Jeff Durbin: The Injustice In Our Tongues

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If you want to open your Bibles to the book of Proverbs, chapter 18,

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God's wisdom from above, Proverbs chapter 18, Proverbs 18, verse 1.

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Hear now the words of the living and the true God. Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire.

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He breaks out against all sound judgment. A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.

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When wickedness comes, contempt comes also, and with dishonor comes disgrace.

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The words of a man's mouth are deep waters. The fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook.

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It is not good to be partial to the wicked or to deprive the righteous of justice.

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A fool's lips walk into a fight, and his mouth invites a beating.

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A fool's mouth is his ruin, and his lips are a snare to his soul.

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The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels. They go down into the inner parts of the body. Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys.

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The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous man runs into it and is safe.

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A rich man's wealth is his strong city, and like a high wall in his imagination.

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Before destruction, a man's heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor.

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If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame.

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A man's spirit will endure sickness, but a crushed spirit, who can bear it? An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.

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A man's gift makes room for him and brings him before the great. The one who states his case first seems right until the other comes and examines him.

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The lot puts an end to quarrels and decides between powerful contenders. A brother offended is more unyielding than a strong city, and quarreling is like the bars of a castle.

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From the fruit of a man's mouth, his stomach is satisfied. He is satisfied by the yield of his lips.

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Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.

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He who finds a wife finds a good thing and attains favor from the Lord. The poor use entreaties, but the rich answer roughly.

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A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

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Thus far is the reading of God's holy and inspired word. Let's praise his people. God, this is your word.

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Lord, you spoke these words for the benefit of your people.

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Lord, you are, Lord, the fountain, the true fountain of wisdom.

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And Lord, we ask that you'd speak to us as your people today. Help us, Lord, to be a people that brings you glory and praise, because we are not people who are just filled with knowledge in our heads.

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We are not people who are just knowledgeable fools. Help us, Lord, to have skill in applying your truth, the knowledge that we have that comes from you.

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Help us, Lord, to be skillful to bring you glory and praise. Speak today,

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God, to your people. I pray that you renew our minds, that you would even cause us to repent of the injustice in our tongues.

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Help us, God, for the sake of your name, Lord, to be the people you call us to be that are wise, that love you and love neighbor above all.

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And bless us today, Lord, let people forget me and remember you and your truth today. In Jesus' name, amen.

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So this is the book of wisdom. This is God's knowledge imparted to his people that tells us how to actually live this out.

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You'll notice the difference. We've remarked on it so many times, the difference in this genre, this kind of writing.

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You have, say, the synoptic gospels that are historical narrative, and they're telling you the tale of Jesus.

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This is what happens. This is who was there. This is who was ruling in that day. Jesus went here. Jesus said that.

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It was this year when it took place, an historical narrative. You have apocalyptic literature in the book of Revelation, and you have the genre of wisdom.

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And this is a different thing altogether in terms of this is not just filling your head with facts and knowledge and something to stimulate the intellect.

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This is something that is telling you how do you live, how do you apply this truth. And I want to say this, we chose as shepherds, as your brothers, to go through this book of Proverbs because I feel like we are so lacking in wisdom as the people of God.

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And that's a truth, of course, for all of us in all time. We're sinners. We're being sanctified. Yes and amen.

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But we live in a time where we're so far removed from the law of God, from the wisdom of God.

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We weren't raised in it, and many of us, we weren't given it in a school system. And so it's so far from us.

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We don't know what the law of God says. We have perverse views today about the scriptures themselves, people trying to propagate old heresies that are trying to divorce the

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Old Testament from the New Testament, something that the Christian church overcame early on in the history of the church.

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But they're coming back regurgitated, and we have to defeat them once again. We need to know the word of God.

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We need to know our Bibles. But in particular, listen, this is key. We need to learn to be wise, not simply people who have knowledge.

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We can check the right boxes. We can answer all the theological questions. We can do the exam and ace it.

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We are, today, I believe, a generation of knowledgeable fools.

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You can ask people to defend the Christian faith. Give me the answer for how you know about the existence of God, and somebody could have memorized all the popular arguments, and they can go through the arguments, and they can intelligently defend the existence of God.

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You can ask somebody and say, hey, tell me about the nature of man. What is the nature of man according to scripture?

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And they can just tell you the verses, all the scriptures about this. Tell me what the

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Bible has to say about this particular thing, like the Trinity, and someone can defend the Trinity. The word of God says there's one

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God, and yet the Bible says here the Father is God. It says here that Jesus is God. Here's Jesus being worshipped.

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Here's Jesus taking the prerogatives of God. Here's the Holy Spirit called God. Here's the Holy Spirit speaking to people.

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He's not just something like electricity or a power. He is a person, and he's called

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God. And we can go to those verses. We know how to defend the truth. We may be the kind of people that can go out to the

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Mormon Easter pageant and defend historic Christian orthodoxy about the nature of Jesus Christ and his work, but we are knowledgeable fools.

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We're the kind of people that can go out and defend truth, but when it comes to a little circle near us, we entertain gossip.

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We entertain slander. We don't actually live as wise people in terms of what does

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God's law say about division and slander and gossip and accusations?

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We don't even know at times. We just sort of entertain it and think, well, we'll just do this part willy -nilly as though God didn't speak specifically to it.

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We're a generation of knowledgeable fools. I want to just say humbly, I would rather take the man or the woman who can barely articulate the

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Trinity, barely articulate justification by faith, barely articulate how they know how we got our

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Bibles, but they are a person that is committed to wisdom, to living in a way that pleases

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God, glorifies God, loves neighbor, a person who hates division, a person who hates slander, a person who hates factions, a person that would die before they would ever entertain falsely accusing somebody.

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Give me that person as opposed to the person who is in the high ivory tower that knows all the facts.

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Knowing all the facts about God's word does not make you a wise person. It does not make you a wise person.

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Seek wisdom above a lot of knowledge. That should be the pursuit.

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And so much of that is here before us in the book of Proverbs. What have we learned so far? So much.

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Yes, we jumped ahead today to Proverbs 18, and it's okay because Proverbs 18 doesn't run like a narrative anyway, so I can do what

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I want. Okay, no, I'm just kidding. Okay, then we stopped, we just finished 10, and now we're jumping to Proverbs 18 because you're gonna see all of this repeated over and over and over again in Proverbs.

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It's not just an 18. It's not a one line or a one off. It's throughout. It's thematic when it talks about lies, slander, accusations, gossip, division, those sorts of things.

