 Amen. James chapter 4. We're going to be focusing especially on the first part of the chapter as we talk about a subject that is probably on most of your minds this morning. And that is the subject of war. There's a lot going on in the world right now, especially with the situation with Russia and the Ukraine, where a lot of people, I know myself, have been focusing on this idea of war, you know what this could mean for us, for our country. I was a little surprised yesterday, you know, at kind of the pulse of America. We went out some opening yesterday and like there's a lot of people that just really don't know or care about what's going on. But I guess that's just more of the spiritual state of our country in general. But anyway, it has been on my mind and I know on your mind. So I want to look at a study this morning on what the Bible talks about of war. It seems very confusing at times. There's information everywhere. There's different perspectives on things. I've done my best to keep, you know, my personal opinion on certain situations out of this sermon because the bottom line is that we may all have different, you know, takes on certain situations. I'm also going to explain why that is. It's not because of the Bible. It's because of, you know, the man factor, the information factor that is out there. But I want to give this morning just a biblical perspective on the subject of war because hopefully I can take this complicated subject for you this morning and make it simple for you. So at least we can all have a proper political perspective on this topic. Then that perspective from the Bible can be applied to every situation. That's how we should look at the Bible. So Exodus chapter 15, I'll just read for you verse number three. The Bible does say the Lord is a man of war and the Lord is His name. So war is a reality even for the Lord. In Matthew chapter 24 and verse number six, you turn to Ecclesiastes chapter three. In Matthew chapter 24 and verse number six, the Bible says that war is going to be something that we deal with, that we see. And as we get closer to the end times, we will see more and more of this. Verse number six of Matthew 24, the Bible says, you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you be not troubled for all these things much come to pass, but the end is not yet. So as we get closer to the end times, and look, I don't know when the end times are going to be, but these are clues for us. We're going to be starting a new end times series in a couple of weeks called Clues and Milestones. Wars are clues. Wars are clues. The Bible is telling us in Matthew 24 that as the end approaches, and look, tomorrow will be closer to the end of the world than today is or when that happens. So the Bible says that wars will be more and more and as the time approaches the end. Now look down at Ecclesiastes chapter three. The Bible also says that there is a time for war. The purpose this morning is to look at war in general from a biblical perspective and try to get an idea of what is a just war according to the Bible and what is not a just war according to the Bible. And the Bible does give us this answer. Look down at Ecclesiastes chapter three and let's just look at what the Bible says about time. Look at verse number one. Ecclesiastes chapter three, a very famous passage in the Bible here. It says, to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven. So for everything there's a season. Then it goes into this large list. Verse number two, a time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant in a time to pluck up that which is planted, a time to kill in a time to heal, a time to break down in a time to build up, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to get and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away, a time to rent that means to tear and a time to sow, a time to keep silence and a time to speak. A lot of these that I've just read could apply or have something to do with war itself. Now look at verse number eight. A time to love and a time to hate. And the Bible actually specifically calls out war. And it says that there is a time of war and a time of peace. The Bible here is literally saying that there is a time for war. And that's what we're going to look at this morning. What is a biblical time for war in the Bible? What is that time? Under what circumstances? Under what circumstances is it okay? Is it just? Is it biblical for a nation to go to war against another nation? Because we're talking about nations here. We're not talking about individuals. So remember that when you think about war, war is about nations. War is about nations against nations. So that's what we're going to look at this morning. Look at a simple biblical perspective on justification for war. Now first of all, before we get into this, let me get something out of the way. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter seven. I want to get something out of the way here before we begin this study on the biblical justification for war. I want to get something out of the way that a lot of people confuse in my opinion. And that is the Old Testament wars that we read. In Deuteronomy chapter seven, I'm going to read for you the first three verses of Deuteronomy chapter seven. So Old Testament wars, there are some things that we need to realize about the Old Testament wars regarding the nation of Israel that we need to understand before we begin this study this morning. Look at verse number one of Deuteronomy chapter seven. The Bible says, When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land, talking to the nation of Israel that's going to go and possess the promised land, with it thou goest to possess it, and cast out many nations before thee. The Hittites, the Gurgoshites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Parasites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou. God is saying that you're going to go possess this land that these seven nations already have. And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee, that means the Lord thy God is going to give them the victory over these nations. Thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them. Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shall mercy unto them. They were to completely destroy all these seven nations. Look at verse number three. Neither shall thou make marriages with them, thy daughter shall thou not give unto his son, nor his daughter shall thou take unto thy son. What I want to get out of the way here this morning is that this situation where God gave this land to the nation of Israel and then God fought for the nation of Israel to push these people out of this land is a unique situation. It does not apply to any situation in modern history. This is the only time in the history of the world that God has literally given land to... I mean, he gave it to the specific tribes. He gave it to the specific families. He went through all of this in Joshua, in our study of Joshua. The point is God literally gave them this land and possession of this land also, by the way, when you think about, well, what about Israel today? It doesn't apply today because as they turn from the Lord, their covenant, the covenant with the nation of Israel was always, always conditional on obedience. And that's a whole study in itself, but all that to say this, no one has this God gave me permission as the Israelites did. Okay? The land and the declaration of war on these nations was a special case in the Bible. So you say, what about today? Well, the Bible gives us the answer on what is going on today. So all that to say that the land in the Old Testament, the wars in the Old Testament, the Lord fighting for, you know, that specific land for those specific people, that was just for that time and it was conditional and those conditions have been broken thousands of years ago. Okay? Now, let's talk about this. Go back to James chapter 4 and let's look at, you know, what is the time for war? Go to James chapter 4. What is a time for war? In order to understand what a just cause or a just time for war is, we need to look at the root cause of war and that's what James chapter 4 is going to give us. It's going to give us the root cause. Whenever you want to solve a problem, you know, first of all, you have to find the root cause of that problem. If there's some, you know, big engineering failure or some disaster or something like this, we need to, in order to fix it, in order to understand how to solve it, we need to find out what was the base cause? What was it what we call in the scientific world, the engineering world, what was the root cause of the problem? Look at James chapter 4. James chapter 4 gives us the root cause of war right here. And look at verse number 1. The Bible says, from whence come? Where come wars? It's saying from where? From whence come wars and fighting among you? Come they not hence, even of the lusts that war in your members? That is the key verse right there. Verse number 2. It says, you lost and you have not. You kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. You fight in war yet you have not because you ask not. You ask and receive not because you ask amiss. That you may consume it upon your lusts. So we see here that there's a word used many times here, which is just this lust. And lust is desiring something and explains to us it's desiring something that we do not have or that is not are. So look, the Bible here is saying is that war is started for this reason of lusting. Desiring to have, desiring to obtain something that is not currently yours or that maybe you think is yours and somebody else disagrees with you that it's yours. I mean, you think about this. Turn to Amos chapter 1 in the minor prophets towards the back of the Old Testament. Look at Amos chapter 1. So what are some things that nations could lust after or even people that lust after because it compares in verse number 1, it compares the morality of nations and this is super important that you get this to the war, the lust that you have in your members. So what it is saying is the current lust that I have as a person, my flesh, my desires for things, things I see here, things I want personally. This is the same reason that nations lust after things is the morality, the sinful flesh of the individual it carries through to the lust of nations. Look at Amos chapter 1. What are some things that nations or even people could lust after, desire after? Be covetous towards. Look at Amos chapter 1. The first one is just land, just property. What the Bible calls enlarging your borders. Look at Amos chapter 1 in verse 13. The Bible teaches that God judges nations for this. Thus saith the Lord. Amos chapter 1 in verse 13. For three transgressions, children of Ammon, not a godly nation by the way, and for four I will turn not away the punishment thereof, picked up the women with child of Gilead that they might enlarge their border. Here this one of the reasons that God was going to judge this nation was because they went and they killed innocent people to enlarge their borders. That's what the Bible says. They made war on innocent people just to take land that was not currently theirs. Look at, what are some other things that you could lust after? I mean, it could not just be just land. It could be resources, minerals, energy, water, oil. All these things are things that people, that nations can lust after. Power, think about this. Just power, control, ports, infrastructure, strategic interest, et cetera. And then the final one that nations can lust after, that people can lust after, that they've been lusting after since the beginning of time is this commodity of people themselves. Think about that. Think about what a dictator does. He's coveting people. He's lusting after people, taking control of people. This is what the Bible is saying is the cause of war. Is just this lust after these things that are not belonging to you. Now, now that we know the unjust reason, the sin that causes war, we can go ahead and we can find out what a just reason would be for fighting a war. Turn to Exodus chapter 22. Exodus chapter 22. Basically, defending against somebody that is lusting against things as in James chapter 4 would be a just reason for war. Basically, defending against the sins that we just talked about. The Bible does. Now, this is a whole sermon in itself, but the Bible clearly is in favor of self-defense. The Bible clearly teaches that it's okay to defend oneself. Look at Exodus chapter 22 and look at verse number 2. Exodus chapter 22 is talking in these few verses here, it's talking about reasons that you could use lethal force to defend yourself. It's talking about a thief in verse number 2. It says, If a thief be found breaking up and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him. The Bible here is