animals, dumb animals have better theology than 1.00

00:42:18.140 you do. Birds and fish have better theology than you do. And this is one of these classic burns 1.00

00:42:25.780 that proves true, it seems like, in every generation. You know, you could say this to

00:42:30.840 the average evangelical today, and it would ring just as true as it is in the book of Job. Hey,

00:42:35.880 that longhorn cow over there has better doctrine than you do. Yeah, probably. Okay, here we go.

00:42:41.880 but ask the beast and they will teach you the birds of the heavens and they will tell you. So

00:42:47.160 speech again, they'll teach, they'll tell, or the bushes of the earth and they will teach you or the

00:42:53.620 fish of the sea and they will declare, that speech declared to you, who among all these, speaking

00:43:00.000 about creation, does not know what? Here's the message. So we've talked about God speaking. He's

00:43:06.400 speaking through creation. Okay, what is he speaking? That the hand of the Lord has done this.

00:43:13.260 Now, this is Job's defense, right? He's suffering immensely, and everybody, all of his friends,

00:43:18.660 these are, you know, his miserable friends, miserable company, they're saying, Job, we were

00:43:23.560 quiet for the first seven days, which even that would be an improvement by today's standards,

00:43:28.100 right? Could you imagine that your friends actually come, and before they give you their

00:43:33.400 two cents and tell you, you know, that you're wrong or this, they just sit with you for seven

00:43:37.580 days. That would be amazing. Okay. So, you know, there's already an improvement, you know, in the

00:43:42.700 times of Job from what we have today, but when they do finally open their mouth, well, just like 0.96

00:43:47.120 the Proverbs say, even a fool is thought wise if he keeps his mouth shut. But when Job's friends 0.77

00:43:51.760 finally do open their mouths, they prove to be dumber than the beast. So Job is saying, this is 0.99

00:43:57.980 his counter. He's saying, you guys are saying that I'm suffering. All these terrible things have

00:44:01.940 happened to me because I'm in sin. But even the beast have better theology than you. They know,

00:44:07.920 what do they know? What are the beasts saying? What is God saying through his handiwork, his

00:44:12.040 creation, fish and beast and birds? One of the things that he's saying is that God is sovereign.

00:44:18.220 That's what the beasts know that Job's miserable friends don't know. What the beasts know and what

00:44:23.900 they speak, what they say, is that God is the cause and the source of all things. That he alone

00:44:30.280 is the autonomously free sovereign one.

00:44:33.100 The Lord has done this.

00:44:34.720 He is the source of all things.

00:44:36.560 In his hand is the life of every living thing

00:44:40.100 and the breath of all mankind.

00:44:42.980 So I'm building a theological argument here.

00:44:46.360 And it's a little bit broad, but it really is simple.

00:44:48.560 So take that now.

00:44:50.080 Okay, so God brings nations up and brings them down

00:44:53.840 based on their commitment to him,

00:44:56.380 whether or not they're righteous.

00:44:57.900 And if a nation does wicked things,

00:45:00.280 God will bring them down, bring them low, destroy them, and in doing wicked things, what's mentioned

00:45:05.680 in Jeremiah 18 is one of the wicked things, or what causes them to do wicked things, is not

00:45:10.420 listening to God's voice, okay? Well, what if they never had God's voice? What if this nation doesn't

00:45:14.700 have the Bible? It doesn't matter. God's voice comes through the Bible, but it also comes through

00:45:18.820 what he has made. Through natural revelation, skies are preaching, pouring forth speech,

00:45:24.500 beast, birds, fish, all these things that God has made so that all men are without an excuse,

00:45:30.700 which we'll land on that. That's Romans 1, 18 through 20. And what is God? So that's how God

00:45:36.240 is speaking. Who is he speaking to? Everyone. How is he speaking? By what he has made. What is he

00:45:41.360 speaking? According to Job chapter 12, verse 7 through 10, one of the things that he's speaking

00:45:46.400 is that he exists and that he's the source of life and that he holds every living creature

00:45:52.200 and the breath of mankind in his hand.

00:45:54.640 And that if something takes place,

00:45:56.440 it is the Lord who has done it.

