1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:12,440 Welcome to the Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast. We are a Bible-Believing Church located 2 00:00:12,440 --> 00:00:16,680 in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. We are proudly part of the Christian Fellowship 3 00:00:16,680 --> 00:00:21,920 Ministries with 3,000 churches around the world. We are a church focused on world evangelism, 4 00:00:21,920 --> 00:00:27,300 discipleship and church planting. Here we will share recent sermons from P.H.S.A. Church 5 00:00:27,300 --> 00:00:31,760 and other sermons from throughout our fellowship. I am Pastor David Bickford and I will be your 6 00:00:31,760 --> 00:00:36,420 host for this podcast. I thank you for listening today and we hope these messages are a blessing 7 00:00:36,420 --> 00:00:40,320 to you and bring you closer to God. 8 00:00:40,320 --> 00:00:50,080 Hello and welcome back to the Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast. My name is David Bickford 9 00:00:50,080 --> 00:00:56,200 and I am the pastor here in Salmon Arm. Today I have put together a message entitled, Don't 10 00:00:56,200 --> 00:01:02,840 Leave Your Brain at the Door. A subheading would be, Standing in the Gap. What we are 11 00:01:02,840 --> 00:01:09,800 going to do today is look at Romans 1 verses 18-25. If you are following along, that is 12 00:01:09,800 --> 00:01:15,680 the verse of scripture that we are going to be using as our jumping off point today. You 13 00:01:15,680 --> 00:01:19,960 can go ahead and turn there if you have your Bibles or you are following along with us. 14 00:01:19,960 --> 00:01:25,320 When I was putting this message together a while back, I was reading the news and I came 15 00:01:25,320 --> 00:01:31,180 across this article that says, If you can't read them, swear on them. This article is 16 00:01:31,180 --> 00:01:36,000 really important for the day and age that we are living with today because when you 17 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:42,800 take yourself off the foundation of God, then you lose any semblance of morality in society. 18 00:01:42,800 --> 00:01:48,520 You can argue that morality can be found in other cultures, but then that is fine. You 19 00:01:48,520 --> 00:01:54,480 are going to have to explain how that morality came to be. What we see in many other cultures 20 00:01:54,480 --> 00:01:59,240 is that their morality is very, very different from what we would consider to be right or 21 00:01:59,240 --> 00:02:06,360 just. A perfect example of this is that we actually have more slavery today than we have 22 00:02:06,360 --> 00:02:11,560 ever had in any other time in history. When you look to that, it becomes very dicey for 23 00:02:11,560 --> 00:02:16,700 many people in society to really dig into that kind of a topic because it takes away 24 00:02:16,700 --> 00:02:24,040 the narrative that we have heard in the Western world about how slavery is a Western European 25 00:02:24,040 --> 00:02:29,080 and North American problem, specifically an American problem. 26 00:02:29,080 --> 00:02:34,640 I was listening to something earlier today that really honed in on that idea that when 27 00:02:34,640 --> 00:02:41,080 you really look at it, Western society is the first society in history that ever ended 28 00:02:41,080 --> 00:02:49,280 up having on its own a moral dilemma with slavery in and of itself. That rationality 29 00:02:49,280 --> 00:02:56,200 to the moral dilemma came from the great enlightenment that happened within Protestantism and the 30 00:02:56,200 --> 00:03:01,280 explosion of the printing press and the Word of God coming through into society, specifically 31 00:03:01,280 --> 00:03:05,760 in Western Europe and the colonies in the United States. 32 00:03:05,760 --> 00:03:11,680 That is really just a high-level thing that I found very interesting. Putting this message 33 00:03:11,680 --> 00:03:17,240 together is going to touch on some of those similar notes. This was from several months 34 00:03:17,240 --> 00:03:23,120 back when I preached it here in Samanar. Either way, I think that there is a lot of stuff 35 00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:29,080 happening in society today that is extremely relevant for us to understand as Christians 36 00:03:29,080 --> 00:03:36,160 and how we are supposed to deal with society as it continually moves away from God. Yet, 37 00:03:36,160 --> 00:03:40,780 we are still supposed to be heralds for the Word of God in the areas, towns, and places 38 00:03:40,780 --> 00:03:46,120 we live in because we are really trying to bring people into the boat of salvation and 39 00:03:46,120 --> 00:03:52,560 get them on board with the God's view of morality rather than just being blown to the wind of 40 00:03:52,560 --> 00:03:58,560 all the different other morality choices that people will pull onto in society. 41 00:03:58,560 --> 00:04:04,880 This article is called If You Can't Read Them, Swear on Them. This is an excerpt from that 42 00:04:04,880 --> 00:04:05,880 article. 