The NXR Podcast - THE SERMON - The Ordo Amoris & Natural Affections ｜ Matthew 7_7-11

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:00:30.000 We're continuing our exegetical series through the gospel according to Matthew.

00:00:36.580 Our text for today is Matthew chapter 7, verses 7 through 11.

00:00:40.100 I'll read our text for us in its entirety.

00:00:42.340 When I finish reading the text, I'm going to say this is the word of the Lord,

00:00:44.800 at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying thanks be to God.

00:00:49.940 Once more, our text for today is the gospel according to Matthew chapter 7, verses 7 through 11.

00:00:57.220 The Bible says this.

00:00:58.680 Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find.

00:01:04.560 Knock, and it will be opened to you.

00:01:07.260 For everyone who asks receives, and to the one who seeks finds,

00:01:13.060 and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

00:01:16.880 Or which one of you, if his son ask him for bread, will give him a stone?

00:01:23.560 Or if he ask for a fish, will give him a serpent?

00:01:27.640 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask him?

00:01:43.520 This is the word of the Lord.

00:01:45.740 All right, please be seated.

00:01:47.860 Two primary points that I hope by God's grace to faithfully communicate from the text today.

00:01:53.940 One is the ordo amoris.

00:01:57.160 The second is total depravity.

00:02:00.420 One, the ordo amoris.

00:02:03.160 The second, total depravity. 0.96

00:02:05.460 In other words, to say it simply, as a Christian, if you are to be a biblically faithful Christian, 0.80

00:02:14.600 you should be a conservative and a Calvinist.

00:02:18.940 You should be a conservative and a Calvinist.

00:02:22.360 To start with that first statement, you should be conservative.

00:02:26.380 You should not be a conservative by today's standards, which ultimately, to define that fairly and accurately, would be simply seeking to enshrine the most recent victory of progressives.

00:02:42.580 That's what conservatives have sadly become in our nation, is they're the guys who fight for whatever progressive policy the last guy put in place.

00:02:53.660 And then the next liberal is going to push the envelope even further and say, well, that wasn't progressive enough.

00:03:00.960 That wasn't forward thinking enough. We need to go further.

00:03:05.160 And then the conservatives come in and say, no, we love this thing.

00:03:10.800 But that was the thing that you staunchly disagreed with when it was taking place.

00:03:15.920 Yeah, but it's been six months and now we love it.

00:03:19.080 And so that's what conservatives sadly have become in our nation is what's a conservative?

00:03:26.400 A guy who's, you know, six to 18 months behind a liberal and a guy who actually really is just kind of the shield bearer, the armor bearer of a liberal.

00:03:36.980 If you're not familiar with that role, an armor bearer, think of Jonathan, the son of Saul.

00:03:44.060 he and his armor bearer when they were going out and fighting against the philistines it

00:03:49.800 was kind of like a two-man team working fighting in tandem and what jonathan would do is he would

00:03:56.640 lead the attack and so he would be giving you know uh the the incapacitating blow to the opponents

00:04:05.260 knocking them down subduing them but not having the time that it required in order to give

00:04:12.300 the final death blow right so he's you know he's charging through the masses and slashing and

00:04:18.760 and you know using his swords in an offensive way to um to incapacitate the enemy but then the

00:04:28.560 armor bearer would follow up and go behind to make sure that the enemy doesn't get back up

00:04:33.540 jonathan knocks them down and his armor bearer then gives the death blow make sure that they

00:04:38.820 stayed out. Kills them. Sadly, that's what conservatives have become for the left. The 1.00

00:04:46.820 conservative in America is like Jonathan's armor bearing, right? So the progressive goes in and

00:04:54.200 says, let's rebel against God a little further. And the conservative says, no, we shouldn't.

00:05:01.620 We've already rebelled against him so much and we love this rebellion. We just don't want any new

00:05:06.100 rebellion, right? But when the progressive, sadly, inevitably, eventually gets his way

00:05:11.880 and knocks down the next thing in God's word that we're supposed to esteem and respect and honor,

00:05:20.460 then the conservative, once it's knocked down, he comes in and actually makes sure that it stays

00:05:25.300 down and functions as that armor bearer to Jonathan. So too is a conservative to a progressive

00:05:33.020 We're liberal.

00:05:34.640 Most conservatives are liberals.

00:05:36.840 And then progressives are liberals on steroids.

00:05:39.860 That's kind of where we are today, sadly.

00:05:44.840 But that's not what the Bible teaches.

00:05:48.080 And one of the things that you may or may not be familiar with,

00:05:51.880 I try not to, on the Lord's Day, in the setting of the local church,

00:05:56.520 I want to preach the text.

00:05:58.920 I need to do my very best by God's grace to preach expositionally through the text and not merely the hot topic of whatever was on the news.

00:06:08.220 But occasionally you guys, I think, would be able to bear witness and say, yeah, it's happened a couple of times.

00:06:13.960 It doesn't happen every week, right?

00:06:15.660 Sometimes it's like there's rumors of World War Three and the text is the Lord's Prayer.

00:06:22.100 And so we're going to preach the Lord's Prayer.

00:06:24.120 And the Lord's Prayer has a lot of application.

00:06:26.140 So there might be a little bit of, but it's primarily going to be the Lord's Prayer.

00:06:30.220 But it just so happens in the province of God this week, our vice president mentioned on social media the importance and the Christian heritage that it's a it's a Christian old idea of the order order amorous.

00:06:48.140 And and when that happened, I hadn't even looked at the text yet for this week for the sermon.

00:06:54.880 And so then when I was sitting down and carving out time to work on my exegesis and prepare for preaching God's word,

00:07:01.960 it just so happened that our text very much includes that principle, that Christian principle of the Ordo Amoris.

00:07:09.760 The Ordo Amoris is just Latin for order of loves.

00:07:13.960 You may be familiar with the phrase Ordo Salutis.

00:07:17.280 That's the order of salvation.

00:07:18.760 So the order salutis, order of salvation, is simply speaking in some sense, in some aspects, chronological sequence, but also in other senses, a not chronological, but logical sequence.

00:07:34.600 The logical and at times chronological order or sequence of how God saves, of how God applies salvation, how God makes Christians.

00:07:46.100 So a good order of salutis, obviously, Christians, if we do anything, it's disagreeing with one another.

00:07:50.760 So not everybody has the same order of salutis. 0.58

00:07:53.040 But you're in luck.

00:07:54.020 I have the right one.

00:07:55.840 Of course.

00:07:56.800 Like, you know, shocker.

00:07:58.860 Here's the thing.

00:07:59.520 It's so funny.

00:08:00.060 People, you know, people will say, Joel thinks he's right.

00:08:03.880 Well, introduce me to the guy who thinks he's wrong.

00:08:07.800 Right?

00:08:08.400 It's not like I've never thought I was wrong.

00:08:09.960 But here's the nifty trick.

00:08:11.300 Whenever I do start to have a, you know, incessant suspicion that I might be wrong, I usually do one of these moves.

00:08:20.540 It's crazy, I know.

00:08:21.940 I usually change my position.

00:08:25.060 I'm starting to suspect I might be wrong on this issue.

00:08:29.460 And then I change.

00:08:30.200 Now, the reason why, you know, I'm saying it tongue in cheek, but the reason why, sadly, that feels so foreign is because that's actually not what most pastors do.

00:08:37.500 most pastors today what do they boast in they don't boast in holding to the truth

00:08:45.100 they simply boast in holding to whatever they've held to true or false really it's irrelevant to

00:08:51.840 them doesn't matter they just boast in holding it for a very long time right this guy over here

00:08:57.500 he's changing and what do they mean by that when they make that kind of thing he's changing

00:09:01.680 They mean he's inconsistent. He's wishy-washy. He's not anchored. Therefore, he's not credible. He's not really worth trusting. And you are. Why? Because I've held the same opinion for 30 years.

00:09:22.980 You mean you've been wrong for 30 years?

00:09:26.140 And every time you've even had an inkling of a doubt

00:09:29.640 with your position and thinking

00:09:31.240 that maybe you should change it,

00:09:33.040 you doubled down instead of changing,

00:09:35.300 which is another word for repenting.

00:09:38.160 Why am I credible?

00:09:39.320 I have avoided repentance for 30 years.

00:09:44.000 Those are your credentials?

00:09:48.060 Now, I mean, it would be nice

00:09:49.400 to come out of my mother's womb

00:09:51.100 with perfect theology.