if you read the next couple verses, and I'm not going to get into this study in detail, it's a whole sermon in itself. But basically, it's talking about if a thief comes into your house at night and you don't know why he's there or whatever, and if you kill him, it's just is what the Bible is saying here. It's saying later verses, it says if it's during the daytime and you see that he's just stealing, you shouldn't kill someone just over property if it's in the daytime, but if somebody breaks in at night, you don't know what they're doing there. They come in, it's okay in that case, according to the Bible, to use lethal force. So the Bible clearly, all that to say this, go back to James chapter 4. All that to say this, the Bible clearly lays out a right to self-defense. And it makes perfect sense because if you look at James chapter 4 in verse number 1 especially, that people come hence, even if you're lost at war and you're members, people that want things and they're going to come and they're going to literally kill, it says in James 4, they're going to kill to take those things. It makes perfect sense that the Bible would also justify defending against that. Okay? So look, the wars, but look at James chapter 4 in verse number 1. You need to understand this. The wars amongst nations. It is the same problem with sin amongst individuals. Look at the verse number 1. It says, from whence come wars and fighting among you? Come they not hence even of the lusts that war in your members? Here it is comparing war of a nation to the same lusts that we have as individual people. The morality of the individual can be applied to the nation. So let's look at this idea of self-defense. Let me show you how this could be gray when it comes to nations. I'm going to have a little object lesson. I'm going to ask Garrett to come up here and I brought some guns with me to church today and I'm going to give Garrett a gun. And what we're going to do is we are, Garrett is going to, you're going to think about this as an individual and think about this as also a nation. So here we have, and I want you to think of individual morality as I just showed you from the Bible and I want you to think of the morality of a nation. So here we have the nation of Garrett. And here we have the nation of pastor. You're right, it sounds better. My nation sounds better already. Now the nation of Garrett, and if you could step a little bit closer, the nation of Garrett and the nation of pastor, we both, sorry here, my microphone cables, but the nation of Garrett and the nation of pastor, we both have guns and that's okay. Because the nation of Garrett, Garrett has a right in the Bible to defend himself. Also, the nation of pastor has a right to defend himself. However, you can see what we would have a morality problem if the nation of pastor looked at the nation of Garrett and he's like, man, that guy's got a gun. What in the world? You know what I mean? Now would that work in the court of law as far as an individual basis goes? I don't think so. Obviously I would be in a lot of trouble if I just saw somebody who had the right to have a gun and I just shot them because they had a gun, right? That would not be correct. Now here's where things could get a little bit gray. Now let's say that we're on the nation of pastor. We have the nation of Garrett. We both have guns. We both have a biblical right to self-defense. It's okay that we have guns, but let's say Garrett takes his gun out of his pocket and just he cocks it and he hangs it by his side. Now I'm like, hey man, what are you doing, buddy? You know, would I still be justified in, you know, I don't know what you're doing, but in attacking Garrett because he has a gun and he took it out of his pocket? Probably not. You know, with modern self-defense laws in most countries, especially the United States, there has to be a, what they call a critical or a credible, a reasonable, a reasonable fear of an imminent threat to your life. Okay? So I would probably still be in trouble individually, morality-wise, according to the Bible, according to laws of the land, if just because Garrett took the gun out of his pocket, I shot him, right? But now let's just take it a step further. Let's say that the nation of Garrett and the nation of pastor still sounds better. We both have guns, but now let's say that the nation of Garrett loads his gun and points it at my forehead. Now I'm in trouble, right? Because now even if I wanted to defend myself, I couldn't. There's no way that I could possibly defend myself. He's clearly threatening me. There's no way that I could possibly defend myself before, see, he wasn't loaded on purpose. But so the morality, this is the gray area. I'm trying to get you. The morality is somewhere between Garrett raising his gun towards me where I suddenly have a reasonable, moral, imminent danger to my life, if that makes sense. So, thank you. All right? So the point is there's some gray area when it comes to self-defense, especially amongst nations. And anybody who's ever gone out and got a concealed carry license and carries a gun, they better understand exactly where that point of that arm raising is or they're possibly going to end up in jail for the rest of their life. So the point is, like, nations are a little bit looser with these rules and are a little bit looser with these things. Also let me talk about this. Turn to 1 Samuel 30. There's a right to self-defense. We see that. It's as the moral principles of individuals have the right to self-defense. Now, let's talk about this. Let's talk about this lusting towards people or lusting after people because this is your dictatorships. This is your people that are oppressed in the world. Look at 1 Samuel 30. Look, it's lust all the same. It's lust all the same, but it's for a human commodity. And the Bible talks quite a bit about this. There's an example in 1 Samuel 30 about a town that gets invaded and all the people are stolen from the town. And some of those people that the problem is that some of those people were David's family. And David was a man of war. Look at verse number 1 of 1 Samuel 30. And it came to pass when David and his men returned to Ziklag. They were gone. They were out. They were away. They were at war. On the third day that the amicalites had invaded the south and Ziklag had smitten Ziklag and burned it with fire. And had taken the women captives that were there in and