43 00:04:05,880 --> 00:04:11,000 Karen Smith, re-elected school board president of Pennsylvania School District, was sworn 44 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:17,480 in this week on a stack of banned books. Instead of the traditional choice, the Bible, Smith's 45 00:04:17,480 --> 00:04:24,160 husband carried a stack of various banned books for her to take her oath on, including 46 00:04:24,160 --> 00:04:30,840 several with sexually explicit material. When asked to explain her choice of books, Smith 47 00:04:30,840 --> 00:04:35,440 said, I'm not particularly religious. The Bible doesn't hold significant meaning for 48 00:04:35,440 --> 00:04:40,600 me and given everything that has occurred in the last couple years, the banned books 49 00:04:40,600 --> 00:04:46,640 they do mean something to me at this point. Smith has long opposed the efforts to ban 50 00:04:46,640 --> 00:04:50,880 access to certain books and when they asked about the remaining books under review by 51 00:04:50,880 --> 00:04:56,840 the school board, she said, they're definitely not going to be reviewed at this point. 52 00:04:56,840 --> 00:05:02,080 So as we look at this as our jumping off point, as an illustration for this entire message, 53 00:05:02,080 --> 00:05:13,200 you have to really just be amazed by the denouncement of the moral guide to Western society and 54 00:05:13,200 --> 00:05:20,720 even prior way back to Judaism and as long as humanity has been around, there's been 55 00:05:20,720 --> 00:05:28,600 this morality that comes from God. That means nothing but this pornography being kept in 56 00:05:28,600 --> 00:05:34,600 elementary schools and middle schools and high schools, that's worthy and that has more 57 00:05:34,600 --> 00:05:41,520 of a point or that tugs at her heartstrings more than thou shall not kill and thou shall 58 00:05:41,520 --> 00:05:46,400 not commit adultery and thou shall not steal. So you've got these normal ideas of what is 59 00:05:46,400 --> 00:05:51,800 moral and what is right and wrong, but none of that matters anymore because now we're 60 00:05:51,800 --> 00:06:00,560 told that we are an enlightened people and that we are more educated and evolved than 61 00:06:00,560 --> 00:06:04,960 people who were back in ancient times. 62 00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:09,960 And so it's okay now to instead of taking your oath on the word of God, to take it on 63 00:06:09,960 --> 00:06:18,720 the word of the explicit or the pornographer. A lot of these books that get banned right 64 00:06:18,720 --> 00:06:24,680 now are currently only being banned in school because they are not appropriate for children. 65 00:06:24,680 --> 00:06:31,560 I would argue they're not appropriate for anybody, but the reality is that federal educators 66 00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:37,320 should not be putting pornographic material at school and I don't think anybody really 67 00:06:37,320 --> 00:06:43,480 can argue that unless you have certain proclivities for it. So anyway, let's jump into our text 68 00:06:43,480 --> 00:06:50,560 in Romans 18 through 25. So this portion of scripture is called God's wrath on the unrighteous 69 00:06:50,560 --> 00:06:55,080 and in verse 18, it jumps off and says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against 70 00:06:55,080 --> 00:07:01,080 all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the 71 00:07:01,080 --> 00:07:06,480 truth for what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them for 72 00:07:06,480 --> 00:07:11,040 his invisible attributes, namely his internal power and divine nature have been clearly 73 00:07:11,040 --> 00:07:16,560 perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they 74 00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:23,000 are without excuse for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give 75 00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:28,840 thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened 76 00:07:28,840 --> 00:07:35,000 claiming to be wise. They became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for 77 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:41,360 images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. And therefore God gave 78 00:07:41,360 --> 00:07:47,000 them up into the lusts of their own, of their hearts to have purity to the dishonoring of 79 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:53,600 their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped 80 00:07:53,600 --> 00:08:00,320 and serve the creatures rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. So let's just 81 00:08:00,320 --> 00:08:04,880 pray dear Lord God, I pray that this message will go out and convict hearts. The whole 82 00:08:04,880 --> 00:08:10,640 point of every message is that it brings people closer to God and lets them know that you 83 00:08:10,640 --> 00:08:15,640 love them. You love them enough that you sent your son Jesus to die for their sins and that 84 00:08:15,640 --> 00:08:20,200 there is always redemption found in Christ. If people will only turn and repent of their 85 00:08:20,200 --> 00:08:25,280 sins and accept you as their Lord and father. So Lord help them to come to that conclusion, 86 00:08:25,280 --> 00:08:30,760 Lord God by the Holy Spirit in Jesus name, amen. So today's society is becoming less 87 00:08:30,760 --> 00:08:38,800 tied to rationality and more tied to an overt overly complex and irrational dogma beliefs. 