What is Goodness?

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Welcome everyone to our latest course.
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This is the third of our courses here at Sovereign Grace Academy.
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And tonight we begin an Introduction to Christian Ethics.
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This is MPS 195.
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If you are going for credit with Jacksonville Baptist Theological Seminary, this course does qualify for credit with the seminary.
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Once you finish doing all of your course work, you can take your course certificate to the seminary.
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You do have to pay for the credits, but you don't have to pay for this course.
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The only thing that you have to buy for this course is your book.
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And hopefully all of you came with a book, but if you did not, there was no pre-reading for this class.
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The last two classes we had pre-reading that was required, but we didn't do pre-reading for this class.
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So even if you did not come with your book tonight, you can purchase your book, have it here by Saturday.
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If you ordered it today, it's a two-day ship on Amazon.
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And you can do your course reading for next week and have all of that.
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But to do that, you need a syllabus.
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Does everyone tonight have their syllabus? No.
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Okay.
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I have a few copies.
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And if we need to do more, we can.
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So I'll tell you what we'll do.
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We'll go ahead and hand out.
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Who does not have a syllabus? While she's doing that, before we go into the syllabus, and we are going to go over the syllabus in just a moment, I do want to give you two things to consider about this course by way of introduction.
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Two things to consider.
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Number one, this is an ethics course, and we probably have an idea of what that means.
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However, most people confuse ethics with morals.
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And so for just a second, I would like to give you a definition of ethics that you can use for the basis of what we're going to be working on in this class.
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Strictly speaking, when we speak of ethics, we are speaking of ought.
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I'll give you an idea here.
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Ethics and morals.
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Ethics comes from the Greek word ethos, and morals comes from the word mores, where we might get the word more or the attitudes or the bent of a people.
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And so the idea of ethics is what the foundations ought to be.
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It is the ought of something.
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Morals is the is of something.
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If we talk about a moral people, a people with their morals, we're talking about what they are.
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Ethics talks about what they should be.
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Ethics is more foundational.
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I'll read you a definition.
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Quote, in our modern culture, the terms ethics and morals are virtually synonymous.
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Quite frankly, the confusion over the interchangeableness of these two terms is understandable, but it is wrong.
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From history, we learn that the two words have different meanings.
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Ethics comes from ethos, meaning a stall for horses, a place of stability and permanence.
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The word morality comes from the word mores or mores, which describes the shifting behavioral patterns of a society.
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Ethics is what is normative and absolute.
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It refers to the standards around which we organize our lives and from which we define our duties and obligations.
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It results in a set of imperatives that establishes acceptable behavioral patterns.
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It is what people ought to do.
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By contrast, morality is more concerned with what people do.
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It describes what people are already doing, often regardless of any absolute set of standards.
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Again, ethics is about imperative.
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Morals is about descriptive.
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In this course, we are dealing with the ought.
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What ought be.
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Not what is, but what should be.
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Number two, this is not only an ethics course, this is a Christian ethics course.
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We are beginning with some overarching presuppositions before we even begin.
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The overarching presupposition is that the Bible is a source of truth.
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In fact, it is the source of absolute truth for the Christian.
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Therefore, we will not shy away from finding our ethical absolutes and our ethical foundations in Scripture.
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This is not a defense of the Bible class.
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We are coming with the assumption that the Bible is true.
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If we were doing apologetics, we could talk about defending the truth of Scripture.
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But we are not there.
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In eight weeks, we would spend eight weeks doing that if that were the subject.
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So, we are going to go off the assumption that the Scripture is our first and primary presupposition.
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In fact, Cornelius Van Til said this.
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He says, Christian ethics does not differ from other ethics in that it seeks to answer any different questions than other ethical theories do.
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But it differs from other ethical theories in that it answers these questions differently.
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We have found that Christian ethics does not differ from other ethical theories in that it is more limited than they.
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On the contrary, it is as comprehensive in its sweep as any ethical theory should be.
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The difference is therefore basically one of approach.
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We wish, therefore, to consider first the presuppositions of Christian ethics.
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And, of course, what is the primary presupposition of Christian ethics? And that is that we believe God gave us the Scriptures.
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And there is our foundation.
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And, to trust in the Scriptures, we have to believe that God is perfect in His character and the fountainhead of all good.
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We believe the Bible is revelation from God and God is good.
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So, we are dealing with what ought to be from God's perspective.
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That is the foundation of this course.
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This is an ethics course.
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It is a sense of ought.
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And it is a Christian ethics course.
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It is a sense of ought from God's perspective.
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All right.
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Now we have our sheets.
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We can go through our syllabus.
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Everybody has three pages, right? Yeah, exactly.
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Everybody else got a free one.
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All right.
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If you will open up your syllabus or take it out and look at the first page, you will notice the overview of this course will investigate the subject of ethics based on a Christian worldview.
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It will expose students to a litany of ethical dilemmas and cover methods for determining the biblical answer to solving those dilemmas.
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Our goals and objectives are to encourage students toward a more consistent Christian worldview, to investigate the relationship between Christians and biblical law, and to learn methods for discovering the Bible's teaching regarding ethical dilemmas.
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Your required text is you have to have a Bible.
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Now, if you have a Bible on your phone, that is fine.
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I don't mind a digital Bible.
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In fact, it offers you various translations to look at.
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And it is your choice what translation you use.
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I typically use the English standard version if anybody is wondering what I read out of.
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And then you also need the book, Forty Questions About Christians and Biblical Law.
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Brother, may I hold yours? This is what the book should look like if you ordered it off of Amazon.
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It is a very good book.
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And here is my reason for saying that.
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It is not just good for this class.
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This book is good for your Christian walk in general.
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I could have had you purchase an ethics textbook.
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I have two that I am using to formulate my lectures.
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But I felt like this book would take you further than just a simple ethics textbook.
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This book has in it information that deals with so many of the questions that we as Christians have to deal with in regard to our fidelity to God's written law.
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So this book is helpful.
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This is one of the books that is used at Southern Seminary.
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Actually, the author, Tom Schreiner, is a professor at Southern Seminary.
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So you get an idea of how that book is used in other places.
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You also have in this class required listening.
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This is the first class, for those of you who have been with us for all the classes, this is the first time we have done this.
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Required listening means that you are required at least once a week to listen to a podcast.
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The podcast is called The Briefing with Albert Mohler, who is the president of Southern Seminary.
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You can get the podcast for free if you go to your podcast app on your phone.
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And if you do not have a phone that does podcasting, you can get it online for free.
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Basically, I am going to explain to you in a little while what you are going to do.
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Basically, you are going to be required at least once a week to listen to The Briefing and write a paragraph synopsis of something from The Briefing that you learned.
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Your paper is going to be shorter at the end this term, but there is going to be more in the week work.
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There is going to be more per week due.
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So every week you are going to have a paragraph that you are going to hand in showing that you listened to an episode.
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Even if you just said, today he talked about an abortion case that is happening in Jackson, Mississippi, and this is the situation that is happening, and this is why it is an ethical dilemma, or however you would tie it to this class.
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It is part of my daily devotion.
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I get up in the morning.
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I read my scripture.
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I listen to The Briefing while I am brushing my teeth or shaving or whatever.
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Just about every episode you listen to, I will have listened to it too.
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So you are just showing me you listened, and showing me how it might tie to this class.
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It is a synopsis of news from a Christian worldview.
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So it is a healthy dose of what is going on in the world, and it is going to be part of your grade for this class.
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You have recommended reading, Introduction to Christian Ethics by Scott Ray, and How Should I Live in This World by Dr.
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R.C.
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Sproul.
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Both of those books are relatively inexpensive and available on Amazon.
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Yes, sir? That R.C.
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Sproul book is actually a free download on Nintendo.
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Awesome.
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Yes, thank you.
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That is good.
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So if you would prefer to get it digital, you can get it for free.
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Excellent.
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All right.
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The next page, course requirements.
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You have to be here.
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Ten percent of your grade requires that you are here.
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If you miss more than two classes, you forfeit the certificate.
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You cannot be out more than 25 percent of the classes.
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If there are only eight you miss two, you no longer qualify for the certificate.
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Reading assignments.
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That is your weekly reading assignment.
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We will go over that in a moment.
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That qualifies partially for your credit.
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Your notebook assignment.
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That is the briefing, and we are going to talk about that.
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And also any notes you take in class.
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At the end of class, I like to look at your notebook and show that you have paid attention, you have taken the handouts I have given you, you have made a notebook for this class.
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Something that will go beyond this class and have value for you.
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That is your notebook grade.
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Academic character.
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If you cheat in any way and you are caught cheating, at first it could just damage your grade.
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Eventually it could get you just removed from the class.
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Hopefully this will not be a problem.
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We can talk about the ethics on that.
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Yes, we could.
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The ethics of stealing other people's ideas.
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Most people plagiarize accidentally, but it does happen a lot in papers.
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Some people just straight out plagiarize whole pages of information.
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It is usually pretty easy to spot.
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The next part, your weekly submissions.
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This is the briefing, actually.
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This is what you are going to be doing.
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Students will need to listen to the briefing with Al Mohler at least once a week during the course and write a short summary of what ethical dilemma the episode addressed.
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A single paragraph is sufficient.
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The summary is due by the following class.
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When you come in, I will just have a place for them to set.
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Just come in and set it down.
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I do not care if it is notebook paper, printer paper, whatever.
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Just write it down and leave it.
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Even if you type it up on your computer and print it, it is fine.
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Your research project.
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By the way, if you did last semester, last term, and you handed in a research project, they are still being graded.
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I have a teacher's assistant who is helping me grade them this time, which is nice because I got a lot more submissions this time.
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She has been really brutal on the grammar, just so you know.
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She may or may not be my wife.
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She has a Bible degree as well, so I have no problem letting her be our teacher's assistant.
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She has been going over the grammar, and then I go over it for content.
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It has been a nice little double header there to give you an appropriate grade.
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This time, the research project will be assigned during the final class.
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Each student will be provided a specific ethical dilemma.
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Students will write an analysis of the dilemma using the model for making ethical decisions, which is a handout you will get tonight.
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The written analysis should be no less than four pages, not including the title and bibliography pages.
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Four pages is not long.
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The last one was six.
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The one before that was eight.
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So our papers are getting shorter, but then the work time is getting longer.
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Yes, pretty soon it will just be one page.
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Yes, pretty soon it will get down to a manageable piece.
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It tells you the format here.
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Let's go to the last page and look at what the course looks like.
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The course structure is simple.
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There are eight lectures.
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They are dated on this sheet.
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You will notice that we are taking a break on October 31st.
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That is not because I am celebrating Halloween, but I do use that night as a night for evangelism.
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We have, for many years, gone out and handed out tracts.
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Our neighborhood is filled with people, so we use that, and we have historically used that night to try to reach our neighbors for the gospel.
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I will not be here on October 31st, but we will come back the next week and have our final class.
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We will call that our fall break.
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Each class is going to deal with a different ethical subject, which will have several subheadings of subjects.
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Tonight, we are going to look at why study ethics, what is goodness, subjectivism versus objectivism, and what that means.
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Next week, we are going to look at Christians and biblical law.
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The third week, we are going to look at life ethics.
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The fourth week, death ethics.
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The fifth week, war ethics.
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The sixth week, sexual ethics.
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The seventh week, money ethics.
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Then the final week, we are going to put everything together.
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On the final week, you are going to have the opportunity to propose ethical dilemmas of your own, which we will discuss in class.
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Now, last semester, I had you propose Bible verses, and we only got to one, and that was my fault.
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So I will try to be more brief this time, so we can at least try to address some more than just one ethical dilemma.
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But that gives you an idea of what the course is going to be.
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Does anybody have any questions about the syllabus? Yes.
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I don't mind if you want to go to an older one.
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That's fine.
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My kind of thinking was, if you do one for this week, I would have more recently heard it, and I would be more apt to know what he is talking about.
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But that's not a huge deal.
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Just put the date on it, especially if you go back a few months.
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Yeah, because then I can go back.
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If I see something on your paper, and I'm like, wow, that's interesting, I can go back and listen to it.
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He's got them all archived, and I can go back and find it.
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So yes, just please date it.
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He does it Monday through Friday.
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Monday through Friday.
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Yeah, it's every morning during the week.
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They're awesome.
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Is it like Ligonier Ministries podcast? Theirs is about 6 o'clock every morning.
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Yeah, but his is about 25 minutes, where Ligonier's I think is pretty short.
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Is it? Is it still long? Oh, okay, yeah.
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And I listen to it at double time, because I listen to everything at double time.
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So if 25 minutes is a long time, maybe bump the speed up a little bit.
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You might be able to keep up.
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You can do that? Yeah, you can bump the speed up.
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When I listen to a book, I listen at two times speed.
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Because the guys reading books, you know, audio books, they're always like, and chapter three.
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It's like, you're killing me, bro.
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So you bump that thing up to two, and you get through it in twice the time.
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All right, moving on.
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Let's look at our lecture for tonight.
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We have, I knew we were going to take time on the syllabus, so we're going to, oh, by the way, for those of you who haven't been here, it's 6.30 to 7.30, and then we take a break for about 10 minutes, and then we have the last 20 minutes of class.
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And the last 20 minutes is usually a discussion time, but it is an hour and a half that we ask that you be here.
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If you have to leave at the half hour mark, if you have to leave at the hour mark and you can't necessarily stay, that doesn't count as you missing the class, but I'd like for you to be here if you can for the whole hour and a half.
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All right, so we're going to do our first lecture now.
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This is lecture one on the subject of why study ethics.
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Why do we want to study ethics? Each of you certainly has a reason that you came here tonight.
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Perhaps you're anxious to dive into the dilemmas and mix it up and argue.
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Maybe that's really what drew you out of the house and into the seat, because you're just ready to get on with it.
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But it is also likely that you have a more profound sense of purpose for this class.
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You likely have ethical questions yourself that you have difficulty answering or perhaps questions that you know other people have and you have difficulty giving them an answer from Scripture.
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I know that there are times as a pastor that I'm faced with tremendously difficult sets of circumstances where it seems like the only options there are are bad ones, and thus we have the very common colloquial phrase, choosing the lesser of two evils.
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It seems like sometimes that's all we're able to do.
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And yet we know Jesus Christ never chose the lesser of two evils, because He never did evil.
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And so that poses an even bigger thought for us to consider.
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As a human being made in God's image, we all have an inherent sense of oughtness.
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In fact, I want to have you open your Bibles with me, if you would, and go to Romans chapter 2.
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We're going to look at what the Bible says about oughtness.
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Romans chapter 2, verse 14.
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The Apostle Paul in Romans 1 is speaking about the sinful nature of man, and then in Romans 2, he is speaking to those who have the law, specifically the Jews, and he speaks about the fact that even though they have the law, they still break the law.
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So having the law hasn't kept them necessarily any more ethical or moral.
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And then in verse 14 of chapter 2, he says this, For when Gentiles who do not have the law, meaning the written law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.
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They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when according to my gospel God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
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We'll stop there.
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Paul is saying here that all men, whether they be Jew or Gentile, whether they have the written law or not, have an inherent sense of right and wrong.
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This is why Romans 1 says, Every man will face God and no man will have an excuse when he faces God.
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No man can simply say, I didn't know right from wrong.
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I didn't understand ought and ought not.
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Right here it says, The Gentiles prove they have the law written in their heart every time they do what the law requires.
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Even in places where we know the written law of God is not flourishing, there is still law and order.
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Men demand it because it is within them.
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They understand an inherent sense of ought.
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However, because of the fall, our sense of ought is corrupted.
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Romans 1.18 says, The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
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What truth is being suppressed? The truth of oughtness.
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The truth of right from wrong.
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The truth of the existence of God is what Paul goes on to say, but it is also knowing what is right.
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They suppress what is right because they want to do what is wrong.
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Jeremiah 17.9 says, The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
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Who can know it? This is a reminder to us of what is known as the noetic effect of the fall.
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That is an important word.
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And when I say noetic, it is not no-atic.
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It is not referring to Noah as in Noah and the flood.
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Noetic refers to the Greek nuos, or nuos, which is the idea of the mind.
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And the noetic effect of the fall is referring to the effect that the fall of man had on the mind of man.
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One thing you will hear people say is, I am a completely reasonable person.
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And the answer that you can respond with by the authority of God's word is, No, you are not.
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No one is completely reasonable.
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No one is completely logical.
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We all have minds that have been corrupted by the fall.
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All of our minds in some way or another have been corrupted.
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And so when you have that atheist who tells you how much of a free thinker he is, how much he is logical and above reproach, and everything, every thought he has is completely and utterly logical, you can say, No, it is not.
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Now, I don't know if you want to do that, but in your mind you can be confident that our minds have been corrupted.
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And you say, Well, how do you know that for certain? Well, the Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, The natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
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The natural man has limitations on what he can understand, specifically regarding spiritual things.
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He is limited in his knowledge because of the noetic effect of the fall.
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Therefore, we study the subject of ethics to help us conform our understanding.
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Remember, we are asking the question, Why do we study ethics? We study the subject of ethics to help us conform our understanding about good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, to the standard of God.
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Let me ask you this, and you don't have to answer out loud, unless you just necessarily want to.
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Do you always think right about everything? Do you know that you think wrong about things, and yet you still think that way? Here is the classic example, because I am a pastor, I have people do this to me.
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Pastor, I know this is wrong to think this way, but...
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They will say it, they are just like that.
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Pastor, I know it is wrong to think this way, but...
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And I always am very scared as to what is coming after that but, because it is usually crazy.
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But that is that noetic effect.
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Even as believers, even as born again Christians, who have been taken from spiritual death to spiritual life, who have been taken from darkness to light, who have been given the mind of Christ, the Scripture says.
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And yet still, we struggle with what is right and what is wrong.
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That is part of that dealing with the flesh, and dealing with the effects of the fall that we are still dealing with.
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So what do we want to do in this class? We want to try to conform our understanding of right and wrong to the perfect standard of God.
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Alright, moving on to the next question.
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We asked the question, why study ethics? That is the reason.
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Number two question, what is goodness? You say, wait a minute, what does that mean? Well, the reason why I am asking the question, what is goodness? It is because most people associate ethics with goodness.
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I will give you an example.
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If you met a person who was an ethical person, you would say that is a good person.
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If you met a person who was an unethical person, you would say that is a bad person.
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Just like I said earlier, we talked about somebody, you mentioned it Daniel, somebody who cheats, you would say that is bad.
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Now you might not say it is a bad person, but you would say that is a bad decision, that is bad ethics if they are willing to cheat, if they are willing to steal someone else's intellectual property.
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That is thievery, therefore that is bad.
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But this raises an immediate question.
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In fact, this is the heart of the ethical foundations.
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What makes something good or bad? What makes something good or bad? I want to introduce you tonight to four different theories on how to determine whether something is good or bad.
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These are basically four ethical systems of thought.
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The first one, and I am going to have to write these for you, because I know it is tough for you guys to see the board, so I apologize.
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Maybe if I erase this, I can just kind of stick to the top third of the board.
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That helps with this giant teaching desk here.
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I just need to lop the legs off about six inches.
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The first one is called deontological ethics.
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Deontological ethics, and I will go back and explain them in a moment, but let's just go ahead and put them down.
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There is teleological ethics.
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There is ethical egoism.
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And then the last one is known as relativism.
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That is probably the easiest to define, because most of us have probably heard of relativism.
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How many of you are familiar with any of the rest of them? Deontological ethics? Teleological ethics? Okay.
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I just kind of want to get an idea so I know how much time I need to spend.
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Deontological ethics comes from the Greek deion, which means an obligation or a duty.
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This is the idea that there are things that are right and wrong simply because they are right and wrong.
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They are intrinsically right.
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They are intrinsically wrong, regardless of the context, regardless of the consequences.
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An example would be, it is always wrong to steal.
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That is deontological ethics.
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No matter the context, no matter the consequence, it is always wrong to do X, or it is always right to do Y.
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That is referred to as deontological.
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It means that right and wrong have their own intrinsic truth.
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They are duty.
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Number two, teleological ethics.
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Teleological ethics comes from the Greek telos, which means goal or end.
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This is the belief that the outcome determines whether or not something is good or bad.
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The action which produces the greatest good for the most people is the best, or the least harm for the most people is best.
31:23
You might have heard the phrase, the ends justify the means.
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It doesn't matter how we get there as long as we get there.
31:33
That is teleological, sometimes referred to as utilitarian ethics.
31:39
You might have heard the phrase utilitarianism.
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Someone who basically says as long as it works, it is right.
31:51
Here is an example, maybe kind of hit close to home.
31:54
I don't know what your position on gun rights is at this moment.
31:57
It doesn't matter.
31:58
We will get to that in the week we talk about war.
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But a good example would be gun rights.
32:03
Someone might say we should take all the guns away from everyone because guns are dangerous.
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And even though taking the guns away from people would be stealing, the theft is not wrong because the righteous purpose of safety.
32:23
That would be a utilitarian argument.
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Now I understand why you giggle because it is not safety.
32:29
But that is the argument.
32:31
Someone would say even though it is theft, it has a righteous cause.
32:38
And therefore the theft is no longer bad.
32:42
So that is an example of utilitarian or teleological ethics.
32:46
The next one is called ethical egoism.
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This is the belief that whatever is in a person's own self-interest is what determines right from wrong.
32:57
Here is an example that you have probably all heard at least once or twice in your life.
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This child is going to be an undue financial and emotional burden on the mother.
33:13
Therefore an abortion would be appropriate.
33:19
You have heard that argument? That would be an ethical egoist argument.
33:26
What is best for the individual is right.
33:31
The fourth is relativism.
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This is the belief that right and wrong are determined primarily by culture.
33:46
And therefore are not absolute.
33:49
It can extend also to the individual level.
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And this is where you have probably heard it.
33:55
So I don't even have to say it.
33:56
But I will say it just to remind you.
33:58
Someone who says what is right for you is not necessarily right for me.
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And what is right for me is not necessarily right for you.
34:10
And that is okay.
34:12
And therefore right and wrong is relative to the individual.
34:17
You get to determine your own standard of ethics based upon your own feelings about right and wrong.
34:27
And that is relativism.
34:29
Now, just a quick question.
34:31
Of these four, which do you think is closest to a biblical worldview? Deontological ethics are certainly contained in scripture.
34:48
However, I want to challenge you and say that each of these is discussed in scripture.
34:58
There are times when the idea of the greatest good is discussed.
35:05
There are times when even focusing on self is not considered bad.
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Consider the argument Jesus makes for why we want to avoid hell.
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Because it is going to hurt you.
35:19
And therefore there should be some self-interest involved in you not wanting to go to hell.
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It would be better to have your arm cut off than your whole body to be thrown into hell.
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There is a sense in which there is self-interest in that argument.
35:36
And so while I would say some of these seem to be inherently evil, there is a point at which we are going to notice throughout the study of this course.
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Each of these is sometimes used as an argument.
35:46
We go back to Proverbs.
35:47
Sometimes we will see these pop up.
35:50
Even relativism is found in a sense when we go to Romans 14 and there is a passage which tells us that sometimes there are things that are wrong for you that aren't wrong for me.
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And so even though I would say that the majority report is deontological in scripture, we cannot simply say these others have no place.
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We simply have to put them in their right place.
36:15
We have to understand what is the scripture's teaching on this subject.
36:24
But even more so, I want to ask an even deeper question.
36:27
We have already asked what is goodness? And we say, well, here are ways to find out what is good.
36:32
If it is an absolute goodness, is it because it finds the greatest good for the most amount of people, because it is good for the individual, or because it is an individual understanding of good? But let me ask you this even deeper question.
36:44
What makes something good? Let me throw this at you.
36:52
It is called the euthyphro dilemma.
36:56
The euthyphro dilemma.
36:58
It is hard to say.
36:59
Excuse me.
37:01
Is something good because God commands it? Or does God command something because it is good? Is something good because God commands it? Or does God command something because it is good? Let me restate the question.
37:27
Does God say that things are moral because they are naturally moral by nature? Or do they become moral because God declares them to be moral? Huh? Well, this is a dilemma question though.
37:46
And I will show you how it becomes a dilemma question.
37:48
In a recent debate with an atheist, I watched one of my friends.
37:53
And one of my friends who is a pastor was in the debate.
37:57
And during the debate with the atheist, the atheist asked this question.
38:03
Hi.
38:05
The atheist asked this question.
38:09
If God commanded you to kill me, would you? Now, before you answer...
38:20
Every day and twice on Sunday.
38:23
No, before...
38:28
The pastor friend of mine was unwilling to answer the question.
38:33
And I understand why he was unwilling to answer the question.
38:36
Because the very next question of the atheist or the response would have been, Well, I would not kill you.
38:42
Therefore, I am better than you.
38:45
If God told me to kill you, I would tell him no.
38:49
No, well, we will get there.
38:52
I am not disagreeing.
38:53
But you...
38:54
Huh? God did not command that the Israelites go and kill every man, woman, child, animal? Scorched earth policy with the Canaanites? So, and I am not, again, not arguing with you, but pointing out that it is...
39:12
Well, in that regard, God was good in doing what He did if we take the approach that what God commands is good because He commands it.
39:24
You see, that is where...
39:26
Here is something I have used in an example with people before.
39:31
I have said, if you imagine this line represents goodness, okay? This line represents goodness, right? We are all down here and we are trying to do good.
39:48
So, we are reaching toward goodness, right? We miss, we fall, sometimes really low.
39:56
But the question is, is God also reaching for goodness? Is there a standard above God that He must reach? Or is He the standard? See, that really answers the question.
40:16
Because, honestly, I am with you.
40:18
And maybe this might...
40:19
Somebody may watch this video in the future and may think I am a monster.
40:22
But if God told me to kill somebody...
40:24
Giddy up.
40:27
But...
40:28
I mean...
40:29
And I don't mean...
40:31
I wouldn't necessarily be excited, but at the same time, God is...
40:37
What God says to do is right because He is right.
40:40
Because He is good.
40:40
So, I do take a side on this, even though Matt Slick, who is an apologist and author, he said this.
40:48
He said, it is really a false dichotomy, because this presupposes that the two options are the only possibilities.
40:54
There is a third option, and that is basically that God is good by nature.
40:58
And yet, though, even by saying that, I would challenge Matt for a second and say, yes, but are we saying good is good in and of itself, or does it become good because it is God? And so, I always say God is the standard.
41:12
God is the standard.
41:13
I don't suspect He is going to ask me to kill anybody, so I really don't have to worry about that ethical dilemma.
41:18
But we know at certain times...
41:20
Huh? That is what I am saying.
41:22
At certain times, He did make that command.
41:24
Was He bad for doing it? You read Richard Dawkins.
41:28
You read Christopher Hitchens.
41:30
You read Lawrence Krauss, these very famous atheistic authors.
41:34
And they will tell you God is a moral monster.
41:39
Because what kind of a God would command a man to kill his son whom he loves? What kind of a God would send His people into a land and destroy every man, woman, child? What kind of a God would have written in His holy scripture, Blessed are they who dash the heads of your children against the stones.
42:04
Yeah.
42:08
But again, this is a serious...
42:11
We have to come to this question tonight, and we have to deal with it tonight.
42:15
Is God reaching for goodness? Or is God goodness? And I think the answer is the second.
42:20
And that is when somebody says, What is good? God.
42:23
I can sing God is good all the time.
42:26
Because even if everything I have is taken from me, even if I have nothing left upon which even to rest my head, God giveth, God taketh away.
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Blessed be the name of the Lord.
42:47
And what does Job say? Though He slay me, yet shall I worship Him.
42:55
So there is an attitude of submission in ethics.
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Submission to saying God actually does command what He wills, and what He wills is right.
43:11
So there is an attitude of submission.
43:15
Alright, so last thing, and then we will take our break.
43:18
And this is the issue of subjective versus objective.
43:22
We sort of already touched on it, but I want to add a few thoughts.
43:29
Most of us are familiar with the language of subjective and objective.
43:33
Let me put these up here just a second.
43:51
When you say something is subjective, what you are saying is that it is variable.
43:59
It is something that can be different depending on the situation.
44:06
But when you say something is objective, you say that it is not variable, and it is not subject to context or the situation.
44:19
Truth is often referred to as a subjective discipline.
44:26
You hear people talk about truth, and they will say that truth is not absolute.
44:35
This is nothing new.
44:36
Do you remember when Jesus was brought before Pilate? What did Pilate say when Jesus said, I came to testify to the truth? What is truth? Well, he was standing right in front of him.
44:55
But the idea is, even 2,000 years ago, a man who was learned and had a position of great high authority, even then the idea of subjective truth was common.
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It was common enough that a man of high esteem like Pilate would say, you are saying you came here to tell us the truth? What is the truth? What is truth? Not what is the truth.
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He said, what is truth? Truth doesn't exist.
45:26
No one knows the truth.
45:28
In fact, I will give you an idea.
45:30
I want you to imagine that circle represents all knowledge in the universe.
45:39
All knowledge.
45:40
That is a pretty relatively small circle.
45:43
But if that circle represents all knowledge in the universe, how much do you think you possess? As a pie chart, let's give ourselves at least the benefit of the doubt that we might have 1% of all knowledge.
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So we will give ourselves a very small line on that chart.
46:09
Now, is it possible that within the 99% of what you don't know, that there could be a contradiction of everything that you do know? We would have to, at least if we were in some way humble, say yes.
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So how can we know anything? Which is, brother, remind me.
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The point of this is to simply say, we know by virtue of revelation.
46:48
Because God knows everything in that circle.
46:51
And he has revealed to us knowledge.
46:54
Thereby, when we say something is true, we say it's true on the basis of him who knows all things.
47:07
God does know everything.
47:11
And therefore, when I speak of something is true, I'm basing this on the fact that God has revealed this truth.
47:17
God has shown us what truth is.
47:20
And therefore, there are some things that are subjective, meaning I don't know whether or not they're true.
47:26
And they're variable.
47:27
They're true for you and not true for me.
47:29
For instance, the Jaguars are a good football team.
47:33
It might be true for you.
47:35
I don't know.
47:36
I don't watch football.
47:40
But the idea of subjectivity and objectivity, there are certain things that are objectively true, meaning they're true all the time.
47:49
God exists.
47:51
It's either true or it's not.
47:55
There's no way to make that subjective.
47:57
And that is how people often treat it.
47:58
Well, if God's true for you, that's fine.
48:02
He can be true for you.
48:04
I've had people say this to me.
48:05
Pastor, God's true for you, and that's good for you.
48:08
He's not true for me, and that's good for me.
48:09
And I say, no! He's either true or He ain't.
48:14
It's not subjective.
48:16
This is an objective statement.
48:17
If He doesn't exist, I'm completely wrong.
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It doesn't matter.
48:22
I can't believe Him into existence.
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And if He does exist, you can't believe Him out of existence.
48:29
Right? That is objective.
48:30
So what we talk about with subjective and objective truth also applies to ethics.
48:39
There are things that are objectively wrong and objectively right.
48:46
And there are things that are subjectively wrong and subjectively right.
48:52
Meaning there are certain things that you shouldn't do simply because it violates your conscience.
48:57
And there are certain things that you can't do that I can because it doesn't violate my conscience.
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But in this class, we're going to try to deal primarily with those things that are objective in nature.
49:09
They're wrong by nature because they violate the standard of God.
49:17
And I want to move just a little further into that.
49:22
When we talk about subjective and objective truth and subjective and objective ethics, I want to propose an idea, and this is going to sound like I'm...
49:29
It's going to sound like I'm contradicting what I just said.
49:32
I promise I'm not.
49:33
It will make sense in a moment.
49:35
All truth is subjective and all ethics is subjective.
49:41
Didn't I just say we have some objective? Yeah.
49:44
Okay.
49:44
So it sounds like I'm contradicting myself.
49:46
Hang with me for just a moment.
49:51
How do you define truth? Okay.
49:57
But how do you define it? Somebody says, tell me what do you mean when you define truth? Have you ever heard of the correspondence theory of truth? The correspondence theory of truth is this.
50:28
Truth is what corresponds to reality.
50:32
Truth is what corresponds to reality.
50:36
So go back to what I said about God existing.
50:38
He either exists or He doesn't.
50:40
Right? So that's what makes it true because it corresponds to what is real.
50:46
But the problem with that definition of truth, the correspondence theory of truth, is that reality is subjective.
50:56
Isn't it? Your reality and my reality really are sometimes quite different.
51:06
So the correspondence theory of truth is lacking because we say truth is what corresponds to reality, but from whose perspective? What if you were a crazy person and your reality is that you've got six people living inside of you and you change all the time.
51:26
That's your reality.
51:28
Does that make it true? No, but that's your reality.
51:33
So the correspondence theory of truth goes further.
51:37
The correspondence theory of truth from the Christian perspective is truth is what corresponds to reality from God's perspective.
51:45
Truth is what corresponds to reality from God's perspective.
51:49
Therefore, ethics is what corresponds to goodness from God's perspective.
52:00
So it's still subjective.
52:02
It's just subjected to God.
52:06
God determines right from wrong, just like God determines truth from falsehood.
52:16
So again, the whole basis of Christian ethics is what? God.
52:21
See, I knew that before coming in.
52:23
Yeah, but you didn't have such a clever way to say it.
52:26
This is really foundational, right? Because we are saying we believe in goodness, but it's founded on God.
52:34
We believe in truth, but it's from God's perspective.
52:39
So when someone says, well, I don't believe that because I have a different perspective, I'm not interested in your perspective.
52:46
I'm interested in God's perspective.
52:48
I'm not interested in conforming to you.
52:51
I'm interested in conforming to him.
52:54
We are to be conformed by the renewal of our mind, not to this world, but to Christ.
53:03
All right, we've drawn to the end of this portion of the lecture.
53:07
We're going to take a ten-minute break, and then we're going to come back and go over our handout for the evening, which is a model for ethical decision-making by Scott Ray.
53:18
You can take your break.
53:24
A little added food for thought before we get to the handout.
53:31
If you happen to be online and you want to look up an interesting ethical, a historically significant ethical question, look up the Ring of Gyges.
53:42
Now, the spelling on that, I'll post it on our page.
53:47
I believe it's G-Y-G-H-E-S, but I'll have to go back and check that.
53:53
I don't have it in my notes.
53:54
Basically what it is is this.
53:55
It was a tale that was put into one of the writings of Aristotle.
54:04
It was the idea that this shepherd inherits a ring which allows him to become invisible.
54:11
In becoming invisible, he's able to do anything that he wants.
54:15
He can take anything he wants.
54:17
He can go anywhere that he wants.
54:18
He has no limitations because he's invisible.
54:21
Through that process, he makes himself very wealthy, and through a process of nefarious scheming, becomes very wealthy.
54:30
The argument is, would you personally do evil if you knew there were no consequences? If you wouldn't do evil, is that speaking to a deeper morality or deeper ethic that's rooted in the heart of people? G-Y-G-E-S.
54:53
Is that what it is, G-Y-G-E-S? Thank you.
54:55
It's just an interesting little tale you can read, and it gives you just another secular view of ethics and the idea of ask the question of right and wrong, and it challenges you.
55:07
Would you do right if you didn't have to, if there were no consequences? Just an interesting opportunity to consider it from a different angle.
55:19
Is this on YouTube? No.
55:21
The story is in a lot of different places.
55:23
If you just Google that, you'll find it.
55:26
There's probably some YouTube videos that explain the story, but it's in various different formats.
55:34
Usually used in secular ethics classes as one of the dilemmas of if given the opportunity to do evil without consequence, would you take it? And is there virtue in doing good for goodness sake? That's the other side of that.
55:50
Is there virtue for doing good just for the sake of goodness itself? Or do you only do good because there's consequence for doing bad? Like I said, it's a heavy question, and it can lead to other thoughts and other questions.
56:04
And as I said, even though it's not a biblical story, it is an interesting one nonetheless if you're interested in seeking it out.
56:13
All right.
56:14
One of the books that I recommended was Introduction to Christian Ethics by Scott Ray.
56:23
I know not all of you are going to purchase it, and as I said, it's not required for the class.
56:28
So because I knew you wouldn't all have it, I took my copy of it and I made a worksheet based on his model for ethical decision making.
56:40
And when you write your paper, I'm going to encourage you to at least consider this model as a foundation for how you outline your paper because I think it would at least give you a way to start because it might be difficult for you to know where to begin putting your paper together.
56:57
So this is a model that he uses, and I think it's somewhat helpful.
57:03
The first thing is that you would gather the facts about the situation.
57:09
Oftentimes the very first thing we do when we hear of an ethical dilemma is we automatically give an answer before we know all the facts.
57:20
So we gather the facts, and the two questions he mentions in the book is what do we know and what do we need to know.
57:29
What do we know and what do we need to know.
57:33
I'll propose to you tonight an example of a situation that we can use as we go through this.
57:42
First situation, Rahab the harlot in the Old Testament.
57:50
We are all familiar, yes, with the situation with Rahab.
57:54
Rahab was given the opportunity to protect the spies of Israel, but in doing that she had to misrepresent the fact that they were actually hiding and where they were, and in misrepresenting that she told a lie.
58:14
We remember the story.
58:16
And yet she ends up in Hebrews chapter 11, which is called the Hall of Faith, meaning she was glorified for her faith and she told a lie.
58:30
That's really one of the few things we know about her.
58:32
She was a harlot, and that's not really much better.
58:37
So let's begin.
58:39
What do we know? We know she was a harlot.
58:43
We know that she protected two people, and yet we know that by protecting them she had to tell a lie.
58:51
Now again, I'm not tonight trying to solve this ethical dilemma.
58:55
I'm just proposing it and using that as how we're doing the handout.
59:01
What else would we need to know about that? Yeah, okay.
59:13
If the circumstances surrounding it, does that change whether or not it was right or wrong? I'm not telling you what the answer is.
59:24
I'm asking you.
59:24
Yeah, you are, right, because there's an end.
59:33
Well, that's what this last part is.
59:39
This is a conversation.
59:41
And I'm showing you how to use the handout.
59:49
What would be a modern equivalent to this situation? Anybody think of a modern equivalent to the Rahab situation that we might could use? That's actually what I was thinking.
01:00:06
It's not modern, but I was thinking about those people who made it their life's mission to protect Jewish people during the Holocaust.
01:00:15
Very good.
01:00:16
That's exactly what I was thinking.
01:00:17
And even today, I'm sure there are people around the world who are hiding Christians.
01:00:22
In the Chinese church, I know that there are underground churches, and there are times where they are hiding where they are and what they're doing because the government has become really oppressive in regard to Christianity in China.
01:00:37
So we can bring it even further into today.
01:00:40
Okay.
01:00:40
So going back, what do we know? What do we need to know? Number two, we identify the ethical dilemma.
01:00:48
The ethical dilemma is a conflict between two or more principle or virtue-driven interests.
01:00:52
Okay.
01:00:53
What does that mean? When Scott Ray talks about principles and virtues, he says the scripture is more than law.
01:00:59
It's also principle, and it's also virtues.
01:01:03
And so we not only address everything as law, but we address some things also as virtuous, right? The virtuous woman in Proverbs 31 is virtuous not just because she kept the laws, but because she also did good things.
01:01:17
And so there are some things that are just good, not necessarily legal, but good.
01:01:23
And so we talk about virtues, and we talk about values, things that are simply valuable.
01:01:29
You know, is it more valuable to do one thing or another? And where does that value come from? So again, this is Ray's, when he uses the phrase principle or virtue, and I said value, but I meant virtue, virtue-driven interests.
01:01:45
So what is the ethical dilemma that we look at when Rahab is the subject? The lie, right? It's easy.
01:01:52
These aren't hard.
01:01:54
That's why I'm using this story.
01:01:55
Okay, so we know the situation.
01:01:57
We know Rahab.
01:01:58
We know who she was.
01:01:59
We know what she did.
01:02:00
So now the ethical dilemma.
01:02:02
Is the lie a lie that is...
01:02:06
Is it wrong? Is there such a thing as a righteous lie? And then we have the question of are we now abandoning the ontological ethics when it comes to the subject of lying? Because we said the ontological means lying is always wrong.
01:02:26
Remember John MacArthur? I mentioned brother earlier we were talking about the pastor.
01:02:30
John MacArthur says she was wrong.
01:02:33
Listen to his sermon on Rahab.
01:02:35
Lying is always wrong, and therefore she was wrong.
01:02:40
Yes? With all the multiple...
01:02:55
It's a very good question.
01:02:56
To me that parallels to this, you know, was it a sin and if it wasn't, why wasn't it? And they just...
01:03:08
I don't think it was.
01:03:09
Well, I don't want to answer the question of why are they not murdered right now because that would take me down...
01:03:14
Well, no, but that is an important ethical question.
01:03:17
When we get to the subject of just war, which I think is week six, we are going to address, you know, was it ethical to drop the bomb on Hiroshima, Nagasaki? Thousands of people who were not armed combatants died.
01:03:44
Now, I want to challenge one thing you said only because it's important.
01:03:48
Does God see all sin as equal? We could say that, and we could say that all sin is breaking the law.
01:03:59
But whenever anybody says all sin is equal, I think we have to understand that even the Bible itself addresses certain things like when Jesus said to Tyre and Sidon, he said it's going to be worse for you in the day of judgment than it was for Sodom and Gomorrah.
01:04:12
And he speaks of degrees of punishment, and he even talks about degrees of sin.
01:04:16
There are things that are worse than others.
01:04:19
The sin against your body, 1 Corinthians talks about the sin against your body as being worse than sins that are not done with your body.
01:04:26
So, James 2 is often used as a scapegoat to say that all sin is the same because James makes a point that all sin breaks the law.
01:04:34
But that doesn't mean all sin is the same.
01:04:37
So, that's another conversation that we could open up an entire can of worms with that.
01:04:41
Go ahead, brother.
01:05:13
I think there's going to be sometimes a lot of times in this class where we go, I don't know.
01:05:18
And that's okay.
01:05:19
That's okay, brother.
01:05:21
There's times too where he uses it's almost like less of two evils.
01:05:25
He uses certain nations to take over other nations even though those nations weren't doing...
01:05:33
Yeah, God has used He used Assyria in 722 to take Israel captive.
01:05:41
He used Babylon in 586 to take Judah and Benjamin captive.
01:05:51
And the Bible says it was God's will in those things.
01:05:55
So, yeah.
01:05:59
Absolute answer.
01:06:04
Yes, but we have to be careful because we don't know the mind of God in every situation.
01:06:11
We do in certain things.
01:06:12
We can say this is God's will because this is what His words say.
01:06:15
But in general, ethics deals with the prescriptive will of God.
01:06:18
What you're saying is the...
01:06:19
What did you call it? Absolutely.
01:06:25
Okay.
01:06:28
This is not the language I use.
01:06:30
I'm trying to couch it in terms that I use.
01:06:34
Prescriptive will is the will of command.
01:06:36
And then we would say the perfect will is the will of what will be.
01:06:42
So, God commands that there be no murder and yet there is murder.
01:06:47
Right.
01:06:47
And yet all things are in accordance with His will in that regard.
01:06:54
So, we talk about...
01:06:56
It's the same thing you are just using a little bit different language.
01:07:00
But in ethics, we're dealing with the prescriptive will.
01:07:03
What is He said to do or said not to do? Yes, ma'am.
01:07:07
Now, God's standard is to speak the truth.
01:07:11
Yes.
01:07:11
The standard is truth.
01:07:12
So, she was commended for her faith.
01:07:15
She wasn't commended for lying because His standard is the truth.
01:07:20
Yep.
01:07:20
And she was also a lady who was kind of ignorant of God's ways.
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I mean, she was a Gentile follower.
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So, she might have been ignorant.
01:07:29
She would have been a person that, okay, I trust God at all costs.
01:07:34
Yep.
01:07:34
Right? So, since God is sovereign and He knows everything, He knows that there are...
01:07:39
His two men are here.
01:07:41
And so, I can trust that God will take care of His two men so I can speak the truth.
01:07:47
But she wouldn't have known this, I don't think.
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But to me, His perfect standard is truth.
01:07:53
Okay.
01:07:53
Truth.
01:07:55
And so, and then when the scripture has her in Hebrews 11, she's commended because of her faith.
01:08:03
Yep.
01:08:03
As far as it went with her.
01:08:05
Yep.
01:08:06
But not because of her lying.
01:08:07
Okay.
01:08:08
You've gone a little further than where I am now.
01:08:10
I'm sorry.
01:08:10
Because you're trying to solve the ethical dilemma.
01:08:12
I'm simply outlining what the dilemma is.
01:08:15
And so, you're going to really part seven.
01:08:19
And I'm still at part two.
01:08:20
And you're fine.
01:08:21
And I'm not...
01:08:22
Yeah, I'm just saying you've gone a little further than where I am.
01:08:25
Okay.
01:08:25
Because we've gathered the facts.
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We know who's the what's.
01:08:28
We've identified the ethical dilemma.
01:08:31
Did she or did she not lie? And is it or is it not wrong? Right? So, that's the dilemma.
01:08:36
We're not trying to solve it.
01:08:36
We're just identifying it.
01:08:38
Number three.
01:08:39
What additional virtues or principles have a bearing? Well, there are lives at stake.
01:08:44
That's the additional virtue that's bearing on this issue.
01:08:47
There are two men who if she told the truth might die.
01:08:53
Right? It's sort of like if somebody came up to me and put a gun on me and said, tell me where your children are or I'm going to kill you.
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I have no obligation to tell him where my children are.
01:09:03
I'm just...
01:09:03
He's going to have to kill me.
01:09:05
Right? But...
01:09:06
Or if I may lie and say they're in the closet when they're really in the car or whatever.
01:09:11
You understand.
01:09:12
That's where the dilemma is.
01:09:15
And that's where the issue...
01:09:16
I understand that, Brian.
01:09:17
No, that's the dilemma.
01:09:18
But what we're saying is...
01:09:20
Okay, we're not there yet.
01:09:21
Again, we're not there yet.
01:09:22
And I'm not wanting to solve it.
01:09:24
That's the other thing.
01:09:24
Tonight's not about solving the dilemma.
01:09:26
Tonight's about identifying what process do we use to solve it.
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And because not everything is as cut and dry.
01:09:34
Not everything is as black and white.
01:09:37
You know...
01:09:37
With us.
01:09:38
With us.
01:09:39
With everything.
01:09:40
Well, I mean, with God, God always knows what's right.
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And that's another important truism.
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God never has an ethical dilemma.
01:09:48
He always knows what's right.
01:09:51
So again, what are we trying to do? Find the mind of God, right? Right.
01:09:54
Alright, so again, what's the additional virtue? The additional virtue or the principal issue at hand is that there's lives at stake.
01:10:01
Right? Yeah, what else is there involved? What else? What other issues? You also mentioned there I've seen what you, the Israelites have done in the past with...
01:10:12
And she was almost in fear because she's seen how God has brought Israel out.
01:10:18
What she said.
01:10:18
So she was almost in fear for her.
01:10:19
Yeah, and she knows what God has already done.
01:10:22
That's true.
01:10:23
That's a good point.
01:10:23
She makes that point.
01:10:25
Alright.
01:10:26
Now, number four.
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What are the alternatives? You kind of already talked about this a little bit because you said, well, she could have told the truth and trusted God.
01:10:34
Right? That was your...
01:10:36
Because God's God of truth.
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She could have told the truth and trusted that God was going to sovereignly protect His spies, His men, whatever you want to call them, no matter what.
01:10:46
So that's one of the options.
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So if you're writing your paper, I'm helping you.
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I'm putting this down into your mind.
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As you're writing your paper, not only are you listing the virtues, you're also listing what are the options here? What could be done? And so that's number four.
01:11:04
What are the alternatives? And by the way, a lot of these you don't have...
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We have the answer with Rahab because we know what she did and we know what happened.
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So perhaps that's maybe a bad example.
01:11:15
I picked it because I knew we all knew it.
01:11:17
But it might be easier to look at a situation where we don't yet know the outcome.
01:11:25
Just throwing that out there.
01:11:26
If we were in a situation now where perhaps maybe the issue of...
01:11:31
Well, I don't want to go into another...
01:11:33
I don't want to start another conversation.
01:11:34
But there are other times where we could say this is where we would begin and it's more difficult because we don't know what God's ultimate will is because it hasn't played itself out yet.
01:11:45
Which sort of goes back to you, Mark, because you said we know the end so we know the ends are justified.
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What happens if we don't? Because that's often where we are when we're making ethical decisions.
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We don't know what's going to happen.
01:11:58
Number five, compare the alternatives with the virtues and principles.
01:12:03
Look for a solution that satisfies all principles and virtues.
01:12:06
Is there a solution that satisfies everything? Is there a way...
01:12:10
Again, going back to Rahab, just as a thought, is there a way that protects life and she can tell the truth? Again, we know the other side of it.
01:12:19
So really Rahab is sort of off the table at this point.
01:12:21
But that's...
01:12:22
Is there...
01:12:23
This is really...
01:12:25
Could be the end.
01:12:25
If you come to a conclusion...
01:12:27
If you come to an ethical dilemma and you are able to satisfy all of the virtues and principles that are needed for goodness, then you know what the answer is.
01:12:35
Even if it's the hard thing to do, you know what the answer is.
01:12:40
But it's often not that easy.
01:12:44
Often there's one or two things that get left out and you say, well, I don't know which is more valuable at this point.
01:12:51
Where is the line? Again, I have a family of Jews.
01:13:01
The Third Reich is outside my front door demanding that I tell them that they're there or not.
01:13:09
What do I do? Assess the consequences.
01:13:15
Number six.
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Though not always the determining factor, consequences should not be ignored.
01:13:21
What's going to happen? And you don't always know.
01:13:26
But you can give, you know, the history predicts the future mindset.
01:13:30
What has happened before, what's likely to happen now.
01:13:35
Finally, you have to stop deliberating and make a choice.
01:13:41
I want to tell you, as a pastor, and you may think, well, you're a small church pastor.
01:13:48
Yeah, even a small church pastor has to deal with all kinds of ethical issues.
01:13:55
People come, pastor, I want to leave my wife.
01:13:58
She's not making me happy.
01:13:59
Well, that's fairly easy.
01:14:01
Except it's not.
01:14:03
Because even though the answer is very cut and dry.
01:14:05
Go home and love your wife.
01:14:06
You have no biblical grounds for divorce.
01:14:09
He's probably not going to listen because he's already to the point where he came to me and told me he's not happy to begin with.
01:14:16
And yet I know what the answer is.
01:14:20
Right? But what if he comes to me and he says, pastor, my wife cheated on me.
01:14:29
I don't think I can live with her anymore.
01:14:32
Now I have to consider what does the Bible say to this man? And that's where it begins to become a dilemma.
01:14:44
Because it's not always cut and dry.
01:14:48
Because while the Bible might allow for his divorce, does that mean he should? Is there greater virtue in forgiveness? Is there greater virtue in maintaining his fidelity to his covenant than there is in accepting the possibility of an escape clause in the Matthew 19 passage where Jesus said, unless in the case of adultery or fornication.
01:15:19
You understand what I'm saying? It really is tough when you're the guy sitting across the desk.
01:15:29
You might not ever be that person.
01:15:31
But you just might.
01:15:33
Because as you become stronger in your Christian walk, more people are going to look to you to help them as they are weaker.
01:15:43
Sort of like climbing a mountain.
01:15:45
We're all climbing up that mountain.
01:15:46
And people who are just starting the foothills and you already have been a Christian for 10, 15, 20 years, and they're looking at you and they're thanking God that they have somebody that they can look up to.
01:15:57
We should all have a Paul.
01:15:59
We should all have a Barnabas.
01:16:00
We should all have a Timothy, right? Somebody who is our teacher.
01:16:02
Somebody who is with us.
01:16:04
Isn't this what you said, Brother Gary? Didn't you mention that about the Paul, Timothy, and Barnabas thing? We should all have a partner.
01:16:10
We should all have a mentor.
01:16:11
We should all have somebody that we're teaching, a disciple.
01:16:14
And that's a blessing, right? But at the same time, if that's you, you're going to find yourself in these ethical problems that aren't always easy to answer.
01:16:26
Hopefully through this class, you'll gain some wisdom.
01:16:30
Hopefully we all will in learning that the answer is in God and in His Word.
01:16:37
So with that being said, let's finish with a word of prayer.
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Father, I thank You for Your Word.
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And I thank You that Your Word does give us the answers, even though sometimes they are not easy to accept.
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I thank You that even now, Lord, we see an excitement in the class to want to engage and want to discuss.
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And I'm so thankful for You giving us that desire.
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Lord, I pray that in the weeks to come that You would use this class to grow us in our faith.
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Make us ones that others would look to and come to and give us the insight into the Word to be able to help them.
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But also to be able to help ourselves.
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To be able to walk closer to Christ.
01:17:20
To be able to be conformed more to His image.
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And ultimately, our understanding of goodness to be His.
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In Christ's name, Amen.