they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away. They stole all the people here. They stole David's wives. They stole all the children. They stole everybody that was there. They didn't kill them. They took them all. So David and his men came to the city and behold it was burned with fire and their wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captives. And then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had no more power to weep. And David's two wives were taken captives, Ananoam the Jezrelitus and Abigail the wife of Nebel the Carmelite. And David was greatly distressed for the people's spake of stoning him because of all the soul of the people was grieved for every man and his sons for his daughters and David encouraged himself and the Lord is God. And David said to Abiathar the priest a hemilex son, I pray bring me hither the ephod and Abiathar brought hither the ephod to David. And David inquired to the Lord. So now we're going to get the Lord's view on this. We're going to get the Lord's view on what he thinks about these people being stolen. Saying shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them? And he answered him. He said pursue for thou shalt surely overtake them and without fail recover all. The Lord tells him go to war against these people and get these innocent people back. Okay, look at verse 17. And David does this. And it says, And David smote them. He defeated them. He fought them from twilight even unto the evening of the next day. And there escaped not a man of them say four hundred young men which rode upon camels and fled. And David recovered all just like the Lord said he would. That the amicalites carried away and David rescued his two wives. And there was nothing lacking to them neither small or great neither sons nor daughters neither spoiled nor anything that they had taken from them. David recovered all. Look, turn to Jeremiah chapter 34. God does not like people enslaved. In the Old Testament, in the Bible, it says men stealing. There's a huge misunderstanding about biblical servitude and actual slavery or what the Bible calls as men stealing. Men stealing is punishable by death. And there's many examples in the Bible of people being enslaved unjustly that God is going to bring his wrath upon. Look at Jeremiah chapter 34. Jeremiah chapter 34. We're going to look at verse number 12. Jeremiah chapter 34. Jeremiah was put on the throne in Jeremiah chapter 34. Jeremiah was prophesying against the coming Babylonian invasion of the kingdom of Judah, the lower kingdom of Judah. And look, there was many things that they were going to get judged for. But one of those things was this. Look at verse number 12. Therefore the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, Jeremiah 34-12. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of Baunman saying, at the end of seven years, let go every man his brother in Hebrew, which had been sold unto thee, when ye hath served thee six years, that thou shalt let him go free from thee, but your fathers harken not unto me, neither incline their ear. Let me just give you a quick biblical servitude example here. If you owed somebody money to declare bankruptcy, by other Ryan, $10,000, it was Old Testament and he's of the children of Israel and I'm of the children of Israel, I don't get to just say, hey, declare bankruptcy, buddy, have a nice day. I have to work for him. My labor is still worth something and that's what Old Testament servitude was about, but there was rules. There was rules on how servants were treated, there was rules on how long they could be kept. The Bible is saying that Brother Ryan, I could be a servant for six years, but on the seventh year and then my debt is paid. That's the bankruptcy of the Old Testament. That's why, by the way, if you declare bankruptcy, your credit is bad for what? Seven years. It's biblical. It's from the Bible, it's not biblical what's happening today, but the point is we have just totally dismissed the value of a man's labor today because it is more fair if I owe somebody money and I have nothing. I have a t-shirt and a pair of shoes. I still have the ability to work. I still have my labor. That's what Old Testament servitude was. Now what these people were doing in Judah was they were just keeping their servants. They were not they were not letting them go. You know what that's called? That's called men stealing. They were stealing those people's labor. They were just oppressing these people that were servants and they were just not letting them go. Look at verse 15. Look at verse 15. Look at verse 14. They just kept them. They kept them and that became slavery is what that became. That became the slavery of what we used to have in America, in early America. Therefore, thus sayeth the Lord. So what does God think about that? Does he just tell them just like, hey, bad for you, naughty? No, he says, therefore sayeth the Lord. You have not harkened to me in proclaiming liberty everyone to his brother and every man to his neighbor. Behold, I proclaim a liberty for you. A liberty sayeth the Lord for you. To the sword, to the pestilence and to the famine and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. God says, for stealing these men and these women is like, I'm going to kill you. That's what God thinks of slavery. That's what God thinks of stealing men. That's what God thinks of oppressing people unjustly. They were just keeping them. They were stealing them and they were stealing their labor. They were lusting. Why would they do that? Can you imagine? Imagine how better your business would do if you could just bring in like 10 new people and you had to pay them nothing. They were lusting. They were lusting after material. They were lusting after labor. They were lusting after money. They were lusting after people's lives is what they were doing. And God said, for that, you're going to get the sword. It's like, I'm bringing the sword to you. This is the dictator. This is the king today. This is Stalin's gulag camps. This is how Stalin built Russia. He just had all this forced labor and he built the railroads and he built the infrastructure of the country using forced labor. He was stealing men. That's what he was doing. This is the dictator. This is the king. This is the unchecked power. Back to war. Back to war. So you can lust after men just as you can lust after land and lust after resources. The Bible is