88 00:08:38,800 --> 00:08:42,840 This set of beliefs goes by several different names. Several of these you've probably heard 89 00:08:42,840 --> 00:08:47,640 some of these you haven't. You know, D E and I, diversity, equity, inclusion, social 90 00:08:47,640 --> 00:08:54,520 justice, critical race theory, et cetera. Most of these ideas come out of the same root 91 00:08:54,520 --> 00:09:01,080 of secular humanism, which can masquerade off the times of socialist, communist or Marxism. 92 00:09:01,080 --> 00:09:06,840 The ideas are a tool that is used to divide up the groups of people by the way of victim 93 00:09:06,840 --> 00:09:13,960 classes, race, creed, sex, or sexual orientation, you name it. The goal is to penalize certain 94 00:09:13,960 --> 00:09:18,960 groups in favor of other groups. This kind of philosophy is very dangerous and has had 95 00:09:18,960 --> 00:09:24,680 horrifying results all throughout human history. The filifying of one group over another is 96 00:09:24,680 --> 00:09:29,360 something that governments and politicians have done for eons. In the book of Esther, 97 00:09:29,360 --> 00:09:35,200 we see Hammond's hate for the Jews take hold of him. His mission in life became one of 98 00:09:35,200 --> 00:09:42,080 vengeance and wrath against a certain group of people. We can take a look at the American 99 00:09:42,080 --> 00:09:46,480 and Canadian history and we see the wickedness perpetrated against those of African Irish 100 00:09:46,480 --> 00:09:52,120 and First Nation descent. The desire to categorize groups so that they can be put at odds with 101 00:09:52,120 --> 00:09:58,520 each other in a useful tool for those who desire to consolidate power under themselves. 102 00:09:58,520 --> 00:10:03,360 A lot of people don't realize this, and I put in there specifically the Irish along 103 00:10:03,360 --> 00:10:07,680 with African and First Nations because a lot of people don't understand that at one point 104 00:10:07,680 --> 00:10:11,800 in the colonies, there were more Irish slaves. They would call them indentured servants, 105 00:10:11,800 --> 00:10:15,720 but they would be indentured servants with no escape. They would never be able to escape 106 00:10:15,720 --> 00:10:21,720 from their indentured nature. But there are some that speculate that the Irish slaves 107 00:10:21,720 --> 00:10:27,760 or indentured servants could have outnumbered the African slaves in the colonies in certain 108 00:10:27,760 --> 00:10:34,000 parts in history. So again, this becomes a tool to put people into camps and put people 109 00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:40,080 at odds with themselves. And they do this with a goal of consolidating power for themselves. 110 00:10:40,080 --> 00:10:46,080 So this has become front page news since the terrorist attacks on Israel by Hamas. This 111 00:10:46,080 --> 00:10:51,120 event has caused much of the West to boil over with old hatreds coming to the surface, 112 00:10:51,120 --> 00:10:55,200 the worst of human nature rushing out on the streets of Australia, England, Canada, the 113 00:10:55,200 --> 00:11:00,840 United States, the glorification of murder, rape, and even calls for genocide. We've all 114 00:11:00,840 --> 00:11:06,040 seen the flags being flown, but worse than that is the pontification from our leaders 115 00:11:06,040 --> 00:11:12,760 and politically, our leaders politically and from the so-called academic elite. 116 00:11:12,760 --> 00:11:17,200 So this brings me to my first point, which is mankind's ungodliness. When we look at 117 00:11:17,200 --> 00:11:23,280 our text specifically verses 21 through 23, we see an inference to our calling. Honoring 118 00:11:23,280 --> 00:11:29,840 God as God has given him thanks is our primary duty to God in view of who he is. In verse 119 00:11:29,840 --> 00:11:35,080 21, it says, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to 120 00:11:35,080 --> 00:11:40,600 him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming 121 00:11:40,600 --> 00:11:46,480 to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling 122 00:11:46,480 --> 00:11:52,240 mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. So when the people reject the truth, 123 00:11:52,240 --> 00:11:58,580 it becomes increasingly difficult for them to recognize and receive the truth. 