00:45:59.240 That's the message.

00:46:00.780 So we've talked about how he speaks,

00:46:02.780 who he speaks to,

00:46:04.500 but what does he speak?

00:46:05.980 What he speaks is that he exists,

00:46:08.560 that he is the creator,

00:46:10.480 he is the source,

00:46:12.020 and he is sovereign.

00:46:13.960 Everything that happens,

00:46:15.240 happens underneath his providence

00:46:17.280 and his sovereign banner.

00:46:18.820 He decreed it.

00:46:19.820 lastly if it wasn't already clear enough just for those of you who just feel like yeah but

00:46:26.260 it's old testament i really love the idea of unhitching unhitching well let me give you a

00:46:31.940 new testament verse that you really don't need because the doctrine has already been firmly

00:46:35.900 established at this point but we'll go ahead put the final nail in the coffin this is romans

00:46:39.740 chapter 1 verse 18 through 20 for the wrath of god is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness

00:46:44.760 and unrighteousness of men

00:46:46.800 who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

00:46:50.620 For what can be known,

00:46:52.300 here's again the contents,

00:46:54.160 what is God's voice saying?

00:46:56.120 What can be known about God?

00:46:59.100 Let me stop for just a moment here.

00:47:00.920 This is the argument that I'm trying to make.

00:47:02.720 I'm just going to say it abundantly clearly

00:47:04.520 so that nobody could possibly miss it.

00:47:06.500 The voice of God through natural revelation and creation

00:47:09.500 does not just communicate to man

00:47:11.800 the contents of the second table of the law.

00:47:15.740 Through natural revelation, through birds and fish and beasts and skies and day to day and night to night,

00:47:22.080 God is not, through natural revelation, merely communicating to man that it's wrong to murder.

00:47:28.160 And that he should honor his father and mother.

00:47:30.700 That it's wrong to steal.

00:47:32.700 That it's wrong to covet.

00:47:34.060 It's wrong to lie.

00:47:37.280 That's not the only message.

00:47:39.180 Wrong to commit adultery.

00:47:41.240 I knew there was one more, that's it.

00:47:42.700 God is not merely communicating through natural revelation to nations everywhere in the world

00:47:48.320 that it's wrong to breach the second table of the law. That's not what the Bible teaches.

00:47:54.200 What the Bible instead teaches is that through natural revelation, one of the prominent

00:47:58.560 tenets of the contents of God's message is not about the second table of the law, but the first.

00:48:04.600 one of the things that God's communicating is himself not just horizontal um moral rules for

00:48:13.500 our interaction with our fellow man but God is actually speaking about not just morality and

00:48:18.220 how we treat fellow people but he's talking about himself it speaks to himself his sovereignty his

00:48:24.940 power his existence and Romans 1 makes this plain I believe Job's 12 already suffices but Romans 1

00:48:32.520 makes it abundantly plain. So for what can be known about how we treat our neighbor, how to love our

00:48:39.120 neighbor, the second table of the law, what can be known about God? God is plain to them because God

00:48:45.700 has shown it to them for his, not just his laws and how we treat our fellow man, but his invisible

00:48:52.920 attributes, his own character, things about himself, namely his eternal power and divine nature

00:49:00.280 have been, not just his voice pouring forth, speech pouring forth, not just has the message

00:49:05.380 been sent out, but it's been clearly perceived. So God spoke, every man heard, and what was the

00:49:13.340 message about? How to love your neighbor, uh-huh, but also how to love the Lord your God. That God

00:49:20.120 exists, God is sovereign, God is holy, and you, O man, need to bow the knee. Kiss the son, lest he be

00:49:29.540 angry and his wrath quickly kindled. Pay homage to King Jesus. That is a message that everyone knows. 0.93

00:49:39.160 Whether they've had one verse of the Bible delivered to them or not, every single person

00:49:45.280 knows there is a God in heaven. He made all things. He is sovereign. He is holy, and he is worthy of

00:49:52.580 our worship. And that's precisely why Romans 1 goes on to say that those who refuse these things,

00:50:00.820 that God has said his eternal power, his divine nature has clearly been perceived

00:50:04.740 ever since the creation of the world and still to this day, 2,000 years after the cross.