00:09:53.740 That'd be great.

00:09:56.060 So I'm not saying changing all the time

00:09:57.560 that that's the ideal.

00:09:58.440 I would say three different options here.

00:10:00.520 One, be consistent for a long time

00:10:05.180 and be consistently right.

00:10:07.800 I'll admit that's what we're shooting for.

00:10:10.920 That's the ideal.

00:10:12.100 Be right and be right for a long time

00:10:14.580 and not have to change every 18 months.

00:10:18.540 Okay, that's ideal.

00:10:20.460 Second, change more than you would like,

00:10:24.560 but change because you recognize that you're wrong

00:10:27.760 and you're willing to have humility and repent.

00:10:32.220 And then last, the worst position,

00:10:35.640 is be right about some things,

00:10:37.500 but also be wrong about other things

00:10:39.540 and don't change anything at all

00:10:40.960 because you're afraid it'll make you look bad.

00:10:44.680 Whoever that guy is, I don't have anybody in mind.

00:10:49.720 But don't be that guy.

00:10:51.900 That's the guy you don't want to be.

00:10:54.260 That's the guy who boasts of impenitence.

00:10:58.760 Impenitence is not a credential.

00:11:00.840 Okay, so that being said,

00:11:03.740 I don't want to just follow the news cycle.

00:11:06.780 I want to follow the text.

00:11:08.380 But God is so exceedingly kind that in his providence,

00:11:11.680 occasionally, not every week, but occasionally,

00:11:14.400 the text just so happens to include some of the news cycle.

00:11:18.920 And one of the big events this week, and I trust that many of you, you have families and jobs, and you're not chronically online.

00:11:27.420 God bless you.

00:11:28.720 That's wonderful.

00:11:31.080 So for those of you who maybe aren't aware, one of the big events that happened this week is that our vice president, J.D. Vance, was responding to someone on X, Elon Musk, his social media platform.

00:11:43.000 and countering them on this issue

00:11:47.340 that's a hot-button issue right now

00:11:48.900 in regards to immigration.

00:11:51.240 And a lot of guys in the name of Christ right now,

00:11:54.500 in the name of Christ, liberal Christians,

00:11:58.020 guys who are of the persuasion

00:12:00.920 that conveniently all the timeless teachings of Jesus

00:12:07.120 just happen to perfectly align with the 20th century.

00:12:11.720 And isn't that amazing?

00:12:13.000 All these timeless teachings of Jesus just so happen to perfectly line up with Western, post-war, liberal sentiments.

00:12:23.200 Amazing, right?

00:12:24.240 Everybody's been wrong until about 1945, right?

00:12:27.940 So there's those guys, liberal Christians, serving the liberal order.

00:12:33.060 And those guys, they're big on immigration, right?

00:12:36.720 Those are the guys who would say, well, you know, I'm a conservative, so I don't want illegal immigration, but we need even more legal immigration.

00:12:46.960 And then when pressed, you know, with a question like, why? 0.99

00:12:50.960 You know, they would respond and say, well, because Americans are dumb and have watched too much TV. 0.99

00:12:57.000 And they were into sports instead of trigonometry. 1.00

00:13:00.620 And great innovation ultimately is going to come from, you know, countries that use cow dung. 0.97

00:13:06.720 And they're cooking.

00:13:11.820 If that guy's a conservative,

00:13:15.180 we're in rough shape.

00:13:18.580 See point A, the way I started this sermon,

00:13:20.340 conservatives just solidifying

00:13:22.720 the most recent victory of the left.

00:13:26.280 So there's that guy.

00:13:28.020 It may be a liberal progressive,

00:13:31.560 politically left,

00:13:33.380 or a liberal conservative,

00:13:35.340 for today's standards, technically politically right,

00:13:39.080 but by world standards, looking at human history,

00:13:43.180 and certainly by God's standards, looking at his words,

00:13:46.640 you're not on the right at all.

00:13:49.560 And so because of this big conversation right now

00:13:52.100 about immigration and like, okay,

00:13:54.040 I guess technically people shouldn't break the law

00:13:56.200 and come into the country illegally

00:13:58.160 and commit crimes and murder people.

00:14:01.260 All right, okay, I mean, we, you know, 0.93

00:14:03.340 I can't say it out loud, but I'm a leftist.

00:14:05.100 technically i love that you know that's literally my policy right the the system is what it does

00:14:10.680 have you ever heard that the the purpose of the system is what it does not what you call it right

00:14:16.180 so you can have like the flour jar and the sugar jar and and i know it sounds crazy but if you if

00:14:22.780 you change the labels right so here's flour and here's sugar and you change the labels and you

00:14:28.380 you take the sugar label on a jar containing sugar and you move it over here and put it on the flour

00:14:33.340 jar, you take the flour label and you put it on the sugar jar, the contents within those two jars

00:14:39.660 still remains the same. Did you know that? You still got flour on one side and sugar on the

00:14:44.820 other. It doesn't matter what you call it. The purpose of a system is what it does, not what

00:14:49.720 it's named. Right? So our education system, it's named an education system. So what's its purpose?

00:14:56.820 To educate children. No, the purpose of a system is not what it's named, what it's called.

00:15:03.340 but what it does so our education system what is its purpose it's called the education system

00:15:09.980 but what is it really it's the democrat voting system

00:15:14.260 that's its purpose is what it does you can't look at what something does for 50 years

00:15:22.480 and then still say yeah but that's not its purpose no see that's not a bug the reason

00:15:29.360 it's been so consistent for 50 years is because that's the feature it's actually what it does

00:15:35.940 it's what it's trying to do it's what it's trying to do it's its purpose right and and one of the

00:15:42.560 purposes of liberal immigration policies is to have a lot of immigration so that you have more

00:15:51.460 democrat voters to replace heritage americans and some of you've heard me use that phrase

00:15:58.140 heritage Americans a few times. Let me just define it so that there's no lack of clarity.

00:16:03.060 Heritage Americans, when I use that phrase, I'm not speaking of exclusively white people.

00:16:10.360 I'm talking about America as it looked historically. Now, I will, I'm not going to pull the wool over

00:16:16.780 your heads and lie to you. I'll be honest because I have nothing to hide here because there's

00:16:20.600 nothing inherently immoral about what I'm about to say. America in the past was predominantly white. 0.81

00:16:26.980 Praise God. 0.99

00:16:28.360 God in his sovereignty chose for whatever reason.

00:16:30.740 He's sovereign.

00:16:31.300 He gets to make these decisions.

00:16:33.600 And God in his sovereignty for whatever reason chose to usher in Christendom in the world

00:16:39.000 predominantly through European countries. 0.81

00:16:41.620 And America followed in that and in its origin in America's history was predominantly white. 0.60

00:16:48.180 But it wasn't exclusively white. 0.69

00:16:50.480 And I do think that we need to not shy away from what I just said.

00:16:53.880 we also shouldn't avoid what I'm about to say, which is America is unique. America is not Great

00:16:59.280 Britain. We're just, we're not, right? America, like, we're the country that likes to make fun

00:17:04.200 of Great Britain, and rightfully so. Every Fourth of July, you know, we kind of, we stick it to 0.99

00:17:11.500 our cousins across the pond, and I think that's a good, a good instinct. It's American, and I think

00:17:18.180 in many ways, I can make an argument, it's also Christian, distinctly Christian, but what I mean

00:17:23.100 by saying we're not Great Britain. 0.92

00:17:24.700 We're not Great Britain

00:17:25.400 in many cultural ways,

00:17:26.600 but also Great Britain,

00:17:29.460 when you speak of historically

00:17:31.400 the native people

00:17:32.560 of that geographic region,

00:17:36.460 they, for a thousand years,

00:17:38.700 all the way from King Alfred,

00:17:41.060 the native people have been Brits.

00:17:45.000 So when a nation like that,

00:17:47.400 in just a few short decades,

00:17:49.880 without even the citizenry

00:17:51.500 voting for it,

00:17:52.520 but just their oligarchy of political elites

00:17:55.180 going against the desires of the natural citizens

00:17:58.520 seek to put in place certain policies

00:18:03.100 that ultimately replace the natural citizens

00:18:05.960 to where all of a sudden you look at Great Britain

00:18:08.000 and you're like, oh yeah, you know,

00:18:10.020 native citizens of Great Britain are Pakistanis. 1.00

00:18:14.200 Well, that's wicked. 1.00

00:18:16.620 And that would be wicked in any direction.