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It is thematic. It comes back to it again and back to it again. It'll say the same thing in sort of a different way or even stronger, delivering a harder punch on the issue, but they're thematic things.

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And we've seen so much in the book of wisdom already about how do we live?

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How do we apply God's truth and God's law in our lives, personally, in our families, in our church community, in the world at large?

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We've learned about the scoffer and the unteachable man or woman last week.

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We've learned that God hates, God hates lies and those who sow discord, that he literally abominates it.

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We've learned that God even speaks to issues of keeping your promises when you make business arrangements that if you make a promise, you better keep it because you're obligated to do it, whether it turns out right or not.

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We've learned about that. We've learned about laziness and the sluggard. How many of you guys went out and just studied ants for a couple of weeks after that sermon, right?

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We learned so much about being lazy and the benefits of actually not being lazy, according to God's word.

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We've learned about how to avoid adultery and the harlot, the seductive woman, not to even go near her door when she's batting her eyelashes and she's trying to show you her body and calling you to come into her house.

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Inside of her house is a pit that you will fall in and there are many casualties in it.

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We've learned to avoid her, not to go past her door, not to entertain the seduction. We've learned about how to fight against adultery with God's wisdom by being intimate with your spouse, enjoy your spouse for goodness sakes.

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Don't go outside of your marriage. Proverbs speaks to that. We've learned about the blessings of God's wisdom.

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Go with me quickly to Proverbs chapter three, this section about the blessings.

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And this is, you know this by now, it's just this repetition. It's like on a loop set in different ways throughout

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Proverbs. It keeps coming back to it. In Proverbs three, starting in verse 13, the text says this, blessed is the one who finds wisdom and the one who gets understanding.

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Blessed is what? What is blessed? Happy, but it's not just happy in a sort of temporal sense and sort of like just a smile you're trying hard to get out.

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It is divinely happy, divinely happy from God, happiness from God. So here it is, ready?

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Do you want it? Do you want the gold, the treasure, the something that surpasses even that?

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If you want it, God says, keep your eye on it. And here's the gift, divine happiness upon the one who finds wisdom and the one who gets understanding.

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For the gain from her is better than the gain from silver and her profit better than gold. Right now everyone's talking about silver and gold, right?

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Like bank collapses and all the rest. Everyone's like, buy the silver, buy the gold. And now gold is through the roof. What is gold at now?

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Like almost $2 ,000 an ounce or something like that. It is 1 ,800. It's going through the roof right now because everyone's saying, well, the banks collapse.

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I need to have something that's real capital. It's funny when things go bad, everyone goes, we should go back to God's money, right?

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Isn't that funny, like things go bad and all of a sudden even the pagans go, we should probably go back to God's money now. It's like, we've been trying to tell you.

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But the text here says that the benefit of wisdom is divine happiness that surpasses even all your silver. Even it's more than that, right?

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You should be pursuing that and investing in that more than you desire the gold. Or desire the silver.

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She is more precious than jewels and nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand. In her left hand are riches and honor.

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Life, riches, honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace.

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So much turmoil, so much difficulty, so much hardship in our lives. And this is what God is saying.

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This is better than anything else you're pursuing. You want long life? You want riches and honor?

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You want happiness? You want peace to prevail in your life and your marriage and your relationships? Then pursue her.

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Go after wisdom. You want peace? Go after her. And so it says this. She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her.

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Those who hold her fast are called blessed. Now that's the blessing of wisdom. It's said in new ways.

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It's repackaged in a different way and expanded elsewhere. But it doesn't just say that in God's words of wisdom, his divine wisdom from above.

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It's not just blessings with wisdom. Scripture talks about the curses of ignoring her, of ignoring

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God's wisdom. Look at Proverbs 1. Just go back one chapter, Proverbs 1. As the text opens up, first chapter, verse 20, it says this.

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Wisdom cries aloud in the streets. In the markets, she raises her voice. She's not hidden.

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She's out loud. God's wisdom is testifying to the world. This isn't some secret knowledge. This is

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God's truth and it's proclaimed at the gates. It's shouted to everybody. And so it says this.

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At the head of the noisy street, she cries out. At the entrance of the city gate, she speaks.

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How long, oh simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?

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If you turn in my reproof, behold, I'll pour out my spirit to you. I will make my words known to you because I have called and you refuse to listen.

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Here's the curses. Have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded because you've ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof.

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I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your terror strikes you.

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When terror strikes you like a storm and the calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you, then they will call upon me, but I will not answer.

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They will seek me diligently, but will not find me because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the

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Lord. Would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way and have their fill of their own devices for the simpler killed by their turning away and the complacency of fools destroys them.

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Here's the promise after that. Whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease without dread of disaster.

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So there you go. Wisdom holding out in the hands. There's a path of life and a path of death, a path of life and light and a path of darkness and despair.

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And it's just said over and over and over again. And I think oftentimes we're focusing all of our energy and if I could just learn enough stuff, right?

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If I could just take the right seminar that would fill me with just the right amount of head knowledge so I can understand all this stuff when really what we need is to sit under wisdom and listen and to do what wisdom calls us to do.

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We don't need more facts. We need to learn how to apply this truth in our lives to be able to have things we stand on to say,

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I know what God says about how to live in this situation. So how do I live when this seductive woman is calling me to her doorway?

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How do I live? Well, wisdom says, don't go near her door, right? Flee sexual immorality, run the other direction.

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Wisdom tells me how to live in a situation where there's a scoffer or the unteachable.

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So stand on that truth. Wisdom calls me to follow and receive the blessings and it is shouting in the city streets.

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Now today, go to Proverbs 18. Again, this is throughout the book of Proverbs said in different ways, but in Proverbs 18, what we're learning today is about the injustice in our tongues.

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Our tongues, this, this, my mouth, my tongue, your mouth, your tongue sets fires to the world, destroys.

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We destroy God with our mouths and railing against God and cursing God, mocking

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God, we destroy neighbor. It's this we have to get ahold of. If you want further explanation on the desperate need of controlling our tongues, read the book of James, the

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Lord's brother, read that. Read that to see the application of so much wisdom come out of that.

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Now in Proverbs 18, verse two, just let's hang out on the specific parts that speak really about our tongues, the things that we're saying.

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And in Proverbs 18, two, the text says, a fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.

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Proverbs 18, five says, it is not good to be partial to the wicked or to deprive the righteous of justice.

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In Proverbs 18, six, the text says, a fool's lips walk into a fight and his mouth invites a beating.

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Proverbs 18, eight, the words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels.

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They go down into the inner parts of the body. Proverbs 18, 13, the text says, if one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame.

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Proverbs 18, 17, the text says, the one who states his case first seems right until the other one comes and examines him.

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It is amazing. You heard me say at the beginning, we're in a different time today. How many of you guys were taught, raised up, trained in public schools or government schools?

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How many of you guys? Okay, very good. How many of you guys were homeschooled? Okay. It used to be before we had government schools, the

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Christian pastors, the church was fighting against the idea of government schools, saying, look, if we adopt government schools in the

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United States, if we adopt government schools, it's gonna be the fast track to atheism in our nation. They were right.

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They were right. It used to be you learned how to read because of the Bible. When you were learning your alphabet, you were learning your alphabet with a

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Bible verse attached to the letter. When you were learning how to read and write, you were reading biblical stories and you were actually answering questions regarding biblical stories.

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The Bible was the foundation of that beginning education. And it's amazing to consider the literacy rates when the

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Christian church was owning education. If you were in a town, a town, no matter how small, the

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Christian church was there in the center, you had the Christian church that was doing the educating. The Christian church that was equipping and training and educating the community.

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People getting together to have the best in their field actually engage in that to train the community.

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That's how we did things. And now we're so ignorant of the Bible, we don't understand God's law, we don't understand the biblical stories.

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We don't understand God's wisdom because we're a nation, a generation that's been kept from that because we handed education in the early years over to government education.

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So we're so confused about this. But not very long ago, people understood why we're doing what we're doing.

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So look, America is not the end all of the kingdom of God to any degree at all.

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But America has a pretty awesome and amazing history of the influence of the

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Christian worldview and the gospel in all areas of life, everywhere. At every authority, we just couldn't quote scripture, we can assume the authority of Jesus Christ.

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We understood in many ways why we're doing what we're doing. And in terms of wisdom, we had understanding because we were instructed through a solid pulpit and not a perfect pulpit, but understanding of the word of God and history.

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And so we understood our duty as the church is to be, our vocation as the people of God is to be

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God's light in the world. Any disagreements with that? We all agree with that? We're called, Jesus says, to be salt, to be light.

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Scripture calls us the image of God. Our vocation, mankind was created to bring glory to God, to be

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God's light in the world, to spread God's beauty, his glory, and his light into the world as his image bearer.

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But we've offended him, we've run away from God, and so we are broken in that vocation. But that is really the call of God, to spread

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God's truth and glory and light into the world. And we've neglected these truths from the

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Torah, which literally means instruction, the law of God and God's wisdom.

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We don't know where this stuff comes from. We don't know why we're doing what we're doing. Let me tell you what I mean by in terms of accusations and hearing both sides and not answering before you've had all the facts, all those things, getting a beating because your lips just bring you into fights where you know nothing about.

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We live in a society today that's just hanging on the edge of the blessings of God's wisdom, but we don't know why.

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Where's that from? Why are we doing those things? Some videos, I don't know if you guys do this, but men mostly do this.

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I've got a lot of friends that do this. So I love to watch videos of police encounters. Anybody else do that?

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Just watch, there you go, hours and hours and hours of police encounters. And you watch guys today, it's very popular today, to do like first amendment audits, right?

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To go places and just see if you're harassed by law enforcement because they shouldn't be harassing you because we have rights.

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Those rights come from God. And so people will do like first amendment audits. Well, they'll see if the police will uphold their oath to the constitution and not harass or be a tyrant.

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So they have first amendment audits. And what they do is just they obey the law and do what they're allowed to do and see if the police harass.

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And when they do, many times the police take a lashing and get a beating because they're violating the law.

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But even still, I would argue that most of those people that do first amendment audits don't really even understand where those rights come from, why we believe those things and why we should uphold them.

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Another example is people get pulled over by police officers. How many of you guys have seen the videos where someone gets pulled over by a cop and they're recording it, cop comes to the window, cops asking questions to an

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American and the guy in the car says, I don't answer questions. You ever seen that? Cop comes, cop says, where are you coming from?

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I don't answer questions. Well, where are you going? I don't answer questions. Do you know how fast you were going?

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I don't answer questions. And you're like, oh, that's really interesting. But what gives him or her the right to actually do that?

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It's almost like they believe they're not required to testify against themselves.

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Where does that come from? Where's that law come from that says you don't have to testify against yourself?

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Is it just suspended midair? Is it just something that like atheists figured out? We're gonna say that you don't have to testify against yourself.

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Where does that right, I don't answer questions, I'm not helping you, I will not self incriminate, where's that come from?

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Where's the assumption of innocence come from? You already know it because you're Americans, right?

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What do we say? That we are innocent until what? Yeah, look at that.

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I wonder if you can say that in like the UK somewhere or it's just silence in the room. Innocent until proven guilty or like in some other nation, can you just say to a group and say, innocent until proven guilty?

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Do we know why we believe that? You see, Christians in history knew where it came from.

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Whether you've got British common law, whether you've got an R experiment in America, you've got our rights given to us, where's this stuff come from?

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Or when a cop comes to you and says, I'd like to get some identification, please.

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And somebody says, what's your RAS? You know what that is?

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Who knows? Greg, yeah, reasonable articulable suspicion.

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What gives us the right to say to law enforcement in this nation, when a cop says,

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I want your ID and you say, what's your reasonable articulable suspicion?

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And look, we take it for granted. I was just talking to my son Sage just the other day. Right now he's in the military.

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He's in England right now. And he mentioned that he was in a car with some friends and they got pulled over and the cop comes to the window.

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The cop doesn't ask questions. The cop doesn't say, here's why I'm pulling you over. Here's what I think I saw.

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The cop comes with something sticking out. Put this in your mouth. Right?

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No questions. No, like, here's why I pulled you over. Here's what I saw. And it's not like you have the right there to say, what's your reasonable articulable, you know, suspicion.

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Like we take advantage of this because we don't know where it comes from. We don't know why we believe it. Is it something that's just a throw away?

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We can throw it away. Like, you know, why not throw away innocent until proven guilty? Why not say guilty until proven innocent?

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Some people do that. Actually, our justice system today does that often. It's guilty until proven innocent.

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It's the reverse. But why fight for innocent until proven guilty? Why ask a police officer, do you have a warrant?

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Oh, we as Americans love that, right? Cops come to your door. Now, what would you do today? Think about it for a minute. What would you do today if a cop came to your door?

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Hi, how you doing? Officer such and such. I'd like to come in and take a look around. What would you all say?

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Not gonna go well for you, right? Not gonna go well for you, officer. No, the first thing you would say as an

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American citizen, and this is just common knowledge is, do you have a what?

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Warrant. Now, why the warrant? Oh, where's that come from? Well, let's take a look.

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You can look inside your bulletins today. That's why I put it there because it is a form of soul food. In terms of God's wisdom and accusations and hearing both sides and gathering all the evidence, the

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Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution, where does this come from? It comes from historic Christianity.

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It comes from the law of God. It comes from God's wisdom. It says, the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and no warrant shall issue but upon, what's that?

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Probable cause supported by oath or affirmation and particularly describing the place to be searched and the person or things to be seized.

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Now, who cares about that? Why obey that? Why honor that? I mean, there's people today, secularists, humanists, atheists, that would look at a document like that and say, yeah, that's just a bunch of old dead white guys.

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You know, why can't we just move some of that around? Why not have guilty and then prove your innocence? Like, why do you really need a warrant?

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And the answer is Proverbs 18. The Torah, the law of God says you have to have two to three independent witnesses.

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You can't have one witness against somebody. You must have two to three independent lines of witnesses. You need to hear both sides.

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You need to gather the evidence. What's the point of the Fourth Amendment there? It is a Christian wise law to say that you cannot violate somebody's personal property or their rights by simply searching and seizing things without first having a judge examine your evidence.

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You bring the witness. You bring the proof that this person has probably done this so we can begin an investigation.

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Where does that come from? God's wisdom. God's wisdom. Here's the problem. As Christians, we don't even know, right?

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You got all these people today. It's a Christless conservatism, fighting for the constitution, fighting for all these things.

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It's a Christless conservatism and there is this America, America, and here's these laws.

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And the answer is, guess what? Those things will easily disintegrate without knowledge from God and an anchor.

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The answer is, here it is. You've heard it before, Lex Rex. The law is king.

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It is, the law is king. What is underneath these things is God's wisdom, God's instruction,

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God's Torah, God's law. That's why we do them. Because we want to love

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God and love neighbor. These are not just things we throw in willy -nilly to culture and society.

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We do it because God forbids injustice and God hates false accusations.

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And in his law, he gives to his people wisdom. How do you navigate? Listen, how do you navigate in a fallen world where people are going to lie?

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People are going to slander. There are going to be false witnesses. People are going to cause division.

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It's going to happen. It's a fallen world. They did it to Jesus. If they did it to the

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Lord of glory and the righteous one, you and I are not safe from it.

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It can happen to us. And so God's wisdom says, here's how you navigate this. As a child of God, you want to be wise?

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You want the blessings of life and peace and joy and divine happiness? You want it?

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Then follow wisdom. And in Proverbs chapter 18, we have wisdom about accusations, wisdom about receiving accusations, wisdom about being wise and not a fool and getting your lips, inviting a beating.

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You know, there's a news story I was just watching that it was interesting to me because it was on a channel that I wouldn't normally watch and that I don't trust and I don't like, okay?

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And, but it was interesting as I was watching it, I was thinking about the fact that here is this story on a channel that I feel is so filled with unbelief and humanism and secularism.

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And I thought to myself, it's funny how the image of God, it's impossible, it's impossible to avoid.

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The demand of justice is impossible to avoid because even on this secular channel that normally hates

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God and God's truth and God's wisdom, they just could not help themselves to just despise what happened to this man.

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And so the news story came with like their obvious appall.

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How could this happen? And obviously we would agree, we would agree. The news story involved a murder case that involved

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Richard Rosario. Now, Richard Rosario was released from jail and freed after two decades, 20 years, after two decades for the murder of George Colosso, George Colosso in the

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Bronx. Two witnesses 20 years ago identified

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Richard Rosario. They identified him, they said, that's the man that killed him.

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Two witnesses identified George, or sorry, Richard. And so Richard spent, get this, it's hard to say two decades, you're like, well, 20 years is too fast to say 20 years.

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Actually, 20 years is 7 ,305 days, 7 ,305 days.

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That's a lot of days. So this man, Richard, spent 7 ,305 days in a cage, treated like an animal, as an image bearer of God for a murder that he did not do.

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And of course, the news source was like, isn't this appalling? How could this ever happen? And they talked to the new attorney general and say, are you gonna say something?

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Are you gonna confess that this was wrong? And they were like, of course, it needs to be confessed as wrong. It was totally wrong. It was an injustice.

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But the amazing thing is what everybody knows now about that case. And that is that Richard Rosario was in Florida when the murder happened in New York.

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But here's where it gets worse. Here's where it gets worse. Richard spent 7 ,305 days in a cage, like an animal, as an image bearer of God all that time.

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And the police department at the time refused to talk to Richard's witnesses.

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Do you know how many he had? 13 witnesses. 13 witnesses in Florida that said,

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Richard was with me here in Florida. He was helping me get my wife to the hospital who was giving birth the day the murder happened in New York.

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And the police officers in New York, listen to this, refused to talk to his witnesses that all testified he was with us in Florida, all of them.

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And so this man, this poor man experienced 7 ,305 days in a cage, like an animal, as an image bearer of God.

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He lost 20 years of his life. He can't get it back. It'll never come back. Nothing can repay that. Give the man $50 million, it's still not enough.

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That's no satisfaction of justice. That's nothing. It's like killing the man. And they refused, listen, here it is, ready?

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To stand on God's wisdom. What do they do? They listened to two witnesses. They did not do the kind of cross -examination they needed.

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They did not listen to both sides, assume the innocence of the accused, to say, what's your evidence?

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What's your witness? What do you have for us? Let's make sure that we are not, we are not condemning the righteous.

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We cannot condemn the righteous. That's an abomination to God. So we must, as a justice system, listen to all the witnesses in here, both sides and all the evidence.

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But all these witnesses, listen, they said, they said the New York Police Department never even contacted them.

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Isn't that amazing? Almost like they didn't care to condemn the righteous. Almost like they didn't even care to hear both sides.

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But what would a Christian world, a world transformed by the gospel, a world filled with God's spirit that loves

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God's wisdom, what would they do when there is an accused in court? What would they do?

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They would uphold God's standards. What would they say? They would say, you don't need to self -incriminate. We're going to treat you as innocent.

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And guess who has the onus? The accusers. They must prove, because we see you as innocent, they must prove that you are actually guilty with multiple lines of independent witness and testimony.

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And we want to hear from you first. How would you refute their testimony? What facts and evidence do you have? Because we will not condemn a righteous person.

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We must be just. We must be just. That's what the Christian world would do. But here's the question to ask.

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Ready? Come with me on this. It's very important. What gives anybody the right to hate that? Because I told you this story right now, and hopefully you felt what

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I felt and what they felt on that network that is not to be named, okay? What gives them the right to be appalled?

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What gives any of us the right to complain? If we live in a world that is just sound and fury, signifying nothing, if it is purposeless, meaningless protoplasm in this universe, and there are no laws above us, nothing transcendent, then what gives us the right to complain?

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You said, you saw, hopefully you got to see by now. Pastor James and I went to Utah. We debated to an atheist and a humanist agnostic.

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If you haven't seen it yet, watch the cross -examination. Watch the first three minutes and watch from their perspective how they literally say in open, in the public that molestation, rape, and murder are not objectively wrong, right?

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They are intersubjectively wrong, right? What's that mean? I don't know that other people happen to agree with you.

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Who cares? There's cannibals that agree with each other, right? Is that how we do things? He denies with his worldview that they can really complain because that's what they have.

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So what gives us the right to be appalled at what happened to this man 20 years in a cage?

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And the answer is we have a right to be appalled and to despise it. If we have God's wisdom, like Proverbs 17, 15.

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Ready? He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the

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Lord. Proverbs 18, 17. The one who states his case first seems right until the other comes and examines him.

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We would do very well and we'd be able to have a meaningful resistance towards false accusations and injustice in court if we followed

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God's instruction, Torah, law. Two examples.

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Deuteronomy, go quickly. Fast, Deuteronomy 13, 14. I won, I'm there. Are you there?

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I want to let you guys know my passion for you knowing your Bibles, right? So I love to hear your pages turning.

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If you have a phone right now, I love you and the Lord loves you. And you're cheating, okay?

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Just kidding. Some of you guys love the devices, but I want you to know your Bibles. Go to Deuteronomy, law of God.

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First five books, Deuteros, Namas, the second giving of the law. It's a restatement in many ways. Deuteronomy 13, look what that text.

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This is just what they were being taught. You need to live like this. Deuteronomy 13, verse 14, comes after this section 12, verse 12, here it is.

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If you hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you to dwell there, that certain worthless fellows have gone out among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, let us go and serve the other gods, which you have not known.

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Then you shall, here it is, inquire and make search and ask diligently.

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And behold, if it is true and certain that such an abomination has been done among you, you shall surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword.

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So here's what's being said. Here's the accusation, you hear it. Here's what you're supposed to do as the people of God.

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Here's the instruction from God. Here's God's wisdom. You shall do what first? You shall inquire, you shall make search and ask diligently.

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What's that look like? Cross -examination, getting all the evidence, giving all the facts. Before you condemn somebody, even if I think that's true, you must pull together and listen to everything you can and search diligently.

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This was put into the people of God. Justice, justice, always justice.

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You must seek out, you must never condemn a righteous person. So you better make sure you search, you diligently inquire, you hear both sides, you find out all the facts that are there before you make a judgment.

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And then Deuteronomy 19, 19. I want you to know where this is in your Bibles because it is a blessing to the world, such a blessing to the world.

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You know what's interesting today? The struggle today in courts in this nation is that if you perjure yourself, if you lie on a court record or to the judge or to witnesses, what's the penalty?

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Arbitrary, willy -nilly, right? You have a history and just even in the last 30 years, you can look at court cases where you have men accusing another man, a man accusing another man of a horrific crime, come to find out total lie.

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And you ask the question like, well, what happened to the perjurer? What happened to the false witness? Because if that guy would have gone to jail for that, he'd have gone like 30 years in jail.

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So what happened to the perjurer? What do you get, a slap on the hand? What do you get, a little fine? What'd you get? Or you have instances of even women accusing a man of rape and you're gonna find out later, he wasn't even in the same town, never happened.

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And you ask, well, what happened to the lady? Did she get like 50 years in prison, which was what he would have got? Or did she get the death penalty?

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What penalty? Because she was trying to harm the man. We have a justice system today that's abandoned

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God's standards. And so you can have false witnesses galore in a court, they could purge themselves.

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And you ask the question like, what's the penalty? What's stopping somebody from living like that, being a false witness in court?

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Here's what happened in Israel. Deuteronomy 19, starting in verse 15.

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A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed only on the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses shall a charge be established.

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Stop, that is said throughout the Old Testament, that is recited again in the

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New Testament, in Matthew 18, the ministry of Jesus, throughout Paul's writings, it is said over and over and over, that law is standing today.

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Now watch, two to three witnesses, clearly in the text doesn't mean it's true.

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The point is that God's standards say you've got to have independent lines and witness before you can even start bringing this as a serious charge, but that's not where it stops.

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It says this, it says only on the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses shall a charge be established.

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If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the

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Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in the office in those days. The judges shall inquire diligently and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother.

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So you shall purge the evil from your midst and the rest shall hear and fear and shall never again commit any such evil among you.

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So God's wisdom, Proverbs saying, hear both sides, don't be a fool and answer before you have all the facts.

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First person to state his case seems right until the other one comes to examine. This is, listen, it's just part and parcel to the biblical worldview.

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This is God's instruction. Like when they got wisdom from Solomon in Proverbs, there wasn't like, wow, this is some crazy new stuff.

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Never heard this. It's just in God's law. It's just the application of God's law. Wisdom is telling you how to handle the two to three witnesses in cross -examination.

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Now, what'd you note from Deuteronomy? Did you hear it? What do you need? Not one witness. No, not gonna listen to one person or one person that's simply trying to influence the others and getting a line of 10 witnesses.

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That doesn't count either. I need to have two to three independent lines of witness.

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And then I need to have intense cross -examination where I'm hearing both sides.

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And if I find out, the judges of Israel, if I find out that this is a malicious lying witness, then that lying witness will get the penalty that they were trying to get the other person to get.

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So think about the danger of that. They had justice then. They did.

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Like if you were a rapist in Israel, what was the penalty? Let's make sure we all know what it is.

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What's the penalty in God's law for doing something so horrendous as rape? What is it? It's death, capital punishment.

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That's it. The Bible upholds the value and dignity of the woman so much more than our culture and society today.

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It says, you violate a woman like this, you forfeit your right to live, period. That's it.

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Who honors women more, God or our culture? I'll take Jesus any day. The women are so valuable that if you do such a thing, you deserve to die.

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And so scripture says, lie in court, try to get this person in trouble for a crime.

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What's the penalty he would have gotten? Okay, you're getting that now. So you think this is gonna stop somebody in a courtroom lying about rape or murder or theft?

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It'll stop them. Why? Because if they're lying and they're caught, they're gonna get exactly what they intended to do to the other person.

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That's how God protects the court against perjury. Don't you dare lie in courts. If you're a lying witness, you'll be found out.

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So God's law provides those protections. And here is the point. Are you ready? Do you remember?

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I said, what gives us the right to hate the injustice that took place with the man who spent 7 ,300 some odd days in jail?

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What gives us the right? The word of God, the wisdom of God. You have a foundation with God's word and wisdom, but stop, stop, stop.

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Here's the problem. Here's the problem. Here's the problem. Every single time for Christians, we hear these things and we get examples about that guy.

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We go, oh yeah, those horrible police officers. Oh yeah, that terrible criminal justice system.

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Or we think about all the evil out there of people who don't obey God's standards and wisdom and we despise it, but we don't despise it in ourselves.

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I don't despise it in myself, in my mouth and my accusations and how I'm doing this.

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We hate the judge who gives injustice and doesn't hear both sides and will not allow all the facts to be present, who assumes someone's guilt before they're proven innocent.

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We despise it, but we don't despise it in ourselves. And that's the problem, because here's the deal, ready? As goes the church, so goes the world.

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As goes the church, so goes the world. If we're not the kind of people that hold up God's standards of wisdom and justice and instruction, if we don't hold it up as the people of God, they're not holding it up out there, right?

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They won't believe it if they don't see it in the people of God. So we must despise it among us and in ourselves.

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Here's the problem, ready? Three points. Here's the problem. One, people are sinners. Are you surprised by that?

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Number one, people are sinners. Number two, ready? I hate to surprise you or shock you.

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I hope this isn't a revelation for you, but here it is. Number two, people lie. People lie.

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Now assume innocence, but always be cognizant of the fact that this is a fallen world and there are people who lie.

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And number three, people often show partiality and it's a sin before God to show partiality.

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Here's why, ready? This is why partiality is a sin, because God is not like that.

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Isn't that beautiful? Why does God hate partiality? It's not like he hates it in you, but not in himself.

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God hates partiality because he's not unjust. God's just. He hates partiality.

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He hates uneven scales. God hates partiality, so we should hate it too. And here's the problem.

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There are people who show partiality. So God says, don't show partiality. Use equal weights and measures.

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Don't play favorites. And there's the danger, right? There's a danger. Here's the problem in moments where we need wisdom and we need to make sure we establish justice.

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We have a problem. Here's the problem, is that the person next to us might be our loved one.

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The person next to us might be our best friend. The person next to us might be a person we've been in a relationship for 30 years.

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And what's our first instinct when someone comes against our family or our friends, our loved ones?

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What's our first instinct every single time? What is it? Protect them, right?

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Why? Because we're loyal. Protect, protect, protect. And there's nothing wrong with the desire to protect your family and your loved ones.

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There's nothing wrong. But if you love God first above anything else, you will make sure that you wade through conflict in a just way, honoring

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God's glory and wisdom in terms of how do I listen to accusations and making sure that I say, it's okay, no.

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Okay, let's wade through this situation, but here are both sides. Let's use God's wisdom. Never show partiality.

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Here's the deal, ready? Nobody is immune. We like to think we're immune, don't we?

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Like here's the deal, ready? Let's confess it. This is the safe place. This is a safe space.

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This is a safe place to be. And in many ways, glory to God, yes it is. Christians are not perfect people.

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Tozer said, they are not perfect people, but they are the best people on earth. Tozer said that,

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I believe that. They're not perfect, but they are the best people on earth. And even in this safe place with the best people on earth, ready, nobody is immune to false accusations, gossip and slander, even within the

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Christian body. But how do you put to death those things? Let's talk about it. Nobody's immune, like even

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Jesus. Is Jesus righteous? Is he the perfect one? Was he law -keeping in every way?

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Yeah, he was obedient, righteous, honored the law of God, never broke the law of God, never sinned, never offended.

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He was never unjust. He was always equal weights and measures. The wisdom of God incarnate.

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It's God as a man. That's who Jesus is. And guess what? Even with that kind of righteous life, a life of absolute perfection with the law of God, Jesus wasn't immune to false accusations, right?

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I'll give you one. In Matthew 11, 19, let's see how fast you can get there.

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In Matthew 11, 19, I'm there. In Matthew 11,

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I didn't even have it marked, okay? So I wasn't cheating. Matthew 11, 19, here's what

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Jesus says. 18, let's start in 18. It says, for John came saying, or neither eating nor drinking, and they say, he has a demon.

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The son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, look at him, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.

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That's God. God as a man. God as a man enters into this world to save his people from their sins.

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And what does he endure? As the perfect righteous one, law -keeping, obedient in every way.

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What's he get? What's he get? Slander. Lies, false accusations. Now watch.

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Jesus is accused of drunkenness, which is a sin that will send you to hell. And Jesus is accused of it.

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He's accused of loose commitments, friend of sinners, tax collectors. He's okay with them.

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A point is, he's perfectly fine with immorality. He's perfectly fine with all the sin and immorality. Jesus doesn't have high standards.

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That was what they were saying. He's a drunkard and his standards aren't high. He adopts their practices.

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Now, another point, same gospel, Matthew 26. Look what happens to Jesus in Matthew 26.

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The righteous one, the blameless one, the one with no fault, no sin. In Matthew 26, 57, it says, and this is

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Jesus' trial. Then those who had seized Jesus led him to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and the elders had gathered.

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And Peter was following him at a distance as far as the courtyard of the high priest and going inside.

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He sat with the guards to see the end. Now the chief priests and the whole council, get this, get this, were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death.

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Note, who is involved in that treachery? Who is involved? Atheists, right?

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Atheists, unbelievers. No, no.

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Can we use the word we would use today? The church. It's the religious people.

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The religious people and the leaders are trying to find false accusations against Jesus that would lead to his death.

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Unbelievable. And they know God's law and they still sin.

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But they found none, of course, though many false witnesses came forward. It's not like they weren't there.

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They had false witnesses that came forward, but thankfully all their testimony was falling apart.

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Why? Because at least they had the law of God that knew they had to do cross -examination. And this isn't making sense.

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Shucks, it's not working. False witnesses and their stories aren't matching up.

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And so where do they go now? At last, two men, two came forward and said, this man said,

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I am able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days. And the high priest stood up and said, have you no answer to make?

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What is it that these men testify against you? But Jesus remained silent. He knew he had the right to what?

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Remain silent, interesting. Jesus had a right to remain silent. He didn't have to testify against himself. He knew that it's your job to prove that I'm actually guilty.

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Let me see you do it. And how did Pilate end that discussion? I find no fault in him.

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You can prove nothing. So false witnesses are mustard. Their stories aren't working together, but they're coming and they're coming for religious people.

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And then what happens? Are you ready? This is how false accusations come. They always come with a kernel of truth, a little kernel of truth, just a little kernel of truth.

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He said, he's gonna destroy the temple and in three days he'll raise it up again. And they're like, what? You're gonna do something to this temple of God?

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This beautiful second temple that's taken us so long to rebuild and you're gonna destroy, answer it for yourself.

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Are you some sort of revolutionary? You're gonna destroy the temple of God? Is that what Jesus was saying?

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What was Jesus saying in John chapter two? What was he saying? He was the temple. He was what the temple actually was and destroyed this temple and in three days

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I will raise it up. But what'd they do? They took his testimony, kernel of truth. They twisted and perverted it and they tried to accuse

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Jesus. And what took place? Well, it demonstrates number one, that false witnesses are a reality in this fallen world.

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Two, that false witnesses often come with kernels of truth that are spun.

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And number three, false witness and slander led to the murder of Jesus.

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That's what you see there. He's a glutton. He's a drunkard. He hangs out with lawless people.

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He's got low standards. And Jesus is talking about destroying this temple, guys. He's a threat to this temple.

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That's not what Jesus was talking about. So what do we do?

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What do we do? We've laid some foundations. What gives us the right to be appalled? We've laid some foundations of the blessings and the curses of following wisdom and avoiding wisdom.

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We've talked about the foundations. We've talked about what God requires of us as the people of God. We've talked about how do we get these laws that we have today that are blessing the world?

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Where do they come from? They come right from the law, word of God. They're a gift to the world from the

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Christian worldview. But what do we do considering these truths personally?

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Here, I want to lay this out as quickly as possible. Number one, what does wisdom do?

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Number one, Proverbs chapter 6. What does wisdom do?

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Wisdom hates what God hates. Proverbs 6, verse 12.

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A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech, winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger.

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What's the point of that? They operate in secret, not in the open. They operate in secret.

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They do what they do behind closed doors. They do it secretly, not in the open. Why? They're afraid. They're afraid of being discovered because they have crooked speech.

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They don't just go straight. They hide things. They're not straight speaking. They don't keep honest.

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They don't just say what their intentions are. They don't say what's really in their heart, what's in their mind. They speak in a crooked way.

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They wink, they signal, they hide. And God says this, with a perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord.

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Therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly. In a moment, he will be broken beyond healing. There are six things that the

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Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him, haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that deceives, devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

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Here's what wisdom does. Ready? How do you apply what we're learning today in Proverbs 18? Wisdom hates what

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God hates. Do you? Like, do we have that in us or do we have respectable sins in the Christian community? Right?

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We have respectable sins like gossip, slander, false witness, accusations, hearing one side, showing partiality.

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It's a respectable sin. We're okay with that. Like we hate the homosexuality. We hate the molestation with a passion.

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We hate those sins. We hate that sort of injustice, but we're okay generally with showing partiality.

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We're okay generally with receiving accusations without hearing both sides. Wisdom hates what

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God hates. Wisdom hates discord. How do you and I feel about that in the body of Christ?

01:00:00

Like if you ever come into contact with a person that is sowing discord or a group within the body of Christ that's sowing discord, do you see that?

01:00:08

And are you like, oh my goodness, this is discord in God's house. We have to put an end to this.

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We have to stop this. How do we end this? How do we loathe this and abominate it like God abominates it?

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Or are we comfortable with it? Do we entertain it? Do we have the kind of heart for God's wisdom and the passion for God's truth that God has?

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Or do we live lives with respectable sins where we actually have some favorite pet sins? God calls us to hate what he hates.

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That's the first point. Second point. Wisdom loathes the possibility of condemning a righteous person.

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In Proverbs 17, 15, go there. In Proverbs 17, 15, the text says this, and you know this well being part of our body.

01:00:54

It says, he who justifies or declares righteous, right? Acquits the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike in abomination.

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That word toevah. That word toevah means, are you ready? Loathsome, detestable.

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Which means, if I'm ever in a place where I'm officially making an accusation saying you're guilty,

01:01:26

I had better know. I had better know because God doesn't do that.

01:01:34

And God says that he abominates and loathes condemning a righteous person.

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So you better know it's true. You better have listened to both sides. You better have listened to all the evidence and witnesses before you plant your feet and say, guilty.

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So number two, wisdom loathes the possibility of condemning a righteous person. Number three, wisdom wants the truth and not merely to look right.

01:02:05

You heard it already, Proverbs 18. I'll read it again. I think it speaks for itself, but let's look at it.

01:02:10

Proverbs 18, two, it says this, ready? A fool takes no pleasure in understanding but only in expressing his opinion.

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A fool takes no pleasure in understanding. They don't wanna know. They don't want the facts. They don't want the information.

01:02:24

They don't need the knowledge. They don't need anything because in reality, they just wanna be heard. In reality, the fool doesn't wanna understand.

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The fool doesn't want you to instruct him. He's like the scoffer. He doesn't wanna be teachable. She doesn't wanna be teachable.

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A fool just wants to be heard. They wanna do the talking. Do you know people like that? Are you that person?

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Everyone just, I watched what happened. See, your faces changed. You guys were like, yes, I know that guy. But when I ask you, are you that person?

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Are you the person that just wants to express your opinion? You want to be the person that looks like you've got all the answers.

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Wisdom wants the truth and not merely to look right. A wise person wants to know the truth.

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They want understanding. They want it all there. Give me everything I need to know. They're not just interested in having their opinion heard or expressing their conclusions.

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I really wanna know. I wanna walk in the truth because God is the truth.

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Now, fourth point, wisdom avoids getting a beating by not really understanding. Proverbs 18, six, ready?

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A fool's lips walk into a fight and his mouth invites a beating. Here's the point, ready?

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On this subject of like receiving accusations and having everything right and making sure you have all the information, a fool doesn't wanna know the facts.

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They show partiality. They just wanna have their opinion. They might only have limited information and they invite a beating, why?

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Because their lips get them into a fight they have no understanding about. And so when they get into it, what takes place?

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They get beat. How would they avoid the beating? How would you avoid a beating and not be a fool?

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How would you avoid it? By making sure you had all the facts that you've heard both sides, understanding that one person's case sounds true till another one comes to examine them, making sure you have all the evidence.

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You haven't made a conclusion before hearing everything. A fool walks into a fight getting a beating with their lips because they don't care to understand.

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They just wanna express an opinion. They've got a team, they've got a side. Wisdom calls us to avoid getting a beating by not really understanding.

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Next point, five. Wisdom waits for a conclusion and giving an answer before knowing all the facts.

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You wait to conclude and you wait to answer until you've had all the facts. Proverbs 18, verse 13, what's the text say?

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It says, if one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame.

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Does this make you wanna slow down? Doesn't it make you wanna slow down? Like you read Proverbs 18, you're like, maybe

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I should be quiet a little, right? Doesn't it do that? Wisdom just sort of like, it captures your heart and mind.

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You're like, oh no, I think I move too fast sometimes.

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It's okay, that's why you're here, right? Renew your minds, right? God changed my passions, changed my desires, changed my commitments.

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The text says, if one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame. If you have made a conclusion and given an answer before you've actually heard all the facts and received all the information, then the text says this, fool, shame on you.

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If you've come to conclusions before you've heard all the sides and all the facts, the Bible says, folly, shame on you.

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Who wants to carry that? No person that loves God wants to carry that. Christ has carried all of our shame.

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Yes, we acknowledge that category. He's taken my shame, he's taken my guilt, but practically speaking within a

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Christian community or out there in the world, you carry that with you. Shame, shame on you.

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You didn't listen to both sides. That was foolish. You came to a conclusion, you gave an answer before you even knew.

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That's what wisdom says. Wisdom does that. It waits for concluding and giving an answer before having all the facts.

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Wisdom hears both sides, Proverbs 18, 17. The one who states his case first seems right until the other comes and examines him.

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Have you ever done that? Let's just take a breath for a second, okay? Heavy, okay. Have you ever done that?

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Have you ever like, you heard a situation or you heard someone's like accusation or you heard something and like, you're like, dang, really, they did that?

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Man, that's horrible. Like, you start even talking about it. Like, I can't believe that person did that. And next thing you know, you hear the other person inside, you're like, oops.

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The shame is where you've already started talking about it and making conclusions and giving answers, right?

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Two sides, right? Oftentimes, like people say, there's two sides to every story.

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Well, I think there's different ways to say that more accurately. But the point is, is you need to be willing to listen to all the evidence and facts before you come spin a tale.

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And let me say this to you with just humility and just transparency. I've been a pastor for a long time, a long, long time.

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Thousands of hours of counseling, thousands of hours of trying to mediate conflict. And I can tell you right now, there are times where someone comes into the office and they tell a tale that will blow your hair back.

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Now, a wise person listens, assumes innocence of both parties and says, let's start examining.

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Let's start listening. Let's start getting details. Let's find out the evidence before you simply come to a conclusion, bite down and start acting like a fool and gathering together shame, making sure you have everything together before you've come to a conclusion.

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Wisdom hears both sides. That's the point. Gets all the facts. Final point, number seven.

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Wisdom avoids partiality. Proverbs 24, this is simple enough. Proverbs 24, 23.

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It says, there are also our sayings of the wise, partiality in judging is not good.

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That means, ready? It's bad. It's bad. Don't be partial. Don't play favorites.

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You could have at times even two parties equally guilty or guilty of different things.

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So be a good mediator, right? Be somebody that's in the middle and for both people.

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Advocate for both people and make sure that you're confronting both people with sins in both their lives.

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Partiality in judging is not good. And oftentimes say, for example, quick, how does this look? It's a marital conflict.

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Marital conflict as pastors, oftentimes as believers, we sending each other in marriage.

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I know none of you guys do, but it happens. And sometimes you'll have just basic marital conflict.

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You know, brother or sister comes inside, sits down with the pastors. The duty of the pastor is to say, okay, no partiality, advocate for both.

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How are you standing against her? How are you standing against him? And you show equal weights and measures.

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Don't be partial. Now there are instances in this world where there are true victims and true perpetrators.

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And in that case, you're not just, you're not advocating for the perpetrator who is truly guilty and there's evidence and all the rest.

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They're truly guilty. Of course, there's a victim and perpetrator, but oftentimes it's just regular civil conflict between like husband and wife, brother and sister, or two friends within the body.

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No partiality, right? Deal with the sins of both in the community to say, what are you guilty of?

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And what are you guilty of? God hates the sin of partiality. He's not like that. Okay, so how do we do this?

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Number one, some ways to lay down and apply this wisdom. Assume the innocence. Number two, fight against partiality.

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Here's some applications of what we've learned. Number three, witnesses. Two to three, independent lines.

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Number four, cross -examination. Make sure you have all the facts. Interrogate the witnesses.

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And number five, here's the premier thing as the cherry on top of the message. Are you ready, brothers and sisters? Here it is.

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Love your neighbor as you love yourself. And what does that mean? What's it mean, brothers and sisters?

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It means this. Whenever there's a situation where there's accusations going wisdom would do everything

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I said today and then some, but the core issue to hold in front of you and me at all times, love your neighbor as you love yourself.

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Meaning, if I'm trying to mediate a conflict or help with a conflict, or I'm even accusing somebody, how would

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I want to be treated? For example, ready?

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Somebody brings something to you and they say, hey, this person's, and they've actually engaged in this, they've done this.

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If it was you on the other side of the accusation, you were the one being accused behind your back, how would you want that to be handled?

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Would you want people to come ask you? Would you want them to hear your side?

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Would you want them to hear your witnesses? Remember the story that I shared with you at the beginning that we're all appalled with and we're horrified by?

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That story where I told you the police officers never even bothered to ask his 13 witnesses.

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So he spent 20 years in jail over 7 ,300 days, and every one of us said, how dare they not hear his side?

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Love your neighbor as you love yourself means in a situation where someone's being accused, you want to handle that in the way that you would want it handled if you were the accused.

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Amen? Let's pray. Father, I pray that you'd bless us as a church to not just know things about you, but to desire wisdom and to walk in wisdom.

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Grant to us the grace and the strength and the power to live according to your word and spirit.

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Let us be a wise people. God, as I said in the message, I said, as goes the church, so goes the world. We're never going to,

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Lord, be light to the world in this area of wisdom and accusations and injustice with our tongues. We're never gonna be light to the world if we're not first changed and transformed ourselves.

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Let us be the people that uphold your wisdom and uphold your standards of justice. Help us,

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Lord, to hate the injustice in our tongues. Help us, Lord, to glorify your name as your saints by standing on your wisdom and truth.

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We want that happiness, that divine happiness and blessing, Lord. We want to live that way.

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By your spirit, would you grant it and grant to us even repentance over our failures, if any.