very clear that God does not like this. Land, power, resources, money, people, it's all the same. It is sin. It is lust. So defending against this lust is a just war. So all war is caused by lust. It's very simple in the Bible. It's caused by lust. It's caused by covetousness. Defending against this is just. It's self-defense. Look, it's not a shirt off your back situation in war. It comes to, you know, what do they do in James 4? They kill. They lust and they kill. So it's not like somebody in a war is marching and just saying, hey, you know, we're going to take the country. No, they kill people. They kill people for it. In a war, they will literally kill you for these items that we just talked about. So it's simple. Really. It's simple. The bad guy, we all want to think about we're Americans. We all want to think about black hats and white hats. We're going to get into that next. But the bad guy in war, the Bible says is the guy that is covetous and the good guy is the guy that is in self-defense. That's the good guys versus the bad guys. Now, everyone should agree. It's very simple, right? Everyone should agree on every single war, every single conflict, every Christian or even a person that has any morality that's close to the Bible should agree on every conflict, right? But that's not the case. Why? Let's talk about propaganda. Let's talk about propaganda. Here's the problem. Here's the problem with war. Rarely, probably never in war does someone go to war and say Brother Matt, the nation of pastor is going against the nation of Brother Matt because I want your stuff. That is not why it happens. Instead you have something called propaganda. This control of information, this to convince their people, their soldiers, their country, the world, everybody else that their cause is just. That they are the one that is defending themselves. This is what every single nation does every single time, okay? They are trying to get people to understand that or identify with them even if they are just lusting after resources and lusting after land and lusting after people. They're trying to use propaganda and spin and all these things to get everyone to realize that it is them that is the one in self-defense mode. It is them that is the one in just mode. Look, Hitler did this. Hitler did this. He wrote a book in 1925 called Mein Kampf. You know what Mein Kampf means? It means my struggle. He's trying to get people to feel sorry for him. He's trying to get people to realize he's the victim. You know, I'm the victim here. My struggle. How are you going to solve your struggle? How am I going to solve the struggle of my people? Well, we know the story. But it is the same thing every time. The purpose of propaganda is to convince people that the war is just, even if they were the one that started it. Even if they are the one that is lusting after that. And they use this gray area of self-defense that I tried to demonstrate to you here. I mean, look, here's a remember the gun exercise? One more time. Here's another thing that they can do. Remembering our gun exercise. Here's another tactic that these people can use using propaganda. Trying to get, I'm the nation of pastor and I'm trying to get people to think that I am just in shooting Garrett. I just really want to shoot Garrett. That's my goal. I want to shoot him. So, he's got his gun in his pocket, though. He's got his gun in his pocket. So what a lot of people will do in this case, since biblically I have no just right biblically morally by anybody's morals to just shoot him when he's got his gun in his pocket. What I'll do is I'll say, hey everybody, look over there. There. He shot me. They shoot themselves in the leg. This is the false flag. This is the false flag operation right here. But the purpose of the false flag operation that we've all heard about and this is where we're not really sure who really knows what's true in many cases. The purpose of that is to convince the people, the world, the nations that they're the one that's in self-defense not in lusting mode. Everybody is trying, no matter who goes to war no matter who starts a war no matter who is in self-defense mode everybody's trying to get everyone to think that they're the one in self-defense mode. That's really the simplicity of it right there. The complicated issue of it is what's true and what's not. The Bible is not complicated. The information, this is why I'm not going into specific wars for you this morning because that's for conversations after church. But these concepts are the same for all of us. I may differ with friends of mine on some of these specific instances. That's okay because guess what? It's not our responsibility to know what's true and what's not for every lie that's told to us. We're just people. We're just people in these governments, these principalities, these powers, they tell so many lies that it's hard to tell. Look, I typically don't trust the government like at all. That's kind of where I'm from. That's just kind of my take on most things. But maybe some other people have different takes on it but the point is there's a lusting side that's bad, there's a self-defense side that's right and you just got to try to figure out who's who in that. And if we can't figure it out as people that's not really our responsibility. Especially with wars that are going on somewhere else that have nothing to do with us. Turn to 1 Kings chapter 22. Well, what about this idea? Who should we help? Who should we help? This is another thing that's a big question in people's minds today. Who should we help? What about alliances? What about alliances? Look at 1 Kings chapter 22 and look at verse number 2. The Bible is very clear on this as well. The Bible is super clear on this even though we don't really listen to this as a nation, but the Bible is very clear on this. Look at 1 Kings chapter 22. Here we have the northern kingdom of Israel so the children of Israel have split. They split into the northern kingdom and the lower kingdom, the northern kingdom of Israel and the lower kingdom of Judah. They split and we have this wicked king. Typically, the northern kingdom flew off the handle right away, turned on God right away. Judah kept more closer to the Lord than the northern kingdom and they got judged 180 years later so they lasted longer because they stayed closer to the Lord longer but in this particular situation we have a wicked king in the north and