00:18:19.820 You can go into any country and say,

00:18:22.220 these people have been here for a thousand years and we're going to replace them to where within

00:18:27.020 half of a century, 40, 50 years, give or take, this country will look nothing like what it did

00:18:33.160 look like for a thousand years when it was built. That's wrong. That's wrong. That's morally,

00:18:41.220 ethically wrong. Now, America, like I said, is not Great Britain. We are unique. And what I mean by

00:18:46.380 that is that in America's origin, you're talking about finding a massive land mass with many

00:18:54.900 natural resources that very few people were aware even existed in prior times. And so just the

00:19:03.740 practical, not just supernatural, what God did with our country, and I think he did a lot,

00:19:08.460 praise God, for our founding, our history, but even in a practical sense, not just the supernatural

00:19:14.880 natural sense, but the practical sense, America's origin is different. It was discovered and

00:19:21.620 found, and because of that, during its settlement, right, a period of time where America was being

00:19:27.400 settled, during that period, there were lots of different people who came in. And each time people

00:19:32.660 came in, the people who had been there longer were frustrated, right? So that's not really new.

00:19:39.000 That's not really new. Tale as old as time, right? People are there, and then the Irish are coming.

00:19:44.880 It's like, no, we don't want the Irish. 1.00

00:19:48.820 Now, to be fair, if I had been there, 1.00

00:19:50.440 I think I would have said the same thing. 0.96

00:19:53.700 My wife is Irish.

00:19:56.400 I've been to Ireland.

00:19:57.520 It's a beautiful country.

00:19:59.140 But if I was in America historically at the time

00:20:01.760 that there was a massive migration of Irish people, 0.99

00:20:05.920 I probably would have stood against it 0.92

00:20:07.800 for a number of reasons.

00:20:08.840 One, because the Irish were predominantly Catholic.

00:20:11.260 and america's history predating the wave of irish immigration was distinctly protestant

00:20:20.140 and one of the reasons that people left england right this anglo-saxon you know it's it's wasp

00:20:30.300 right it's the white anglo-saxon protestant people that wasn't exclusive but it was predominant in

00:20:37.080 America's founding. Those people, one of the premier reasons that they moved to the Americas

00:20:41.860 to settle this nation was because of Catholic tyranny for religious freedom. And so they weren't 0.57

00:20:50.380 super excited about a bunch of Catholics moving in when this was a Protestant nation. And then 0.62

00:20:58.520 there was a season where Germans were coming in. They weren't very excited about the Germans

00:21:02.440 coming in. And then there were seasons of this and seasons of that. But the difference is, 0.97

00:21:07.180 there's a few differences. In America's history, it has always been unique. It's not England's

00:21:11.200 history. We can't say, well, there's been this particular people for a thousand years tracking

00:21:16.240 back to King Alfred and this is our native place. That's not America's history. It's also, though,

00:21:22.540 not America's history. I want to be balanced. And just for the record, I don't want to be balanced

00:21:28.860 for the sake of being balanced. If the truth is on one side, then I don't want to be balanced

00:21:32.360 at all. I just want to be right. I just want to hold the truth. It was like, that's not balanced.

00:21:36.160 Well, tough, right? All the truth is on one side, so that's the side I'm going to. But in this case,

00:21:41.760 in the name of pursuing truth, I want to say that, one, America doesn't have England's history. Same

00:21:46.700 people, same plot of land, a thousand years. That's not our history. There were waves of migration.

00:21:52.960 There were. On the other hand, though, we are not a nation of immigrants. We're not. Well,

00:21:58.900 we're becoming that, sadly. But historically, that's not who we are. We were a nation of

00:22:05.180 settlers. And I know some of you are aware of this, but some of you aren't. So I think it's

00:22:09.400 helpful. There's a difference between a nation of settlers versus a nation of immigrants. And if

00:22:14.500 you're wondering what the difference is, to say it as concisely and simply as possible,

00:22:19.200 being a settler is when you go somewhere and there's nothing there. So you're signing up for

00:22:26.280 hard work, right? When you're moving into a wild terrain, it's not civilized. You're not going

00:22:37.400 somewhere that already has, you know, buildings and structures and culture and job opportunities

00:22:44.840 and free checks and all these. No, you're going somewhere not to take the benefits of someone

00:22:52.300 else's home, but you're going somewhere to build a home. And for anybody who might be thinking,

00:22:58.280 well, but there were Native peoples here before, you know, the Britons got it. Correct. But America 1.00

00:23:04.740 was not settled. What do you mean it wasn't settled? I'll say it very plainly. Because Native

00:23:12.060 Americans, I would argue that we are Native Americans for all intents and purposes. But let's

00:23:18.640 say indigenous peoples we use that term indigenous peoples did not settle the land they were nomadic 0.98

00:23:25.480 they lived in tents they did not build civilization they worshiped demon gods 0.99

00:23:32.280 they used drugs and they killed each other and enslaved each other

00:23:36.840 so it's like well we came and took someone's civilization nope there was no civilization

00:23:44.360 because there were no civilized people.

00:23:48.240 That's kind of rude.

00:23:49.640 Well, there were no civilized people

00:23:51.000 because the God who grants order, 0.89

00:23:53.540 a God of order, the triune God,

00:23:55.260 had not yet come to this land.

00:23:57.940 I believe in a literal sense

00:23:59.420 that the Americas were actually infested by demons. 1.00

00:24:04.660 And it wasn't until Christians, 0.99

00:24:06.800 who predominantly happened to be white, 0.81

00:24:09.980 but that's because of God's sovereign plan

00:24:11.820 and what he was doing in that moment

00:24:13.060 with European countries and Christendom

00:24:14.500 and all these things.

00:24:15.560 Not trying to make a statement there. 0.77

00:24:17.700 But when God sent Christians to the Americas, 0.61

00:24:21.440 it was hard.

00:24:22.820 A lot of them starved.

00:24:23.920 A lot of them froze to death.

00:24:25.180 A lot of them got disease. 1.00

00:24:26.260 A lot of them were killed by indigenous people, 1.00

00:24:29.780 Indian tribes.

00:24:31.940 But they worked and they worked

00:24:33.340 and they prayed and they prayed.

00:24:34.500 I mean, you read about the 13 colonies.

00:24:36.940 You read about the Puritans.

00:24:38.360 You read about the pilgrims,

00:24:39.560 the covenanters, the founders.

00:24:40.880 And these people, this was a religious project for them.

00:24:46.940 They were doing it for God and for their posterity.

00:24:52.520 And we have that written.

00:24:54.100 I mean, it's explicitly written in the founders' papers for us and our posterity.

00:25:00.480 Posterity meaning our future children.

00:25:02.520 People who actually, they physically come from us.

00:25:05.920 Not spiritually, not spiritual descendants, but physical descendants.

00:25:10.880 our posterity.

00:25:13.180 We're doing it for us,

00:25:14.680 all this hard work at great risk to our own lives.

00:25:18.020 We are taking upon ourselves 0.98

00:25:20.340 this Protestant, uniquely Protestant American project

00:25:23.940 for our good, the glory of God first,

00:25:26.520 our good and the good of our children. 1.00

00:25:30.060 Not the good of India. 1.00

00:25:33.120 And none of that means,

00:25:34.860 none of that necessitates any animus towards India.

00:25:38.500 did you know you can prefer your people and it ripples out and this gets back to the order of

00:25:46.020 mores so starting with your wife your children your parents aunts uncles cousins rippling out

00:25:53.560 further and further eventually it gets to your your community your town your state your country

00:25:59.640 right you can prefer your people and preference for your own does not necessitate hatred

00:26:07.920 of others. It doesn't. So I can love Americans more than Ugandans. And scouts honor, brothers

00:26:17.160 and sisters, I have never had a hateful thought about Ugandans. By the grace of God, nothing good

00:26:24.480 in myself, but by God's grace and by his grace alone, I've never hated Ugandans. And yet,

00:26:30.540 simultaneously, I love Americans more because they're my people. And so the order of more is

00:26:37.040 the order of loves. That's what it is. It's a triage, right? Think you walk into the emergency

00:26:44.200 room, right? And somebody, you know, is like blue in the face and can't breathe. And another guy

00:26:50.980 has a hangnail and probably just needs a Xanax. And he doesn't actually, because he needs it.

