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Okay, so someone alerted me to this sermon from yesterday from David Platt, and it's about the election, and it's exactly what you'd expect. It's basically an amalgamation of every argument that you've been hearing from Big Eva over the last few months.
So we need to maintain unity, even if we don't vote the same way, we need to have unity because of Romans 14 and Romans 15. And he also does the same thing that Piper does, where he says that arrogance and vulgarity is the same as killing babies in abortion, that kind of thing.
The whole nine yards, every argument that you've heard is somehow in this sermon. And he does the typical David Platt thing where he's super whiny and he's almost about to cry every time, that kind of thing.
Some people love that, I find it so obnoxious, but that's okay, it's a style, I mean it's just a stylistic thing, no worries at all. But I did want to kind of address this idea about unity and that kind of thing.
And I wanted to just kind of, you know, approach it from a perspective of really what's being asked here. Because in the theoretical, when you hear somebody say that we should have unity in Christ, no matter how we vote, no matter our political positions, like we can have differences in political positions and still have unity in Christ.
And that's an effective argument because it is true to a degree. But correct me, tell me if you think I'm wrong about this, but when somebody says that, it's almost like in their head, they're imagining like, you know, we're kind of just nibbling around the edges here.
Yeah, we have some differences, but it's like, it's really like minor things. It's like, you know, we have differences in whether or not we're going to put in a community pool or something like that. Like you don't want to put in a community pool.
I do want to put in a community pool. We can still have unity in Christ. And I'm like, okay, true. We can, you know what I mean? Like if we're debating whether or not to have a 5 tax rate or a 4 .5 tax rate, yeah, you know, we're really not saying much different there.
Like it can be contentious, of course. Don't get me wrong. You know, I don't know about you, but, you know, community votes like that about whether or not to put in a pool or like to resurface a playground or something, they can get contentious.
No question about it. But like when you really kind of take a step back and you think about what we're actually arguing about, it's like that picture of the dress where it's like, is this dress white or is it brown or whatever it was?
You know, that kind of thing. It's like, it's really not that we're not really saying too far, we're not really too far apart. Right. And when people make arguments like Platt makes in this sermon about unity, you can get the impression that the kinds of things that we're talking about are kind of like that.
They're kind of like very debatable and that kind of thing. And let's just face it, though, like like one thing I do want to make clear is the vote on whether or not to put in a community pool. There is a right answer there biblically.
There definitely is a right answer there biblically. But at least like that is something that's somewhat inconsequential. I mean, there are definitely biblical principles to bring to bear on something like that.
But at the end of the day, it's just a pool. We get that. You know what I mean? We're not talking about breaking unity with someone over something like that at this point. Like the church has like a hundred steps to get from here where we're at right now to where we need to be understanding the law of God.
You know what I mean? So I can I can definitely bear with brothers that don't understand that the Bible really doesn't condone prison sentences. In fact, I was just talking to an elderly brother yesterday.
We were over at his house for lunch and he does a lot of prison ministry and I just wanted to get his take. Like, what do you think about the Bible and prison sentences? Like what do you think about that?
And we didn't agree. And it was a very respectful conversation. But I'm willing to I'm willing to disagree with someone like that and still come to the same table because I'm not saying that there's no right answer here.
But it's one of those things that is significantly complicated that I can understand that, you know, fine, we're not we're not there. We're not there. I can understand that. But this is a huge but when we're talking about the Democratic Party versus the Republican Party, we're not talking about those kinds of things where it's like, OK, you believe in a 10 percent tax rate.
I believe in a nine point seven five percent tax rate. Let's go to the mat and never love each other again. Like we're not talking about that. We're talking about like things that are so polar opposite of each other, things that are so upside down from one another that that it's just it's hard.
It's hard to imagine pastors and evangelical leaders working so hard to pretend like it's not something that's a matter of life and death. It's not something that's a matter of wrath of God or like delayed wrath kind of thing like like the reality is that like there's a political party that that one of their fundamental planks that is a non-negotiable for them is the fundamental human right that women have to murder their children.
And then, by the way, the ones that survive after that, the fundamental human right for a mother to push on transgenderism on them, take them away from their father, slap on a fake penis and inject them with hormones, fundamental human rights, basic to the Democratic Party platform, basic to the Democratic Party Party platform.
It's a fundamental human right to to to to take money from people, take tons and tons and tons of money from people and give it to other people who may or may not work, turning the law of God upside down as far as charity is concerned as well.
Fundamental human right. It's actually a fundamental human right to to say that that marriage is can be whatever we call it and all of that kind of thing. And by the way, if you teach against it, you can be shut down.
You can be canceled. You have to get you have to get the mark right. You have to give us the pinch of incense. Otherwise, you can't engage in commerce in this country. Fundamental human right. Non-negotiable.
We can't have a platform without that kind of stuff. Unbelievable. We're talking about basics, things that are foundational, like like did he make them male or female? We've got an entire party of people that are saying no, he did not make them male and female.
He didn't do it. We've got an entire party of people, an entire worldview represented. No, he did not create the universe. And so we can make our own realities like this is not nibbling around the edges.
That's the thing. It's not nibbling around the edges of politics. That's it's just so dishonest to make it seem that way. I just don't know how a mind could work a Christian mind who's so clear in some areas can be working overtime to insist that the party that seeks to turn everything God has said upside down is something that we need to bend over backwards to be unified with.
Essentially what is being said here is that the scripture is so unclear about the correct policies to promote the correct politics to have like God is Christ is king of kings and lord of lords. Yes, but his commandments are so unclear that essentially we have to commit to political polytheism in the church because it's a different God.
Like if one person is saying, look, Christ created all things, he created them male and female. They created them male and female. And then somebody else is saying, no, no, no, not that we actually, we don't know if you're male or female until you announce it.
And you can also, there's, you can take back. There's tradesies as well that all that kind of stuff, like that's such a fundamental difference that it has to be coming from another God. And so if you look at a political party and all of their positions are so upside down, so different from a reality from Christ's reality, that has to be coming from another God.
And so to say that we need unity in the church with someone who's got upside down politics, that's a saying we must commit to political polytheism in the church. I say, no, we do not. We do not. We're not talking about the difference between a 10 tax rate and a nine and a half percent tax rate.
We're talking about the difference between saying up is down, left is right, North is South, right is wrong. That's what we're talking about. It's, it's just so unbelievable. So I want to, I want you to hear this because there's not, I don't disagree with everything in the sermon.
I don't. But the point of the sermon is again, it's, it's, it's this commitment to political confusion, political polytheism. Listen to this.
And I, I don't have a verse that answers that question for you.
He's saying, I don't have a verse that says who you should vote for. And so therefore political polytheism, no, it's not how it works. Just because it doesn't, you don't have a verse to say who you should vote for.
You definitely have verses that say certain things are non-starters, non-starters. And the entire democratic party platform is a non-starter. We do not have to commit to political polytheism to have unity in the church.
In fact, fearing God commands that we do not. We should not put up with things that are so ungodly. We don't have to tolerate that stuff in our midst. Political polytheism is not a good thing. It is something that we should not tolerate.
Not even for a moment.
Different genuine followers of Jesus will therefore come to different conclusions on the answer to that question. And assuming you are applying God's word as prayerfully and as wisely and as faithfully as you know how to your political decision, then we will not break fellowship in Christ.
See, that's ridiculous.
Because if you're, if you're, if you're claiming you're applying biblical wisdom and somehow you come to the conclusion that the party of, of, of childhood, genital mutilation, the party of killing babies before they're born, the party of stealing and covetousness and, and all of that kind of stuff, the party that says that they're, he did not make them male and female, that kind of stuff.
If that's how, if you come to that conclusion after you've prayed a lot and thought about it a lot, then you need to go back to the drawing board and be disciplined to actually learn how to read your Bible better.
Because nobody can come to the conclusion that I prayed to God, I asked him what I should do and he told me I should leave my wife and go marry my secretary. You would see it instantly there, obviously you didn't do that.
Maybe you did pray, but you obviously weren't prayerfully considering this. Because God has spoken, right? We don't have to commit to political confusion in order to maintain unity. Over that decision.
Now as soon as I say that, I realize that some people think we should break fellowship in Christ over the vote. Some people...
It depends. It depends on what kind of vote it is. And this vote is, James White said this, so I borrowed this from him. It's a worldview vote. It's either a worldview that has some semblance of sanity to it, or a worldview that is upside down and anti-Christ.
That's the choice. So pick one. Or don't pick. You don't have to vote. I'm not saying you have to vote. Or I'm not saying you have to vote for Donald Trump, but there is definitely a worldview that you cannot vote for.
You cannot vote for the one that's upside down. That's a non-starter. Any Christian pastor worth their salt should be able to identify that.
Think I cannot be in the same church with someone who votes for Biden. Other people think I cannot be in the same church with someone who votes for Trump. And if you think either of these things, and I say this as thoughtfully and compassionately as I know how, McLean Bible Church may not be the right church for you.
This is an environment of welcoming, and you should just get the hell out of here. Over here looking like Matt Damon in Departed. Yeah, so he's basically saying, look, this is a place of inclusion and unity.
So if you don't have the belief, the commitment, the fundamental conviction of political polytheism in this church, we're so much about unity. We're so much about coming together that you can just get out of here.
There it is. Get out. Unless you're committed to political polytheism, get out. This is an environment of welcoming. And so you should just get that. I'm sorry. Look, you cannot. Again, we're not talking about small issues here.
We're talking about fundamental, just irreconcilable differences. I can't even speak right now. We're talking about fundamental foundational things, worldview issues. There's no way to reconcile someone who says stealing is OK and in fact good, and someone who says stealing is wrong.
There's no way to reconcile with someone who says that, look, I'm pro-life, but I think that women should have access to abortions. And someone who says that, no, actually every life is made in the image of God.
We must protect the most vulnerable among us. There's no way to reconcile those. We're not talking about the small issues here. It's stupid to think that you need to commit to political polytheism, otherwise get out of the church.
That's ridiculous. Any pastor who will tell you that is not caring about your soul. It's just that simple. It's not caring about your soul. So no matter what Matt Damon tells you, I mean, I'm sorry. He might have wrote a good book that you liked back in the day.
It probably wasn't as good as you think it was back in the day, but whatever. He might have written a few bestsellers and all that kind of stuff. But when it comes to this issue, he's confused. What kind of a discipleship could lead to a place where we must commit to polytheism in the political realm?
Otherwise, get out of my church. He said it in a nice way, but that's what he's saying. He's saying get out of here unless you're going to commit to joining the worship of God with the worship of whatever it is that the Democrats are doing.
It's just that simple. It's just that simple. So anyway, I hope you found this video helpful. God bless. Speaking of Matt Damon and The Departed, there's a theory that I've read. And when you watch the movie, it's very convincing.
It's that Matt Damon in that movie is actually a closeted homosexual. And the mob boss, Frank Costello, played by Jack Nicholson, is also a closeted homosexual. And if you listen to the dialogue in the movie, it makes a lot of sense in that there's potentially a relationship there.
Even though both of them have relationships with women. It's very interesting. It's kind of Brokeback Mountain-y if you think about it.