we have a good king of the south, Jehoshaphat. Look at 1 Kings chapter 22 and verse number 2. It came to pass the third year that Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel and the king of Israel, this is Ahab said unto his servants, know ye not that Ramoth in Gilead is ours and we be still and take it not out of the hand of the king of Syria and he said unto Jehoshaphat will thou go with me to battle for Ramoth Gilead and Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as with thy horses. So the story turned to 1nd Chronicles chapter 19 2nd Chronicles chapter 19. The story is this Ahab is trying to get Jehoshaphat to go to war with him to join forces with him to be an alliance together and go to war against the king of Syria and let me remind you that the king of Syria is wicked Syria is wicked they don't believe in the Lord at all they never did, they believe in multiple gods they're a heathen nation. So it's true that it's a wicked opponent. Now we start to see all these different things but the Lord's direction is very clear. And Jehoshaphat the good king says yes I'll go to war with you. Is there a prophet that we can add and they have all these fake prophets but this one prophet says you shouldn't go says you shouldn't go or you Ahab are going to die and he does die so they throw the prophet in prison of course. But look at 2nd Chronicles chapter 19. So the battle happens they go and they shouldn't go and Ahab dies and Jehoshaphat almost dies he almost loses his life in this battle against this wicked nation and look at 2nd Chronicles chapter 19 verse number 2. This is a super important verse right now and this should be circled in your Bible. And Jehu the son of Heneini the seer went out to meet him he's talking to Jehoshaphat and said to the king Jehoshaphat shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord look he's talking about Ahab he's not talking about Syria notice how Ahab was a wicked man fighting against a wicked nation. Syria Jehu does not even bring up how wicked Syria is all he tells Jehoshaphat is you should not be helping somebody who hates the Lord that's it and he says why therefore wrath is upon the from the Lord from before the Lord. So he says because you helped Ahab it didn't matter how wicked Syria was Syria was a wicked nation it did not matter it says because you helped somebody that was ungodly wrath is now on you from the Lord. So we should ask ourselves in this country are these allies that we have in our country are they godly are these allies godly should we help them maybe we should ask ourselves if we're godly more gray area we'll talk about that later look at Proverbs chapter 24 and verse number 6 so I mean it's pretty simple don't ally yourself with ungodly people that's pretty clear in the Bible I don't care what you think about what situation that is clear as day in the Bible look at Proverbs chapter 24 and verse number 6 so there's some principles I'm trying to give you here this morning that you should be able to apply to the situations that you see happening in the world look at Proverbs 24 6 the Bible says for by wise counsel shall they'll make war if you're allied with a bunch of people who are ungodly that by definition is unwise and in the multitude of counselors there is safety wise counsel is biblical counsel wise counsel is counsel that is based in the word of God Proverbs 2018 I'll just read for you it says every purpose is established by counsel and with good advice make war good advice is this advice right here the problem with alliances especially with alliances with ungodly nations is they drag countries into wars they drag countries into wars and this has been a major philosophical shift in this country in the last 70 years or so especially alliances with the ungodly though folks have always been bad so the Bible here is saying so what do we what have we learned wars caused by someone fighting after somebody else just war is defending against that lust propaganda muddies the waters propaganda muddies the waters however alliances today are bad because I don't see any godly nations out there including our own but let's talk about our country look it didn't always used to be this way let me take you back to 1796 let me take you back to 1796 and let me quote from George Washington's farewell address this was called and it was known it was known for hundreds of years as the great rule the great rule Washington's farewell address in 1796 listen to this the great rule this is George Washington the great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations to have with them as little political connection as possible so far as we have already formed engagements let them be fulfilled with perfect faith here let us stop so you know what he was already seeing this happen he was already seeing this happen because he said I know we've made some deals already let's fulfill those and be honorable in those deals that we've already made that we shouldn't have made but then let's please stop he says Washington Alexander Hamilton also agreed he says they both said interweaving and destiny with others Washington and Hamilton both agreed that it would entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition rival ship interest humor and caprice it would tangle us up in their interest caprice means like this just like you just suddenly turn on somebody why would we want to be involved with France that suddenly turns on Germany or Germany that suddenly turns on somebody else why would that even we want to be tied up with that John Quincy Adams reiterated this principle in 1821 when he reminded congress that America goes not abroad this is a quote America goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy I really like John Quincy Adams she is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all well-wisher she is the champion and vindicator only of her own so as far as freedom as far as independence we're like we wish you well we hope that you see us and you follow our example look at our independence look at our freedom but she is the champion and vindicator only of her own boy have we strayed from this after World War II the shift from American defense as we saw this great rule it turned into defending American interests into something that is called if you've ever heard of it the Truman Doctrine and the Truman Doctrine let me just read you a quote it says at the start of the Cold War