00:27:00.400 What he needs is to grow up and get a grip and trust in Jesus. But you get my point.

00:27:03.760 One of them is there for anxiety.

00:27:05.480 It's more of an emotional thing.

00:27:06.860 And then somebody else literally is about to die.

00:27:09.720 Well, they're going to triage.

00:27:11.100 Triage meaning they're going to assess, make a judgment.

00:27:14.660 We've been talking about judgment recently in Matthew chapter 7.

00:27:17.140 And hopefully make the right judgment of who requires medical care most urgently.

00:27:25.340 Well, that's the order of Morris in terms of triaging.

00:27:28.640 who requires my love most committedly, most regularly, most urgently, and also most intensely to the highest degree?

00:27:44.500 Who am I morally obligated under God, by God's law, to love the most?

00:27:51.580 to love the most.

00:27:54.900 And loving some people more

00:27:56.820 doesn't mean that I hate others.

00:28:01.660 In fact, loving some people more

00:28:03.400 doesn't mean that I don't love everyone at all.

00:28:08.880 I like the way that Thomas Aquinas,

00:28:12.940 Voldemort,

00:28:15.360 he who must not be named,

00:28:17.600 Thomas Aquinas,

00:28:18.400 he said it like this.

00:28:19.820 on this respect we love all men equally out of charity because we wish them all one same generic

00:28:28.520 good and for us as christians we say that that's the highest good the eternal good we wish that

00:28:34.640 all men would be bond servants or the actual word in scriptures slaves of christ remember that's

00:28:43.000 what paul says he says i wish all men were as i were saying a christian a slave of christ

00:28:49.940 and so as christians we have the same desire that the apostle paul had and the same desire

00:28:55.580 that's being articulated by aquinas in this particular quote we actually love all people

00:29:00.620 we have a universal love we have a charity a general sense of charity and love towards all

00:29:05.620 people especially for the one same generic good and i would argue that being the eternal spiritual

00:29:11.900 highest good, which is their salvation, that they would belong to Christ, that they wouldn't go to

00:29:17.800 hell. Furthermore, Aquinas continues by saying, namely, everlasting happiness, a.k.a. what I just

00:29:26.260 said, salvation. I think it's safe to say that going to hell would not be everlasting happiness.

00:29:32.400 That seems to include heaven, which only comes by Christ, salvation. Secondly, continuing

00:29:41.800 now secondly love is said to be greater through its action so you can have a a general charity

00:29:50.360 is the word he uses uh speaking of in terms of your disposition your feeling towards all men

00:29:58.180 i don't like feeling because a lot of times feelings are not great but but in this sense

00:30:04.260 your general disposition not just towards your family not just towards your country but towards

00:30:11.580 all of humanity, your general disposition towards all people should be a general disposition of

00:30:18.680 charity. I want them to be happy. Better yet, I want them to be truly happy, eternally happy.

00:30:27.660 I want them to be submitted to Christ. I hope for their salvation. I even pray for their salvation.

00:30:34.520 but that's your general disposition you're feeling but what about your actions

00:30:42.920 not just love in word or feeling or general disposition but love indeed in in works in

00:30:54.180 actions and behaviors which the bible speaks of quite frequently the book of james talks about

00:31:00.880 this. First John talks about this, right? Remember James when he says, if your brother, right there,

00:31:08.500 you could pause and preach a whole series of sermons. If your brother. It doesn't just say,

00:31:17.100 if a foreigner, a stranger, an alien that you don't know from Adam, that you've never met a

00:31:22.500 single time in your life, and he's not even within your geographic proximity, but you watched a TikTok

00:31:27.360 talk video with some liberal woman who is crying and saying, we should care about these people

00:31:32.380 that you've never met, even if it means that ultimately the future of your own children is 0.81

00:31:36.920 put into jeopardy. Well, that's not what James says. James says, if your brother is without food

00:31:42.840 and clothing, or if he's imprisoned, and if your brother is being threatened, and you merely say,

00:31:52.380 back to the point here about love in action.

00:31:54.460 You merely say, I wish you well.

00:31:56.840 Be warm and clothed and well-fed.

00:32:01.420 Have you loved your brother?

00:32:03.860 No.

00:32:05.560 It requires not just that you wish him well,

00:32:09.040 thoughts and prayers.

00:32:10.920 No, it requires that you actually clothe him.

00:32:14.640 You feed him.

00:32:16.940 You give him something to eat, something to drink.

00:32:19.820 You take care of him.

00:32:22.380 in tangible ways, not just love in theory, word, feeling, but love in practice, actions,

00:32:33.560 deeds, real, tangible, physical love. So back to Aquinas, love is said to be greater

00:32:44.320 through its action, being more intense.

00:32:48.720 And in this way, we ought not to love all equally.

00:32:54.360 So the first half of this quote,

00:32:57.700 in this respect, we love all men equally,

00:33:00.180 out of charity, speaking of our general disposition.

00:33:04.260 Later, though, he says,

00:33:06.540 love is said to be greater through its action.

00:33:11.320 When love materializes,

00:33:13.040 when love moves from the state of merely general disposition

00:33:18.340 and enters into tangible, practical, physical acts of love.

00:33:23.960 In this sense, love becomes greater or more concentrated, more visible, more tangible.

00:33:30.400 And in this sense, we ought not to love all equally.

00:33:36.420 Put plainly, I've written in your notes this.

00:33:38.160 In short, Aquinas taught that we must love all universally.

00:33:43.040 But practically, we must not love all equally or we must love all unequally.

00:33:52.600 So in disposition of charity and wanting the best and the eternal best of salvation for all mankind,

00:34:00.640 in that sense of our disposition, we love all equally.

00:34:05.020 But in the sense of our daily lives and the way that we behave and the choices that we make and the actions that we commit,

00:34:11.640 It is actually a sin to love all equally.

00:34:17.160 Let me illustrate the point.

00:34:21.140 If you take your paycheck every two weeks or whatever it is,

00:34:26.520 and you divide it up 8.2 billion times,

00:34:32.720 and you're sending a fraction of a penny

00:34:36.220 to every single person alive on the planet,

00:34:39.580 than your wife and your children,

00:34:43.260 and for that matter, even yourself,

00:34:44.960 it will be a very short while before you starve.

00:34:48.960 And when you stand before God and say,

00:34:50.440 I loved all men equally,

00:34:52.060 God will say to you,

00:34:53.320 I don't love you at all. 1.00

00:34:54.800 Go to hell. 1.00

00:34:57.620 Well, Joel, that's ridiculous. 1.00

00:34:59.420 Now you're being hyperbolic. 0.98

00:35:00.860 Well, I'll put a little scripture on it for you.

00:35:05.940 1 Timothy 5, verse 8.

00:35:07.700 But if any man have not care, that is, love for his own, and especially those of his house, that is, his household, his family, then he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.

00:35:24.260 aka I think I think it's faithful without being far-fetched or without eisegesis I think it's

00:35:32.560 faithful exegesis to say that the apostle Paul in first Timothy chapter 5 verse 8 when he describes

00:35:38.400 someone and says that this person for all intents and purposes has denied the faith that is the

00:35:45.020 Christian faith faith in Jesus and is not equal to but worse than an infidel that is a pagan an

00:35:52.200 unbeliever, if I asked Paul and I said, Paul, does that mean that that person would go to hell? I think 1.00

00:35:57.620 he'd say, duh. So if you're caring for everyone equally, indeed, not your general disposition of

00:36:10.300 charity, praying and wishing well the world and the highest sense of good, that all would find faith

00:36:17.640 in Jesus Christ, be saved from their sin

00:36:20.260 and spend eternity in the presence of God

00:36:22.660 in heaven forever?

00:36:23.560 Not speaking of that.

00:36:24.700 That's good.

00:36:26.000 But in the practical sense,

00:36:27.420 not love in theory, but love in practice,

00:36:29.560 not love merely in word or feeling

00:36:31.680 or general disposition,

00:36:32.780 but love in deed and tangible actions.

00:36:35.960 If in the realm of action

00:36:37.280 you are loving everyone equally,

00:36:39.660 then you are actually loving no one.