124 00:11:58,580 --> 00:12:02,760 So here's an excerpt from a recent article written by Andrew Sullivan about the recent 125 00:12:02,760 --> 00:12:07,420 congressional hearings. And this is regarding the spike of antisemitism that we're still 126 00:12:07,420 --> 00:12:14,360 seeing on our elite college campuses. So the day the Empress's clothes fell off, did the 127 00:12:14,360 --> 00:12:20,200 congressional hearing finally expose the scandal of the Ivy League? It may be too much to expect 128 00:12:20,200 --> 00:12:26,920 that congressional hearings this week starring the three presidents of Harvard, MIT and Penn 129 00:12:26,920 --> 00:12:32,960 will wake people up to the toxic collapse of America's once great Ivy League. But I can 130 00:12:32,960 --> 00:12:38,080 hope, can't I? In the immortal words of Hitch, peace be unto him, as you listen to these 131 00:12:38,080 --> 00:12:46,400 people, you see how far termites have spread and how long and well they have dined. 132 00:12:46,400 --> 00:12:54,440 The mediocrities smirked, finessed and condescended in stone walls. Take a good look at them. 133 00:12:54,440 --> 00:12:58,620 These are the people who now select our elites and they select them as they select every 134 00:12:58,620 --> 00:13:03,720 single member of the faculty and every student by actively discriminating against members 135 00:13:03,720 --> 00:13:10,760 of certain privileged groups and privileges and quotes and aggressively favoring other 136 00:13:10,760 --> 00:13:17,060 again air quotes marginalized ones. These were themselves appointed in exactly the same 137 00:13:17,060 --> 00:13:35,040 way from DEI approved pools of candidates as a Harvard Dean, Claudine Gay, that Gay's top priority was making more progress on diversity, intensifying the already systemic race, sex, gender discrimination that defines the place. 138 00:13:35,040 --> 00:13:40,840 This is about Harvard. Thanks to the recent Supreme Court case, the energetic discrimination 139 00:13:40,840 --> 00:13:45,760 against Asian American candidates for admissions at Harvard is no longer in doubt, but countless 140 00:13:45,760 --> 00:13:50,080 other candidates for admission have little to no chance, regardless of their grades, 141 00:13:50,080 --> 00:13:55,040 their extracurriculars, because they belong to the wrong race, sex, sexual orientation 142 00:13:55,040 --> 00:13:59,720 and gender identity. As soon as students are admitted under this identity framework, they 143 00:13:59,720 --> 00:14:05,560 are taught its core precepts that the truth, air quotes, or in Harvard's now ironic motto 144 00:14:05,560 --> 00:14:12,600 veritas, which is supposed to be truth, is a function not of logic or reason or of open, 145 00:14:12,600 --> 00:14:17,960 free, robust debate and dialogue, let alone of the Western civilization, but of an inimical 146 00:14:17,960 --> 00:14:23,760 and evil power structure rooted in identity that needs to be dismantled first. Identity 147 00:14:23,760 --> 00:14:28,560 first, truth second, because the truth is rooted in identity and cannot exist out of 148 00:14:28,560 --> 00:14:34,200 it. So this article can be a little like wordy at times, but what I want you to pull from 149 00:14:34,200 --> 00:14:38,420 this is that there is this breaking down into groups so that then that way they can say 150 00:14:38,420 --> 00:14:44,220 that each group has their own truth and only certain groups have the truth that is more 151 00:14:44,220 --> 00:14:49,480 powerful than other truths. So in hearings, president gay actually said with a straight 152 00:14:49,480 --> 00:14:54,640 face that we embrace a commitment to free expression, even of the views that are objectionable, 153 00:14:54,640 --> 00:14:59,720 offensive and hateful. This is the president whose university mandates all students attend 154 00:14:59,720 --> 00:15:05,640 title nine training sessions where they are told that fat phobia and cis heterosexism 155 00:15:05,640 --> 00:15:11,800 are forms of violence and that using the wrong pronouns constitutes abuse. This is the same 156 00:15:11,800 --> 00:15:17,040 president who engineered the ouster of law professor Ronald Sullivan, simply because 157 00:15:17,040 --> 00:15:23,840 he represented a client of whom gay and students rightfully but irrelevant, irrelevantly disapproved 158 00:15:23,840 --> 00:15:30,520 Harvey Weinstein. This is the same president who watched a brilliant and popular professor 159 00:15:30,520 --> 00:15:35,560 Carol Hoeven be effectively handed out of her position after a public shaming campaign 160 00:15:35,560 --> 00:15:41,520 by one of her department's DENI enforcers and a mob of teaching fellows because Hoeven 161 00:15:41,520 --> 00:15:47,600 dared to state on television that biological sex is binary. This is the president of the 162 00:15:47,600 --> 00:15:53,400 university where a ground total of 1.46% of the faculty call themselves conservatives 163 00:15:53,400 --> 00:15:59,160 and 82% call themselves liberals or very liberal. This is the president of the university, which 164 00:15:59,160 --> 00:16:07,920 ranked 248th out of 248 colleges this year on free speech and Penn was 247th according 165 00:16:07,920 --> 00:16:13,360 to the foundation for individual rights expression. Harvard is a place where free expression goes 166 00:16:13,360 --> 00:16:21,520 