The NXR Podcast - SUNDAY SERMON - “Radical” Missions, “Hyper” Hospitality, & Evangelical Suicide

00:00:00.000 In less than a year, our podcast has gone from an average of 10,000 downloads a month

00:00:04.300 to 50,000 downloads. What made the difference? You leaving us a five-star review. The more

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00:00:16.360 and gospel of Jesus Christ. Help us press forward the crown rights of King Jesus by leaving us a

00:00:23.480 five-star review on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks. Today we continue with our series through

00:00:30.380 the book of Joshua. Our text for this morning is Joshua chapter 6 verses 22 through 27. Would you

00:00:38.400 join me in standing for the reading of God's Word in order to show reverence and honor? I'll read

00:00:44.640 our text for us in its entirety. When I finish reading the text, I'm going to say this is the

00:00:48.800 word of the Lord, at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying thanks be

00:00:54.320 to God. One final time, our text for today is Joshua chapter 6 verse 22 through 27. The Bible

00:01:03.860 says this, but to the two men who had spied out the land, Joshua said, go into the prostitute's 0.61

00:01:10.880 house and bring out from there the woman and all who belong to her as you swore to her. So the young

00:01:17.680 men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and mother and brothers

00:01:23.620 and all who belonged to her. And they brought all her relatives and put them outside the camp of

00:01:29.740 Israel. And they burned the city with fire and everything in it, only the silver and gold and 0.53

00:01:36.360 the vessels of bronze and of iron they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. But Rahab 0.92

00:01:42.640 the prostitute and her father's household, and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. 0.98

00:01:49.180 And she has lived in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy

00:01:55.440 out Jericho. Joshua laid an oath on them at the time, saying, Cursed before the Lord be the man

00:02:02.680 who rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho. At the cost of his firstborn shall he lay its

00:02:10.160 foundation, and at the cost of his youngest son shall he set up its gates. So the Lord was with

00:02:16.800 Joshua, and his fame was in all the land. This is the word of the Lord. All right, please be seated.

00:02:26.240 We're going to begin by focusing our attention on verses 22 through 25. John Gill, the late

00:02:32.600 great Baptist who pastored in the very same church that Charles Spurgeon did, but a hundred years

00:02:37.860 prior, he says on these verses the following, I see not why it may not be thought that the whole

00:02:45.100 wall fell, that is the whole wall surrounding Jericho, excepting that small part alone which

00:02:52.160 Rahab's house stood, and that standing alone would make the miracle all the greater, and show the

00:02:58.680 divine approbation of saving Rahab and her family. John Gill, his theory is that all of Jericho's

00:03:08.740 walls sunk into the earth and fell on that seventh day after Israel obeyed the Lord and walking,

00:03:16.500 marching around the city seven times and then giving a great shout unto the Lord. His theory

00:03:22.840 is that all the walls sunk into the earth,

00:03:25.800 that they didn't just crack and crumble,

00:03:28.280 but they actually fell into the earth

00:03:30.260 in the same way that God had opened the earth

00:03:32.280 and swallowed disobedient people under the watch of Moses

00:03:36.520 when Israel was wandering in the desert.

00:03:38.680 That same kind of way of causing these walls of Jericho to crumble.

00:03:43.960 But according to John Gill and many others for that matter,

00:03:47.300 they believe that Rahab's house was in the wall

00:03:50.140 because earlier texts actually say that.

00:03:53.200 And so how do you have all the walls falling,

00:03:56.120 but not Rahab's house being destroyed,

00:03:59.120 and yet her house is in the wall?

00:04:01.200 Well, the conclusion for many biblical scholars and theologians

00:04:05.140 is that all the walls fell except for a small portion of the wall

00:04:09.760 surrounding Jericho where Rahab's house was built.

00:04:13.000 Other people would say that, well, Rahab's house wasn't literally in the wall,

00:04:16.980 but it was near to the wall.

00:04:18.480 And that's what these earlier texts are saying.

00:04:21.000 So all the walls fell, and Rahab's house was near the wall.

00:04:24.600 And the wall that fell at that point, God was careful to make sure that it wouldn't crumble and crush her house.

00:04:29.760 That's possible.

00:04:30.920 It's also possible, a third interpretation of this particular text,

00:04:35.420 is that all the walls fell, that Rahab's house was in the wall, so her house fell also.

00:04:41.360 But that God miraculously allowed the wall to sink down into the earth, to crumble and crash.

00:04:47.160 but that all the members of Rahab's house, their lives were spared. So the house actually did 0.95

00:04:52.780 crumble. It was destroyed, but it was not destroyed in the way that cost the lives of Rahab

00:04:59.220 and her household. That's a third possibility as well. I'm going to go with John Gill,

00:05:04.320 but really at the end of the day, I think we're okay if you want to take any of those three

00:05:10.860 positions. So let's move on. Here we go. Rahab and her family became proselytes. Reading now in your

00:05:17.540 notes, proselytes, that is converts to the God of Israel. They were converted. They were not merely

00:05:24.460 permitted to live in Israel as pagans. I want us to think about this for a second. I'll come back

00:05:30.740 to it here in just a moment, but they were not permitted to live in Israel as pagans. Instead,

00:05:35.540 they embraced not only the culture of Israel, but also the religion of Israel. Their conversion

00:05:41.840 was an immediate prerequisite for joining Israel, but their full assimilation took even longer.

00:05:51.640 Let's look at verse 25. It says, but Rahab the prostitute and her father's household and all 0.81

00:05:59.700 who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive, and she has lived in Israel to this day, because she hid

00:06:06.940 the messengers whom Joshua sent out to spy Jericho. They were welcomed in. They were not

00:06:16.540 only spared. It's not as though the walls of Jericho fell, and then Israel put everyone in 0.96

00:06:22.200 Jericho to death, which they did in obedience to the Lord. It was a divine imperative that was to

00:06:27.760 be followed in obedience. But it's not as though Israel decimated Jericho and all the people,

00:06:33.540 but just simply allowed Rahab and her house to survive, but then left them in Jericho to live

00:06:40.360 in the rubble. They actually took Rahab and her household and adopted them into the nation of

00:06:48.600 Israel. So Rahab was not just allowed to live, her and her household, but she was welcomed in.

00:06:55.500 Now, it's easy to just gloss over that.

00:06:59.860 But I think that it's worth stopping and thinking about.

00:07:04.320 It's certainly relevant, I believe, for us today,

00:07:08.160 especially in light of not what merely is happening here in our republic,

00:07:14.380 of these United States of America, but also what's happening in France.

00:07:18.060 hospitality is a biblical command and hospitality for the record um it is by nature entertaining

00:07:33.320 strangers so the the biblical virtue of hospitality that's not only commendable but

00:07:40.340 actually commanded and in fact for a pastor an elder it's actually one of the prerequisites

00:07:46.840 and qualifications in order to be an elder, per 1 Timothy chapter 3. So hospitality is commendable,

00:07:54.120 it's a virtue, it's good, but it's also commanded to all Christians, especially to elders or pastors.

00:08:00.980 And hospitality is, in fact, a Christian can't say, well, I'm exercising hospitality to my children.

00:08:07.400 No, you're not. You may be training them with kindness how to exercise hospitality to others.

00:08:14.100 You may be teaching them hospitality,

00:08:15.560 but you are not showing them hospitality.

00:08:19.120 Hospitality, by nature, is entertaining strangers.

