NXR Podcast - THE SERMON - The Ordo Amoris & Natural Affections | Matthew 7:7-11
Aired: 2025-02-02
Duration: 01:08:25


=== Armor Bearers and Progressives (05:11) ===

[00:00:28]  Please stand for the reading of God's Word.
[00:00:30]  We're continuing our exegetical series through the Gospel according to Matthew.
[00:00:36]  Our text for today is Matthew chapter 7, verses 7 through 11.
[00:00:40]  I'll read our text for us in its entirety.
[00:00:42]  When I finish reading the text, I'm going to say, This is the Word of the Lord, at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying, Thanks be to God.
[00:00:50]  Once more, our text for today is the Gospel according to Matthew chapter 7, verses 7 through 11.
[00:00:57]  The Bible says this.
[00:00:59]  Ask, and it will be given to you.
[00:01:02]  Seek, and you will find.
[00:01:04]  Knock, and it will be opened to you.
[00:01:07]  For every one who asks receives, and to the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
[00:01:17]  Or which one of you, if his son ask him for bread, will give him a stone, or if he ask for a fish, will give him a serpent?
[00:01:28]  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]  This is the word of the Lord.
[00:01:46]  All right, please be seated.
[00:01:47]  Two primary points that I hope by God's grace to faithfully communicate from the text today one is the Ordo Amoris, the second is total depravity.
[00:02:00]  One, the Ordo Amoris.
[00:02:03]  The second, total depravity.
[00:02:05]  In other words, to say it simply, as a Christian, if you are to be a biblically faithful Christian, you should be a conservative and a Calvinist.
[00:02:19]  You should be a conservative and a Calvinist.
[00:02:22]  To start with that first statement, you should be conservative.
[00:02:27]  You should not be a conservative by today's standards, which ultimately, to define that fairly and accurately, would be.
[00:02:35]  Simply seeking to enshrine the most recent victory of progressives.
[00:02:42]  That's what conservatives have sadly become in our nation they're the guys who fight for whatever progressive policy the last guy put in place.
[00:02:54]  And then the next liberal is going to push the envelope even further and say, well, that wasn't progressive enough.
[00:03:01]  That wasn't forward thinking enough.
[00:03:03]  We need to go further.
[00:03:05]  And then the conservatives come in and say, no.
[00:03:08]  We love this thing.
[00:03:10]  Wait, but that was the thing that you staunchly disagreed with when it was taking place.
[00:03:16]  Yeah, but it's been six months, and now we love it.
[00:03:19]  And so that's what conservatives sadly have become in our nation is what's a conservative?
[00:03:26]  A guy who's, you know, six to 18 months behind a liberal.
[00:03:30]  And a guy who actually really is just kind of the shield bearer, the armor bearer of a liberal.
[00:03:37]  If you're not familiar with that role, an armor bearer.
[00:03:40]  Think of Jonathan, the son of Saul.
[00:03:45]  He and his armor bearer, when they were going out and fighting against the Philistines, it was kind of like a two man team working, fighting in tandem.
[00:03:54]  And what Jonathan would do is he would lead the attack, and so he would be giving the incapacitating blow to the opponents, knocking them down, subduing them, but not having the time that it required in order to give the final death blow.
[00:04:15]  He's charging through the masses and slashing and using his sword in an offensive way to incapacitate the enemy.
[00:04:28]  But then the armor bearer would follow up and go behind to make sure that the enemy doesn't get back up.
[00:04:34]  Jonathan knocks them down, and his armor bearer then gives the death blow and makes sure that they stay down, kills them.
[00:04:42]  Sadly, that's what conservatives have become for the left.
[00:04:46]  The conservative in America is like Jonathan's armor bearer.
[00:04:52]  So the progressive goes and says, Let's rebel against God a little further.
[00:04:58]  And the conservative says, No, we shouldn't.
[00:05:02]  We've already rebelled against Him so much and we love this rebellion, we just don't want any new rebellion.
[00:05:07]  But when the progressive, sadly, inevitably, eventually gets his way and knocks down the next thing in God's word that we're supposed to esteem and respect and honor, Then the conservative, once it's knocked down, he comes in and actually makes sure that it stays down and functions as that armor bearer to Jonathan.
[00:05:29]  So too is a conservative to a progressive or a liberal.
[00:05:34]  Most conservatives are liberals, and then progressives are liberals on steroids.

=== Changing Positions in Order Salutis (05:18) ===

[00:05:40]  That's kind of where we are today, sadly.
[00:05:45]  But that's not what the Bible teaches.
[00:05:48]  And one of the things that you may or may not be familiar with, I try not to.
[00:05:53]  On the Lord's Day, in the setting of the local church, I want to preach the text.
[00:05:59]  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]  But occasionally, you guys, I think, would be able to bear witness and say, yeah, it's happened a couple times.
[00:06:13]  It doesn't happen every week, right?
[00:06:15]  Sometimes it's like there are rumors of World War III, and the text is the Lord's Prayer.
[00:06:22]  And so we're going to preach the Lord's Prayer.
[00:06:24]  And the Lord's Prayer has a lot of applications, so there might be a little bit of, but it's primarily going to be the Lord's Prayer.
[00:06:30]  But it just so happens in the Providence of God that this week, our Vice President mentioned on social media the importance and the Christian heritage, that it's a Christian old idea of the Ordo Amoris.
[00:06:49]  And when that happened, I hadn't even looked at the text yet for this week for the sermon.
[00:06:55]  So then, when I was sitting down and carving out time to work on.
[00:06:59]  My exegesis and prepare for preaching God's word.
[00:07:02]  It just so happened that our text very much includes that principle, that Christian principle of the order amoris.
[00:07:09]  The order amoris is just Latin for order of loves.
[00:07:14]  You may be familiar with the phrase order salutis.
[00:07:17]  That's the order of salvation.
[00:07:19]  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]  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]  So, a good order salutis, obviously, Christians, if we do anything, it's disagreeing with one another.
[00:07:50]  So, not everybody has the same order salutis, but you're in luck.
[00:07:54]  I have the right one.
[00:07:56]  Of course.
[00:07:56]  Like, you know, shocker.
[00:07:59]  Here's the thing it's so funny.
[00:08:00]  People will say, Joel thinks he's right.
[00:08:04]  Introduce me to the guy who thinks he's wrong.
[00:08:07]  Right?
[00:08:08]  It's not like I've never thought I was wrong, but here's the nifty trick.
[00:08:11]  Whenever I do start to have an incessant suspicion that I might be wrong, I usually do one of these moves.
[00:08:20]  It's crazy, I know.
[00:08:22]  I usually change my position.
[00:08:25]  I'm starting to suspect I might be wrong on this issue.
[00:08:29]  And then I change my position.
[00:08:30]  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.
[00:08:39]  Most pastors today, what do they boast in?
[00:08:42]  They don't boast in holding to the truth.
[00:08:45]  They simply boast in holding to whatever they've held to, true or false.
[00:08:50]  Really, it's irrelevant to them.
[00:08:52]  It doesn't matter.
[00:08:52]  They just boast in holding it for a very long time.
[00:08:56]  This guy over here, he's changing.
[00:08:58]  And what do they mean by that?
[00:08:59]  When they make that kind of statement, he's changing.
[00:09:02]  They mean he's inconsistent.
[00:09:04]  He's wishy washy.
[00:09:11]  He's not anchored.
[00:09:12]  Therefore, he's not credible.
[00:09:15]  He's not really worth trusting.
[00:09:18]  And you are?
[00:09:18]  Why?
[00:09:20]  Because I've held the same opinion for 30 years.
[00:09:23]  You mean you've been wrong for 30 years?
[00:09:26]  And every time you've even had an inkling of a doubt with your position and thinking that maybe you should change it, you double down instead of changing, which is another word for repenting.
[00:09:38]  Why am I credible?
[00:09:39]  I have avoided repentance for 30 years.
[00:09:44]  Those are your credentials?
[00:09:48]  Now, I mean, it would be nice to come out of my mother's womb with perfect theology.
[00:09:54]  That'd be great.
[00:09:56]  So I'm not saying changing all the time that that's the ideal.
[00:09:58]  I would say, you know, three different options here.
[00:10:00]  One, be consistent for a long time and be consistently right.
[00:10:08]  I'll admit that's what we're shooting for.
[00:10:10]  That's the ideal.
[00:10:12]  Be right and be right for a long time and not have to change every 18 months.
[00:10:18]  Okay, that's ideal.
[00:10:19]  Second, be consistent.
[00:10:21]  Change more than you would like, but change because you recognize that you're wrong and you're willing to have humility and repent.
[00:10:32]  And then, last, the worst position is be right about some things, but also be wrong about other things and don't change anything at all because you're afraid it'll make you look bad.
[00:10:44]  Whoever that guy is, I don't have anybody in mind, but don't be that guy.
[00:10:52]  That's the guy you don't want to be.
[00:10:54]  That's the guy who boasts of impenitence.

=== The Purpose of the System (04:30) ===

[00:10:58]  And penitence is not a credential.
[00:11:00]  Okay, so that being said, I don't want to just follow the news cycle.
[00:11:06]  I want to follow the text.
[00:11:08]  But God is so exceedingly kind that in his providence, occasionally, not every week, but occasionally, the text just so happens to include some of the news cycle.
[00:11:19]  And one of the big events this week, and I trust that many of you, you have families and jobs.
[00:11:25]  And you're not chronically online, God bless you.
[00:11:28]  That's wonderful.
[00:11:31]  So, for those of you who maybe aren't aware, one of the big events that happened this week is that our Vice President, JD Vance, was responding to someone on X, Elon Musk, his social media platform, and countering them on this issue that's a hot button issue right now in regards to immigration.
[00:11:51]  And a lot of guys in the name of Christ right now, in the name of Christ, liberal Christians, guys who are of the persuasion that conveniently all the timeless teachings of Jesus just happen to perfectly align with the 20th century.
[00:12:12]  Isn't that amazing?
[00:12:13]  All these timeless teachings of Jesus just so happen to perfectly line up with Western post war liberal sentiments.
[00:12:23]  Amazing, right?
[00:12:24]  Everybody's been wrong until about 1945.
[00:12:27]  So there's those guys, liberal Christians, serving the liberal order.
[00:12:33]  And those guys, they're big on immigration, right?
[00:12:36]  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.
[00:12:47]  And then when pressed, you know, with a question like, Why?
[00:12:51]  You know, they would respond and say, Well, because Americans are dumb and have watched too much TV.
[00:12:57]  And they were into sports instead of trigonometry.
[00:13:01]  And great innovation ultimately is going to come from countries that use cow dung in their cooking.
[00:13:13]  If that guy's a conservative, then we're in rough shape.
[00:13:18]  C.A., the way I started this sermon, conservatives just solidifying the most recent victory of the left.
[00:13:26]  So there's that guy.
[00:13:28]  It may be a liberal progressive.
[00:13:32]  Politically left or a liberal conservative.
[00:13:36]  For today's standards, technically politically right, but by world standards, looking at human history, and certainly by God's standards, looking at His word, you're not on the right at all.
[00:13:49]  And so, because of this big conversation right now about immigration and like, okay, I guess technically people shouldn't break the law and come into the country illegally and commit crimes and murder people.
[00:14:01]  All right, okay, I mean, we.
[00:14:03]  I can't say it out loud, but I'm a leftist.
[00:14:05]  Technically, I love that.
[00:14:07]  That's literally my policy.
[00:14:09]  The system is what it does.
[00:14:10]  Have you ever heard that?
[00:14:11]  The purpose of the system is what it does, not what you call it.
[00:14:16]  So you can have the flour jar and the sugar jar.
[00:14:19]  And I know it sounds crazy, but if you change the labels, so here's flour and here's sugar.
[00:14:27]  And you change the labels and you take the sugar label on a jar containing sugar and you move it over here and put it on the flour jar.
[00:14:34]  You take the flour label and you put it on the sugar jar.
[00:14:37]  The contents within those two jars still remain the same.
[00:14:40]  Did you know that?
[00:14:42]  You still got flour on one side and sugar on the other.
[00:14:45]  It doesn't matter what you call it.
[00:14:46]  The purpose of a system is what it does, not what it's named.
[00:14:51]  So, our education system, it's named an education system.
[00:14:55]  So, what's its purpose?
[00:14:57]  To educate children.
[00:15:00]  No, the purpose of a system is not what it's named, what it's called, but what it does.
[00:15:05]  So, our education system, what is its purpose?
[00:15:08]  It's called the education system, but what is it really?
[00:15:12]  It's the Democrat voting system.
[00:15:16]  Its purpose is what it does.
[00:15:18]  You can't look at what something does for 50 years and then still say, yeah, but that's not its purpose.
[00:15:26]  No, see, that's not a bug.

=== Britain, Whiteness, and Native Peoples (08:46) ===

[00:15:28]  The reason it's been so consistent for 50 years is because that's the feature.
[00:15:34]  It's actually what it does, it's what it's trying to do.
[00:15:38]  It's what it's trying to do, it's its purpose.
[00:15:42]  And one of the purposes of liberal immigration policies is to have a lot of immigration so that you have more Democrat voters to replace heritage Americans.
[00:15:56]  And some of you have heard me use that phrase, heritage Americans, a few times.
[00:15:59]  Let me just define it so that there's no lack of clarity.
[00:16:03]  Heritage Americans, when I use that phrase, I'm not speaking of exclusively white people, I'm talking about America as it looked historically.
[00:16:14]  Now, I will, I'm not going to pull the wool over your heads and lie to you.
[00:16:18]  I'll be honest because I have nothing to hide here because there's nothing inherently immoral about what I'm about to say.
[00:16:23]  America in the past was predominantly white.
[00:16:27]  Praise God.
[00:16:28]  God in His sovereignty chose, for whatever reason, He's sovereign, He gets to make these decisions.
[00:16:33]  And God in His sovereignty, for whatever reason, chose to usher in Christendom in the world, predominantly through European countries.
[00:16:41]  And America followed in that and in its origin.
[00:16:46]  And America's history was predominantly white.
[00:16:48]  But it wasn't exclusively white.
[00:16:50]  And I do think that we need to not shy away from what I just said.
[00:16:53]  We also shouldn't avoid what I'm about to say, which is America is unique.
[00:16:58]  America is not Great Britain.
[00:16:59]  We're just, we're not.
[00:17:01]  Right?
[00:17:02]  America, like, we're the country that likes to make fun of Great Britain.
[00:17:05]  And rightfully so.
[00:17:09]  Every Fourth of July, we kind of stick it to our cousins across the pond.
[00:17:14]  And I think that's a good instinct.
[00:17:16]  It's American.
[00:17:17]  And I think in many ways I can make an argument, it's also Christian, distinctly Christian.
[00:17:22]  But what I mean by saying we're not Great Britain, we're not Great Britain in many cultural ways, but also Great Britain, when you speak of historically the native people of that geographic region, they, for a thousand years, all the way from King Alfred, the native people have been Brits.
[00:17:45]  So when a nation like that, in just a few short decades, Without even the citizenry voting for it, but just their oligarchy of political elites going against the desires of the natural citizens, seek to put in place certain policies that ultimately replace the natural citizens, to where all of a sudden you look at Great Britain and you're like, oh, yeah, you know, native citizens of Great Britain are Pakistanis.
[00:18:14]  Well, that's wicked.
[00:18:17]  And that would be wicked in any direction.
[00:18:19]  You go into any country.
[00:18:22]  And say these people have been here for a thousand years and we're going to replace them.
[00:18:26]  To where within half of a century, 40, 50 years, give or take, this country will look nothing like what it did look like for a thousand years when it was built.
[00:18:37]  That's wrong.
[00:18:39]  That's wrong.
[00:18:40]  That's morally, ethically wrong.
[00:18:42]  Now, America, like I said, is not Great Britain.
[00:18:44]  We are unique.
[00:18:45]  And what I mean by that is that in America's origin, you're talking about finding a massive landmass.
[00:18:54]  With many natural resources that very few people were aware even existed in prior times.
[00:19:02]  And so, just the practical, not just supernatural, what God did with our country, and I think He did a lot.
[00:19:08]  Praise God for our founding, our history.
[00:19:12]  But even in a practical sense, not just the supernatural sense, but the practical sense, America's origin is different.
[00:19:20]  It was discovered and found, and because of that, during its settlement, A period of time where America was being settled, during that period there were lots of different people who came in.
[00:19:31]  And each time people came in, the people who had been there longer were frustrated.
[00:19:37]  So that's not really new.
[00:19:39]  That's not really new.
[00:19:40]  Tale as old as time, right?
[00:19:42]  People are there, and then the Irish are coming.
[00:19:44]  It's like, no!
[00:19:47]  We don't want the Irish.
[00:19:48]  Now, to be fair, if I had been there, I think I would have said the same thing.
[00:19:54]  My wife is Irish.
[00:19:56]  I've been to Ireland, it's a beautiful country.
[00:19:59]  But if I was in America historically at the time that there was a massive migration of Irish people, I probably would have stood against it for a number of reasons.
[00:20:08]  One, because the Irish were predominantly Catholic.
[00:20:13]  And America's history predating the wave of Irish immigration was distinctly Protestant.
[00:20:20]  And one of the reasons that people left England, right, this Anglo Saxon, you know, it's WASP, right?
[00:20:30]  It's the white Anglo Saxon Protestant people.
[00:20:34]  That wasn't exclusive, but it was predominant in America's founding.
[00:20:38]  Those people, one of the premier reasons that they moved to the Americas to settle this nation was because of Catholic tyranny.
[00:20:47]  For religious freedom.
[00:20:49]  And so they weren't super excited about a bunch of Catholics moving in when this was a Protestant nation.
[00:20:58]  And then there was a season where Germans were coming in.
[00:21:00]  They weren't very excited about the Germans coming in.
[00:21:04]  And then there were seasons of this and seasons of that.
[00:21:06]  But the differences, there's a few differences.
[00:21:08]  In America's history, it has always been unique.
[00:21:10]  It's not England's history.
[00:21:11]  We can't say, well, there's been this particular people for a thousand years tracking back to King Alfred, and this is our native place.
[00:21:19]  That's not America's history.
[00:21:21]  It's also, though, not America's history.
[00:21:26]  I want to be balanced, and just for the record, I don't want to be balanced for the sake of being balanced.
[00:21:30]  If the truth is on one side, then I don't want to be balanced at all.
[00:21:32]  I just want to be right.
[00:21:34]  I just want to hold the truth.
[00:21:35]  It was like, that's not balanced.
[00:21:36]  Well, tough.
[00:21:37]  All the truth is on one side, so that's the side I'm going to.
[00:21:40]  But in this case, in the name of pursuing truth, I want to say that one, America doesn't have England's history.
[00:21:46]  Same people, same plot of land, thousand years.
[00:21:49]  That's not our history.
[00:21:50]  There were waves of migration.
[00:21:52]  There were.
[00:21:54]  On the other hand, though, we are not a nation of immigrants.
[00:21:58]  We're not.
[00:21:58]  Well, we're becoming that, sadly.
[00:22:01]  But historically, that's not who we are.
[00:22:04]  We were a nation of settlers.
[00:22:06]  And I know some of you are aware of this, but some of you aren't, so I think it's helpful.
[00:22:10]  There's a difference between a nation of settlers versus a nation of immigrants.
[00:22:14]  And if you're wondering what the difference is, to say it as concisely and simply as possible, being a settler is when you go somewhere.
[00:22:22]  And there's nothing there.
[00:22:25]  So you're signing up for hard work.
[00:22:28]  When you're moving into a wild terrain, it's not civilized.
[00:22:36]  You're not going somewhere that already has buildings and structures and culture and job opportunities and free checks and all these.
[00:22:47]  No, you're going somewhere not to take the benefits of someone else's home, but you're going somewhere to build a home.
[00:22:56]  And for anybody who might be thinking, well, but there were native peoples here before the Britons got here.
[00:23:03]  Correct.
[00:23:04]  But America was not settled.
[00:23:06]  What do you mean it wasn't settled?
[00:23:09]  I'll say it very plainly.
[00:23:11]  Because Native Americans, I would argue that we are Native Americans, for all intents and purposes.
[00:23:18]  But let's say indigenous peoples, we'll use that term.
[00:23:22]  Indigenous peoples did not settle the land, they were nomadic, they lived in tents.
[00:23:29]  They did not build civilization.
[00:23:31]  They worshiped demon gods.
[00:23:33]  They used drugs.
[00:23:35]  And they killed each other and enslaved each other.
[00:23:40]  So it's like, well, we came and took someone's civilization.
[00:23:42]  Nope, there was no civilization because there were no civilized people.
[00:23:48]  That's kind of rude.
[00:23:49]  Well, there were no civilized people because the God who grants order, a God of order, the triune God, had not yet come to this land.
[00:23:58]  I believe, in a literal sense, that the Americas were actually infested by demons.
[00:24:04]  And it wasn't until Christians, who predominantly happened to be white, but that's because of God's sovereign plan and what He was doing in that moment with European countries and Christendom and all these things.

=== Loving Americans More Than Ugandans (02:20) ===

[00:24:15]  Not trying to make a statement there.
[00:24:17]  But when God sent Christians to the Americas, it was hard.
[00:24:22]  A lot of them starved.
[00:24:23]  A lot of them froze to death.
[00:24:25]  A lot of them got disease.
[00:24:26]  A lot of them were killed by indigenous people, Indian tribes.
[00:24:32]  But they worked and they worked and they prayed and they prayed.
[00:24:34]  I mean, you read about the 13 colonies.
[00:24:37]  You read about the Puritans, you read about the Pilgrims, the Covenanters, the Founders, and these people, this was a religious project for them.
[00:24:47]  They were doing it for God and for their posterity.
[00:24:52]  And we have that written.
[00:24:54]  I mean, it's explicitly written in the Founders' papers for us and our posterity.
[00:25:00]  Posterity meaning our future children, people who actually, they physically come from us, not spiritually, not spiritual descendants, but physical descendants.
[00:25:12]  Our posterity.
[00:25:13]  We're doing it for us, all this hard work at great risk to our own lives.
[00:25:18]  We are taking upon ourselves this Protestant, uniquely Protestant American project for our good, the glory of God first, our good, and the good of our children.
[00:25:30]  Not the good of India.
[00:25:33]  And none of that means, none of that necessitates any animus towards India.
[00:25:40]  Did you know you can prefer your people?
[00:25:44]  It ripples out, and this gets back to the order of morals.
[00:25:46]  So, starting with your wife, your children, your parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, rippling out further and further.
[00:25:55]  Eventually, it gets to your community, your town, your state, your country.
[00:26:00]  You can prefer your people, and preference for your own does not necessitate hatred of others, does it?
[00:26:11]  So, I can love Americans more than Ugandans.
[00:26:15]  And, scouts honor, brothers and sisters.
[00:26:18]  I have never had a hateful thought about Ugandans.
[00:26:23]  By the grace of God, nothing good in myself, but by God's grace and by His grace alone, I've never hated Ugandans.
[00:26:30]  And yet, simultaneously, I love Americans more because they're my people.

=== Natural Loves vs Supernatural Salvation (14:51) ===

[00:26:35]  And so, the order of more is the order of loves.
[00:26:39]  That's what it is.
[00:26:40]  It's a triage, right?
[00:26:42]  Think you walk into the emergency room, right?
[00:26:45]  And somebody, you know, is like blue in the face and can't breathe.
[00:26:50]  And another guy has a hangnail.
[00:26:54]  And probably just needs a Xanax.
[00:26:55]  And he doesn't, actually, because what he needs is to grow up and get a grip and trust in Jesus.
[00:27:03]  But you get my point.
[00:27:04]  One of them is there for anxiety, it's more of an emotional thing.
[00:27:06]  And then somebody else literally is about to die.
[00:27:09]  Well, they're going to triage.
[00:27:11]  Triage meaning they're going to assess, make a judgment, right?
[00:27:14]  We've been talking about judgment recently in Matthew chapter 7, and hopefully make the right judgment of who requires medical care most urgently.
[00:27:25]  Well, that's the order of morals in terms of triaging who requires my love most committedly, most regularly, most urgently, and also most intensely to the highest degree.
[00:27:44]  Who am I morally obligated under God, by God's law, to love the most?
[00:27:51]  To love the most.
[00:27:54]  And loving some people more.
[00:27:57]  Doesn't mean that I hate others.
[00:28:01]  In fact, loving some people more doesn't mean that I don't love everyone at all.
[00:28:09]  I like the way that Thomas Aquinas, Voldemort, he who must not be named, Thomas Aquinas, he said it like this On this respect, we love all men equally out of charity because we wish them all one same generic good.
[00:28:30]  And for us as Christians, we would say that that's the highest good, the eternal good.
[00:28:34]  We wish that all men would be bondservants, or the actual word in Scripture is slaves of Christ.
[00:28:42]  Remember, that's what Paul says.
[00:28:44]  He says, I wish all men were as I were, saying, a Christian, a slave of Christ.
[00:28:51]  And so, as Christians, we have the same desire that the Apostle Paul had, and the same desire that's being articulated by Aquinas in this particular quote.
[00:28:58]  We actually love all people, we have a universal love.
[00:29:02]  We have a charity, a general sense of charity and love towards all people, especially for the one same generic good, and I would argue that being the eternal, spiritual, highest good, which is their salvation.
[00:29:15]  That they would belong to Christ, that they wouldn't go to hell.
[00:29:19]  Furthermore, Aquinas continues by saying, namely, everlasting happiness, aka what I just said, salvation.
[00:29:28]  I think it's safe to say that going to hell would not be everlasting happiness.
[00:29:32]  And that seems to.
[00:29:35]  Include heaven, which only comes by Christ, salvation.
[00:29:41]  Secondly, continuing now, secondly, love is said to be greater through its action.
[00:29:47]  So you can have a general charity, is the word he uses, speaking of in terms of your disposition, your feeling towards all men.
[00:29:58]  I don't like feeling because a lot of times feelings are not great.
[00:30:03]  But in this sense, your general charity.
[00:30:08]  Not just towards your family, not just towards your country, but towards all of humanity.
[00:30:12]  Your general disposition towards all people should be a general disposition of charity.
[00:30:21]  I want them to be happy.
[00:30:23]  Better yet, I want them to be truly happy, eternally happy.
[00:30:27]  I want them to be submitted to Christ.
[00:30:31]  I hope for their salvation.
[00:30:33]  I even pray for their salvation.
[00:30:37]  But that's your general disposition, your feeling.
[00:30:41]  But what about your actions?
[00:30:44]  Not just love in word or feeling or general disposition, but love in deed, in works, in actions and behaviors, which the Bible speaks of quite frequently.
[00:30:59]  The book of James talks about this, 1 John talks about this.
[00:31:04]  Remember James when he says, If your brother, right there, you could pause and preach.
[00:31:10]  Whole series of sermons.
[00:31:12]  If your brother doesn't just say, if a foreigner, a stranger, an alien that you don't know from Adam, that you've never met a single time in your life, and he's not even within your geographic proximity, but you watched a TikTok video with some liberal woman who was crying and saying, We should care about these people that you've never met, even if it means that ultimately the future of your own children is put into jeopardy.
[00:31:39]  Well, that's not what James says.
[00:31:40]  James says, If your brother is without food and clothing, or if he's imprisoned, If your brother is being threatened, and you merely say, back to the point here about love in action, you merely say, I wish you well, be warm and clothed and well fed.
[00:32:01]  Have you loved your brother?
[00:32:04]  No.
[00:32:06]  It requires not just that you wish him well, thoughts and prayers.
[00:32:11]  No, it requires that you actually clothe him, you feed him.
[00:32:17]  You give him something to eat, something to drink.
[00:32:20]  You take care of him in tangible ways.
[00:32:24]  Not just love in theory, word, feeling, but love in practice, actions, deeds.
[00:32:35]  Real, tangible, physical love.
[00:32:40]  So, back to Aquinas love is said to be greater through its action being more intense.
[00:32:48]  And in this way, we ought not to love all equally.
[00:32:54]  So, the first half of this quote, in this respect, we love all men equally out of charity, speaking of our general disposition.
[00:33:04]  Later, though, he says, love is said to be greater through its action.
[00:33:11]  When love materializes, when love moves from the state of merely general disposition and enters into tangible, practical, physical acts.
[00:33:23]  Of love.
[00:33:24]  In this sense, love becomes greater or more concentrated, more visible, more tangible.
[00:33:30]  And in this sense, we ought not to love all equally.
[00:33:36]  Put plainly, I've written in your notes this.
[00:33:38]  In short, Aquinas taught that we must love all universally, but practically, we must not love all equally, or we must love all unequally.
[00:33:52]  So, in disposition of charity, And wanting the best and the eternal best of salvation for all mankind, in that sense of our disposition, we love all equally.
[00:34:05]  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, it is actually a sin to love all equally.
[00:34:17]  Let me illustrate the point.
[00:34:21]  If you take your paycheck every two weeks or whatever it is, And you divide it up 8.2 billion times, and you're sending a fraction of a penny to every single person alive on the planet, then your wife and your children, and for that matter, even yourself, it will be a very short while before you starve.
[00:34:49]  And when you stand before God and say, I loved all men equally, God will say to you, I don't love you at all.
[00:34:54]  Go to hell.
[00:34:57]  Well, Joel, that's ridiculous.
[00:34:59]  Now you're being hyperbolic.
[00:35:00]  Well, I'll put a little scripture on it for you.
[00:35:06]  1 Timothy 5, verse 8.
[00:35:08]  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.
[00:35:26]  AKA, I think, I think it's faithful, without being far fetched or without eisegesis, I think it's faithful exegesis to say, That the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 5, verse 8, when he describes someone and says that this person, for all intents and purposes, has denied the faith, that is the Christian faith, faith in Jesus, and is not equal to, but worse than an infidel, that is a pagan, an unbeliever.
[00:35:53]  If I asked Paul and I said, Paul, does that mean that that person would go to hell?
[00:35:57]  I think he'd say, duh.
[00:36:02]  So if you're caring for everyone equally, indeed, Not your general disposition of charity, praying and wishing well the world in the highest sense of good, that all would find faith in Jesus Christ, be saved from their sin, and spend eternity in the presence of God in heaven forever.
[00:36:23]  Not speaking of that, that's good.
[00:36:26]  But in the practical sense, not love in theory, but love in practice, not love merely in word or feeling or general disposition, but love indeed and tangible actions.
[00:36:35]  If in the realm of action you are loving everyone equally, then you are actually loving no one.
[00:36:44]  And if you love no one, if you do not, now I'll get to 1 John, if you do not love your own brother whom you have seen, how then can you love God who is unseen?
[00:36:57]  In other words, what 1 John would be saying is this if you're loving everyone, then in reality you're loving no one.
[00:37:03]  And if you're loving no one, that means you're also not loving your own brother who's right in front of you and is seen.
[00:37:11]  And if you're not loving, Not merely in theory, wishing them well, but in practice, indeed, like James says, feeding, clothing, caring.
[00:37:20]  If you're not loving your own brother who is seen, then any claim to love for God who is unseen is a lie.
[00:37:30]  1 John literally says that.
[00:37:31]  He is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
[00:37:36]  Anyone who says that he hates his brother or in his actions is proving that he hates his brother.
[00:37:44]  By neglecting his first responsibility.
[00:37:48]  Back to triage.
[00:37:49]  Order of salvation, how does God save?
[00:37:52]  In what sequence?
[00:37:54]  Election, foreknowledge, effectual calling, justification, sanctification, glorification.
[00:38:00]  There's different orders salutis, order of salvation, how God saves.
[00:38:04]  Order amoris, the order of loves, triage, or simply a list of priority of who we love most in the realm of tangible love, love in deed, love in practice.
[00:38:20]  In terms of general charity, general disposition, Christians should maintain a universal love.
[00:38:27]  I don't have animus for anyone, but I also don't buy houses for everyone.
[00:38:35]  I don't hate anyone, not in an ultimate sense, but I don't love practically, physically everyone.
[00:38:44]  You know who I love?
[00:38:46]  I love Megan.
[00:38:49]  I love Olive.
[00:38:50]  I love Ruth.
[00:38:52]  I love Eleanor, I love Franklin, and I love Mabel.
[00:38:56]  I love them a lot more than I love you guys.
[00:39:00]  And if I didn't, I would actually be disqualified to be your pastor.
[00:39:07]  That's the order of mores.
[00:39:09]  Now, last thing back to the internet world, which I really do not want to be in the habit of doing.
[00:39:14]  So please forgive me.
[00:39:16]  I'm making allowance for this week, but it's pertinent to the text because we're getting into if you're a father and your son asks for bread, would you give him a rock?
[00:39:24]  You know, if he asks for a fish, would you give him a serpent or a scorpion?
[00:39:30]  It's talking about natural loves, natural affections.
[00:39:33]  It's in the text.
[00:39:34]  Natural affection.
[00:39:36]  That even apart from being a Christian, right?
[00:39:38]  Because what does Jesus say?
[00:39:39]  He says, If you then, though you are wonderfully Christian and sanctified and born again, and that's what makes you understand that it's important that if my son is hungry, I should give him food instead of giving him rocks.
[00:39:54]  It requires supernatural salvation for someone to not hate their kids.
[00:40:00]  And let them starve.
[00:40:01]  No, that's not the point Jesus is making.
[00:40:03]  He's not making an argument about sanctification and salvation and that which is supernatural.
[00:40:08]  He's making an argument about not what is supernatural, but that which is natural.
[00:40:12]  Natural affections.
[00:40:13]  He's saying, for those who are evil, for the pagan, for the infidel, for the unbeliever.
[00:40:20]  And that pairs perfectly with what Paul said in 1 Timothy chapter 5.
[00:40:24]  Right?
[00:40:24]  What does he say?
[00:40:25]  If a man doesn't provide for the old members of his family, then he's like an infidel.
[00:40:29]  No.
[00:40:30]  He says, worse.
[00:40:32]  Worse than an infidel.
[00:40:33]  And that's what Jesus is saying right here in our text in the Sermon on the Mount.
[00:40:36]  He's saying, if your kids are hungry, you give them something to eat.
[00:40:42]  Don't you?
[00:40:46]  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.
[00:41:00]  And if you do that, even though at the core, You're evil.
[00:41:07]  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?
[00:41:25]  How much more, infinitely more?

=== Incumbent Upon the Seeker (14:21) ===

[00:41:27]  It's an argument from the lesser to the greater.
[00:41:29]  How much more will God not give you good things if you ask?
[00:41:34]  And that brings us back to the beginning of our text.
[00:41:37]  Which lays out for us the importance of asking.
[00:41:43]  You should seek.
[00:41:45]  Don't be apathetic.
[00:41:47]  Seek.
[00:41:48]  Pursue God.
[00:41:50]  You should knock.
[00:41:53]  You should ask.
[00:41:54]  Because if you seek, you'll find.
[00:41:56]  If you ask, it will be given.
[00:41:58]  If you knock, the door will be open.
[00:42:01]  Why?
[00:42:03]  Well, here's the thing.
[00:42:05]  Because what's being assumed in the text is a child of God.
[00:42:12]  And when a child of God asks and seeks and knocks with their father, then the father answers in a benevolent way.
[00:42:24]  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]  Now, that being said, so I said you need to be a conservative.
[00:42:46]  I also said you need to be a Calvinist.
[00:42:50]  This is one of the quintessential texts that the non Calvinist gets real excited about.
[00:42:55]  It says, You see that?
[00:42:56]  Right there.
[00:42:58]  Seek and you'll find.
[00:43:01]  Therefore, it is incumbent upon the seeker.
[00:43:06]  And the seeker is not God, as Spurgeon and others have referred to God, the hound of heaven.
[00:43:13]  Meaning, there is a seeker.
[00:43:16]  There is one seeker who fervently and earnestly seeks out the souls of men.
[00:43:23]  And any soul he seeks, he always finds.
[00:43:26]  There is a seeker.
[00:43:29]  But it's not us.
[00:43:31]  At least not initially.
[00:43:34]  Because this is still something in Scripture.
[00:43:36]  You've got to do something with it.
[00:43:37]  Jesus is telling us, not God, he's telling people to seek and to ask and to knock.
[00:43:43]  But here's the sequence of events He says, If you do these things, your Father will answer.
[00:43:52]  He'll answer kindly with benevolence.
[00:43:56]  Because he's your Father, in the same way that you would answer kindly with benevolence as an earthly Father.
[00:44:01]  Even an unregenerate earthly father.
[00:44:03]  So, tying it all together, what is Jesus ultimately saying?
[00:44:07]  We are called to seek and to ask and to knock, but there's only one type of person who can actually do it a Christian.
[00:44:16]  Do you know who seeks for God?
[00:44:18]  Christians.
[00:44:21]  You know who knocks on the door and it's open?
[00:44:24]  Children who God is their father.
[00:44:26]  Those who ask?
[00:44:28]  Christians.
[00:44:29]  Those who have been adopted into the family of God.
[00:44:31]  Because apart from adoption, apart from being caused, To become a new creature in Christ Jesus, apart from receiving regeneration by the Spirit, a new heart, and spiritual ears to hear and spiritual eyes to see, apart from becoming a child of God, then if I was to ask the question, do you know who seeks for God?
[00:44:51]  Michelle said it, she was right, no one.
[00:44:54]  Christians do, but apart from salvation, no one seeks for God.
[00:44:59]  Well, how do you know that?
[00:45:00]  Romans chapter 3, verse 10, 11, and 12.
[00:45:03]  No one is righteous, no, not one.
[00:45:05]  No one understands, no one seeks for God.
[00:45:09]  All have turned aside.
[00:45:10]  Together they have become utterly worthless.
[00:45:13]  No one does good, not even one.
[00:45:17]  If you're looking for not just theology, but anthropology, meaning the study of man, who is man?
[00:45:23]  Who is humanity?
[00:45:25]  Well, biblical anthropology would tell us this that apart from saving grace, which is found in Christ alone, that left to ourselves as unbelievers, what is the Bible's anthropology of unregenerate man?
[00:45:43]  Evil.
[00:45:45]  He doesn't seek for God.
[00:45:46]  He doesn't pursue God.
[00:45:49]  The text in Romans 3 goes on even further and begins to be even more descriptive in its language.
[00:45:53]  His throat is like an open grave.
[00:45:57]  He lies in wait for blood.
[00:46:00]  He wants to ambush God if he could, ambush the righteous because it's the second best.
[00:46:05]  Why do the wicked always go after the righteous?
[00:46:07]  Because they want to go after God, but they can't.
[00:46:10]  So they settle for you.
[00:46:14]  That's the picture of mankind apart from salvation.
[00:46:19]  Is it?
[00:46:20]  He doesn't seek for God.
[00:46:22]  No one seeks for God.
[00:46:23]  Why?
[00:46:24]  Because, in one sense, he's incapable.
[00:46:27]  His nature does not allow for it.
[00:46:29]  But, secondly, he's unwilling.
[00:46:33]  He doesn't desire God.
[00:46:35]  He doesn't desire to submit to God, to his authority, to his supremacy, to his sufficiency.
[00:46:41]  He wants to submit to only one God, and that God is him.
[00:46:48]  So, Jesus, in our text today, he first reminds us of the importance not for all of humanity to seek for God, because all of humanity doesn't seek for God, nor will it.
[00:47:02]  But he is giving, I believe, a commandment here, an admonition for his own, for his people who've been saved by his grace through faith in his work, in his person.
[00:47:18]  For you, beloved, brothers and sisters in Christ, for you, seek and you will find.
[00:47:27]  Ask and it will be given.
[00:47:29]  Knock and the door will be opened to you.
[00:47:31]  You should be like the persistent widow who goes and knocks again and again and again.
[00:47:36]  You, like we looked at in the Lord's Prayer a few weeks ago, you should be praying short prayers, right?
[00:47:42]  Jesus says, let your words be few.
[00:47:45]  Don't try to impress God, and certainly don't try to impress men with lofty, long prayers.
[00:47:51]  Have short prayers, but what did I say a few weeks ago?
[00:47:54]  Many prayers.
[00:47:55]  Going to God again and again and again in prayer, making petitions, that is, requests, asking of Him.
[00:48:02]  That's exactly what our text says ask and it will be given.
[00:48:07]  Seeking Him in prayer, seeking out His presence.
[00:48:12]  Seek and you will find.
[00:48:14]  He will not hide His face from you, He will allow Himself to be found by His children as any father would.
[00:48:21]  Even if you're being playful, even if a human earthly father is playing hide and go seek, you know what I do when I'm playing hide and go seek with my kids?
[00:48:28]  And turns out they're not the best seekers.
[00:48:30]  And turns out I think I could be in the Olympics if hide and go seek was a thing.
[00:48:35]  One time I remember I climbed up on the cabinet and then I climbed up on top of the fridge.
[00:48:40]  So I was like way up in the air.
[00:48:41]  And the thing about little kids, I don't know if you've noticed this, but everything's kind of eye level for them.
[00:48:46]  Like it's almost like everything above two and a half feet literally doesn't even exist.
[00:48:50]  Kind of like COVID, right?
[00:48:52]  Right?
[00:48:53]  It's kind of but in reverse.
[00:48:54]  Remember, COVID existed, you know, if you were standing up, but the moment you got, you know, beneath four feet, like the virus just went away.
[00:49:00]  Kids are like the opposite when it comes to their point of view, right?
[00:49:04]  So they, you know, anything three feet and below, boom, that's the world.
[00:49:07]  Anything above that, it might as well be invisible.
[00:49:09]  It doesn't even exist, right?
[00:49:10]  It's like COVID, children, right?
[00:49:12]  Opposite.
[00:49:13]  COVID, if you're down low, you're safe.
[00:49:14]  If you're up high, you're dead, you know, and then children, it's like if you're down low, I can see you, and if you're up high, you're invisible.
[00:49:19]  All right, anyways, I'm playing high go seat with the kids.
[00:49:21]  I climb up on the refrigerator, and I might as well be invisible.
[00:49:24]  They are never going to find me.
[00:49:27]  So, then what do I do as a father?
[00:49:29]  Well, here's the thing.
[00:49:32]  I want to be found.
[00:49:34]  I want to be found.
[00:49:36]  So, I start making noises, start dropping things off of the refrigerator.
[00:49:42]  And still, it's like I was literally invisible.
[00:49:44]  It's like, hey, up here!
[00:49:47]  Everyone's excited.
[00:49:49]  And the rest of the kids come in.
[00:49:50]  The first kid finds me, goes, gets their siblings.
[00:49:52]  They come in, I stand, and then I try to jump down without falling.
[00:49:55]  It's partially successful.
[00:49:58]  But that's what it is.
[00:50:00]  That's the nature of God, right?
[00:50:02]  That's an argument from the lesser, Joel being the lesser, and then the greater, infinitely greater, being God, our Father in heaven.
[00:50:08]  That's what it is.
[00:50:09]  That's the nature of the relationship with God with all mankind.
[00:50:13]  No, with his kids.
[00:50:16]  With his kids.
[00:50:18]  So with his kids, he says, Seek me.
[00:50:21]  And for his kids, he promises that he'll make himself found.
[00:50:26]  With his kids, he says, Ask me.
[00:50:30]  And with his kids, he promises that when we ask, it'll be given.
[00:50:35]  With his kids, he says, Knock.
[00:50:39]  Because with his kids, he promises that anytime they knock, the door will be open.
[00:50:46]  For you, brothers and sisters in Christ who have been adopted into the family of God, this text is for you seek, ask, knock.
[00:50:56]  And anytime you start to question, but will he respond?
[00:51:00]  Will he be faithful?
[00:51:02]  Will he keep his word?
[00:51:03]  What if this time I ask and he doesn't answer?
[00:51:05]  What if this time I seek and he hides his face?
[00:51:08]  In perpetuity, not just for a season, so that I might seek him even more fervently, so that he might be found in even deeper ways.
[00:51:16]  God does that at times.
[00:51:17]  David said, Don't hide your face from me.
[00:51:19]  Why?
[00:51:19]  Because God did hide his face, but not because God's ultimate end was to hide his face from David forever, but to hide his face from David in a moment, so that David would seek all the harder, so that he would find God even more intimately, even more deeply.
[00:51:34]  This is God's promise.
[00:51:35]  In the moment that you start to doubt that promise, maybe I shouldn't, maybe he's not worth seeking.
[00:51:40]  Because maybe he won't be faithful to keep his promise and be found.
[00:51:43]  Maybe he's not worth asking because maybe he won't be faithful and keep his promise to give.
[00:51:48]  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]  Well, then, the word of Christ to you today is this the moment you think that, remember this that our Father who art in heaven is infinitely more kind and merciful than human fathers.
[00:52:07]  And human fathers, even those human fathers that are unregenerate and evil, what do they do?
[00:52:13]  They give good gifts to their children when their children ask.
[00:52:18]  They practice the Oro Amores.
[00:52:21]  I forget the name of the guy.
[00:52:22]  He was some part of the new atheist movement back in the 90s.
[00:52:26]  It was just absolutely insufferable, making their ridiculous arguments, thinking that they were really smart and the easiest arguments in the world.
[00:52:33]  Like, well, if God is all powerful and all loving, why does he allow suffering in the world?
[00:52:37]  And they literally thought they got us with that one.
[00:52:41]  They're like, oh, man, did you?
[00:52:43]  So good.
[00:52:44]  The Christians will never be able to answer this question.
[00:52:47]  Yeah.
[00:52:51]  It was one of those dudes.
[00:52:53]  Absolutely.
[00:52:54]  Peter something.
[00:52:54]  I think his name was Peter.
[00:52:57]  I forget the last name.
[00:52:59]  And if you want the answer to that question, I can answer it, but it'll be another sermon and I don't have time for it.
[00:53:05]  But I've preached it in the past.
[00:53:06]  You'll have to go back and find it or just come and ask me after the service.
[00:53:09]  With God being all loving and all powerful, why is sin and suffering still in the world?
[00:53:13]  Very clear biblical answer.
[00:53:15]  Except it's hard to answer if you're a Christian who's not reformed.
[00:53:18]  If you're not a Calvinist and you don't think God's sovereign over all things and that He's working and orchestrating all things for His glory and for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose, then that Christian might be stumped.
[00:53:29]  But a biblical Christian, a Calvinist, I repeat myself, it's a bit redundant, biblical Calvinist, but if you're that kind of Christian who has the right views, then that's not a hard thing to answer.
[00:53:37]  But these kind of new atheists that thought it was hard to answer, one of them, his mom eventually developed some kind of disease.
[00:53:46]  And he had argued, I mean, publicly argued in volumes and books and debates and lectures and all these things.
[00:53:51]  He's on record for years arguing that if a person doesn't produce, then they're really just not worth keeping alive.
[00:54:02]  If they don't have anything to contribute to the bottom line, to the ultimate good of humanity, then they're just dead weight.
[00:54:09]  Then they're really no different than a tree that maybe needs to be chopped down because we need a fire.
[00:54:15]  And then his mom gets a debilitating terminal disease and can't do anything.
[00:54:19]  And he's just in the hospital, has to be waited on hand and foot, and he's paying thousands and thousands of dollars.
[00:54:25]  And everyone was, you know, they couldn't help themselves but point out the glaring hypocrisy.
[00:54:29]  And you know what his answer was?
[00:54:30]  He said, Yeah, but it's different when it's your own mom.
[00:54:34]  Yeah, no duh, Sherlock.
[00:54:37]  Right, correct.
[00:54:40]  And that is not sin.
[00:54:43]  That natural instinct to care for your own say, yeah, I'll spend 10 grand a month if I have it and pick up an extra job and do whatever I have to if it's my mom.
[00:54:57]  That is good.
[00:55:00]  God put that in you.
[00:55:03]  God put that in you.
[00:55:04]  That's His design.
[00:55:05]  That's not related to the fall in the garden in Genesis chapter 3.
[00:55:09]  No, that's related to the design that God baked into the equation from the beginning.
[00:55:16]  And what grace does for the Christian is it comes alongside nature and restores it and elevates it.
[00:55:22]  It doesn't destroy or replace nature.
[00:55:26]  So when Christians pick up the rhetoric of liberals and they start saying, well, you know, but technically, if somebody's, you know, a Christian, You know, even if they're on the other side of the world and you've never met them, they're your true family and they're closer to you than your own mother, and blah, blah, blah.
[00:55:43]  You should care about, you know, the Christians in Japan more than you care about your own children.

=== Choosing Who to Love (12:36) ===

[00:55:49]  Well, they may be consistent.
[00:55:50]  It may be that they've been preaching that for 30 years, but all that means is not only they're wrong, but they're consistently wrong, which means they're both wrong and prideful.
[00:56:00]  They've actually failed twice, not just once.
[00:56:04]  I've been wrong plenty of times.
[00:56:07]  But when someone's wrong and they double down and they add to their wrongness also pride to ensure that they remain wrong, that's rough.
[00:56:17]  That's rough.
[00:56:19]  And the verses in Scripture that say, well, who is my mother and who are my brothers?
[00:56:23]  Jesus says, is those who do the will of my Father.
[00:56:26]  Yes, and Amen?
[00:56:28]  There is such a thing as your spiritual family.
[00:56:32]  But again, come back to the point.
[00:56:37]  In the realm of disposition, a general disposition of charity for all, and in that realm, an even greater love for those who are brothers and sisters in Christ, wherever they may be.
[00:56:49]  But then there's also love in practice, indeed.
[00:56:54]  And that love, speaking of love in this category, the actions of love, with that realm of love, you and I, not only is it permissible, but we must, we are commanded by God.
[00:57:09]  To behave in triage, to behave with degrees of priority.
[00:57:15]  When it comes to love, indeed, in practice, we are not called to love all people equally.
[00:57:21]  We are called to love those closest to us and then ripple out.
[00:57:28]  That's what we're called to do.
[00:57:30]  You must love your family more than mine.
[00:57:33]  And you should love your neighborhood more than my neighborhood.
[00:57:38]  And you should love your town more than someone else's town.
[00:57:42]  You should love Texas more than California.
[00:57:45]  It's fairly easy to do.
[00:57:48]  You should love America and Americans more than Russia or Ukraine or Israel or anyone else.
[00:58:01]  This isn't rocket science.
[00:58:03]  And anybody who says, yeah, well, that's how the pagan would think, that's the infidel.
[00:58:06]  No, that's not what the scripture teaches.
[00:58:09]  The scripture doesn't say the infidel cares for his own, and then the Christian cares for strangers.
[00:58:16]  Because he's committed to spiritual, theoretical love.
[00:58:19]  Ooh, mystical love.
[00:58:22]  No, the person who's committed to mystical love in isolation, only, exclusively, and not tangible love, that's not the Christian, that's the liberal.
[00:58:31]  So, the last thing I'll say back to the internet world have you guys seen the meme of the heat map?
[00:58:35]  You know what I'm talking about when I say the heat map?
[00:58:39]  It shows the center focal point, and there's a conglomerate of heat, and then it kind of thins out the further it gets away from the center.
[00:58:50]  And then there's another one right next to it, it's two maps, where it's really sparse at the center and then gets greater the further you get away from the center point.
[00:58:59]  What it's illustrating is this.
[00:59:01]  At the top, it'll say conservatives and liberals.
[00:59:03]  And this is not just something somebody being silly or making a joke.
[00:59:06]  This is multiple, multiple, multiple studies that have been performed.
[00:59:11]  And what they found is that for conservatives, when it comes to their allegiance, their commitments, and ultimately their affections, their loves, the concentration of their highest commitment and love is those who are closest to them, in the center.
[00:59:30]  They're the center, and it's those around them.
[00:59:33]  And then it gets more and more sparse.
[00:59:36]  It lessens more and more the further away you get.
[00:59:39]  For a liberal, it's literally the opposite.
[00:59:41]  So for a liberal, it's a wife and kids.
[00:59:46]  Not a lot of affection.
[00:59:47]  And let's be honest liberals don't have wives and kids.
[00:59:51]  That's a joke.
[00:59:53]  But who are they really committed to?
[00:59:55]  Studies bear this out.
[00:59:57]  Their greatest love is the further you get away, their deepest commitment.
[01:00:02]  Who do liberals love?
[01:00:04]  Trees, endangered fish, certain rocks, and oh, don't miss this one.
[01:00:16]  It's not that they don't love any people, foreigners that they've never met, that they can make propaganda arguments on the internet to come into our country so that they will vote Democrat.
[01:00:28]  In other words, who do they love?
[01:00:30]  They love inanimate objects and complete strangers.
[01:00:38]  They practice the opposite of the Ordo Amoris.
[01:00:42]  It's the exact opposite hierarchy.
[01:00:45]  It's God's design, which is natural to man, that grace only perfects, doesn't eradicate or replace.
[01:00:52]  It's God's natural design for his people to love our own, which does not necessitate that we hate those who are not our own, but that we first and foremost, in the realm of action, most love our own.
[01:01:05]  God's natural design.
[01:01:07]  Liberals do the exact opposite.
[01:01:09]  So, the last thing that I'll read, and we'll close, is this.
[01:01:12]  John Calvin said, If by the mere guidance of nature, infidels, the unbeliever, are so prone to love their own.
[01:01:22]  So, in this case, the unbeliever does love their own because, again, it's natural, even for the fallen man.
[01:01:27]  It's natural design, the order of amorous, natural affections.
[01:01:32]  If by the mere guidance of nature, without supernatural grace from God, just the mere guidance of nature, the infidel is so prone to love their own.
[01:01:42]  Then, what must we think of those who are not moved by any such feeling?
[01:01:47]  Do they not go even beyond the ungodly, the infidel, in brutality?
[01:01:54]  For if any have degenerated from that which is so perfectly natural, he ought to be regarded as a monster.
[01:02:06]  There are Christians, there are pagans.
[01:02:14]  And then there are monsters.
[01:02:17]  We call those liberals.
[01:02:20]  The liberal, and this is a modern phenomenon, guys.
[01:02:24]  Seriously, this is unique.
[01:02:26]  I understand nothing new under the sun.
[01:02:27]  I've read Ecclesiastes, I'm aware.
[01:02:30]  But the longer that people rebel against Christ, there is a progression to sin, and you can become more and more heinous in your sin.
[01:02:39]  Liberals are unique.
[01:02:42]  Infidels throughout all of human history, pagans that worship Thor, still typically love their own offspring.
[01:02:53]  I said just even last week that even those who worship false gods like Molech and would give a child.
[01:03:00]  To be burned in the flames as an offering to this false god, a horrendous, demonic, pagan form of worship.
[01:03:08]  Even then, they did it with the expectation.
[01:03:11]  The only reason they did it is if I honor Moloch by giving him my first child, Moloch in return will give me more children.
[01:03:19]  It was basically the pagan equivalent to the righteous version, which was who?
[01:03:24]  Hannah.
[01:03:25]  Remember Hannah?
[01:03:26]  She's barren.
[01:03:27]  She can't have children.
[01:03:27]  She so longs to be a mother, which is a natural, good, righteous instinct.
[01:03:32]  She goes to the temple, so she doesn't go to Molech, a false god.
[01:03:35]  She goes to her god, the triune god, the true god, and she prays and she makes a wager with God.
[01:03:41]  She says, If you'll give me, if you'll open my womb, make me a mother, I'll give my first child to you.
[01:03:47]  Right?
[01:03:48]  The pagan says to Molech, I'll give my first child to you, which means death.
[01:03:53]  But for Hannah, who worships our God, the true God, who is kind, she says, I'll give my first child to you also, which means life.
[01:04:02]  That he would be in the service of the Lord and grow up in the house of the Lord and become a prophet and a mouthpiece of the Lord.
[01:04:07]  And that's exactly what she does.
[01:04:09]  But here's the point the pagan back in the day who worshiped Molech still was light years more righteous than the liberal.
[01:04:19]  That pagan who worshiped Molech thought, yeah, but even I love children.
[01:04:25]  And even though it's a wicked and heinous thing to do, I'll give up one, but only for the promise of receiving and return.
[01:04:33]  The liberal today says when they go to Molech, modern Molech, they go to Planned Parenthood.
[01:04:38]  They're not going to say, hey, Planned Parenthood, I'll give you my first child so that you can give me 10 more.
[01:04:43]  No, they say, Planned Parenthood, take my first child and I'll see you again in six months for my next one.
[01:04:47]  And then I'll see you a year after that for my next one and my next one.
[01:04:50]  Not because I'm giving you one child that I might have more children, I'm giving you all my children because I want no children.
[01:04:57]  My truest devotion is to rocks and trees and endangered smelt.
[01:05:02]  Right?
[01:05:03]  Fish.
[01:05:04]  My voting patterns, what guides the way that I would vote, my worldview, is I'm going to care for fish, even if it means no water for an entire state so that thousands of people lose their homes.
[01:05:16]  That's what kind of person I am.
[01:05:18]  People worshiping Thor were godly by comparison.
[01:05:24]  You have not met wickedness until you've met 20th century liberals.
[01:05:30]  Do not be like them.
[01:05:32]  The order of Morris is profoundly Christian.
[01:05:35]  And it has been around and been in Christian thought as universally held by all Christians for centuries, over a millennium.
[01:05:44]  Of course, we love people unequally.
[01:05:48]  To love all people equally is to love no one.
[01:05:52]  General disposition, charity towards all men.
[01:05:55]  But love in practice, tangibly, physically, triage.
[01:06:00]  You will love some more than others.
[01:06:03]  Make sure you pick the right ones.
[01:06:04]  I heard a pastor once tell me this.
[01:06:06]  He said, if you're going to be in ministry, you got to disappoint someone.
[01:06:09]  But you get to choose who it is.
[01:06:14]  You know who I'm not going to choose?
[01:06:17]  My family.
[01:06:19]  I always have people who are disappointed with me.
[01:06:20]  But you know who I want to not be disappointed with me?
[01:06:24]  My kids.
[01:06:27]  Sometimes, you know, you get busy in life.
[01:06:29]  You guys, too, it's not just related to pastors, but you get busy.
[01:06:32]  You have to be intentional.
[01:06:33]  You have to carve out time.
[01:06:36]  And you might have to go to your neighbors or your employer and say, I need a sick day.
[01:06:41]  I have a very important appointment.
[01:06:43]  You don't need to tell them what the appointment is.
[01:06:45]  Turns out the appointment is you're going to go shoot guns with your kid.
[01:06:50]  That's a good appointment.
[01:06:52]  You're going to disappoint someone, but you get to choose who it is.
[01:06:56]  Don't choose those closest to you.
[01:06:58]  That's not supernatural.
[01:07:01]  That's not, oh, I'm no longer operating within what comes naturally.
[01:07:06]  I've now ascended and I'm greater and I'm being supernatural by choosing to disappoint my own family at the cost of loving these foreigners that I've never met.
[01:07:13]  No, that's not being supernatural.
[01:07:15]  That's being, it is unnatural.
[01:07:17]  See, there's natural, then there's supernatural, but then there's unnatural.
[01:07:21]  You're behaving in an unnatural way.
[01:07:25]  Not as natural, unregenerate man, but as someone who is unnatural, who is no longer a man.
[01:07:33]  To quote Aragorn, when the hobbits see the ring race, what are they?
[01:07:39]  They were men once.
[01:07:42]  When you look and you see Democrats, you say, what are they?
[01:07:46]  They were men once.
[01:07:48]  But no longer.
[01:07:50]  They're not merely infidels, not merely unbelievers.
[01:07:53]  They're something far more unnatural and degraded than that.
[01:07:56]  The 19th and 20th century liberal today is not merely an unregenerate man, he's a monster.
[01:08:05]  He will choose fish over human beings.
[01:08:08]  He will choose strangers over family.
[01:08:13]  Don't be like that.
[01:08:14]  Be Christian.
[01:08:15]  Be Christian.
[01:08:18]  Let's pray.
[01:08:19]  Father, thank you for your word.
[01:08:20]  Bless it to your people.
[01:08:21]  In Jesus' name, amen.
[01:08:22]  We're going to continue to worship the Lord now through song, and as we do, I pray.