to die. So here we have the university at Harvard and we see a dramatic decline from 167 00:16:21,520 --> 00:16:27,280 what it used to be because whenever human wisdom sets itself above God, the result is 168 00:16:27,280 --> 00:16:31,520 soon seen in human foolishness. And we're when at the time of this recording, we're 169 00:16:31,520 --> 00:16:38,720 in the month that is just full, full of people putting themselves above God. They celebrate 170 00:16:38,720 --> 00:16:44,140 it in Christianity, we're called to live humbly in service to our Lord and into our fellow 171 00:16:44,140 --> 00:16:51,520 man. But this month is told we're told to elevate our proclivities above everything 172 00:16:51,520 --> 00:16:57,000 else. It means even more than what God says. So mythology and ideology have resulted from 173 00:16:57,000 --> 00:17:02,160 man's need to identify some power greater than himself and his refusal to acknowledge 174 00:17:02,160 --> 00:17:09,040 God as that power. Men and women have elevated themselves to the position of God. We see 175 00:17:09,040 --> 00:17:16,780 this similarly played out in Daniel 2 38 and three one and 523. In our day, humanism has 176 00:17:16,780 --> 00:17:24,600 replaced the worship of individual human leaders in most developed countries. This tragic purpose 177 00:17:24,600 --> 00:17:30,400 of human god making continues and is very alive in our own day. And Paul's words have 178 00:17:30,400 --> 00:17:35,680 as much relevance for people who have made money or sex or fame their gods as for those 179 00:17:35,680 --> 00:17:42,000 who carved idols out of wood and stone. So the tragedy of Harvard, Yale and Princeton 180 00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:46,900 is that they were originally meant to lift up and edify the things of God. They were 181 00:17:46,900 --> 00:17:52,560 meant to be institutions for training ministers and leaders that held reverence for God. But 182 00:17:52,560 --> 00:17:58,480 now they and many others are nothing but a shadow of what they were. They hold power, 183 00:17:58,480 --> 00:18:04,920 yes, but is not power in the sense of heavenly power, but rather the power to destroy. This 184 00:18:04,920 --> 00:18:11,480 brings us to the next point, which is social justice dogma. What is happening in our society? 185 00:18:11,480 --> 00:18:17,480 How can the wise become so foolish? Or is this the whole point? When we look back at 186 00:18:17,480 --> 00:18:22,760 the illustration I used in the beginning, we see a problem in our society. When a person 187 00:18:22,760 --> 00:18:28,160 freely declares that the Bible holds no significant meaning for them, it is fair to ask them what 188 00:18:28,160 --> 00:18:34,800 exactly does. So in this case, we don't need to wonder, as Mrs. Smith made clear where 189 00:18:34,800 --> 00:18:39,840 her affections lie. When men reject God, they don't embrace nothing. They always replace 190 00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:44,600 the veneration and worship of the Lord with the worship of something else. And that something 191 00:18:44,600 --> 00:18:51,880 else can best be described as weak and worthless elemental things, which enslave us, inevitably 192 00:18:51,880 --> 00:18:55,920 damaging those under their leadership and leading to great judgment. In Galatians 4 193 00:18:55,920 --> 00:19:02,080 9 it says, but now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can 194 00:19:02,080 --> 00:19:08,280 you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves 195 00:19:08,280 --> 00:19:14,800 you want to be once more? In Jeremiah 23 1 through 2 it says, woe to the shepherds who 196 00:19:14,800 --> 00:19:19,720 destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, declares the Lord. Therefore, thus says the 197 00:19:19,720 --> 00:19:25,120 Lord the God of Israel concerning the shepherds who care for my people. You have scattered 198 00:19:25,120 --> 00:19:29,700 my flock and have driven them away and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will 199 00:19:29,700 --> 00:19:36,440 attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord. In Matthew 18 6 it says, but whoever 200 00:19:36,440 --> 00:19:42,300 causes one of these little ones who believes in me to sin, it would be better for him to 201 00:19:42,300 --> 00:19:46,800 have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the 202 00:19:46,800 --> 00:19:53,040 sea. This verse in particular, it sticks out to me today because not too long ago there 203 00:19:53,040 --> 00:19:58,120 was a YouTuber and I can't remember the name, so I'll just leave it alone. But like they 204 00:19:58,120 --> 00:20:06,400 produce children's content on YouTube, very popular. And it came out in support of the 205 00:20:06,400 --> 00:20:17,760 of some alternative lifestyles. And the rationale for wanting to support these other lifestyles 206 00:20:17,760 --> 00:20:24,320 was that it was all about love and how Jesus teaches love. And this person proclaims some 207 00:20:24,320 --> 00:20:29,600 faith in the Bible and Christianity. And it's remarkable to me that they didn't think of 208 00:20:29,600 --> 00:20:36,360 this verse that says that here you have an unblemished lamb, a young child. And when 209 00:20:36,360 --> 00:20:46,000 you bring in sinful beliefs and sinful natures and you present it as as equal to the things 210 00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:51,580 of God, now you are leading these children into sin. And this is what most of society 211 00:20:51,580 --> 00:21:00,040 is doing these days when they confuse God's love to the emotion of love that we think 212 00:21:00,040 --> 00:21:03,880 of it as today. Because love is an action. So if you really love someone, you would love 213 00:21:03,880 --> 00:21:08,960 them enough to lead them to the Lord. You would love them enough to prompt them or to 214 00:21:08,960 --> 00:21:13,240 try to bring the gospel to them so they'd be convicted to turn from their sin and to 215 00:21:13,240 --> 00:21:19,400 turn to life in Christ. But anyway, let's get back on track here. So we see similar 216 00:21:19,400 --> 00:21:26,040 situations with the events that happened at the congressional hearing. This the presidents 217 00:21:26,040 --> 00:21:31,040 of Harvard, UPenn and MIT testified on Capitol Hill about increasing anti-Semitism on their 218 00:21:31,040 --> 00:21:37,400 campuses, a problem affecting higher education institutions nationwide. During the hearings, 219 00:21:37,400 --> 00:21:42,000 the university leaders acknowledged the rise of Islamophobia and other forms of hate and 220 00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:46,600 pledged to address them. The Republican-led House committee grilled the administrators 221 00:21:46,600 --> 00:21:52,280 on topics such as ideological diversity and foreign university funding. The hearing shed 222 00:21:52,280 --> 00:21:58,280 light on the challenges universities face in balancing free speech and student safety 223 00:21:58,280 --> 00:22:04,640 with university leaders defending their policies and actions since the October 7 attacks on 224 00:22:04,640 --> 00:22:10,800 Israel. The hearing also highlighted broader issues such as the difficulties faced by universities 225 00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:15,960 in navigating the balance between free speech and student safety. The inability of these 226 00:22:15,960 --> 00:22:23,520 three college presidents to answer any simple questions without qualifications illustrates 227 00:22:23,520 --> 00:22:29,280 that it wasn't just during Isaiah's day that the Lord brought judgment to the land by making 228 00:22:29,280 --> 00:22:34,760 the wisdom of wise men perish and the discernment of their discerning men to be concealed. The 229 00:22:34,760 --> 00:22:41,560 foolishness in responses given by these three university presidents to Representative Stefanik 230 00:22:41,560 --> 00:22:49,200 is so impossibly inept and wrong, and the outcry against it has been so dismissive and 231 00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:55,800 ignorant that it's seemingly impossible to believe. As Representative Stefanik said to 232 00:22:55,800 --> 00:23:03,320 them, this is the easiest question to answer yes to that they will ever be asked in a congressional 233 00:23:03,320 --> 00:23:09,280 hearing. When watching those who profess to be wise become fools, Romans 1, 22, it is 234 00:23:09,280 --> 00:23:17,040 good to remember that the foolishness of fools is deceit or folly, Proverbs 14, 8. And not 235 00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:23,920 simply ignorance. The wicked have no rules. They make a mockery of justice and the mouth 236 00:23:23,920 --> 00:23:30,000 of the wicked spreads iniquity. So what is being said on these college campuses was the 237 00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:37,560 direct call for genocide of the Jewish people by pro-Palestinian Hamas protesters. The college 238 00:23:37,560 --> 00:23:41,880 presidents refused to state that the statement of genocide was a breach of the school's code 239 00:23:41,880 --> 00:23:47,440 of conduct. The same schools that will penalize, expel, and destroy others when they disagree 240 00:23:47,440 --> 00:23:53,400 with their agenda are now saying free speech is free speech. When it is the annihilation 241 00:23:53,400 --> 00:24:00,720 and genocide and killing of Jews, it's okay. When you are making someone feel bad when 242 00:24:00,720 --> 00:24:04,440 you say, you know, losing weight is better for your health. Well, that's fat phobia and 243 00:24:04,440 --> 00:24:10,520 we need to punish you for it. You see how crazy this is because if you love someone, 244 00:24:10,520 --> 00:24:15,640 you want them to be healthy and you want to espouse ways to live a healthy life. That's 245 00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:20,120 not hate. That's love. That's love and action as long as you do it in a kind, empathetic 246 00:24:20,120 --> 00:24:26,600 way. But the call for genocide or the murder of an entire race, that's not free speech. 247 00:24:26,600 --> 00:24:33,080 That's a direct threat. And you're not allowed to do direct threats like that under the veil 248 00:24:33,080 --> 00:24:38,840 of free speech. And what love are you showing to your Jewish brothers and sisters if you're 249 00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:45,760 willfully allowing actual terroristic threats to come against them? Your action of love 250 00:24:45,760 --> 00:24:53,320 is to allow them to be truly victimized. It's a very interesting conundrum, but again, the 251 00:24:53,320 --> 00:24:59,600 whys become foolish. This brings me to my final point, my close, our response. Well, 252 00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:04,240 the congresswoman from New York herself, a graduate of Harvard University was excellent 253 00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:08,060 in her questioning. It would have been great to see her pivot her questioning using the 254 00:25:08,060 --> 00:25:14,320 words all women, all blacks, all homosexuals, all whites, all faculty, faculty, and all 255 00:25:14,320 --> 00:25:21,400 college presidents instead of all Jews to see if their it depends on context answer 256 00:25:21,400 --> 00:25:27,280 would have remained. Because that's the way the college professors answered back. It was 257 00:25:27,280 --> 00:25:35,080 is calling for genocide. Okay, well, it depends on the context. Just calling for the lynching 258 00:25:35,080 --> 00:25:39,720 of a black person, the stoning of a transgender student constitute harassment, because that's 259 00:25:39,720 --> 00:25:45,600 what they were doing to the Jewish students. That the answer would have been a sharp, clear 260 00:25:45,600 --> 00:25:52,460 and fast. Yes, this is what it should have been. Context does not excuse evil, but evil 261 00:25:52,460 --> 00:25:59,360 character will hide behind context. And Ezekiel 2230, it says, and I sought for a man among 262 00:25:59,360 --> 00:26:05,720 them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that 263 00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:10,920 I should not destroy it, but I found none. Now is the time to stand in the gap and speak 264 00:26:10,920 --> 00:26:17,520 out against foolishness being propagated by elitist progressives. In Ephesians 511, take 265 00:26:17,520 --> 00:26:24,040 no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. Silence amid foolishness 266 00:26:24,040 --> 00:26:30,280 is the support of foolishness and support of foolishness is sin. As Edmund Burke said, 267 00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:35,920 all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. The last time 268 00:26:35,920 --> 00:26:41,200 good men were silent when the call for genocide of Jews was unaddressed, it wasn't long before 269 00:26:41,200 --> 00:26:47,800 the world was at war. So we need to remember to speak now before millions and millions 270 00:26:47,800 --> 00:26:53,680 of others have to suffer because of our silence. And this is not a political call. This is 271 00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:59,800 a call to Christ. In Jeremiah 117, it says, but you dress yourself for work, arise and 272 00:26:59,800 --> 00:27:05,280 say to them, everything that I command you, do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay 273 00:27:05,280 --> 00:27:10,740 you for them. D and I and all of these critical theories run up against so much of what the 274 00:27:10,740 --> 00:27:19,080 Bible instructs for life. Like forsaking sin instead of excusing it, our primary identity 275 00:27:19,080 --> 00:27:25,080 being in Christ and denouncing partiality. Beware of the world which excesses over power 276 00:27:25,080 --> 00:27:31,120 without paying any mind to the all-powerful God. We will find peace with each other when 277 00:27:31,120 --> 00:27:36,960 we speak the peace given God, or when we seek the peace given God, not when we seek to put 278 00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:43,400 others in their place because of past injustices inflicted on us. God will hold men accountable 279 00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:49,000 and we need to leave room for his wrath, rather than responding to our oppressors with oppression 280 00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:54,580 of our own. Good men make good policies and eradicate systems that promote injustice 281 00:27:54,580 --> 00:27:59,020 rather than invent new ones. Martin Luther King once observed there are some instances 282 00:27:59,020 --> 00:28:05,720 where a law is just on its face, but unjust in its application. D and I laws may sound 283 00:28:05,720 --> 00:28:10,600 good on their face, but they fall flat on their face when they are confronted with the 284 00:28:10,600 --> 00:28:16,880 better way revealed in God's word. We have to remain vigilant as watchmen in our society, 285 00:28:16,880 --> 00:28:20,440 holding on to the truth that is the word of God that is why it is so important