00:36:43.560 And if you love no one,

00:36:45.240 if you do not now get to first john if you do not love your own brother whom you have seen

00:36:52.580 how then can you love god who is unseen in other words what first john would be saying is this if

00:36:59.460 you're loving everyone then in reality you're loving no one and if you're loving no one that

00:37:05.040 means you're also not loving your own brother who's right in front of you and is seen and if

00:37:11.340 you're not loving, not merely in theory, wishing them well, but in practice, indeed, like James

00:37:17.560 says, feeding, clothing, caring. If you're not loving your own brother who is seen, then any claim

00:37:24.580 to love for God who is unseen is a lie. First John literally says that he is a liar and the truth

00:37:33.900 is not in him anyone who says that he hates his brother or in his actions is proving that he hates

00:37:43.220 his brother by neglecting his first responsibility back to triage order of salvation

00:37:50.320 how does god save in what sequence election foreknowledge effectual calling justification

00:37:58.580 sanctification, glorification.

00:38:00.240 There's different autosalutis,

00:38:02.040 order of salvation, how God saves.

00:38:04.760 Order amoris, the order of loves,

00:38:06.740 triage or simply a list of priority

00:38:09.680 of who we love most

00:38:12.220 in the realm of tangible love,

00:38:15.760 love in deed, love in practice.

00:38:19.520 In terms of general charity,

00:38:21.640 general disposition,

00:38:23.720 Christians should maintain a universal love.

00:38:26.040 I don't have animus for anyone, but I also don't buy houses for everyone.

00:38:35.400 I don't hate anyone, not in an ultimate sense, but I don't love practically, physically everyone.

00:38:44.680 You know who I love? I love Megan. I love Olive. I love Ruth.

00:38:52.180 I love Eleanor. I love Franklin, and I love Mabel.

00:38:56.040 I love them a lot more than I love you guys.

00:39:00.220 And if I didn't, I would actually be disqualified to be your pastor.

00:39:07.720 That's the order of mores.

00:39:09.580 Now, last thing, back to Internet world, which I really do not want to be in the habit of doing.

00:39:15.000 So please forgive me.

00:39:16.640 Make an allowance for this week.

00:39:18.060 But it's pertinent to the text because we're getting into if you're a father and your son asked for bread, would you give him a rock?

00:39:24.140 you know if he asked for a fish would you give him a serpent or a scorpion it's talking about

00:39:30.560 natural loves natural affections that's in the text natural affection that even apart from being

00:39:38.160 a christian right because what does jesus say he says if you then though you are wonderfully

00:39:44.640 christian and sanctified and born again and that's what makes you understand that it's important that

00:39:50.680 if my son is hungry, I should give him food instead of giving him rocks. It requires supernatural

00:39:56.680 salvation for someone to not hate their kids and let them starve. No, that's not the point

00:40:02.820 Jesus is making. He's not making an argument about sanctification and salvation and that

00:40:06.880 which is supernatural. He's making an argument about not what is supernatural, but that which

00:40:11.140 is natural, natural affections. He's saying for those who are evil, for the pagan, for the infidel, 0.74

00:40:18.440 for the unbeliever. 1.00

00:40:20.140 And that pairs perfectly with what Paul said

00:40:22.340 in 1 Timothy chapter five, right?

00:40:24.540 What does he say?

00:40:25.180 If a man doesn't provide for the old members of his family,

00:40:27.740 then he's like an infidel.

00:40:29.540 No, he says worse, worse than an infidel.

00:40:33.680 And that's what Jesus is saying, right? 0.67

00:40:35.400 Here in our text, in the Sermon on the Mount,

00:40:36.860 he's saying, if your kids are hungry,

00:40:39.740 you give them something to eat, don't you?

00:40:42.860 And you, though being evil, do these good things in the realm of natural affections for your own flesh and blood, for your children, your posterity.

00:40:58.380 And if you do that, even though at the core you're evil, how much more will a thrice holy God who hates evil and hates wickedness and by grace through faith in Jesus Christ for those who are redeemed has become your father through the ministry of adoption by the power of the spirit.

00:41:24.940 how much more, infinitely more,

00:41:27.560 it's an argument from the lesser to the greater,

00:41:29.520 how much more will God not give you good things

00:41:32.580 if you ask?

00:41:34.280 And that brings us back to the beginning of our text

00:41:36.780 which lays out for us

00:41:39.980 the importance of asking.

00:41:43.200 You should seek.

00:41:45.680 Don't be apathetic.

00:41:47.940 Seek. Pursue God.

00:41:50.740 You should knock.

00:41:52.780 You should ask.

00:41:54.420 Because if you seek, you'll find.

00:41:56.440 If you ask, it will be given.

00:41:58.760 If you knock, the door will be open.

00:42:01.300 Why?

00:42:03.020 Well, here's the thing.

00:42:05.640 Because what's being assumed in the text

00:42:08.640 is a child of God.

00:42:12.020 And when a child of God asks and seeks

00:42:14.920 and knocks with their father,

00:42:19.180 then the father answers in a benevolent way.

00:42:23.940 In the same way that even an earthly, and in this case, even an earthly unregenerate father would answer positively, benevolently to their children if their children have a need, if their children seek or knock or ask.

00:42:42.580 Now, that being said, so I said you need to be a conservative.

00:42:46.280 I also said you need to be a Calvinist.

00:42:48.220 this is one of the quintessential texts

00:42:51.940 that the non-Calvinist gets real excited about

00:42:55.260 says you see that right there

00:42:57.400 seek and you'll find

00:43:00.500 therefore it is incumbent upon the seeker

00:43:04.660 and the seeker is not God

00:43:08.500 as Spurgeon and others have referred to God

00:43:11.580 the hound of heaven 0.87

00:43:12.540 meaning there is a seeker 0.95

00:43:14.580 there is one seeker

00:43:17.300 who fervently and earnestly seeks out the souls of men.

00:43:22.960 And any soul he seeks, he always finds.

00:43:26.180 There is a seeker.

00:43:28.660 But it's not us. 0.51

00:43:31.180 At least not initially.

00:43:34.020 Because this is still something in Scripture.

00:43:36.040 You've got to do something with it.

00:43:37.120 Jesus is telling us, not God.

00:43:38.660 He's telling people to seek and to ask and to knock.

00:43:43.440 But here's the sequence of events.

00:43:45.220 he says if you do these things your father

00:43:49.220 he'll answer and you'll answer kindly with benevolence because he's your father in the

00:43:57.320 same way that you would answer kindly with benevolence as an earthly father even an

00:44:01.760 unregenerate earthly father so tying it all together what is jesus ultimately saying

00:44:06.920 we are called to seek and to ask and to knock but there's only one type of person who can actually

00:44:12.740 do it a christian do you know who seeks for god christians you know who knocks on the door and

00:44:22.800 it's open children who god is their father those who ask christians those who've been adopted into

00:44:30.440 the family of god because apart from adoption apart from being caused to become a new creature

00:44:35.660 in christ jesus apart from receiving regeneration by the spirit a new heart and spiritual ears to

00:44:42.080 hear and spiritual eyes to see, apart from becoming a child of God, then if I was to ask

00:44:48.760 the question, do you know who seeks for God? Michelle said it. She was right. No one. Christians

00:44:54.580 do. But apart from salvation, no one seeks for God. Well, how do you know that? Romans chapter 0.99

00:45:01.340 three, verse 10, 11, and 12. No one is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for

00:45:08.320 God. All have turned aside.

00:45:10.920 Together they have become 0.66

00:45:12.080 utterly worthless. No one does good.

00:45:14.480 Not even one.

00:45:17.280 If you're looking

00:45:18.240 for not just theology, but anthropology,

00:45:20.520 meaning the study of man, who is man?

00:45:22.940 Who is humanity?

00:45:25.960 Well,

00:45:26.280 biblical anthropology would tell us this,

00:45:28.120 that apart from saving grace, which is found

00:45:29.980 in Christ alone,

00:45:32.180 that left to ourselves

00:45:33.500 as unbelievers,

00:45:36.740 what is the Bible 0.91

00:45:38.600 Anthropology of unregenerate man? 0.95

00:45:42.860 Evil.

00:45:44.900 He doesn't seek for God.

00:45:47.000 He doesn't pursue God.

00:45:49.000 The text in Romans 3 goes on even further

00:45:51.040 and begins to be even more descriptive in its language.

00:45:53.800 His throat is like an open grave.

00:45:57.120 He lies in wait for blood.

00:45:59.660 He wants to ambush God if he could.

00:46:02.440 Ambush the righteous because it's the second best.

00:46:05.520 Why do the wicked always go after the righteous?