00:50:09.720 And how is it perceived? What's the vehicle in the things that have been made? That's nature

00:50:13.740 itself, creation, natural revelation. So what? So that all people are without an excuse. Maybe

00:50:19.480 you've heard before someone who's who's asked this question and you know and it's these questions

00:50:24.040 are funny because you always think man oh that's a good one yeah that's really thoughtful uh it's

00:50:29.220 not right people people say well what happens to somebody on you know a deserted island and they

00:50:35.420 never had a missionary they've never had a page of scripture they've never heard the name of jesus

00:50:39.800 christ and somebody on a deserted island you know they they live their whole life and then they die

00:50:45.900 Is God going to send them to hell for not believing in a God that they've never heard?

00:50:50.540 And a God that they've never known?

00:50:51.700 This innocent, you know, tribal person, you know, that question can't even begin to be answered

00:50:59.540 because it is so fundamentally flawed in its premise, premises, multiple.

00:51:05.500 And one of the flaws is, it presupposes an innocent man.

00:51:12.240 That's the first problem.

00:51:14.280 Two, it also presupposes that God doesn't speak in any way outside of special revelation,

00:51:21.140 that is scripture.

00:51:23.300 That there's no such thing as natural revelation,

00:51:25.840 God speaking outside of scripture by what he has made,

00:51:28.820 which scripture tells us he does do that time and time again.

00:51:33.240 Now, if we were to be honest about the question,

00:51:36.260 and this is just the reality, we have to understand this,

00:51:39.100 especially Westerners, right?

00:51:40.840 You've heard me preach this several times, I'll say it again.

00:51:42.620 we are suicidal we are suicidal right now because we've been lied to in our education system and

00:51:49.940 we're lied to we lie to ourselves so we have to remember actual human history that innocent man

00:51:56.420 was some unreached you know a tribe of people that's never heard the gospel um they're not

00:52:03.160 going around saying who are you god we'd love to worship you and i'm being kind to my wife

00:52:07.200 No, no, that undiscovered people tribe, whenever they do get discovered over the past centuries and centuries and centuries and centuries and centuries, every time we do find that people, you know what they're doing?

00:52:20.560 They're offering human sacrifices.

00:52:24.800 They're building Mayan temples. 0.99

00:52:29.020 They're killing children.

00:52:30.540 so we think there's these innocent wonderful moral people that just don't have a bible but

00:52:36.460 they love to worship jesus if only they knew and then the big bad you know crusades of the christians

00:52:42.140 come in you know the knights of the red cross and oppress everybody and make them miserable yeah i'm

00:52:47.460 sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry that the brits went into india and said you can't keep burying your wife

00:52:53.500 alive with your husband after he dies i know that's oppressive

00:52:57.580 westerners have not been perfect of course there are stains on our history

00:53:05.220 but to pretend as though paganism has somehow been historically proven to be more moral than

00:53:11.240 christianity is a joke we all know it's a joke and we should say it's a joke

00:53:18.780 it's not true christianity i'll take christianity and christianity on its worst day 0.96

00:53:26.860 the worst day with Constantine is better than the best day of secularism.

00:53:34.180 The amount of babies that are murdered in their mother's womb

00:53:37.300 on a slow day in these United States

00:53:40.960 is far more heinous than anything that Constantine ever mustered up.

00:53:49.260 So all that being said, the point is this, everyone's hurt.

00:53:53.800 And that tribe living on an island that's never been discovered,

00:53:56.620 that's never had a page of scripture, they've heard.

00:53:58.900 God spoke, what did he speak?

00:54:00.920 Love your neighbor.

00:54:01.900 Not just that, he spoke things concerning himself.

00:54:05.360 He exists, he's sovereign, he's holy

00:54:07.760 and he is the source of all life.

00:54:09.880 He is in charge of everything flows from his hand.

00:54:12.080 He sustains the breath of all mankind

00:54:13.640 and that every knee must bow in worship of him.

00:54:18.260 And the problem with that tribesman is that he doesn't,

00:54:21.760 not because of ignorance.