to read 286 00:28:20,440 --> 00:28:25,520 your Bible regularly and to be active with your faith both in church, your body, and 287 00:28:25,520 --> 00:28:29,440 society. We are called to stand in the gap. You can think of it in a different way. We 288 00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:34,920 must be alert like a lifeguard. We have to be able to point out unsafe behavior and also 289 00:28:34,920 --> 00:28:41,000 be ready to jump into action in order to bring life saving therapy. Our world is a fallen 290 00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:48,640 one, but we need to be the light. We are called to be the light. In Matthew 5, 14-16 says, 291 00:28:48,640 --> 00:28:54,060 you are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people 292 00:28:54,060 --> 00:28:58,720 light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand and it gives light to all in the 293 00:28:58,720 --> 00:29:03,880 house. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good 294 00:29:03,880 --> 00:29:08,880 works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. 295 00:29:08,880 --> 00:29:15,840 So as I finish, mankind is ungodly, but that is why Christ died for us. Social justice 296 00:29:15,840 --> 00:29:23,900 is not just if it is not godly. We are called to live according to God's justice. Our response 297 00:29:23,900 --> 00:29:29,740 is one born out of love to our God. We desire to see people brought to salvation in Christ 298 00:29:29,740 --> 00:29:37,360 and unity in the body of Christ. We do not make excuses for sin, but rather we seek redemption 299 00:29:37,360 --> 00:29:42,640 and salvation through the repentance of sin. The acknowledgement of Jesus Christ is our 300 00:29:42,640 --> 00:29:48,720 Messiah. This world will pass away, but until Jesus comes, we have a calling and obligation 301 00:29:48,720 --> 00:29:54,820 to keep our eyes focused on God, to be wise, to be discerning, and to not check our brains 302 00:29:54,820 --> 00:29:57,200 at the door. So if I could have every head bowed, every 303 00:29:57,200 --> 00:30:04,280 eye closed real quickly as I finish this up, I want to give an invitation. If this message 304 00:30:04,280 --> 00:30:09,120 has impacted you and you know you are not right with God, you have an opportunity right 305 00:30:09,120 --> 00:30:14,440 now to get your heart right. And you can simply do that. If you signify that with an uplifted 306 00:30:14,440 --> 00:30:20,040 hand, God sees that. He sees your hand. I can't see it. It's a podcast. But if you 307 00:30:20,040 --> 00:30:24,400 rose your hand and you meant it, I want you to repeat after me, Dear Lord God, I know 308 00:30:24,400 --> 00:30:29,640 that I'm a sinner, but I know that you sent your Son Jesus Christ and that He died for 309 00:30:29,640 --> 00:30:35,200 my sins. I repent of my sins and I accept Him as my Lord and Savior. In Jesus' name, 310 00:30:35,200 --> 00:30:40,320 amen. That simple prayer brings you from death into life. It's just like what the thief on 311 00:30:40,320 --> 00:30:47,400 the cross said. He recognized who he was and he recognized who Jesus was. That's all it 312 00:30:47,400 --> 00:30:52,360 is. Now moving forward past that, get a Bible, 313 00:30:52,360 --> 00:30:57,920 start reading it. The book of John is a great place to start. Find a Bible believing church 314 00:30:57,920 --> 00:31:04,040 and lock in to serve. Go in humbly with the desire to serve. If you're in Samanar, please 315 00:31:04,040 --> 00:31:09,520 come out and meet with us. We're just above the BMO now downtown. If you're not, we have 316 00:31:09,520 --> 00:31:15,880 3,500 churches globally. The contact information is in the show notes. Reach out. Let me know 317 00:31:15,880 --> 00:31:21,780 you prayed this prayer and that you're going to find a church and I'll help you do so. 318 00:31:21,780 --> 00:31:25,800 The whole purpose of this podcast is just to get the gospel message out more and more 319 00:31:25,800 --> 00:31:29,800 and more. It's just one little part of what we're doing here in Samanar and what we do 320 00:31:29,800 --> 00:31:34,780 as a fellowship as a whole. I just want to thank everybody who's listening. If these 321 00:31:34,780 --> 00:31:39,080 messages mean something to you, I'd really appreciate it if you liked, subscribed, and 322 00:31:39,080 --> 00:31:44,840 shared the podcast. It really does help us grow and help us get this out to more people. 323 00:31:44,840 --> 00:31:47,440 With that, I just want to again thank you for listening. I can't wait for you to come 324 00:31:47,440 --> 00:31:48,440 back next time. God bless. 325 00:31:48,440 --> 00:31:49,440 Thank you for listening to the PHSA. 326 00:31:49,440 --> 00:31:54,520 Thank you for listening to the PHSA Potter's House Samanar podcast. Be sure to follow us 327 00:31:54,520 --> 00:31:59,560 on Instagram at pottershouse underscore Samanar to keep up to date on what we are doing, join 328 00:31:59,560 --> 00:32:19,880 the conversation, and discover how Jesus Christ can revolutionize your life.