00:46:07.380 because they want to go after God, but they can't.

00:46:10.020 So they settle for you.

00:46:14.360 That's the picture of mankind apart from salvation.

00:46:19.060 He doesn't seek for God.

00:46:22.480 No one seeks for God.

00:46:23.900 Why?

00:46:24.120 Because in one sense, he's incapable.

00:46:27.280 His nature does not allow for it.

00:46:29.800 But secondly, he's unwilling.

00:46:32.800 He doesn't desire God.

00:46:35.360 He doesn't desire to submit to God,

00:46:37.820 to His authority, to His supremacy,

00:46:39.820 to His sufficiency.

00:46:40.940 He wants to submit to only one God

00:46:43.120 and that God is Him.

00:46:48.080 So Jesus, in our text today,

00:46:51.300 He first reminds us of the importance

00:46:54.100 not for all of humanity to seek for God

00:46:57.660 because all of humanity doesn't seek for God

00:47:00.520 nor will it.

00:47:02.720 But He is giving, I believe,

00:47:04.500 A commandment here, an admonition for his own, for his people.

00:47:13.040 We've been saved by his grace through faith in his work, in his person.

00:47:18.860 For you, beloved, brothers and sisters in Christ, for you, seek and you will find.

00:47:27.440 Ask and it will be given.

00:47:29.340 Knock and the door will be opened to you. 0.99

00:47:31.660 You should be like the persistent widow who goes and knocks again and again and again. 0.98

00:47:36.860 You, like we looked at in the Lord's Prayer a few weeks ago, 0.99

00:47:40.080 you should be praying short prayers, right?

00:47:42.580 Jesus says, let your words be few.

00:47:45.040 Don't try to impress God.

00:47:46.480 And certainly don't try to impress men with lofty, long prayers.

00:47:51.260 Have short prayers.

00:47:52.500 But what did I say a few weeks ago?

00:47:54.080 Many prayers.

00:47:55.420 Going to God again and again and again in prayer.

00:47:58.320 Making petitions.

00:47:59.460 That is, requests.

00:48:00.940 Asking of him.

00:48:02.840 That's exactly what our text says.

00:48:04.240 Ask and it will be given.

00:48:07.220 Seeking him in prayer.

00:48:09.260 Seeking out his presence.

00:48:12.740 Seek and you will find.

00:48:14.300 He will not hide his face from you.

00:48:16.180 He will allow himself to be found by his children.

00:48:19.440 As any father would.

00:48:21.380 Even if you're being playful.

00:48:22.780 Even if a human earthly father is playing hide and go seek.

00:48:25.520 You know what I do when I'm playing hide and go seek with my kids?

00:48:28.340 And turns out they're not the best seekers.

00:48:30.160 And it turns out, I think I could be in the Olympics if hide-and-go-seek was a thing.

00:48:35.520 One time, I remember I climbed up on the cabinet, and then I climbed up on top of the fridge.

00:48:40.120 And so I was, like, way up in the air.

00:48:41.320 And the thing about, like, little kids, I don't know if you've noticed this, but everything's kind of eye-level for them.

00:48:46.180 Like, it's almost like everything above, you know, two and a half feet literally doesn't even exist.

00:48:50.760 Kind of like COVID, right?

00:48:52.760 Right?

00:48:53.120 It's kind of, but in reverse.

00:48:54.400 Remember, COVID, it existed, you know, if you were standing up.

00:48:56.780 but the moment you got, you know, beneath four feet,

00:48:59.080 like the virus just went away.

00:49:00.740 Kids are like the opposite

00:49:01.600 when it comes to their point of view, right?

00:49:04.120 So they, you know, anything three feet below, boom,

00:49:06.880 that's the world.

00:49:07.600 Anything above that, it might as well be invisible.

00:49:09.540 It doesn't even exist, right?

00:49:10.840 It's like COVID, children, right?

00:49:12.380 Opposite.

00:49:13.020 COVID, if you're down low, you're safe.

00:49:14.380 If you're up high, you're dead, you know?

00:49:15.960 And then children, it's like, if you're down low,

00:49:17.440 I can see you.

00:49:18.020 And if you're up high, you're invisible.

00:49:19.740 All right, anyways, I'm playing high-go seat with the kids.

00:49:21.660 I climb up on the refrigerator

00:49:22.800 and I might as well be invisible.

00:49:24.500 They are never gonna find me.

00:49:26.780 So then what do I do as a father?

00:49:29.420 Well, here's the thing.

00:49:31.780 I want to be found.

00:49:34.240 I want to be found.

00:49:35.980 So I start making noises,

00:49:38.040 start dropping things off of the refrigerator.

00:49:42.220 And still, it's like I was literally invisible.

00:49:44.760 It's like, hey, up here!

00:49:47.300 And everyone's excited, you know,

00:49:49.100 and the rest of the kids come in.

00:49:50.280 The first kid finds me, goes, gets their siblings.

00:49:52.340 You know, they come in.

00:49:53.000 And then I try to jump down without falling.

00:49:55.060 and it was partially successful.

00:49:58.320 But that's what it is.

00:50:00.460 That's the nature of God, right?

00:50:01.960 That's an argument from the lesser,

00:50:03.700 Joel being the lesser,

00:50:04.700 and then the greater, infinitely greater,

00:50:06.540 being God, our Father in heaven.

00:50:08.260 That's what it is.

00:50:09.220 That's the nature of the relationship with God

00:50:12.120 with all mankind.

00:50:13.380 No, with his kids.

00:50:15.880 With his kids.

00:50:17.700 So with his kids, he says, seek me.

00:50:21.660 And for his kids, he promises

00:50:23.760 that he'll make himself found.

00:50:26.500 With his kids, he says, ask me.

00:50:30.080 And with his kids, he promises

00:50:31.600 that when we ask, it'll be given.

00:50:35.000 With his kids, he says, knock.

00:50:38.700 Because with his kids, he promises

00:50:40.620 that any time they knock,

00:50:42.840 the door will be open.

00:50:46.000 For you, brothers and sisters in Christ

00:50:48.500 who have been adopted into the family of God,

00:50:50.560 this text is for you.

00:50:52.060 seek ask knock and anytime you start to question but will he respond will he be faithful will he

00:51:02.640 keep his word what if this time i ask and he doesn't answer what if this time i seek and he

00:51:07.100 hides his face in perpetuity not just for a season so that i might seek him even more fervently so

00:51:13.860 that he might be found in even deeper ways god does that at times david said don't hide your

00:51:18.600 face from me. Why? Because God did hide his face. But not because God's ultimate end was to hide

00:51:23.120 his face from David forever, but to hide his face from David in a moment so that David would seek

00:51:28.080 all the harder. So that he would find God even more intimately, even more deeply.

00:51:34.400 This is God's promise. And the moment that you start to doubt that promise, maybe I shouldn't,

00:51:38.800 maybe he's not worth seeking. Because maybe he won't be faithful to keep his promise and be found.

00:51:43.780 Maybe he's not worth asking because maybe he won't be faithful and keep his promise to give.

00:51:47.860 Maybe it's not worth knocking at the door of the Lord because maybe he won't keep his promise and open that door.

00:51:55.360 Well, then the word of Christ to you today is this.

00:51:58.040 The moment you think that, remember this.

00:52:01.260 That our Father who art in heaven is infinitely more kind and merciful than human fathers.

00:52:07.240 And human fathers, even those human fathers that are unregenerate and evil, what do they do?

00:52:12.820 They give good gifts to their children.

00:52:16.080 When their children ask. 1.00

00:52:17.860 They practiced the Oro Amoris.

00:52:21.300 I forget the name of the guy.

00:52:22.780 He was some part of the new atheist movement

00:52:25.220 back in the 90s. 0.99

00:52:26.140 It was just absolutely insufferable, 0.98

00:52:28.000 making the ridiculous arguments, 0.98

00:52:30.600 thinking that they were really smart 0.98

00:52:31.640 and the easiest arguments in the world.

00:52:33.180 Like, well, if God is all-powerful and all-loving,

00:52:35.540 why does he allow suffering in the world?

00:52:37.900 And they literally thought they got us with that one.

00:52:41.240 And they're like, oh, man, this is so good. 1.00

00:52:44.740 The Christians will never be able to answer this question.