00:54:23.900 See, we like to play this,

00:54:25.040 weave together this victim narrative he doesn't know poor guy and that's why he's rebelling 0.98

00:54:29.380 because he's ignorant it's ignorance that first comes first and then out of ignorance

00:54:34.200 bursts rebellion that's exactly the opposite of what romans 1 teaches romans 1 teaches that man 0.97

00:54:41.060 actually is not ignorant because god has spoken by what he has made and that every man has not

00:54:46.100 just as the message gone forth but it's been perceived so the message has been received the

00:54:50.380 problem is not man's ignorance the problem is that man in his rebellion he lies to himself and he

00:54:57.240 takes the truth of god that he actually has and he pushes it down and tries to suppress it in deeds

00:55:03.280 of unrighteousness so so the pattern is very simple it's not some people are ignorant because 0.58

00:55:09.440 they've never got the bible and because they're ignorant they can't help but rebel nope it's old

00:55:14.080 people are rebellious and because they're rebellious even when they do hear the truth of god's work 0.92

00:55:18.300 which everyone has heard in natural revelation at minimum that the problem is that they're

00:55:22.960 rebellious. And so they choose to be ignorant. They take every ounce of information that God 0.99

00:55:27.660 speaks to them and they throw it down and suppress it and bury it under the dirt,

00:55:32.200 trying to make it go away. That's the message of scripture. So God has speech. It's not just

00:55:39.920 in the Bible through the prophets in the law. This is special revelation. This is supreme,

00:55:45.400 but God speaks by what he has made and he's spoken to all people in all times in all places it's just

00:55:51.940 as true today as it ever was he speaks through what vehicle natural revelation and what does

00:55:58.440 he speak what's the contents of his message not just the second table of the law God is not just

00:56:03.340 speaking through waves and fish that it's bad to murder your neighbor he's also speaking through

00:56:08.720 waves and fish and birds and sky that he exists that he's holy that he's sovereign and that he's

00:56:14.720 worthy of your worship. And any nation that does not hear his voice, Jeremiah 18, he decimates.

00:56:24.560 And any nation that does hear his voice, which speaks to the first table of the law,

00:56:29.480 love the Lord your God, not just the second table, love your neighbor as yourself. Any nation that

00:56:34.240 does hear his voice will be not just some ethereal, mystical, pluralistic polytheism that is gods and

00:56:41.800 God, you know, we want to love God and we're spiritual people. No, no, no. The triune God,

00:56:47.720 Jesus Christ as God, any nation that hears his voice and that acknowledges him and submits to

00:56:54.720 him explicitly as a nation in its laws and his policies and the way that it, that it organizes

00:57:01.560 itself as a body politic, that nation will be blessed. And any nation that relents in doing

00:57:07.380 that which is right, God will send disaster. Now we're ready for two sins in particular,

00:57:14.180 that God sends disaster through a particular means, namely the land itself. Leviticus 18,

00:57:21.020 21 through 26, it says, you shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech,

00:57:27.320 and so profane the name of your God, I am the Lord. You shall not lie with a male as with a woman,

00:57:34.140 It is an abomination.

00:57:36.720 Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things,

00:57:40.080 for by all these things,

00:57:42.380 for by all these,

00:57:44.720 the nations I am driving out before you

00:57:46.840 have become unclean.

00:57:49.320 Let's stop there for just a moment.

00:57:51.280 The nations I'm driving out before you.

00:57:53.520 This is talking about,

00:57:54.680 all the way back to our original text in Joshua,

00:57:57.620 this is talking about the Canaanite tribes.

00:58:00.360 Why, remember, God's doing two things.

00:58:02.200 Why is he driving them out?

00:58:03.720 Why are they all being extinguished?

00:58:05.820 Why do we have in the Bible an example of genocide?

00:58:10.000 Because God's doing two things, not just one.

00:58:12.880 One, God is fulfilling his good promises to Israel

00:58:16.100 that they would inherit the land.

00:58:19.340 Two, it's not just that.

00:58:21.220 God is also committed to fulfilling his just judgments

00:58:24.700 that have been on layaway because he's mean.

00:58:27.820 No, because he's gracious and kind,

00:58:29.880 just judgments for the Canaanite tribes

00:58:32.300 that had been on layaway for 400 years.

00:58:36.680 That's how long God's been waiting.

00:58:38.860 We see that in Genesis chapter 15, verse 13 through 16.

00:58:42.800 Verse 16 specifically says,

00:58:44.700 and they shall come back,

00:58:46.160 talking about Abraham's descendants, Israel.

00:58:48.980 They shall come back to this place

00:58:50.340 where Abraham currently was,

00:58:52.100 here in the fourth generation,

00:58:53.540 for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.

00:58:56.520 But that's after, not just fourth generation,

00:58:58.580 that's after 400 years of the Israelites.

00:59:00.780 if you back up just a few verses, 400 years of the Israelites being held in captivity in Egypt.

00:59:07.120 So God is saying to Abraham, look, you're in this land. You're sojourning in this land,

00:59:12.340 not a land that you're waiting to be beamed up out of with a rapture. No, you're sojourning in

00:59:17.340 a land that you are actually waiting to conquer. It's your land, but you're not going to conquer

00:59:21.880 it anytime soon. You're going to die at a ripe old age. But what's going to happen is that your

00:59:26.660 descendants will ultimately be enslaved in Egypt for 400 years. And it won't be until later after

00:59:32.340 the fourth generation that they will come in and they'll drive out the wicked inhabitants of the

00:59:36.400 land. And why will it be so long? For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.

00:59:42.660 Why? Because they're not that bad? No, they're terrible. It's not to make light of the wickedness

00:59:47.180 of the Amorites. It's to make heavy, to make much of the grace and mercy and patience of God.

00:59:54.660 So God waited for centuries to finally bring about his just judgment on the Canaanite tribes.

01:00:01.800 Two things at once.

01:00:03.420 One, doing good to Israel, which God promised to Abraham.

01:00:07.400 Two, doing justice and judgment to the Canaanites, which God also promised to Abraham.

01:00:13.940 God's doing both.

01:00:14.860 And yes, once more, there is no equivalent to the nation state of Israel under the old covenant.

01:00:21.460 But God, even then at that time, and still certainly to this day, God does bring nations up

01:00:28.700 and bring nations low, depending on whether or not they hear his voice and obey it. And what does

01:00:36.200 his voice say? Not just things concerning the second table of the law, how we should love our

01:00:41.300 neighbor, but things about himself, that he exists, that he's sovereign, that he's holy, and that we

01:00:48.340 should worship him, and that we should not be idolaters. And what are some specific things that

01:00:54.360 God will spew people out of the land for? One is idolatry, but two others is homosexuality and

01:01:02.960 abortion. You shall not offer your children to Molech, that's verse 21 of Leviticus 18, and you

01:01:10.080 shall not lie with a male as with a woman, that's verse 22 of Leviticus 18. For these things, by

01:01:17.240 these, the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean. Lastly, verse 25, and the land

01:01:25.520 became unclean so that I punished its iniquity and the land vomited out its inhabitants. But you

01:01:32.720 shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the native or the

01:01:38.580 stranger who sojourns among you. That'll preach. That applies even to this day. Hey, well, I'm not

01:01:45.680 a christian we're a sojourner we're coming from another nation right we're seeking dual citizenship

01:01:51.840 or maybe we have a green card or something like that i you know your god is not my god then leave

01:01:56.560 ruth was a moabite she got to join israel under a precondition your god shall be my god and your

01:02:05.660 people shall be my people the sojourner you cannot mandate hear me you can't man cannot

01:02:12.040 command through civil politics. He cannot legislate matters of the heart. He cannot command

01:02:19.200 someone to worship the triune God and it be so. Only Jesus is Lord of the heart. Only Jesus can

01:02:25.780 change the heart. But you can, as a nation, say, our God is Yahweh. And from the heart, you may

01:02:32.700 not worship him. That's up to him and whether or not he chooses to sovereignly save you. But the

01:02:37.340 policies and the laws in this nation will abide by the scripture that which is according to the

01:02:44.720 triune god it is not oppressive for our nation which we have had on the books in the past to

01:02:51.080 have sabbath laws to say hey you're not a christian fine but on the lord's day on the lord's day we

01:02:59.100 can't say that you have to go to church but we can say that you're not going to have the marketplace

01:03:04.140 open because it's a day of rest and our God is the triune God. This is how the West has behaved

01:03:11.480 in the past, whether it's England, whether it's America, we've seen this multiple times again and

01:03:15.960 again and again. And during these seasons, there has been immense blessing and prosperity.

01:03:20.680 It was not oppressive. It was not a wrongful binding of the conscience. Man can and should,

01:03:27.460 the civil magistrate should demand a day of rest. Only Jesus can change the heart and make it a day

01:03:33.520 of worship. So only Jesus can make it a day of worship, but man can and should demand a day of

01:03:39.960 rest. But you shall keep my statues and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the

01:03:46.180 native or the stranger who sojourns among you. If you're going to be in the land, then you need to

01:03:52.520 do that which accords with God's word. And if you don't, notice, it's not just that another nation

01:03:58.240 will be used by God and its military force to take you out. Specifically, verse 25, what's

01:04:03.960 mentioned is that the land will be defiled. That when a people are rebelling against the triune

01:04:10.460 God, the very land itself, in a literal sense, spiritual, but also a physical sense, the land

01:04:16.860 becomes unclean. So that I punished its iniquity, the land vomited out its own inhabitants. The

01:04:25.600 land, in a nutshell, the land is on God's side. If you're wondering, is the land for me or for God?

01:04:34.160 Right? If we rebel against God, whose side will the trees be on? Where will the mountains

01:04:39.060 allegiance lie? God's. And I know it sounds overly spiritual, but it is a true biblical principle.

01:04:45.080 When people turn against God, the very land in which they live begins to turn against them.

01:04:50.440 There are droughts, there are famines, there is pestilence, there is plague, there is disease,

01:04:54.440 all these different things. God will not be mocked. A man reaps what he sows, and the land,

01:04:59.740 the creation, the very instrument through whom he speaks, the first point that I labored,

01:05:04.100 will also be one of his instruments that he executes his judgment. The land, the created

01:05:09.640 cosmos, God speaks through creation, and God will use creation to turn on his enemies if they turn

01:05:16.500 against him. The last thing from our text, Joshua chapter 10, that we should know is this.

01:05:21.720 there is a typological element as well. This is Matthew Henry. He says,

01:05:27.420 hereby was typified the final and eternal destruction of all the impenitent, implacable

01:05:33.520 enemies of the Lord Jesus, who having slighted the riches of his grace must forever feel the

01:05:39.940 weight of his wrath, talking about the Canaanites, and shall have judgment without mercy. Nations

01:05:46.620 that forget God shall be turned into hell. I'll say that again. Matthew Henry, God bless him. 0.88

01:05:54.200 Nations that forget God shall be turned into hell. The land is defiled. It is unclean and it turns

01:06:03.120 against its own inhabitants, spewing them out. Nations that forget God shall be turned into hell 0.98

01:06:09.840 and no reproach at all to God's infinite goodness. This doesn't mean that God's not kind

01:06:15.920 or not good. It simply means that he is just and that he will not be mocked. We reap what we sow.

01:06:21.720 What Matthew Henry is saying here in the final analysis is that our text, Joshua chapter 10,

01:06:26.880 where Joshua and Israel annihilate all these Canaanite tribes, men, women, children, the whole

01:06:33.680 nine yards, driving them out and putting them to death with the edge of the sword, is that in some

01:06:38.660 sense, this is a typological text. That is, it's a symbol that points towards an eternal ultimate

01:06:44.440 reality. And the ultimate reality of the Canaanites and the destruction that God brings upon them

01:06:49.840 through Israel, that reality is the reality of eternal hell. That God is tolerant, but he is not

01:06:56.740 eternally tolerant. He is not indefinitely tolerant. God is slow to anger. God is abundant in mercy,

01:07:04.320 but God is just. And eventually he does pour out his just, that is fair, proportional wrath on all

01:07:14.080 his enemies. He may wait for 400 years, but eventually he will do justice. And when he brings

01:07:21.000 his justice for those who don't repent, for those who do not submit to him, when he brings his

01:07:27.540 justice, it will be swift and it will be severe and it will be without an ounce of mercy. There

01:07:34.600 was no mercy given to the Canaanites. Every man, woman, and child put to the edge of the sword.

01:07:39.760 and so too in a spiritual and eternal sense,

01:07:43.380 this is God's character to this day

01:07:45.940 and for all days, to the end of the age,

01:07:48.640 those who do not repent of their sin

01:07:50.500 and call out to Jesus Christ by name

01:07:53.720 as a King of kings and Lord of lords,

01:07:56.580 asking for his forgiveness because of his life,

01:07:59.440 his death, and his resurrection.

01:08:01.640 Those who do not turn to him like the Canaanites,

01:08:04.720 God will eventually deal out justice with his sword,

01:08:08.420 his wrath in hell, and there will be no quarter. There will be no surrender. There will never be

01:08:13.740 a peace treaty offered. They will be eternally punished. And this in no way detracts from God's

01:08:19.040 goodness. If anything, it only exemplifies it. God is good. And because he's good, he punishes

01:08:25.880 the wicked. It's an eternal principle. It's also a tangible, earthly, temporal principle.

01:08:33.440 It applies to individual people.

01:08:35.800 It applies to collections of people.

01:08:38.740 And these things from the Old Testament

01:08:40.460 are massively relevant to this day.

01:08:43.820 And we should stop being so naive.

01:08:46.040 Let's pray.

01:08:46.800 Father, thank you for your word.

01:08:48.400 Bless it to your people.

01:08:49.860 Help us as individuals to listen,

01:08:51.840 to hearken to your voice that is pouring forth,

01:08:54.800 to turn from whatever wickedness might be in our heart,

01:08:57.520 to kiss the son, lest he be angry,

01:08:59.800 to pay homage to Jesus Christ.

01:09:01.720 But Lord, we pray further that you would do this not just with us as individuals or us as a local church,

01:09:07.860 but that you would do this with collections of peoples, that you would do this with nations,

01:09:12.780 that nations would fear the Lord, that we would see that all of our other pantheon of false gods

01:09:18.940 has not delivered an ounce of what it promised.

01:09:22.420 All it has delivered is misery and judgment, that secularism was always a bill of goods,

01:09:29.120 that we need Christ,

01:09:31.120 that he is the only author of life and blessing.

01:09:34.240 And I pray, Lord, that these United States

01:09:36.380 would turn from our wickedness,

01:09:38.180 that we would specifically repent of the sins

01:09:40.660 of offering our children to Molech through abortion

01:09:43.440 and also the sin of homosexuality.

01:09:46.460 Lord, I also pray that not just would we repent

01:09:48.620 of these sins and abominations,

01:09:50.700 atrocities to our fellow man,

01:09:52.260 but we would repent of our idolatry

01:09:54.140 and that we would turn in explicit worship

01:09:56.400 to you, the triune God,

01:09:58.360 and that our nation would be blessed

01:10:00.200 and that, Lord, because you are gracious and merciful

01:10:02.720 and slow to anger, that you would relent

01:10:05.020 in sending the disaster that we deserve.

01:10:08.360 You would relent in sending that disaster.

01:10:10.700 Instead, you would grant us repentance

01:10:12.320 and that you would bless us if it be your will

01:10:14.980 for another 300 years.

01:10:18.900 That we might be a city on a hill,

01:10:21.720 that we might be a light to other nations,

01:10:24.240 that people would say, wow, your God is wise.

01:10:28.500 Your God is good.

01:10:29.400 Your God is loving.

01:10:31.040 His statutes are perfect and pure.

01:10:34.420 Blessed is the Lord God of America.

01:10:37.540 He is the one true God.

01:10:39.760 We pray this in Jesus' name.

01:10:41.300 Amen.

The NXR Podcast - August 28, 2023

SUNDAY SERMON - Dispensationalism, Zionism, & Christian Nationalism

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