00:08:23.020 The New Testament speaks of this,

00:08:24.480 about honoring someone, but here's the thing.

00:08:27.920 When Jesus says, I tell you the truth,

00:08:29.600 even if you give a cup of cold water

00:08:32.420 to one of these in my name,

00:08:34.580 you have done it for me.

00:08:36.980 Right, whoever visits those who are in prison,

00:08:40.140 you visited me. 1.00

00:08:41.320 If you clothe those who are naked, 0.87

00:08:43.100 you have clothed me. If you feed those who are hungry, you have fed me. All of these things,

00:08:48.900 you know, Jesus' disciples then respond and say, when did we do this for you? When were you

00:08:54.780 imprisoned and we visited? When were you naked and we clothed you? When were you hungry and we

00:08:59.080 gave you something to eat? And he says, I tell you, as often as you have done this, for the least of

00:09:05.940 these, my brothers, you've done it for me. Okay, so real quick, a Christian myth buster round that 0.73

00:09:14.320 is very, very necessary. We might, you know, you might be aware of from time to time on the 0.98

00:09:21.680 Christian internet, you know, that people ask questions, you know, like, well, who are the

00:09:25.920 least of these in our culture? You know, and well, the least of these in our culture is this category

00:09:32.160 or that category. A lot of times, one of the popular answers would be, well, the least of

00:09:37.380 these in our culture are immigrants. I remember, I believe it was Stephen Colbert. This was a few

00:09:44.900 years ago, but he said exactly that. He said, well, my faith tells me to care for the least of

00:09:50.460 these. And people, you know, who are immigrants, these are the least of these. And they're being 0.87

00:09:55.580 underpaid to do work that we don't want to do. And he's wrong. That's not what the Bible teaches.

00:10:06.640 And so I'm going to give you a balanced view by God's grace. I'm going to do my best this morning.

00:10:11.000 But I want you to understand what the Bible teaches. So first, Jesus says, whatever you do

00:10:14.920 for the least of these, my brothers. Here's the key word, brothers. When Jesus says you visited

00:10:22.960 me in prison. He's not talking about visiting someone who is in prison for theft, and they're

00:10:32.840 a pagan. If you visit them, you visited me. No, he says, whatever you've done for the least of 0.68

00:10:38.740 these, my brothers. He's actually talking about a Christian deliberately choosing to visit a 0.93

00:10:45.340 Christian in prison. The implication being, assumption being, that they're wrongfully 0.65

00:10:51.520 imprisoned and being persecuted for preaching the gospel, and other Christians at the cost to their

00:10:57.960 own safety and security are visiting this Christian who's locked up in order to care for them, in order

00:11:04.260 to bring them supplies, to pray for them, to commune with them, because they are a Christian.

00:11:10.340 Whatever you do for the least of these, my brothers. Another text to cross-reference to give

00:11:16.340 you more than just one scripture. This is the same principle that we would find in Galatians chapter 6.

00:11:21.520 where it says, as often as you have opportunity, do good to all, but especially the household of

00:11:27.640 faith. That is to say, as often as we have opportunity as Christians, we should do good

00:11:33.720 to all people. We should, whether they're Christians or not, but especially, that is,

00:11:40.120 but prioritize the household of faith. Even the late great Jewish historian Josephus,

00:11:46.980 who was not a Christian, in commentating on the first century Christian church,

00:11:52.400 he said, it is a very peculiar thing that someone who was impoverished could become rich virtually

00:11:59.960 overnight simply by joining the ranks of the Christians because they shared everything in

00:12:07.520 common. They took what they had and they would lay it at the apostles' feet so that it would be

00:12:12.380 dispersed, not that anyone would have lack, but that those who had lack would have sufficient

00:12:18.480 provision. And the scripture in the book of Acts goes even further and says, and so there was not

00:12:24.620 one in need among them. Not one in need among them. Now, what's being said there? There was not

00:12:33.320 one. They eradicated poverty in the city of Jerusalem. No. There were still plenty of poor

00:12:39.240 people in Jerusalem. They eradicated poverty in the church

00:12:43.320 in Jerusalem. The church was cared

00:12:47.100 for. Do you know one of the reasons why people

00:12:50.700 don't find the evangelical church attractive? I know

00:12:55.160 the popular rhetoric from the God-hating pagan.

00:13:00.060 Oh, they don't find the church attractive because they're judgmental,

00:13:02.940 because they think we're in sin. No, that's not why.

00:13:06.960 No, that's a play.

00:13:09.240 And evangelicals have just hook, line, and sinker fell for that play for decades now.

00:13:16.580 We'd reach more lost people if we were more kind or if we were more merciful or if we were this and that.

00:13:24.820 No.

00:13:26.140 We want to exercise mercy.

00:13:28.220 We want to be truly humble.

00:13:30.220 But what most people say is merciful or gracious is actually just antinomian.

00:13:36.120 That's what they actually want.

00:13:37.460 They don't want us to exercise mercy.

00:13:39.080 They want us to get rid of God's law.

00:13:41.300 They want us not to have mercy for sin.

00:13:44.840 Think about that for a second. 0.92

00:13:46.720 Does the unbeliever want mercy for sin?

00:13:49.440 Or do they want the church to stop calling it sin?

00:13:53.800 There's a dynamic difference between,

00:13:56.540 would you be merciful towards my sin?

00:13:59.400 Versus, I hate that you call this sin.

00:14:03.580 Now, I think that one of the big reasons,

00:14:05.560 a real reason, that the evangelical church is not as attractive as it could be,

00:14:12.940 is because the common principle in the name of missions and evangelism for a very long time has

00:14:20.440 been do good for those outside the church at the expense of those who are faithful within the church.

00:14:28.240 Think of 1 Timothy chapter 5. Even when it comes to widows, there's all the practical criteria,

00:14:34.660 right? If she's younger and her husband dies, she should probably remarry. And don't hastily 1.00

00:14:39.840 make a vow before the Lord towards lifelong singleness. So she needs to be at least 65 years

00:14:47.200 of age. And she also, she needs to not have someone else, another member of her family, 0.99

00:14:54.740 perhaps a brother or a son or an uncle that could meet her needs. If there's another family member

00:15:00.700 that could meet her needs,

00:15:01.840 then let them show some return

00:15:04.600 to their parents,

00:15:05.980 which is good and pleasing to the Lord,

00:15:07.480 and let the church not be financially burdened.

00:15:10.480 Don't add her to the roster.

00:15:13.100 But then Paul goes further.

00:15:14.780 He doesn't just list

00:15:15.640 the practical physical criteria.

00:15:18.000 She needs to be of this age. 1.00

00:15:19.500 She actually needs to be a widow indeed, 1.00

00:15:21.860 meaning a true widow. 1.00

00:15:22.980 She doesn't have other family members 1.00

00:15:24.680 that could help.

00:15:25.540 But then he begins to get

00:15:26.560 to the spiritual side.

00:15:28.340 He says she must have washed

00:15:29.760 the feet of the saints.

00:15:33.720 And he also says,

00:15:35.040 and I think this one's practical

00:15:36.100 and physical, he says

00:15:37.780 she must have brought up children.