00:52:46.620 it was one of those dudes absolutely peter something i think his name was peter

00:52:55.700 forget i forget the last name and if you want the answer to that that question i i can answer it but

00:53:02.840 it'll be another sermon and i don't have time for it but i've preached in the past you'll have to go

00:53:06.420 back and find it or just come and ask me after the service with god being all loving and all

00:53:10.420 powerful why is sin and suffering still in the world very clear biblical answer except it's

00:53:15.920 hard to answer if you're a christian who's not reformed if you're not a calvinist you don't

00:53:19.480 think god's sovereign over all things and he's working and orchestrating all things for his

00:53:23.740 glory and for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose then

00:53:26.880 that christian might be stumped but a biblical christian calvinist i repeat myself it's a bit

00:53:32.220 redundant biblical calvinist but if you're that kind of christian who has the right views and

00:53:36.140 that's not a hard thing to answer but these kind of new atheists that thought it was hard to answer

00:53:40.220 one of them his mom eventually developed some kind of disease and he had argued i mean publicly

00:53:48.120 argued in volumes and books and debates and lectures and all these things he's on record

00:53:52.440 for years arguing that if a person doesn't produce then they're really just they're not worth

00:53:59.860 keeping a lot if they don't have anything to contribute to the bottom line to the the ultimate

00:54:06.740 good of humanity then they're just they're dead weight then they're really no different than a

00:54:10.580 tree that maybe needs to be chopped down because we need a fire and then his mom gets a debilitating

00:54:16.840 terminal disease and can't do anything and is just in the hospital has to be waited on hand and foot

00:54:21.500 and he's paying thousands and thousands of dollars and everyone was you know they couldn't help

00:54:26.540 themselves but point out the glaring hypocrisy and you know what his answer was he said yeah but

00:54:31.480 It's different when it's your own mom.

00:54:34.220 Yeah, no duh, Sherlock.

00:54:37.000 Right.

00:54:38.020 Correct.

00:54:39.740 And that is not sin.

00:54:43.080 That natural instinct

00:54:45.120 to care for your own.

00:54:49.240 Say, yeah, I'll spend 10 grand a month

00:54:51.480 if I have it

00:54:52.260 and pick up an extra job

00:54:53.700 and do whatever I have to 0.93

00:54:54.720 if it's my mom.

00:54:57.440 That is good.

00:54:58.800 god put that in you god put that in you that's his design that's not related to the fall

00:55:07.360 and the garden in genesis chapter 3 no that's related to the design that god

00:55:11.800 baked into the equation from the beginning and what grace does for the christian is it comes

00:55:18.220 alongside nature and restores it and elevates it it doesn't destroy or replace nature so when

00:55:26.740 Christians pick up the rhetoric of liberals and they start saying well you know but technically

00:55:33.260 if somebody's you know a Christian you know even if they're on the other side of the world and 0.85

00:55:37.940 you've never met them they're your true family and they're closer to you than your own mother

00:55:42.340 and blah blah you should care about you know the Christians in Japan more than you care about your

00:55:46.560 own children well they may be consistent it may be that they've been preaching that for 30 years 0.78

00:55:52.920 but all that means is not only are they wrong,

00:55:55.400 but they're consistently wrong,

00:55:57.140 which means they're both wrong and prideful.

00:56:00.720 They've actually failed twice, not just once.

00:56:04.480 I've been wrong plenty of times.

00:56:07.280 But when someone's wrong and they double down

00:56:09.360 and they add to their wrongness also pride

00:56:11.840 to ensure that they remain wrong,

00:56:15.060 that's rough.

00:56:17.480 That's rough.

00:56:19.160 And the verses in Scripture that say,

00:56:20.620 well, who is my mother and who are my brothers?

00:56:23.140 Jesus says, it's those who do the will of my father.

00:56:26.680 Yes and amen.

00:56:27.980 There is such a thing as your spiritual family.

00:56:31.780 But again, come back to the point.

00:56:36.180 There is love in the realm of disposition,

00:56:39.680 a general disposition of charity for all,

00:56:42.560 and in that realm, an even greater love

00:56:45.300 for those who are brothers and sisters in Christ,

00:56:47.820 wherever they may be.

00:56:48.560 But then there's also love in practice, in deed.

00:56:54.040 And that love, speaking of love in this category, the actions of love,

00:57:00.220 with that realm of love, you and I, not only is it permissible,

00:57:05.940 but we must, we are commanded by God to behave in triage,

00:57:11.860 to behave with degrees of priority.

00:57:15.080 When it comes to love indeed and practice, we are not called to love all people equally.

00:57:21.560 We are called to love those closest to us and then ripple out.

00:57:28.200 That's what we're called to do.

00:57:29.920 You must love your family more than mine.

00:57:33.420 And you should love your neighborhood more than my neighborhood.

00:57:37.900 And you should love your town more than someone else's town.

00:57:42.200 You should love Texas more than California.

00:57:45.860 It's fairly easy to do.

00:57:48.480 You should love America and Americans

00:57:51.260 more than Russia or Ukraine or Israel or anyone else.

00:58:01.000 This isn't rocket science. 0.85

00:58:03.340 And anybody who says, yeah, well, that's how the pagan would think. 1.00

00:58:05.540 That's the infidel.

00:58:06.820 No, that's not what the scripture teaches.

00:58:09.600 The scripture doesn't say the infidel cares for his own

00:58:12.780 And then the Christian cares for strangers because he's committed to spiritual, theoretical love, mystical love. 0.69

00:58:22.140 No, the person who's committed to mystical love in isolation only exclusively and not tangible love, that's not the Christian.

00:58:29.860 That's the liberal. So the last thing I'll say back back to Internet world.

00:58:34.140 Have you guys seen the meme of the heat map? You know what I'm talking about when I say the heat map?

00:58:37.920 like shows the center focal point and there's like you know a conglomerate of you know heat

00:58:46.620 and then it kind of thins out the further it gets away from the center and then there's another one

00:58:51.360 right next to it's two maps where it's really sparse at the center and then gets greater the

00:58:57.540 further you get away from the center point what it's illustrating is this it you know at the top 0.76

00:59:01.640 it'll say conservatives and liberals and this is not just something you know somebody being silly 0.75

00:59:05.040 or making a joke.

00:59:06.820 This is multiple, multiple, multiple studies

00:59:09.420 that have been performed.

00:59:11.280 And what they found is that for conservatives,

00:59:14.080 when it comes to their allegiance,

00:59:17.740 their commitments,

00:59:19.200 and ultimately their affections, their loves,

00:59:22.560 that the concentration of their highest commitment and love

00:59:27.860 is those who are closest to them, in the center.

00:59:30.640 They're the center, and it's those around them.

00:59:32.700 and then it gets more and more sparse.

00:59:36.040 It lessens more and more the further away you get.

00:59:38.860 For a liberal, it's literally the opposite.

00:59:41.640 So for a liberal, it's wife and kids.

00:59:46.420 Not a lot of affection.

00:59:47.640 Now, let's be honest. 0.71

00:59:48.900 Liberals don't have wives and kids.

00:59:51.200 That's a joke.

00:59:53.640 But who are they really committed to?

00:59:55.840 The studies bear this out.

00:59:57.460 Their greatest love is the further you get away.

01:00:00.340 Their deepest commitment.

01:00:02.220 Who do liberals love?

01:00:04.620 Trees.

01:00:07.580 Endangered fish.

01:00:10.680 Certain rocks.

01:00:14.840 And, oh, don't miss this one.

01:00:16.620 It's not that they don't love any people. 1.00

01:00:19.300 Foreigners that they've never met, 1.00

01:00:21.780 that they can make propaganda arguments on the Internet 1.00

01:00:24.660 to come into our country so that they will vote Democrat.

01:00:28.720 In other words, who do they love?

01:00:30.020 They love inanimate objects and complete strangers.

01:00:37.520 They practice the opposite of the ordo amoris.

01:00:42.400 It's the exact opposite hierarchy.

01:00:45.820 It's God's design, which is natural to man,

01:00:48.480 that grace only perfects, doesn't eradicate or replace.

01:00:52.260 It's God's natural design for his people to love our own,

01:00:56.280 which does not necessitate

01:00:58.820 that we hate those who are not our own

01:01:00.520 but that we first and foremost

01:01:01.940 in the realm of action

01:01:03.180 most love our own

01:01:05.260 God's natural design

01:01:06.520 liberals do the exact opposite.

01:01:09.240 So the last thing that I read

01:01:10.440 and we'll close is this.

01:01:12.880 John Calvin said

01:01:13.720 if by the mere guidance of nature

01:01:16.180 infidels, the unbeliever 0.99

01:01:18.600 are so prone to love their own. 1.00

01:01:22.260 So in this case 1.00

01:01:22.900 the unbeliever does love their own 1.00

01:01:24.500 because again it's natural 0.72

01:01:25.900 even for the fallen man.

01:01:27.900 It's natural design, the order of amorous, natural affections.

01:01:32.220 If by the mere guidance of nature,

01:01:34.520 without supernatural grace from God,

01:01:37.120 just the mere guidance of nature, 1.00

01:01:38.940 the infidel is so prone to love their own, 1.00

01:01:42.100 then what must we think of those 1.00

01:01:43.900 who are not moved by any such feeling?

01:01:47.340 Do they not go even beyond the ungodly, 1.00

01:01:51.080 the infidel in brutality? 1.00

01:01:52.980 For if any have degenerated from that which is so perfectly natural, he ought to be regarded as a monster. 1.00

01:02:05.740 There are Christians. 0.97

01:02:09.820 There are pagans. 0.99

01:02:13.580 And then there are monsters. 0.97

01:02:16.620 We call those liberals. 0.95

01:02:17.900 the liberal

01:02:20.960 and this is a modern phenomenon guys

01:02:23.880 seriously this is unique

01:02:25.400 I understand nothing new under the sun

01:02:27.740 I've read Ecclesiastes I'm aware

01:02:29.180 but the longer that people

01:02:31.760 rebel against Christ there is a progression

01:02:33.720 to sin and you can become more and more

01:02:35.800 heinous in your sin 0.67

01:02:38.080 liberals are

01:02:39.740 unique 0.99

01:02:40.280 infidels throughout all of human 1.00

01:02:43.900 history pagans that worship Thor

01:02:45.940 still typically love their own offspring.

01:02:53.080 I said just even last week 0.95

01:02:54.860 that even those who worship false gods like Molech 0.94

01:02:57.880 and would give a child to be burned in the flames 0.76

01:03:01.980 as an offering to this false god, 1.00

01:03:03.700 a horrendous, demonic, pagan form of worship. 0.99

01:03:08.180 Even then, they did it with the expectation. 1.00

01:03:11.480 The only reason they did it

01:03:13.020 is if I honor Molech by giving him my first child,

01:03:15.940 Molech in return will give me more children.

01:03:19.100 It was basically the pagan equivalent

01:03:20.820 to the righteous version, which was who?

01:03:24.560 Hannah.

01:03:25.700 Remember Hannah? 1.00

01:03:26.480 She's barren. 1.00

01:03:27.060 She can't have children. 1.00

01:03:27.860 She so longs to be a mother. 0.98

01:03:29.580 She goes, which is a natural, good, righteous instinct.

01:03:32.300 She goes to the temple.

01:03:33.620 So she doesn't go to Molech, a false god.

01:03:35.260 She goes to her god, the triune god, the true god. 0.69

01:03:38.740 And she prays and she makes a wager with God.

01:03:41.200 She says, if you'll give me, if you'll open my womb,

01:03:43.460 make me a mother. I'll give my first child to you. Right? The pagan says to Molech, I'll give my

01:03:49.720 first child to you, which means death. But for Hannah, who worships our God, the true God, who

01:03:56.540 is kind, she says, I'll give my first child to you also, which means life, that he would be in the

01:04:03.360 service of the Lord and grow up in the house of the Lord, become a prophet and a mouthpiece of

01:04:07.040 the Lord. And that's exactly what she does. But here's the point. The pagan back in the day who

01:04:12.300 worshiped Molech still was light years more righteous than the liberal. That pagan who 0.99

01:04:20.360 worshiped Molech thought, yeah, but even I love children. And even though it's a wicked and 1.00

01:04:26.120 heinous thing to do, I'll give up one, but only for the promise of receiving in return. Ten.

01:04:33.380 The liberal today says when they go to Molech, modern Molech, they go to Planned Parenthood,

01:04:38.340 they're not going to say, hey, Planned Parenthood, I'll give you my first child so that you can give

01:04:42.580 me 10 more. No, they say Planned Parenthood, take my first child and I'll see you again in six months

01:04:46.920 for my next one. And then I'll see you a year after that for my next one. And my next one, 0.84

01:04:50.580 not because I'm giving you one child that I might have more children. I'm giving you

01:04:53.780 all my children because I want no children. My truest devotion is to rocks and trees

01:05:00.240 and endanger smelt, right? Fish. I literally, my voting pattern is what guides the way that I

01:05:07.040 would vote my worldview is I'm going to care for fish even if it means no water for an entire

01:05:13.100 state so that thousands of people lose their homes that's what kind of person I am people

01:05:18.540 worshiping Thor were godly by comparison you have not met wickedness until you've met 20th century

01:05:28.260 liberals do not be like them the order of Morris is profoundly Christian and it has been around and

01:05:36.740 been in Christian thought as universally held by all Christians for centuries, over a millennium.

01:05:44.060 Of course, we love people unequally. To love all people equally is to love no one. General

01:05:53.220 disposition, charity towards all men. But love in practice, tangibly, physically, triage. You will

01:06:01.180 love some more than others. Make sure you pick the right ones. I heard a pastor once tell me this.

01:06:06.140 He said, if you're going to be in ministry, you've got to disappoint someone.

01:06:09.460 But you get to choose who it is.

01:06:13.980 You know who I'm not going to choose?

01:06:16.860 My family.

01:06:18.880 I'll always have people who are disappointed with me.

01:06:20.860 But you know who I want to not be disappointed with me?

01:06:23.780 My kids.

01:06:27.600 Sometimes, you know, you get busy in life.

01:06:29.680 You guys too, it's not just related to pastors, but you get busy.

01:06:32.280 You have to be intentional.

01:06:33.200 You have to carve out time.

01:06:36.140 And you might have to go to your neighbors or your employer and say,

01:06:40.080 I need a sick day.

01:06:41.880 I have a very important appointment.

01:06:43.340 You don't need to tell them what the appointment is.

01:06:45.440 Turns out the appointment is you're going to go shoot guns with your kid.

01:06:50.100 That's a good appointment.

01:06:52.660 You're going to disappoint someone, but you get to choose who it is.

01:06:56.120 Don't choose those closest to you.

01:06:58.540 That's not supernatural.

01:07:01.040 That's not, oh, I'm no longer operating within what comes naturally.

01:07:06.140 I've now ascended and I'm greater and I'm being supernatural

01:07:08.940 by choosing to disappoint my own family 0.96

01:07:11.100 at the cost of loving these foreigners that I've never met.

01:07:13.580 No, that's not being supernatural. 0.99

01:07:15.380 That's being, it is unnatural.

01:07:17.640 See, there's natural, then there's supernatural,

01:07:19.820 but then there's unnatural.

01:07:21.860 You're behaving in an unnatural way.

01:07:24.760 Not as natural, unregenerate man,

01:07:27.560 but as someone who is unnatural,

01:07:29.440 who is no longer a man.

01:07:32.980 To quote Aragorn,

01:07:34.340 when the hobbits see the ring race,

01:07:37.600 what are they?

01:07:39.620 They were men once.

01:07:42.580 And when you look and you see Democrats,

01:07:45.000 you say, what are they?

01:07:46.080 They were men once.

01:07:48.080 But no longer.

01:07:50.420 They're not merely infidels,

01:07:52.100 not merely unbelievers. 1.00

01:07:53.500 They're something far more unnatural 1.00

01:07:55.300 and degraded than that.

01:07:56.280 The 19th and 20th century liberal today

01:07:59.380 is not merely an unregenerate man. 0.99

01:08:01.740 He's a monster. 0.99

01:08:04.820 He will choose fish over human beings. 1.00

01:08:08.660 He will choose strangers over family.

01:08:13.280 Don't be like that. 0.98

01:08:14.520 Be Christian. 0.91

01:08:15.900 Be Christian.

01:08:18.320 Let's pray.

01:08:19.360 Father, thank you for your word.

01:08:20.480 Bless it to your people in Jesus' name.

01:08:22.180 Amen.

01:08:22.800 We're going to continue to worship the Lord now through song.

The NXR Podcast - February 02, 2025

THE SERMON - The Ordo Amoris & Natural Affections ｜ Matthew 7_7-11

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript