Cowards Get Cast Into the Lake of Fire - Dont Be One

I need a little liquid courage for this one. Nice white cloth spritzer.

That's good. That's good. Hello there, this is AD Robles, and you're listening to AD on the

Fight Laugh Feast Network. Alright, alright, well today

I wanted to talk about... I promise this won't be winsome. AD on the FLF Network will not be winsome.

AD on the YouTube channel is having Winsome November, where I take all of the same opinions that I have and teach the same content, but I do it in as winsome of a way as possible.

It's kind of the counterpoint to Doug Wilson's No Quarter November. There's lots of quarter in Winsome November, so come on to the

AD Robles YouTube channel if you want some winsome content and still hear the truth that you like.

Anyway, I wanted to talk today about courage and being a coward. Courage and being a coward.

You know, I had a couple of things on Twitter that I saw, and they're kind of related, but not really.

So I put out some motivational -type biblical content last week, and my co -host on...

well, not my co -host, but rather my fellow Fight Laugh Feast Network member, Matt Williams, he does the

How to Build a Tent show, very popular show, very good show. If you don't watch it or listen to it, you should definitely listen to it.

But anyway, he posted something about how if he's honest with himself, inside of him there is a coward.

And that really resonated with me, man. It really did, because I think that there is a coward inside of me that I don't like,

I don't want to be like, but he's there, and I'm fighting against it. But if I'm honest with myself,

I agree, there's a coward inside of me. And I think it was a couple days later, maybe the same day, there was a guy on Twitter who really doesn't like me, and he gave me the normal insults, and that kind of stuff doesn't really bother me ever.

You know, people call me stupid, people think I'm irrelevant, people think nobody listens to me, like that stuff, I don't really care about that stuff.

But one thing that he said to me that actually did get to me a little bit, because there's truth to it, is he said to me, he said, it's so obvious that you're trying way too hard to be this courageous, brave guy.

It's so transparent, AD. And you know, I don't let that get to me too much, but there's a nugget of truth there, that actually did affect me.

So congratulations, not too many people on the internet can affect me, but that actually did, because he's right.

He's right, I am trying hard to not be a coward. I wouldn't say I'm trying too hard, but I am trying to not be a coward, because there is a coward inside of me, there's no question about it.

And I don't want to be that way. I don't want to be that way. I remember there was a very specific series of memories in my mind when

I was in high school, and there was a kid that was being bullied a lot. And I still see in my mind the images of this kid being bullied.

I like this kid, right? He was weird, no question about it, he was a weirdo. But I liked him, we got along fine.

I got along with most people in high school. I got along with the jocks, I got along with the nerds,

I got along with all ethnicities. I got along with a lot of people, most people in high school.

And I remember this kid being bullied, and I did nothing about it, nothing. I didn't encourage it, I didn't participate in it, but I didn't protect him.

And I always felt like such a coward because I knew what I was supposed to do, right?

And at the end of the day, biblically, God says that you're supposed to take the cause of the oppressed, take up the cause of those who can't take up that cause themselves.

But I did nothing. My brother wasn't like this, by the way. My brother was always a lot more courageous than I was.

I remember a very specific moment in the lunch table where my brother stood up for all his friends against all of the bullies, essentially.

And he challenged any one of them to a fight, and every one of them kept their mouths shut. They didn't want to fight my brother.

And I remember wishing that I was like that, but I wasn't like that, I was a coward. I really was. Interesting side note to this story, the kid that I'm talking about that was being bullied, he grew up to be a

Marine, and he's a cool dude now. There's just no question about it. Anyway, what is going on with that?

When you're a coward, what is cowardliness? Why is it so offensive?

Why is it so disgusting? Because when you're a coward, what you're doing is you're fearing something.

You are a coward. You're not being courageous because you have fear. And in this particular instance, you can easily see that I was afraid of getting beat up, getting hurt, or maybe they would stop picking on this guy and start picking on me.

I was afraid of all those things. And here's the rub, ready? I was afraid of those things way more than I was afraid of God, which sounds so stupid, right?

Like God says that I was supposed to help this guy, defend him, be on his side.

And I feared these bullies, these idiots, and they weren't even like jacked or anything, like they were just jerks.

I feared them more than I feared God. You see, I think sometimes we struggle. This is a commandment from Ecclesiastes.

If you want to know what life is all about, I mean, there's one verse. I mean, there's a lot of verses you could memorize, but just memorize

Ecclesiastes 12, 13, ready? This is the wisest person on the face of the earth saying this, ready?

Here's what he says. He says, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. King Solomon said this.

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments for this is man's all.

This is the whole duty of mankind, or man rather. That's what the

King James says. It's the whole duty of man is to fear God and keep his commandments. And we sometimes wonder about that, right?

Like, are we supposed to fear God? Like think about the sermons that you've heard and the songs that you've sung and the different teaching that you've heard.

I'm sure you've heard some good stuff about fearing God, but it almost like doesn't compute, right? Like, do we have to fear

God? I thought perfect love drove out fear. Like, why would I fear God? He's my friend. He died for my sins.

But really, when I became a father, I understood this, you know? And maybe you agree with me, but fearing

God means that you respect his words, his authority, his, you know, rebukes and his teaching more than anybody else's.

So since I've become a father, like I want my kids to fear me as their father.

I want them to respect my words. And it's not like when they see me, they're in abject terror, and they're like running away wondering if I'm going to fly off the handle and hurt them.

No, that's not what the kind of fear that I'm trying to instill in them. But rather, it's a respect, right?

So when we're in the parking lot, and I say, you know, AJ, stand right here and don't move.

There's no running in the parking lot. I want him to fear my words enough that he actually does that because there's danger in the parking lot.

He needs to listen to me. So he needs to fear what might happen if he does run in the parking lot.

He needs to respect my word enough to say I'm going to listen because you're my dad.

And, you know, eventually he's going to learn it's not just because I'm his dad and just arbitrary commands that I'm giving him.

No, it's because the things that I'm telling him are for his good. It's that kind of fear that we should fear

God, not that we should be in abject terror of him, you know, and running the other way when we see him.

We should love our Father in heaven, but we should also fear his word. We should respect his word and obey it because it's for our good.

And it's like I was worried about what these kids would do to me if I defended, you know, this guy.

But really what I should have been worried about was what will God do if I don't listen to him, right?

Like that's what I should have been worried about. That's why I should fear God. God has the authority to cast my body into hell.

And I'm just saying, yeah, I know you say that I should defend this guy, God, but these guys are going to beat me up.

And that's like the foundation of cowardliness is fearing something more than what you fear

God. It's putting something in place of God because the whole duty of mankind is to fear

God and keep his commandments. And sometimes when we're cowards, I mean, this happens when we're cowards, we're fearing something else and keeping its commandments as opposed to God and keeping his commandments.

See, that's the point. Cowardliness is a primary version, a primary aspect of idolatry.

You see, does that make sense? So when you're being a coward, when you are shirking your responsibility, when you are hiding the truth of God or not being clear about the truth of God where you should be, where you know it is clear and you're not teaching it in a clear way, you're saying that there's a debate.

When you know that there isn't really a debate about what God says, when you're being a coward in that way, what's happening is you're fearing something else more than the way you fear

God. And that is idolatry. That is a primary sin.

You see what I'm saying? So that's what this episode is about. When you're being a coward, you're actually committing idolatry.

You're actually bowing down to an idol, a worthless idol, and fearing what that idol will do to you as opposed to what

God will do to you. And that's a real problem. That's a real problem. Now, you know, if you travel in the circles that I travel, you might mistakenly think that potentially going too far or being too zealous or being too straightforward or being too direct, that might be something that keeps you from the kingdom of God.

It's almost like too much zeal is actually one of the great sins, but that's actually not what the

Bible says. Too much zeal for God is actually not a bad thing. You know what

I mean? I mean, Jesus Christ is our example of godly zeal, right? And he was so zealous for his father's house and the temple that he drove people out violently from this temple.

Like, zeal is a good thing when it's placed in the right place. You know, when it's zeal for God and you fear

God and you're zealous to keep his commandments, that's a good thing. Don't let anyone tell you that that's a bad thing, right?

But in our kind of mamby -pamby sort of sensitive, you know, soul -of -feels type of evangelicalism, you know, if you heard this, if you say the right thing, but you don't say it in the right way, you're wrong.

That's not correct. That's, no, that's actually not true. That's not true. So the

Bible doesn't say that the zealous won't inherit the kingdom of God, but you know what it does say?

Here's Revelation 21 8. King James Version.

It says, The fearful and unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, the whoremongers, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death.

You know what that word, the fearful? The fearful will go to hell and burn in the lake of fire.

The fearful. Another way to say that is the cowardly. And this is why, by the way, it's not like an understandable coward that he's just, you know, he's just kind of innocent.

He's just experiencing cowardliness. He's experiencing fear. That's actually not what it is. It's because that cowardliness is idolatry.

The fearful. When you fear something more than God, and that's part of your identity, you're fearing whatever it is more than God.

The Bible actually says that cowardly people do not inherit the kingdom of God.

In fact, their portion is the lake of fire. So I know that evangelicalism would have you think that being too zealous or too direct or too straightforward or too un -nuanced, in other words, that's the thing that puts you in the lake of fire, but actually that's not true.

It's the cowardly. It's the faithless. It's the detestable. It's the sexually immoral.

It's the sorcerers, the idolaters, liars. Those are the ones that their portion is the lake of fire.

It's cowardly, not the zealous. It's the cowardly, not the zealous. It's the people that obfuscate things that they know are straightforward instead of being straightforward about it.

That's who it is. One of our favorite Psalms, Psalm 23, talks about being in the shadow of death, right?

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Why? Because you are with me.

Talking about God. And so when we experience this fear, this cowardliness, what are we really saying?

Like, yeah, I know you're with me, God, but I'm still scared of being beat up by these guys, right? And that's a real problem.

That's a real problem. That's idolatry. Do you see what I'm saying? That's idolatry. And I think

I have a finger on the pulse of the idolatry that most teachers, authors, professors, some pastors even, the kind of idolatry, what they actually fear instead of God.

What they actually fear instead of God. Man, I've heard so many stories now.

Now that I've been online and I've kind of been in the mix a little bit with some of these, the movers and shakers and evangelicalism, now that I've done that,

I've kind of got my finger on the pulse of what drives people, you know? I knew a guy who was taking a job at a

Southern Baptist seminary, and he's a good guy, you know? Good guy, straight -laced kind of guy.

But one thing he did enjoy every now and then was a cigar, right? He enjoyed smoking cigar, a little wannabe

Spurgeon, you know, you know the type, right? Cigars are cool. I got nothing against cigars, right? Except that I have asthma and I can't really smoke them.

But anyway, he also every now and then would, you know, maybe have a cocktail, something like that.

Every now and then. Not a drunkard, nothing like that. Didn't flaunt it. Wasn't one of these guys that was, you know, posting pictures of his beers all the time.

You know, he wasn't drinking white -caw spritzers, you know what I mean? Like that kind of thing. But he took this job, and the president of the seminary told him, like, hey, you know,

I know you sometimes post pictures of you smoking cigars, but you're going to have to stop that if you're going to work here. And the guy was like, well, he wanted the job.

So he's like, yeah, sure. No problem. I could do that. That's not cowardly. I mean, you want a job, you got to play by the employer's rules sometimes, right?

There's nothing cowardly about that. But the president of the seminary was being cowardly. You know what

I mean? And the reason I know this is because his argument for why he should do that is because he would lose donors, right?

He wouldn't be able to put in the new pool or whatever, put in the new wing of his seminary, get the new building funds, because people would be offended.

They think it's a sin to smoke cigars. They think it's a sin to have a cocktail every now and then, right?

And he knew, the seminary president knew that that wasn't a sin, but he needed to maintain his funding, right?

What was he worshiping there? What was he putting in the place of God? What was he fearing? Because he wasn't fearing God's word there, because God's word is very clear.

In fact, one of our sacraments is actually alcohol. You know what I mean? So it's kind of a weird thing, but what was he fearing there, right?

You could say it was money. Yeah, it was kind of money, sure. You could also argue maybe it was success, because he wanted to have a successful seminary.

He was in charge of sort of revitalizing the seminary and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, it's probably that. I know a guy, and I really think this is the primary thing, guys, and I think that this is what

I suffer from. This is what I will often put in the place of God. So this is some confession here, right?

This is some confession here, and I got these words. I'm going to use a phrase that I got from a semi -problematic source.

I've been listening to a comedian named Owen Benjamin a lot. He's got some problems. He called himself a

Christian, and actually the way he understands Christianity is very accurate. I don't know the guy, but he seems like he could be legit.

He curses, though, so don't watch his thing with kids around. He's got some problems, no question about it, with his theology and other things.

But what he says is that it's because you want the fancy pants. You want the fancy pants.

What he means by that is you want comfort. You want to wear nice clothes. You want to have a nice house. You want to have a nice car.

Essentially, you want to have a comfortable life. So you don't want to risk doing something that will make your job, your ability to get money to provide for your family, more difficult.

You don't want to risk the fancy pants. That's your big concern. That's what you fear more than you fear

God. You risk, you fear, I should say, not being able to afford the fancy pants, and that's pathetic.

That's super pathetic, and I don't want you to hear me accusing you of this, but I got to tell you, this is something that I certainly suffer from because oftentimes

I'll be worried. I'll sit here, and I'll upload a video on my YouTube channel, and I'll be like, man, this is going to be the one.

Maybe I shouldn't have said that. Maybe I'll edit it. And what's the reason? Well, it's because what if one of my clients finds this?

What if my business fails, and I need to go find a job, and then they Google me, and then they find my

YouTube channel, and then I can't get a job? What am I going to do? And really, do

I trust God to provide for me? Yeah, sure, but I want a certain level of comfort, right? I want a car in the driveway, you know, a nice car.

I want to be able to have nice clothes, and there's nothing wrong with wanting to provide for your family, right? There's nothing wrong with that, but God says that he will provide for you, right?

And I worry that maybe it won't be up to my standards. I want the fancy pants, right?

I don't wear nice clothes, so for me, fancy pants is other things. Fancy pants is other things, but a lot of you guys out there,

I know it. I know this is true, guys, because I've talked to a lot of you. You want the fancy pants, and so you don't want to say things that might rock the boat.

I know of another guy. You know, remember the founders ministry thing? They're saying straightforwardly good things, right?

And everyone wants to distance themselves, even people that were interviewed for it, right? Like people that were interviewed for it that have epic things to say, right?

And listen, I want you to listen to me, guys, especially you pastors and leaders and professors and authors and conference speakers.

Guys, stop worrying about the fancy pants, because God's word is straightforward, guys.

It's straightforward, and a lot of you guys, I know you got interviewed for that thing, right? You got interviewed for that thing, and you've got epic things to say.

You've got all the right beliefs. You know that it is unacceptable for Beth Moore to preach in a church, and it's not an innocent little mistake.

It's damaging to the church. It hurts God's church. In fact, it brings disrepute on God's church.

That's what Paul says, by the way. I mean, it's disorder, and everybody knows it, and people will look on you and laugh at you because you're so disordered that you're having a woman preach at your church, right?

A woman preach at your church against the way God created things. You're bringing disrepute to Christ.

You're saying that, and then you got, you saw the backlash of the Founders trailer, and you're like, well, guys, I don't wanna be part of it anymore.

I know there are guys out there like this, and it's not just the Founders ministry. It's other things, too. Well, I saw, you saw the machine come down on these guys, and I know a lot of you guys got threatened.

I know, because people have told me about it. They said to me, hey, Adam, you know, they told me

I would never get another book deal again if I participated in this, if I said it this way, if I speak too much, if I rock the boat too much.

I'll never get promoted again. I'll never get hired again in the Southern Baptist seminary. You know what that is?

You're putting the fear of not having that comfortable life, not having the fancy pants in place of the fear of God, because where God is clear, you need to be clear.

And don't fear, and don't fear, because why? Because God is with you. God is with you.

What can man do to me? Yeah, you might not have the fancy pants.

That's true. You might not be able to afford the fancy pants. But what would you rather do?

Who do you fear? Do you fear God, or do you fear people, really?

Because the people that are going to talk bad at you, are they even going to do it? That's the other thing. This is all made up, too, is no one's going to look down on you because you don't have the fancy pants, you don't have the nice car in the garage, you don't have the big house.

You didn't get another book deal. Oh, well. What can man do to me? Who do you fear?

And I'd be careful, guys, because Christ can forgive the sin of cowardliness, but if cowardliness defines your existence in the church and your existence in the seminaries and your existence in the conference week, and you know that you should be saying things a certain way, but you want the fancy pants so you don't, the

Bible has a word for you in Revelation 21. Let me read it again. Let me read it again. This should stop all of us, and me first, in our tracks.

The cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

Anyway, I hope this is helpful. God bless. Don't forget to tune in next week on Thursday for AD on the