President Harry Truman he proposed a new great rule to replace the old like Washington Truman had public opinion on his hands he had public opinion behind him following a vigorous debate the US congress accepted Truman's contention that it was imperative to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by foreign minorities or by outside pressures this was communism this was communism that was coming in to the world this is where we got Korea this is where we got Vietnam this is where we got all these struggles against communism look it was this mannequian thought of good versus evil you know what it kind of worked it kind of worked with communism because this was a terrible evil in the world at that time this was a job to defend the so called free world alone and to go it alone if necessary this was the Truman Doctrine the Truman Doctrine meant global military assistance on a scale never before seen and since 1947 America has fought more form wars than any other nations this course is a course preferred by the establishment Democrats and Republicans arguing that change will result that changing this doctrine will result in chaos have you ever heard this before that is if America and maybe that is partially true at this point as America would pull back from the world it would result in chaos that's why we have soldiers and military in 80 countries across the world it's because of the Truman Doctrine that's why every foreign war that we engage in is sold to us that we're freeing other people folks it's this doctrine right here it's the Truman Doctrine so we fight overseas and invade to free that's more propaganda while we enslave ourselves at home is the problem while our government literally lusts after its own people and we lose more and more of our freedom and then guess what especially as we walk away from the lord at home this country is walking away from the lord all that to say this let's go back to the bible ultimately in the bible remember foreign alliances with the ungodly are always bad it's the same philosophy of denominations with churches folks as we would just get in denominations with a bunch of churches it would just drag us into fellowship with a bunch of immoral or amoral churches and that would destroy our doctrines that's a big no-no with churches but it's a big no-no with nations as well turn to Isaiah chapter 31 turn to Isaiah chapter 31 we used to have as this nation was founded we used to have a doctrine of foreign relations that was much closer to the bible now not so much look at Isaiah chapter 31 Isaiah chapter 31 and look at verse number 1 why are we not why I mean God even gives us the answer of why we're not to ally with ungodly nations in Isaiah 31 look at verse number 1 there are many and in horsemen because they are very strong but they look not into the holy one of Israel neither seek the Lord yet he is also wise and will bring evil and will not call back his words but will rise against the house of the evildoers and against the help of them that work in equity now the Egyptians are men and not God and their horses flesh and not spirit when the Lord shall stretch out his hand both he that help us shall fall and he that is hoping shall fall down and they shall all fail together for thus hath the Lord spoken unto thee like as a lion and the young lion roaring on his prey when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him he will not be afraid of their voice nor abase himself to the noise of them so shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight for the mount Zion and for the hill thereof he's saying don't trust in these godly nations you should trust in the Lord is what he's saying and look we don't trust in the Lord instead we trust in alliances with ungodly nations it's not going to work out it's not going to work out for us that's why these alliances that you see they cause war they don't prevent it it's because we are allying with ungodly nations as we walk away from God in this country how in the world as a bible believing Christian do you think that's going to end well it's not so look in conclusion this morning it's a complicated topic this topic of war but to stay biblically you must conclude especially in a world that has lost moral authority by the way I mean the true man doctrine was based on this good versus evil thought I mean just think about this for a second it was based on this I mean China has Z, Russia has Putin Canada has Trudeau we have Biden can someone tell me who has the biblical moral authority today this is why it's confusing this is why you may look at it and look I am glad that we are still as free as we are I am glad we are still as free as we are I am glad that we still at this point have free course to preach the gospel because guess what that is my war but this country is hardly for the Lord hardly for the Lord my patriotism lies in preserving what is left of what we were given in this country in preserving maybe we could teach enough people the bible where we could turn the tide on this maybe we could start enough bible believing churches where we could turn the tide in this country look I am glad that our war can still continue in this country so we can get people saved but the bottom line is we have taken a great gift and squandered it this country is what we have done we are out here to persuade men and we need freedom to be able to do that so how should a biblical country operate now that we know these rules you can basically conclude that invasions are almost always wrong it's just one country lusting over the resources the borders the you know whatever I mean everyone kind of says well whose land is it we kind of have to decide it's kind of got to be I don't know if you ever heard the french term it basically means like the established order of things needs to be the way it is wherever there's a nation, a culture, a people a border that needs to be respected they should be able to exist if a country wanted to be part of another country there would be no war it would just be an annexation so whenever you have a war of a country going into another country you know right there that it's lust it's covetousness of some kind and the bible is not for that now you can go and apply this to our own country and you're going to run into some problems you're going to run into some conundrums in your mind but look you just got to stick with what the bible says alright because look if a