00:15:41.480 Meaning that if she's a widow 0.89

00:15:43.140 and she's 65 years old 0.69

00:15:44.800 and she has no sons 0.99

00:15:47.640 that can care for her, 0.59

00:15:48.660 but she has no sons 1.00

00:15:49.780 because she was a feminist 1.00

00:15:51.460 with blue hair 1.00

00:15:52.560 and refused to have children, 1.00

00:15:54.500 then you know what she gets? 1.00

00:15:57.220 Starvation.

00:15:59.760 and cross-reference to Galatians chapter 6

00:16:04.760 as often as you have opportunity

00:16:06.640 do good to all

00:16:07.500 so we don't have to not help

00:16:10.760 we can help as often as we have opportunity

00:16:15.120 but if it comes down

00:16:17.480 to limited finite resources of a local church

00:16:21.700 and there are 10 widows

00:16:23.900 and you can only care for 9 of them sufficiently

00:16:27.320 and nine of them brought up children,

00:16:30.740 but those children died as well.

00:16:34.620 You think of an example would be Naomi.

00:16:39.080 Not only her husband, but also both of her sons perished.

00:16:43.480 It was actually her daughter-in-law that provided for her.

00:16:46.100 But some kind of scenario like that, 0.98

00:16:48.100 nine widows that are true widows indeed,

00:16:50.940 and they weren't, you know, 0.68

00:16:52.140 it's not that they didn't have sons 1.00

00:16:53.480 because they were feminists and they hated children. 1.00

00:16:57.320 No, they didn't have sons because either they couldn't, God didn't open their wombs, 1.00

00:17:02.540 which is a very difficult thing, or because their sons had likewise perished just as their husband

00:17:07.540 has. If that's the scenario, there's 10 widows, you can only afford to care for nine of them.

00:17:12.360 Nine of them are faithful and one of them is not. You prioritize the nine. What do we do in 0.95

00:17:17.640 American evangelicalism? In the name of outreach, what we'll do is we'll tax the faithful in order

00:17:25.660 to do more for those who, at the end of the day, despise the church, whether it be a food

00:17:32.320 drive or a free car wash or whatever it is, some kind of activity, some kind of service,

00:17:37.300 some kind of thing.

00:17:42.120 But when it comes to those who have been faithful and faithful and faithful and faithful, when

00:17:46.600 they really need help, maybe it's, you know, a Chili's gift card or, you know, or we do

00:17:55.380 precisely what james tells us not to do we say i wish you well be warm well clothed and well fed

00:18:03.280 i'll be praying but then we do nothing for their actual physical need see one of the things here's

00:18:09.840 the point this is the great tragic irony one of the things that makes the people of god attractive

00:18:14.380 is when the people of god take care in priority in order of priority triage when the people of god

00:18:22.160 take care of the people of God.

00:18:24.260 When the people of God

00:18:25.500 take care of the people of God, 1.00

00:18:27.200 those who are not a part 0.91

00:18:28.880 of the people of God,

00:18:30.460 when life gets hard,

00:18:31.800 when they feel alone,

00:18:32.920 when they're at the end of the rope,

00:18:34.020 you know what they think?

00:18:35.880 They might be tempted to think,

00:18:37.780 maybe there's something

00:18:39.520 to this whole church thing.

00:18:42.840 I mean, that's what

00:18:43.720 the prodigal son did.

00:18:45.400 He's in a far off distant land.

00:18:47.300 And notice there's a lot of dynamics,

00:18:48.860 but just one of them

00:18:49.820 says he's in a far distant land.

00:18:51.280 A famine comes to the land, right?

00:18:52.640 So all of a sudden the economy is getting rough.

00:18:55.160 Everyone's feeling it.

00:18:56.200 He's feeling it, especially because he lavishly spent all of his inheritance and he's far

00:19:01.520 off away from his home country.

00:19:03.900 He hires himself out as one who would be a hired hand to feed the pigs.

00:19:10.840 And he's so destitute that he's looking at the pods that are being fed to the pigs saying,

00:19:16.860 that looks pretty good, right?

00:19:18.880 That's when you know you're poor.

00:19:20.480 That's when you know you need some help.

00:19:22.960 So he's longing to be fed with the pig food.

00:19:25.920 And then the text goes on and says,

00:19:27.540 and no one gave him anything.

00:19:30.240 Now the very next words in the text are,

00:19:32.100 and he came to his senses.

00:19:34.940 No one gave him anything.

00:19:36.920 He woke up.

00:19:38.540 Crazy how that works, huh? 1.00

00:19:41.400 So he was poor because of his own foolish decisions. 0.98

00:19:45.240 He did not get a handout at taxpayers' dime. 0.98

00:19:48.980 and it caused him to make a change in his life. Amazing, huh? Crazy how that works. Now, but

00:19:56.000 notice this. It's not just that. So one, he comes to his senses. He realizes, I need to make a change.

00:20:00.940 But now let's talk for just a moment about the specific change that he chooses to make.

00:20:06.680 The very next words is, he says, the servants in my father's house have it better than I do.

00:20:12.800 So he doesn't just say, I need to get my act together. I need to go somewhere and do something.

00:20:16.880 No, he's very specific. He says, I know exactly where to go.

00:20:21.680 I'm going to go to the place where in this house, my father's house, everyone is well provided for.

00:20:30.460 Imagine if the church could be like that.

00:20:34.660 I'm in a far distant land. I've been living in a rebellious manner.

00:20:38.100 some of these common grace functions are starting to dry up because of a corporate societal rebellion

00:20:46.680 against the principles of Christ. It's affecting everyone, but it's really affecting me. No one's

00:20:52.760 giving me a handout because we're not robbing the taxpayer to give to someone. So no one gave

00:20:59.180 me anything. I'm now coming to my senses. Where should I go? The Father's house. The Father's

00:21:05.780 house. Everyone's taken care of in the father's house. And what's the entrance? What's the

00:21:11.200 prerequisite? What do I have to do to go to the father's house? Repent. I have to say I'm sorry

00:21:17.860 to the father. Crazy. I'm sure it would never work. Socialism, but have we really tried it, 0.76

00:21:26.940 though? You know, I mean, come on. Have we really ever tried socialism? That's got to be the

00:21:32.080 solution socialism or you could do socialism or you could do prodigal prodigal son right you could

00:21:38.420 do bible bible i mean bible might be worth a try i know i sound extreme here but um i think it might

00:21:44.340 be worth a try so all that being said rahab joins the ranks of israel she immediately receives

00:21:51.860 benefits but there are also criteria and prerequisites that's my point let me read a

00:22:00.040 couple of those for you. Okay, first let me read a quote, another quote from John Gill. He says this,

00:22:04.840 being Gentiles, some external rites and ceremonies were to be performed upon them, as well as a 0.99

00:22:12.740 declaration at least of their renouncing idolatry was required of them before they could be admitted

00:22:19.340 into the camp of Israel, and which was required even of a proselyte of the gate, or the one that

00:22:27.960 was only a sojourner among them.

00:22:30.600 Even the sojourner, think of that.

00:22:32.860 The sojourner, that is a wanderer.

00:22:34.840 Even the wanderer who is going to be there for a time,

00:22:37.980 not necessarily stay there indefinitely

00:22:40.380 and have all their future generations and posterity

00:22:43.820 be an official joined part of Israel,

00:22:46.460 but someone who is, in a sense,

00:22:48.160 their temporary resident who's just passing through.

00:22:51.300 Even the sojourner to live in Israel

00:22:54.580 had to renounce idolatry.

00:22:57.960 You didn't get to be a sojourner in Israel with principled pluralism.

00:23:03.300 You didn't get to say, well, I'm not really Israel, I'm a sojourner,

00:23:06.980 and so you guys got the tabernacle over there, that's cool,

00:23:10.360 I've got a high place to Moloch over here.

00:23:14.620 No. No. No.

00:23:20.720 There's no tolerance for that.

00:23:24.740 Zero.

00:23:27.960 being a proselyte a convert was the immediate prerequisite but notice this i'm going to read

00:23:34.760 another text to fully assimilate so you could join by converting to the god of israel yahweh

00:23:42.500 and renouncing idolatry that is the worship of false gods which of course false gods and worship

00:23:50.220 of them is destructive and ruins society so so you could come in but you'd have to say yeah i'm not

00:23:57.500 going to come in like a virus or a plague and destroy society by bringing idolatry and the

00:24:03.960 worship of false gods with me i renounce my idolatry and i your your people will be my people 0.58

00:24:11.820 but just as ruth said to naomi your god will be my god okay that's the prerequisite just for coming

00:24:18.520 in even coming in temporarily as a sojourner and for the record a sojourner or an alien the bible

00:24:25.000 uses at least two. Sometimes there's a third word. You can make an argument that there's three

00:24:29.240 different words for the stranger or alien or sojourner. Here's a fun fact, another Christian 1.00

00:24:34.240 myth buster. None of those three words in the Hebrew are translated as an illegal immigrant.

00:24:41.880 Not one of them. They're all immigrants, but they're all there legally.

00:24:49.080 they're all there legally and there is a certain criteria that must be meant to be there and one

00:24:55.820 of the criteria is that if you're going to be in this land with this people there is a certain

00:25:02.220 culture culture coming from the latin word cultus which is worship there's a certain way of worship

00:25:09.480 that affects everything that we have in this society and it's dear to us it's precious

00:25:15.880 And we exercise hospitality, right?

00:25:20.080 Remember, hospitality is not exercise to your own family.

00:25:22.760 Hospitality, by virtue of being hospitality, is kindness to strangers.

00:25:27.740 So we believe here in Israel in hospitality.

00:25:32.120 But we don't exercise hospitality at the expense of our own children.

00:25:39.580 We do not exercise hospitality at the expense of our own people.

00:25:43.860 Now, I understand that some woke evangelicals at this point might object and say,

00:25:48.160 well, I mean, there were all these different laws in the Old Testament

00:25:51.360 about how to treat the sojourner and how to do this and how to do that.

00:25:54.460 And it was costly.

00:25:56.740 Not really.

00:25:59.000 Let me give you an example.

00:26:01.160 When you're threshing wheat, when you have a certain crop and it's time now to harvest,

00:26:07.400 under the Old Testament, the Mosaic law for Israel,

00:26:10.460 you could not harvest all the way to the edges.

00:26:13.860 of your crop, but you were supposed to leave the margins. Now, let's think about that just

00:26:18.760 practically for a second. It's not that God commands you only get to harvest the margins

00:26:26.120 and you leave the 98% of the crop for the sojourner. No, you get your crop. You're leaving

00:26:34.680 a fraction of it for the sojourner. And furthermore, the Bible also doesn't say,

00:26:40.060 go ahead and harvest all of it, including the margins, and then take the margin harvest and

00:26:46.360 put it in bushels and pack it up nicely with a with a bow and a ribbon on top and then give that

00:26:52.800 to the surgeon. No, it says leave it. What are you leaving? You're leaving produce. You're also

00:26:58.060 leaving a job. If they want it, they're going to have to thresh the wheat. You're not taking it

00:27:06.020 for them, you're leaving the task and the produce for them. Now let's continue. This is Deuteronomy

00:27:14.920 chapter 23, verse three through eight. It says, no Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of

00:27:21.040 the Lord, even to the 10th generation. None of them may enter the assembly of the forever because 1.00

00:27:27.420 they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way when you came out of Egypt and because 0.63

00:27:33.860 they hired against you Balaam, the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. But the

00:27:42.220 Lord your God would not listen to Balaam. Instead, the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing 0.99

00:27:48.000 for you. Because the Lord your God loved you, you shall not seek their peace or their prosperity

00:27:54.040 all your days forever. You shall not abhor the Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not

00:28:00.560 abhor the Egyptian because you were a sojourner in his land. Children, notice it's the last verse, 0.58

00:28:07.660 verse 8, Deuteronomy 23, verse 8. Children born to them in the third generation may enter the

00:28:14.880 assembly of the Lord. So even underneath Old Testament law for the people of Israel, there

00:28:22.740 were certain tribes, certain nations that would be welcomed in just like Rahab. They could be

00:28:29.500 welcomed in, but their immediate welcoming required certain criteria, prerequisites to be met. That

00:28:36.180 would be being a proselyte, converting to the God of Israel, and the culture, cultist worship, that

00:28:42.420 followed from that, renouncing idolatry. But even if that was done, so even if someone falls into

00:28:48.960 one of these nations that is permissible to welcome in, and they do renounce false gods, it's an

00:28:55.420 egyptian for instance let's go with that example they do renounce their false gods egyptian gods

00:29:01.120 and they say yahweh is the one true god they're able to come in immediately receive certain

00:29:06.480 benefits by now being a citizen they're not coming in illegally but legally and they are now a citizen

00:29:12.580 of israel but even in this citizenship receiving immediate benefits there are still some things

00:29:18.720 that are not held out to them.

00:29:22.140 Verse eight, children born to them

00:29:24.440 in the third generation

00:29:25.400 may enter the assembly of the Lord.

00:29:27.840 So even the person who enters the right way

00:29:30.160 and falls into one of these adjacent nations

00:29:33.360 that the Lord is saying,

00:29:34.840 these nations may never come in

00:29:36.780 because of this or because of that,

00:29:38.300 the way that they treated me

00:29:39.400 and the way that they treated you.

00:29:40.740 These nations are permitted in.

00:29:42.780 Even if they come in, they come in legally.

00:29:45.400 They come in renouncing idolatry.

00:29:49.140 They come in to be a blessing, not a tax on the people of Israel.

00:29:53.540 And even then, under those circumstances,

00:29:56.360 there's immediate benefits by belonging to the people of Israel.

00:30:00.000 But full assimilation is withheld until the third generation.

00:30:04.980 Not until the third generation are they able to go into the temple.

00:30:10.140 Is there a fullness of assimilation? 0.70

00:30:13.680 Where not until the third generation

00:30:15.720 are they fully, in every sense,

00:30:18.000 able to say, we are Israel.

00:30:21.080 And we're proud of it.

00:30:24.780 Now here's the deal.

00:30:25.920 I understand that this is Old Testament law

00:30:28.060 and it's dealing with the nation state of Israel,

00:30:30.320 which we no longer have. 0.57

00:30:33.580 We now have, underneath this gospel age,

00:30:37.040 in this New Testament time,

00:30:38.920 we have the church. 0.98

00:30:40.980 The church has replaced Israel. 0.99

00:30:43.020 There is no more Israel. 0.96

00:30:45.580 Not like it was in the Old Testament.

00:30:48.840 I understand that there is a nation of people

00:30:51.480 that claim to be Israel.

00:30:55.620 Some of them may or may not be.

00:30:59.400 But in the truest theological, ultimate, eternal, biblical sense,

00:31:04.420 true Israel is according to the promise,

00:31:06.340 according to the Spirit, and not according to the flesh.

00:31:09.300 You are Israel.

00:31:11.820 You are Israel.

00:31:13.920 So I'm not saying that America is a replacement of Israel. 0.92

00:31:18.260 If there's any replacement of Israel whatsoever, it is the church. 0.90

00:31:23.660 And because of that, I believe that the moral, 0.96

00:31:28.840 so talking to the law, we talked about three uses of the law,

00:31:31.300 now three divisions of the law.

00:31:32.720 There's moral, there is civil, and there is ceremonial.

00:31:35.540 The moral law of God, summary law of the moral law of God, we would find in the Decalogue, Exodus chapter 20, the Ten Commandments.

00:31:43.480 The moral law of God endures forever.

00:31:45.960 It is also applied in a one-to-one ratio.

00:31:49.740 Do not murder means do not murder in every time, every place, for every one.

00:31:54.620 The civil codes for Israel, what we believe is that the general equity of these still apply for every time, in every place, in every one.

00:32:03.560 but it must be extracted the general equity meaning that it's not a one-to-one ratio you

00:32:09.920 look at a civil code you track the civil code back to the moral law back to the ten commandments

00:32:15.660 summary law then you take that general equity the main moral principle and you apply that for your

00:32:21.640 place in your time so precipices on the side of the roof a parapet so that people don't roll off

00:32:30.480 that they're sleeping on the roof

00:32:31.540 in the middle of the night

00:32:32.580 because there's no AC

00:32:33.520 and it's hot outside

00:32:34.440 so they don't roll off

00:32:35.400 and injure themselves or die?

00:32:36.840 Okay, speed limits.

00:32:38.320 There you go.

00:32:39.080 That's a general equity type of thing.

00:32:43.100 The ceremonial law,

00:32:45.100 this is difficult.

00:32:47.080 This is difficult.

00:32:48.860 In one sense,

00:32:49.640 we can say that the ceremonial law

00:32:51.280 has been abrogated.

00:32:53.500 But there's also another sense

00:32:55.160 in which we can say rightly

00:32:56.520 that the ceremonial law,

00:32:57.920 that all the law of God

00:32:59.120 does in fact continue

00:33:01.180 that not one jot or tittle

00:33:02.760 has actually been abrogated

00:33:04.280 because, well, here's a good reason,

00:33:06.760 Jesus said so.

00:33:09.680 Heaven and earth will pass away.

00:33:11.700 I tell you the truth.

00:33:12.740 Heaven and earth will pass away

00:33:13.900 before one jot or tittle

00:33:15.160 of all the law passes away.

00:33:18.820 And so as some of the reconstructionists

00:33:20.740 and theonomists of old,

00:33:22.900 what they would argue

00:33:23.720 is that the ceremonial law,

00:33:25.200 instead of just being abrogated,

00:33:27.080 it's been translated.

00:33:29.120 Meaning that the ceremonial law is still being followed to this day,

00:33:33.340 but it's being followed by Christ as our substitute in our place in heaven

00:33:38.060 and no longer by God's people here on earth.

00:33:42.540 It's not that God says, hey, you know, now I'll forgive sin without blood.

00:33:47.860 No, God still forgives sin only by blood.

00:33:50.840 Hebrews says, without blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.

00:33:54.820 But Hebrews also says the blood of goats and bulls never could take away sin.

00:34:01.300 So there is no forgiveness without blood. 0.93

00:34:05.100 So that law still reigns supreme.

00:34:07.760 Here's the deal.

00:34:09.180 It's been fulfilled in Christ.

00:34:11.400 And he was the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

00:34:15.480 There are also certain cleansing rituals under the ceremonial code given to Israel.

00:34:21.900 And it's not as though these things no longer matter.

00:34:25.160 But what we would say is that these things

00:34:27.280 have been ultimately fulfilled in Christ.

00:34:28.940 We've been washed and made clean.

00:34:31.920 We've been baptized.

00:34:35.040 There are all these different ceremonial laws for Israel

00:34:38.040 in regards to the Levitical priesthood

00:34:40.140 and what they must do to enter into the temple

00:34:42.840 in order to make remission of sins,

00:34:44.960 in order to intercede for the people.

00:34:47.300 Those laws are still being followed,

00:34:49.820 but by a high priest, not in the order of Aaron,

00:34:52.620 but rather the order of Melchizedek.

00:34:55.020 He is a priest forever, and he is in the highest temple

00:34:57.820 at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty in heaven.

00:35:02.160 And so there's a very real sense in which we can say

00:35:04.460 that none of the law has passed away.

00:35:06.280 Now, all that I'm using as an explanation

00:35:08.960 because I don't want this to be taken the wrong way.

00:35:12.280 All that is to say, not all Old Testament laws

00:35:15.600 should be dropped down, picked up like by a crane,

00:35:18.720 moved over and dropped down in 2023 in the United States of America wholesale without any

00:35:24.960 adjustment. That's not my position. I would hold, I would describe myself as a general equity

00:35:31.680 theonomist. So one-to-one ratio for the Ten Commandments. Moral law and the Ten Commandments

00:35:38.900 being a summary of moral law. One-to-one ratio. General equity for civil law. Ceremonial law,

00:35:46.240 though. This is the tough one. There is a sense in which if we're speaking of application of people

00:35:53.180 today under this gospel age in the New Testament, people today, if we're speaking of practical

00:35:58.040 application of ceremonial laws in cultures today, there's a sense in which these ceremonial laws

00:36:04.680 are abrogated, but there's also a sense not to the same degree as the civil codes, the civil laws,

00:36:10.440 like do not muzzle the ox while he treads the grain, or having a parapet on the borders of

00:36:15.420 your roof but there is even with the ceremonial law people don't like this there is even with

00:36:22.060 the ceremonial law a certain sense in which we should say is there a general equity principle

00:36:27.340 there so all that being said deuteronomy chapter 23 verse 8 it is not until the third generation

00:36:36.380 that there was a full assimilation into the people of israel where you could go into the temple

00:36:42.540 this is what i'm saying i'm saying there might be a general equity there

00:36:47.820 i'm not saying that it must be applied wholesale one-to-one ratio i'm not saying that there

00:36:56.060 shouldn't be prudence wisdom and carefulness what i'm saying is this societies are not sustainable

00:37:06.680 long term

00:37:08.720 if their

00:37:11.720 commitment to hospitality

00:37:14.200 supersedes their commitment

00:37:16.840 to their own people.

00:37:19.600 It just doesn't work.

00:37:22.240 I'm saying this because I think it's in the text.

00:37:25.240 I'm also saying it because

00:37:26.920 I don't know, there's a little place

00:37:28.960 you might have heard of, it's called France.

00:37:32.560 Have you guys seen some of what's going on?

00:37:34.820 the people of France they've lost the will to live 1.00

00:37:38.800 I mean the French never had much will to live

00:37:42.720 but you know but I mean they've really lost it 1.00

00:37:46.780 now and I mean

00:37:50.520 seeing videos it's heartbreaking like videos of elderly women

00:37:54.500 like suicidal elderly women 1.00

00:37:58.520 like begging for law and order not to 1.00

00:38:02.700 exercise law and order. Please, please don't. Please let them burn down more buildings.

00:38:10.660 And this sweet elderly woman, I'm sure she's religious. She probably thinks she's 1.00

00:38:14.400 she probably thinks she's doing something right. She's not. She doesn't understand the scripture

00:38:21.280 because she's been lied to and deceived by evangelical Christianity, Big Eva, over the last 0.61

00:38:28.600 multiple decades.

00:38:31.140 And you've probably been deceived too.

00:38:36.000 And I'm simply saying 0.53

00:38:38.120 we need to get back to the Scripture

00:38:40.300 because the sojourner matters.

00:38:43.840 And we are not just suggested

00:38:46.880 but commanded to care for the sojourner

00:38:49.280 and to exercise hospitality.

00:38:51.820 But never in such a way

00:38:54.040 that we are literally sacrificing

00:38:57.420 our own children. And that's where Western civilization is right now. Western civilization

00:39:04.820 has lost not just the French. I mean, they're a stark example of it right now, but in a greater 0.90

00:39:12.420 sense, the West has lost the will to live. I don't know if you've ever read, I believe it's called

00:39:19.880 The Fate of Empires. It's not even a book, really. It's like 60-something pages. It's two

00:39:25.720 essays put together, forget the author's name, but he talks about, he says, instead of just

00:39:31.680 doing history with a particular nation or, you know, a 50-year timeline in a very limited

00:39:37.960 geographic area, one particular culture, he says, what we have not done much of is what I would

00:39:45.120 consider to be world history. And so what he does is he just gives a brief 30,000-foot view

00:39:50.180 of not just one particular nation, but world history. So taking into account every single

00:39:55.460 place, you know, in the world over the course of not 50 years, but over the course, starting all

00:40:01.440 the way back with like Egypt and Assyrians. And so over the course of like 35 to 4,500 years,

00:40:07.780 and he tracks the most successful and powerful empires. And that's helpful because in many ways,

00:40:15.920 it's helpful to think of the West, especially America today and England, you know, maybe a

00:40:22.480 hundred years ago as empires more than nations but here's the problem with empires one of the

00:40:30.560 problems of empires is that as they're going around with you know their their white supremacy

00:40:36.420 oppressing and colonizing everyone right like you know like like england going into india and saying

00:40:42.200 you can't bury women alive with their dead husband anymore sorry to oppress you you know like but as

00:40:48.380 as the west was doing that kind of oppressive work not saying everything they did was right

00:40:53.360 but overall i mean we need some new history books if you got a history book that was written in the

00:40:58.700 last 15 minutes burn it okay the west is not sinless but the west is not the most oppressive

00:41:08.040 what that's that's why we're suicidal right now you know what the most the most powerful thing

00:41:14.760 at the end of the day

00:41:15.500 for these United States,

00:41:18.120 the most powerful thing

00:41:19.340 at the end of the day

00:41:20.020 that turns out

00:41:20.920 that could take us down,

00:41:21.640 no foreign enemy

00:41:22.420 could take us down. 1.00

00:41:24.480 But if you could convince

00:41:25.720 the citizens themselves

00:41:27.340 that they were racist,

00:41:31.200 then they'd fall on their own sword, 1.00

00:41:33.100 commit suicide, 0.75

00:41:34.120 and lose the will to live. 0.99

00:41:36.620 That's Europe. 0.67

00:41:38.700 And we're heading 0.61

00:41:40.060 the same direction.

00:41:41.800 It's a tragedy.

00:41:45.260 It's a tragedy.

00:41:49.000 And that's not to say that there aren't some backwoods,

00:41:51.660 you know, capital R, proper racist out there.

00:41:56.580 I know there are.

00:42:00.480 I see them on the internet.

00:42:04.480 But there's a lot of people that are some of the most kind

00:42:08.340 and loving people I've ever met.

00:42:11.600 And to be honest, a lot of them are women.

00:42:13.420 I mean, I'm not trying to pick on women, but I do think that in general, right, can I find one woman 0.99

00:42:19.040 who can outbench one man? Yes. We should be able to speak in groups though, guys. We're adults. 0.99

00:42:25.600 Group dynamics, generalities, statistics, we can do this. What about the exception? Yeah, that's

00:42:31.940 an exception. In general, in the same way that men can bench more than women, in general, women tend 0.99

00:42:40.220 to be more vulnerable to guilt than men.

00:42:45.700 And I'm not even saying that's a weakness. 0.99

00:42:49.220 God made women a certain way.

00:42:51.280 They are more compassionate than men.

00:42:53.500 If all we had was men, we'd be in trouble. 0.99

00:42:56.880 If all we had was women, we'd be in trouble. 1.00

00:43:00.360 Men and women compliment one another. 1.00

00:43:02.180 This is true.

00:43:02.960 Of course this is true.

00:43:03.840 We need sensitive, compassionate, loving, caring, nurturing people in our society, especially

00:43:17.220 when it comes to the vital, incredibly valuable work of raising the next generation, children.

00:43:25.200 But the question is when it comes to leadership, and not just elders in the sphere of the church,

00:43:32.460 are not just husbands in the sphere of the home,

00:43:37.100 but does the Bible have anything to say

00:43:39.120 about male headship outside of just the home and the church?

00:43:44.700 Like perhaps, just maybe,

00:43:48.340 when it comes to sitting on a court as a judge

00:43:51.400 in the civil sphere,

00:43:53.580 maybe compassion for someone who's abused children

00:43:58.040 is not a virtue in that sphere.

00:44:00.500 and maybe level-headedness it says off with his head maybe that's a virtue in that sphere

00:44:09.100 men men don't buy in typically now you know i said there are exceptions see big eva you know but

00:44:20.860 in in that context men is is a relative term so all that being said in general men

00:44:28.620 don't they're not as deceit by a sob sort a victim narrative carefully woven together

00:44:37.320 they're able to say wait a second okay i'm not heartless not trying to be ruthless

00:44:42.480 we want to help people i've got a ship right here my family and other families are on it we built

00:44:49.220 the ship it's our ship we have this much supplies this much space there's a hundred people drowning

00:44:56.740 drowning in the water, we can take 10 of them.

00:45:00.280 And the

00:45:00.840 man will say, we'll

00:45:02.780 take 10. Some men 0.92

00:45:04.740 will even say, just to be a little

00:45:06.660 extra comfortable, we'll take 8. 0.92

00:45:09.680 So men have some downsides

00:45:10.880 too. But the woman 1.00

00:45:12.780 will say, we'll take 100. 0.92

00:45:15.320 And then her kids drown. 0.99

00:45:18.200 Everybody

00:45:18.560 dies.

00:45:20.800 It's not helpful.

00:45:22.860 It's not possible.

00:45:25.300 God's Word, this book,

00:45:26.740 God doesn't command us to do things that are illogical. He doesn't command us to do things

00:45:34.640 that when God tells us to exercise hospitality to the stranger, that is not meant to counteract

00:45:43.720 or overshadow all of God's other commands. And this is not just self-preservation, guys,

00:45:50.420 because we're not talking about just protecting yourself as an individual. We're talking about

00:45:55.160 fathers and husbands and mothers and wives and the

00:45:59.060 obligation that we have to protect our children.

00:46:03.080 Right? If it's just hospitality without any caveats, any boundaries,

00:46:07.560 any qualifications, then why do you lock your door at night? 1.00

00:46:12.780 Stop being a hypocrite, Christian. 1.00

00:46:16.640 But you lock your door 1.00

00:46:18.000 because your kids are sleeping in that room? Well,

00:46:23.140 be more hospitable.

00:46:26.980 And if 10 random strangers

00:46:28.720 want to come into your house

00:46:30.100 and take everything that you have,

00:46:32.500 well, are you going to be like Jesus or not?

00:46:35.960 That has been,

00:46:37.220 I mean, it hasn't been said so explicitly,

00:46:39.100 but that has been the undergirding

00:46:41.300 dogma

00:46:42.760 of evangelical Christianity

00:46:45.280 in the West

00:46:46.540 for decades.

00:46:49.380 And then France now

00:46:50.780 is losing their country.

00:46:53.620 You can draw a real straight line.

00:46:56.440 That's one of my gifts, I think.

00:46:58.140 One of my callings is just to help people say,

00:47:00.280 see these two dots right next to each other?

00:47:02.540 See how you can do this?

00:47:04.220 See, there's this and there's this.

00:47:05.960 And if you're real careful, you can do that.

00:47:09.140 Because a lot of people won't do this.

00:47:11.540 Because it hurts.

00:47:12.940 It hurts to connect those dots.

00:47:15.620 Because when we connect those dots,

00:47:17.420 you and I are indicted.

00:47:21.020 Because the connecting of those two dots,

00:47:22.780 One of the things it reveals is that we failed, that we dropped the ball.

00:47:28.900 And ownership hurts. Repentance is horrid.

00:47:32.860 But we've got to connect the dots. 1.00

00:47:34.560 We've got to say, yes, God says something about the sojourner, but not illegal immigrants. 0.85

00:47:39.920 God says something about generosity, but not to the desolation of your family and your obligations there.

00:47:48.520 Yes, God says every tribe, tongue, and language,

00:47:52.620 but not at the expense of the obligation

00:47:55.760 that you have as a citizen to your own country.

00:47:59.180 Yes, we welcome people in,

00:48:00.860 but even when we welcome people in as citizens,

00:48:04.020 perhaps full assimilation takes time.

00:48:07.100 So the general equity of Deuteronomy 23, verse 8,

00:48:10.880 just for the record,

00:48:12.000 the general equity of that,

00:48:13.940 well, all I'm saying is I'm not dropping it wholesale.

00:48:16.160 I've already said that.

00:48:16.820 It's not a one-to-one ratio.

00:48:17.860 But I am saying, I think there might be a principle here where you let in people, they come in legally, there's a commonality, they're not coming in to just do their culture in an antithetical way to your culture, they're saying, no, no, no, I don't want to just live here, but I actually want to be an American.

00:48:35.160 I like America.

00:48:37.560 I don't want to just be in America.

00:48:40.240 I want to be an American.

00:48:42.120 And I understand its history.

00:48:43.700 And I know what it means.

00:48:44.560 And I'm proud of that.

00:48:45.540 I want that to be my heritage.

00:48:47.440 Great.

00:48:47.780 Come on.

00:48:48.720 Okay?

00:48:49.020 And even then, let's limit it.

00:48:51.240 And even then, okay, there's a process for citizenship.

00:48:54.340 And maybe it's slow.

00:48:56.460 And then full assimilation to say, your people are my people.

00:49:00.000 We're all the same.

00:49:01.240 that probably, if I had to bet, if I were a betting man, which I'm not, but if I were a betting man,

00:49:07.540 I would bet that God's not being arbitrary here. And that maybe, just maybe, full simulation

00:49:14.280 and actually saying, this is my culture, and we share this, probably takes approximately three

00:49:20.000 generations. To where you can look at your neighbors, it's not, this is not about skin color.

00:49:28.040 I'm not making this about ethnicity. You could have an ethnically diverse country and you could

00:49:34.960 look at your neighbor who looks differently than you, but is a third generation of legal immigrants

00:49:41.400 who came here because they loved America and loved the culture cultist worship in his, in the history 0.81

00:49:48.800 of America. That is worship of the triune God, a Christian history. And you can look at your 0.83

00:49:53.960 neighbors whose grandparents came. They're now the third generation. And you can say our

00:49:58.240 grandparents fought the same wars. We have the same traditions. And I know that if something

00:50:04.640 happens here in our neighborhood, if there's a danger, me and you, we're going to look out for

00:50:09.480 each other. We're going to be on the same side. See, what happened to go back to the fate of

00:50:13.260 empires, those two essays, what happened with empires is that eventually they spread too thin.

00:50:17.980 and they and they brought in all these people under their flag under their banner the empirical

00:50:24.500 banner all these different nations and event and they did it too quickly and they spread too thin

00:50:29.940 and eventually what brought them down was it was never an outside threat it was never an outside

00:50:35.940 threat because eventually they they accumulated so much wealth so much power so many resources

00:50:41.240 that nobody else was was could even be a competition but what happened is that at the

00:50:47.160 end of the day they started to fracture from within there started to be division from within

00:50:53.120 there started to be conflicting virtues conflicting narratives conflicting values conflicting religion

00:51:00.580 conflicting gods and then when some other nation rallied with this and that and that this and they

00:51:06.340 all came at them at once they imploded and they weren't able to do it there were even his history

00:51:13.240 where certain empires would go out to battle against someone

00:51:18.100 and then half of the army with them goes out there.

00:51:21.620 Like, did you ever watch Braveheart?

00:51:22.960 Where they're going to battle

00:51:24.180 and then they look like they're going to chop each other up

00:51:27.840 and then as soon as they get next to each other,

00:51:29.520 they laugh and smile and give each other hugs.

00:51:32.840 Because at the end of the day,

00:51:34.140 your native people, your homeland means something

00:51:36.800 and that doesn't disappear on the battlefield.

00:51:39.980 and you find out real quick

00:51:42.660 where the actual allegiance is?

00:51:44.800 It didn't matter what emblem was on your uniform.

00:51:47.880 What actually mattered at the end of the day

00:51:49.980 was your culture, your people.

00:51:53.260 We can't pretend like that's not a thing.

00:51:56.620 That's a thing.

00:51:58.500 God made that a thing.

00:52:00.960 That's not ethnic partiality in a sinful way.

00:52:05.060 And that is not racism.

00:52:07.860 That is something that God designed into the fabric of the world.

00:52:11.480 And if we pretend as though it doesn't exist, then you have set your course on a suicide mission. 0.82

00:52:18.520 So Rahab was welcomed into the people of God, but she wasn't welcomed in as a pagan. 0.62

00:52:23.620 She was welcomed in as a convert. 0.88

00:52:26.780 And even with her being welcomed in, it would not be until the third generation

00:52:31.120 that her posterity would have a full assimilation into Israel

00:52:37.120 and a ability to worship in the temple.

00:52:40.660 Just a few lessons that maybe Western civilization needs to learn.

00:52:46.360 All right, I'm going to have to stop there.

00:52:48.040 It's hot.

00:52:49.240 Kids are hungry.

00:52:50.520 And I will pick it up next week.

00:52:53.280 No, I won't.

00:52:55.300 No, I won't.

00:52:57.060 Because Connor is preaching next week, which is awesome.

00:52:59.860 He's a great preacher.

00:53:01.120 Um, so read your notes. Uh, verse 26, Joshua made a vow. The vow was don't rebuild Jericho.

00:53:11.160 The short version of what I was going to say is this. I think it's permissible for civil

00:53:15.840 magistrates. Again, a general equity here. It is permissible to say that some things need to be

00:53:20.780 redeemed, but other things need to be destroyed. And it is good and right for us to say there are

00:53:26.560 some things, not necessarily places, that's unique to Israel, like Jericho, but some things, I would 0.89

00:53:33.080 argue ideology, way of thinking, that we need to destroy, and there need to be laws, and pacts,

00:53:40.960 and allegiances, and agreements, that this thing that we destroyed is never coming back. And if

00:53:46.540 anybody tries to re-raise this thing that was destroyed, I'm talking about ideology, like

00:53:50.600 communism? Nuh-uh. Zero tolerance. Zero tolerance. I don't care if it's in academia. I don't care if

00:53:58.420 it's in this university or that field or this field. No, there's something so deadly that

00:54:04.440 they're not redeemed. They just need to be destroyed, and they need to be destroyed with 0.99

00:54:09.560 certain oaths like Joshua made, an oath being made with the people, with a nation, a body politic

00:54:15.860 that says this thing, there will be harsh penalties if anyone tries to rebuild this thing.

00:54:21.560 The G.K. Chester can quote that I use is this. You guys probably heard it. There is a thought

00:54:25.480 that stops all thought. That is the only thought that ought to be stopped. That is the ultimate

00:54:30.460 evil against which all religious authority was aimed. So yeah, free speech is a thing.

00:54:37.140 Free speech absolutist? No, that's not a thing. Because here's the irony. That's where you

00:54:44.180 ultimately lose freedom. If there are no boundaries, if there are no provisions, no protections, no

00:54:49.400 law, that's not freedom. It's not. So yes, freedom of thought, freedom of speech, in many, many

00:54:57.280 regards. But there is such a thing as a thought that stops all thought. And that thought needs

00:55:03.180 to be stopped. It needs to be crushed. And there need to be certain penalties saying, if anybody

00:55:09.260 rebuilds this thought, tries to dust this demonic ideology off and put it back into play,

00:55:16.760 there's going to be consequences, strict consequences. That's what Joshua was commanded

00:55:20.080 to do with Jericho. And I believe that that's something, applying that principle, that we are

00:55:24.920 even commanded to do, not just as Christians or individuals, but even as nations, even civil

00:55:29.760 magistrates, we are called to do, even now, with certain godless ideologies. So yes, I want to see

00:55:36.100 communism crushed and i'll add one more just for fun um atheism will be stamped out

00:55:45.800 it will and it won't be stamped out by the sword but there is something to be said by certain laws

00:55:55.640 saying you are not allowed in a public institution on state taxes taxpayer funded to teach that kids

00:56:05.840 came from fish and monkeys.

00:56:09.940 And if you want to call that 0.91

00:56:11.380 Christian nationalism, 0.91

00:56:12.560 well then,

00:56:14.320 apparently I'm a Christian nationalist.

00:56:18.540 But yeah, 1.00

00:56:19.520 you're not allowed to have

00:56:21.380 state-funded schools

00:56:23.200 that teach things

00:56:25.100 that are categorically untrue.

00:56:28.080 Perhaps even teach it

00:56:29.560 as this is what people

00:56:31.680 used to believe.

00:56:33.220 It could be like a field trip.

00:56:35.840 where all the kids, like, and it'd be a fun day.

00:56:37.820 We'd go to an old museum, and we all laugh.

00:56:40.140 We'd make fun of Darwin together, you know,

00:56:42.720 and, like, that's a wonderful time for children, you know? 1.00

00:56:45.320 We can all laugh at the stupidity of people who rebelled against God. 1.00

00:56:49.180 But you don't teach lies as though they're true. 1.00

00:56:52.140 Especially some lies, guys, are more destructive than others.

00:56:56.200 And a lie that says it's just survival of the fittest,

00:57:00.540 a lie that says that there is no God,

00:57:03.500 and that you came from from from apes and all that if we think that that belief when believed

00:57:10.040 has no implications or effects for culture and morality and standards and society then we're

00:57:17.800 just again then the west is just suicidal so all that being said those are the two big points for

00:57:26.380 today um welcome in the sojourner rahab was welcome in she was saved by the gospel the scarlet thread

00:57:32.480 out the window. It's a symbol to the scarlet blood of Jesus Christ. It would flow down from the tree

00:57:38.120 where he was crucified for the sins of his people. All right. So Rahab's welcomed in. The gospel

00:57:43.260 matters. All these things be hospitable. Hospitality is not just loving your family, but it is

00:57:48.780 categorically showing kindness to strangers. But you have to be an adult. You have to think

00:57:57.300 like an adult. You can't be an ideologue, guys. You can't be an ideologue. You have to be practical.

00:58:04.060 So obey Jesus and his word and obey it with courage. But here's the deal. Don't obey this

00:58:10.560 command in a way that causes you to disobey this other one. Fathers are commanded. A man who doesn't

00:58:16.740 provide for the members of his own household is worse than an unbeliever. So whatever you're doing 1.00

00:58:20.920 over here with hospitality, it better not stop you from doing this over here as a dad.

00:58:25.120 so I'm not saying hey we need we need to rein in radical obedience no I'm talking about one

00:58:31.920 obedience and another obedience one law and another law it's all God's word it's all God's

00:58:38.660 commands and it all matters and it's going to take adults it's going to take wisdom and prudence

00:58:43.880 for us to think about these things so don't be suicidal exercise hospitality prioritize your

00:58:49.840 family. It doesn't make you selfish or a racist. So relieve yourself. That's the beauty of the

00:58:56.560 gospel. You know the only thing that's going to save the West. The West is dying because of guilt.

00:59:02.200 No one else was powerful enough to take us out. We are taking ourselves out through suicide,

00:59:06.540 and we're doing it because we're guilty. Guilty people are the ones who commit suicide. So you

00:59:11.080 know what the antidote is? You stop the suicide by stopping the guilt, and there's only one thing

00:59:15.900 that stops guilt and that's the gospel of Jesus Christ the salvation by free grace creates free

00:59:21.860 men free men create free markets and free worlds and free society but it all comes from free grace

00:59:28.620 and if we don't have a belief if we reject the gospel of free grace you no longer have

00:59:35.180 free men free men are the ones who built the world but free men come by free grace

00:59:42.940 by the blood of Jesus dripping down a cross

00:59:47.240 2,000 years ago for our salvation.

00:59:50.020 You reject that, you lose everything.

00:59:53.460 Christ or chaos, that's it.

00:59:56.940 So we've got to go back to the gospel.

00:59:59.020 We've got to go back to Christ.

01:00:00.640 We've got to get our spirits back.

01:00:03.120 Stop being ideologues.

01:00:05.260 Be hospitable in measured biblical ways.

01:00:09.260 love our own in right biblical ways

01:00:13.740 and have free thought, free markets, free speech,

01:00:19.480 but know that it's not absolute.

01:00:22.420 There is a thought that ends all of the thoughts.

01:00:26.120 And for that, just like Jericho,

01:00:28.100 you decimate it and bring it to the ground

01:00:29.980 and you tell people that if they ever try to bring it back, 0.94

01:00:33.020 they'll lose their head.

01:00:34.500 Let's pray.

01:00:35.040 Father, thank you for your word.

01:00:36.180 Bless it to your people.

01:00:37.020 In Jesus name, amen.

The NXR Podcast - July 03, 2023

SUNDAY SERMON - “Radical” Missions, “Hyper” Hospitality, & Evangelical Suicide

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