country just wanted to be part of another country as people convince you that that's what it is there would be no war war is always caused by covetousness I mean you just say a couple more things and also by the way people throwing off tyranny throwing off slavery to freedom is the equivalent of repelling a foreign invader trying to lust and covet a nation's resources so if there's a dictator trying to covet us you know that's wrong too that's the same lust this is what dictators do they steal resources and the resources are people I mean you need to be two closing points this sermon is should just give you some perspective on what the bible says lust versus self defense it will never work this way there will always be war until Jesus Christ is in a monarchy and he is controlling this world there will always be war and God will also nations are not following the war today folks and God will use nation to judge nation and wars will exist but as far as what is moral and what is not we should always keep a biblical view that's all I'm trying to get you to understand this morning but here's another thing you should always try to look at every side of every situation because of this propaganda thing even the Ukraine conflict even a conflict that seems very black and white you should always look at both sides it will give you a better idea it will give you a recognition of propaganda and how it's used against you because guess what even in this conflict today both sides are trying to silence the other you could see propaganda on both sides of the situation I mean if you could go ahead and tell me when we visit after church today and we visit tonight if someone could please tell me who in this world is for free speech today I'd love to hear it I mean even in this country there is certain speech that is just not allowed I mean we saw it during the pandemic certain opinions are not allowed the Bible is hate speech you call out perversion for what it is it's hate speech today who's for free speech look at both sides of every issue as much as you possibly can and the world is getting less and less easy to understand through the lens of good guys and bad guys because it doesn't seem like there's many good guys anymore don't let people put you into the box of false paradigms that's another thing right versus left republican versus democrat don't let people put the west versus the east don't let people put you into these rules these boxes of false paradigms this whole situation that we're going through with Russia and Ukraine it reminded me of a quote from this is George I remember from the preface of Animal Farm I'm going to read you something today Animal Farm was written in 19 I think it was 1946 World War II was underway by the Nazis and we were allies with Stalin Animal Farm is a critique of communism is what it is it is a critique of the evils of communism the guy was our ally but here's a false paradigm George Orwell got a lot of flack for writing this book let me read you just a quick quote I went and I looked this up and he says it became hard of playing Duke to the Nazis he couldn't criticize soviet Russia because people say what do you love Hitler same thing is happening today if you criticize anything that's going on with the way we're reacting what do you love Putin no wrong reject false paradigms because we're the bible that's what we are we're not hey you either love Zelensky or you either love Putin no we're the bible that's what we are oh you either love Stalin you love Hitler that's a false paradigm they're both some of the wickedest people that have ever lived the propaganda is the X factor look at both sides and don't fall into false paradigms people will disagree that's okay as long as we agree on the bible that's the main thing the reasons and the powers and principalities go to war are sometimes hid very well I mean that's why they're in the positions that they are like I said I tend to just not trust anything the government says but maybe you're more trusting than me or maybe you're less trusting than me that's fine we can just never really know the truth of these things look I have all kinds of ideas on who killed JFK I have all kinds of ideas on what happened on 9-11 but guess what we're probably never really going to know the truth on those things we will never know the full truth how could we how could we look plenty of soldiers plenty of good men have been duped into fighting for evil causes that's a common thing we should try to be as informed as possible I always like one of the best ways I like to be informed about things is to read the actual words that people from history actually wrote Mein Kampf is a good one that guy was nuts just from his own writing he was nuts he hated Jews and he wanted to you wanted to solve it in a very specific way from his own words my wife and kids are reading a book called the Nuremberg Diaries which is about the Nuremberg Trials and they actually interviewed a lot of these SS folks and the upper level Nazis look they just came out and told you just like oh yeah yeah that's what we did and here's what we did here's how we did it but look there's never any way we could all know the truth of every historical situation what the Bible is clear war is lust and self defense is just that even rhymes you can remember that you know finally you know basically ultimately I was thinking about this too the saved prevail in any war they're really the only people that prevail because when the just goes to war with the unjust or the unjust goes to war with the just there's innocent people that die on all sides but really it ends life on earth and only one group ends up in eternity so you know if you think about it that way the saved are the only ones that win and let me just read for you a quote from the very first sentence of a book called war in the racket by Brigadier General Smedley Butler this man was a decorated war hero and he wrote this book in the 20s I believe or the early 30s he predicted world war two and this is what he says and this basically mirrors James chapter 4 he says war is a racket it always has been it is possibly the oldest easily the most profitable surely the most vicious is the only one international in scope is the only one in which the prophets are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives James chapter 4 war is lust that's all it is let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer