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Greetings, this is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church

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with a moment of truth where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and

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faith. And today we want to go to part two of seven Bible verses every lost man knows.

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Seven Bible verses, even though he may be a lost man, maybe a secular person,

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there are enough Bible verses that have passed into our culture as cliches

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that the lost man uses them, considers himself well-armed when he faces a Christian, for example,

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or a pastor like myself. I have encountered men and women in my ministry and life over the years

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that when push comes to shove and they get into a tight spot, you know, spiritually speaking,

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well, then they pull out one of these seven verses to forearm themselves and to hopefully

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parry some argument that may be put before them or some uncomfortable situation in their lives.

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Seven Bible verses that every lost man knows. And this is part two. Last week, we looked at three

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very important Bible verses. We looked at 1 John 4, 8, God is love. And that is used by the lost man,

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isn't it? Very effectively, uh, to parry, uh, his, um, notions of what God is. We also looked at

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judge not that you be not judged. Oh, that one is used so often, isn't it? When the lost man gets

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into a tight spot, uh, morally speaking, uh, ethically speaking. And when somebody points out

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perhaps an error in their lives, judge not that you be not judged. We dealt with that one too.

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And then we also looked at do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The, uh, from Matthew

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seven and verse 12, the golden rule, of course. And we looked at that in its Christian context and

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it's biblical, a covenantal context, which is where it was meant to be put dear friends. But let's

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move on, shall we? To the remaining four Bible verses that every lost man knows. And, uh, see if we

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can't come to a better understanding of scripture and human nature and how we should be living these

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verses rather than how the lost man sees himself living these verses. So let's look at a very common

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one that is thou shalt not kill from Exodus 20 and verse 13, one of the 10 commandments thou shalt not

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kill. The lost man distorts thou shalt not kill to his own destruction. Now this verse pops up in

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conversation and debate over issues like the death penalty and the Christian's participation in the

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military. For example, it is often fashioned into a kind of moral club against those who advocate

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service in the military or perhaps advocate the death penalty. Thou shalt not kill is made into an

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absolute blanket statement that rolls off the tongue in an easy glib fashion. I remember this being used

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often by one caller in particular when I would appear from time to time on a local radio program.

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This well-intentioned lady considered herself a Christian and a pacifist and the prohibition in

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the 10 commandments was one of her proof texts against both war and the death penalty. Thou shalt not

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kill. And obviously anyone who sought to keep the commandments would never take up a weapon in

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aggression or even self-defense. Also, no Christian could possibly be for the death penalty since this

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involves the taking of a human life no matter how wretched that life may be. She was especially

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indignant that I as a pastor could not only advocate the death penalty but an act of military

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and even a war. Is this lady right? Are the pacifists, people like the Quakers or the Amish and other

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pacifist sects, right in their understanding of this text, much less your average worldling? Well,

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let me point out two things in particular. Number one, contextually, this prohibition has to do with

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the illegal criminal act of murder, not a blanket absolute statement on death. Contextually, this

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prohibition, thou shalt do no murder, is a prohibition against the illegal criminal act of murder. The ESV

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gets it right in its translation and it says you shall not murder. The extra covenantal act of murder is

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what is in consideration here. The slaughter of the image of God in our fellow man is an act of rebellion

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against God that reprises Adam's assault in the garden and Cain's murder of Abel. It is a breach of

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covenant that deserves its equal in punishment, that is the death penalty. This is, in fact, how both the

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Old Testament and the New Testament understands it. Secondly, note with me as well, theologically, the Bible

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makes provision for both the death penalty and military service. Not only does Israel actively

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take up arms in battle, but several stipulations in the law call for the ultimate sanction against

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certain crimes, that is, it calls for the death penalty. These things are not abrogated in the New

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Testament either. When the Apostle Paul, in Romans chapter 13, speaks of the magistrate bearing the sword,

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he is using this standard metaphor for both his right, that is the magistrate's right,

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to exact the death penalty, and also defend his subjects in battle. The magistrate does not bear

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the sword in vain. And when John the Baptist is asked by Roman soldiers concerning acts of repentance,

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what shall we do, the soldiers say? They're not told, turn in your swords and go join a hippie

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commune and march against war. No, these Roman soldiers are said, do not extort money from anyone

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by threats or by false accusation, but be content with your wages. Within the structure of the just

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society, God makes provision for both the death penalty and warfare. Government in the form of

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civil society is a legitimate form of God's immediate government of his creation. And as such, the just

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taking of a life falls within the purview of this commandment, thou shalt do no murder. In fact, we can

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even go so far as to say that the death penalty and warfare are within the framework of a biblically

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just society and a covenantal understanding of the Bible. The death penalty and warfare are the very

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will of God in certain circumstances. So the lost man throws this commandment in our face in vain,

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dear listener. Number five, the fifth Bible verse that every lost man knows and twists to his own

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destruction is love thy neighbor. Oh, how often do we hear this? Love thy neighbor. This verse

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shares a lot with the previous verse, do unto others as you would have them do unto you in the

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minds of lost men and women. And I won't dwell too extensively on it or repeat it in its entirety,

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but this verse has become a cultural nostrum, a cure-all for the selfish tendencies in human

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nature. Love thy neighbor. It is a maxim to live by rather than what it was intended to be. That is a

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summary of the table of the law. Do you remember having to do with our treatment of the covenant

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brother? Additionally, our Lord insists upon a very important point, which the lost man ignores

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completely. That is love thy neighbor hangs together with the first and greatest commandment.

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That is to love the Lord, your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind

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from Matthew 22 verse 37. This is indispensable to accomplishing the second, which is like unto it.

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Jesus says, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus goes on to say on these two commandments

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depend all the law and the prophets. Oh, but the lost man doesn't want to hear that. How often in

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the heat of day-to-day living, when someone quotes this to you, expecting you to treat them better for

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some other purpose, like increasing government welfare, I've heard this verse mustered to support

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government welfare rather than decreasing government welfare. How often is this maxim to live by

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linked with its irreducible partner, love the Lord, your God? How often does that happen? Not very often.

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The lost man is ready to love his neighbor if it doesn't put him out too badly, but he certainly

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is not ready to love the Lord as God. This is what makes this vital covenant responsibility

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for the believer, nothing more than a nice worldly sentiment for the lost man. You cannot have true

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love for neighbor without love for God. One of my, one of my teachers, Dr. Donald Carson says,

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disciplined altruism is not love. Disciplined altruism is not love. And this is how the lost worldling

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uses love thy neighbor as a disciplined altruism rather than true biblical love. So the lost man's

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love of neighbor is really nothing more than a disguised form of what philosophers call

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enlightened self-interest. Enlightened self-interest, where one treats his neighbor well because he knows

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it benefits him in the long run. True biblical love, however, true biblical love of neighbor springs from

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a heart of love that has loved God first and has loved God in depth long before it has loved neighbor.

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So then number six, our sixth Bible verse that every lost man knows, but distorts to his own destruction,

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twists to his own destruction is, blessed are the peacemakers. We're looking at seven Bible verses

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every lost man knows today. And this is one of them. Blessed are the peacemakers. Every lost man

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distorts this one to his own destruction too. Here we have another text from the Sermon on the Mount.

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So many of them come from there. And this text from the Sermon on the Mount, blessed are the

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peacemakers, shares a lot in common with our previous treatment of thou shalt not kill. It comes right out

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of the Jimmy Carter, Bono, and John Lennon school of politics, blessed are the peacemakers. That wants

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nothing more than to give peace a chance, right? Give peace a chance. All we are saying is give peace

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a chance. When we say blessed are the peacemakers with this slant upon the phrase from Bono and

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Lennon and Carter, we're bestowing a kind of heavenly Nobel peace prize, aren't we? Upon the person

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we are so blessing. Such a person will, like the proverbial Miss USA contestant, work for world peace.

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They will negotiate in dialogue. These are buzzwords of peace, aren't they? With all the parties of the

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Middle East, whether the Sunnis and the Moonies or the Shiites and the Samsonites. The assumption is

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that Jesus himself bestows his blessing upon such behavior and that if he were here, if Jesus were

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here, he'd be doing precisely what Sean Penn and the Hollywood in crowd would be doing, singing with

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John Lennon, give peace a chance, right? This is generally how that is taken. But let me point out to

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you, number one, contextually, the chief focus is peace with God. Contextually, this verse, the chief

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focus is peace with God. In all covenant documents, which the New Testament is and Sermon on the Mount

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summarizes, the main obsession is how the vassal, that is the subject, might remain at peace with his

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suzerain, the king of the covenant. Peace with the king was paramount. It is no different with the New

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Testament. The first order of business is making peace with God, an order of business the lost men

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will not even admit to. The Bible constantly uses the language of alienation and reconciliation to

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describe this relationship. Colossians 1, 21 and 22 says, for example, you who were once alienated and

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hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death. That is, God has

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now reconciled us in his body of flesh by his death. It is the work of Christ in dying to justify

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us before the bar of God's justice. That has accomplished peace. Therefore, since we have been

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justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says in Romans 5, 1,

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it is the man who brings this message of the gospel, who is the blessed biblical peacemaker.

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In this context, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who

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publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation. Isaiah 52, verse 7. This is

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the prime directive of the peacemaker, making peace with God. This is the prime directive of the peacemaker

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who would be blessed. Secondly, note with me, theologically world peace is an ephemeral illusion until

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the kingdom of God comes in eschatological fullness. You must always remember, dear Christian,

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world peace is an ephemeral illusion until the kingdom comes in eschatological fullness.

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Man's arrogance and rebellion will continue to lead him to think he can achieve world peace without

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God. This is arrogance. This is hubris. Treaties and talk and good old-fashioned milk of human kindness

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will make it possible to have world peace, won't it? If we just trust the UN, we'll be able to patch

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over our differences, right? No, no, no, no. The Bible is clear that conflict and alienation between

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God and man, between God and man, and man and man will continue right to the end. It is only the

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Christian soldier having been reconciled to God in Christ who ironically has found true peace

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and who thereafter wars to be a blessed peacemaker. Well then, finally, number seven. We're looking at

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seven Bible verses every lost man knows. And here we come then to the final one.

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We have looked at seven Bible verses every lost man knows. We've looked at God as love, haven't we? And

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we've seen the errors of its way. We have then looked at judge not that you be not judged, which is used

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by the lost man to avert any kind of guilt or judgment or guilt feelings perhaps that he may have

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been brought to him by someone, perhaps a Christian brother. Judge not that you be not judged. And

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that's twisted to their own destruction. The lost man also seems to know do unto others as you would have

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them do unto you, which is a cultural nostrum, a cliche in our culture. And it's meant, of course,

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to have your behavior reflected well on him. And then we've also looked at number four, thou shalt not

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kill. And we've seen that that is better translated, thou shalt do no murder. We've seen that earlier

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today. And then love thy neighbor. That's one that's twisted, of course, by the lost man, because it

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depends on loving God first. And then we've also looked at blessed are the peacemakers and see that

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how that has been twisted and distorted by the lost man. Being the chief purpose of that being

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peace with God first and foremost. And now finally, I'm going to need some help from my brothers

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on this one. And that is the Lord helps them who helps themselves. The lost man distorts

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this one. The Lord helps them who help themselves. And the lost man knows this Bible, verse two, to his

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own destruction. So let us turn in our Bibles to this last text. The Lord helps them who help

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themselves. And I need some help from my brothers and sisters because I can't find this in the Bible.

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Perhaps you can help me with this reference. Anyone who can, please call me at the church,

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area code 208-523-0196, because I'm just in a frantic panic in trying to find this verse.

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Actually, dear listener, perhaps you can sense the tone of irony in my voice. The Bible does not teach

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this at all, does it? A Harris poll, however, tells us 75% of Americans believe that this

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is in the Bible. The Lord helps them who help themselves. 12% of Americans also believe that

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Joan of Arc was Noah's wife. Where does this come from? Huh? This is biblical illiteracy, isn't it?

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Well, let me tell you that first of all, this phrase, the Lord helps them who help themselves.

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I've heard this over and over again. It first appeared in the 1730s in Ben Franklin's Poor

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Richard's Almanac. Yes, Poor Richard's Almanac. And Benjamin Franklin, of course, in Poor Richard's

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Almanac has come up with some phrases and some sayings that have passed into American culture

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that sound very much like biblical principles. For example, Poor Richard's Almanac also has,

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whatever has begun in anger ends in shame. That sounds like it could almost come from the

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Proverbs, couldn't it? Poor Richard's Almanac also says, he that cannot obey cannot command.

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That's true, but it's not from the Bible. Poor Richard's Almanac also says, three may keep a secret

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if two of them are dead. I've always liked that one. And I just realized recently that comes from

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Poor Richard's Almanac. And then, of course, the famous one, early to bed and early to rise makes

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a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. Many of you may not have known that that came from Ben Franklin's

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Poor Richard's Almanac. But because the Lord helps them who help themselves has the Lord in it,

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and because it sounds so plausibly like it came from the Bible, many people otherwise unfamiliar with

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the Bible easily assume it's from there, don't they? What does this say, of course, for the necessity of

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knowing the text? Much. It says much for it, doesn't it? I've had numerous encounters with this

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phrase, and none more memorable to me than a man from our church at the time, and this was back in

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the 90s, who was attempting to sell me on his resume portfolio seminar. For $200, he'd give me a

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notebook and two days of advice on how to best sell myself to churches and elders with any church at

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which I might be a candidate. He exhorted me to do this for myself and clinched the deal with a wink

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and the sentence, presuming to ingratiate himself to this pastor. He says, for as you well know,

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being a pastor, like the Bible says, the Lord helps them who help themselves. Oh my, I could barely

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contain myself. And I guaranteed him, though, as I left, that I would give him cash for the seminar

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if he would just get back to me with the Bible reference for that verse, the Lord helps them

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who help themselves. Well, I'm still waiting for his call here 30 years later. The widespread belief

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that such sayings exist in the Bible is a measure of the biblical illiteracy prevailing in our nation.

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Dear listener, you need to study the Bible. You need to go to a church that properly

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exposits the word of God. Expository preaching is what you will find at New Geneva Orthodox

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Presbyterian Church. And you need to find a pastor who can exegete the text, who knows his Greek and his

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Hebrew and knows the process of exegesis that is drawing out of a text rather than eisegesis,

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which is reading into a text. So many of the verses, the seven Bible verses that every lost man knows

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are precisely that. They are verses into which many, not only lost men, but I must say,

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I must confess, sadly, that many Christians also end up eisegeting, that is reading into texts,

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things they want there, they want to see there, and end up distorting these Bible verses,

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seven of which we have treated here today. It is also indicative of the easy impressionability

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that exists, whereby the average person can be persuaded that the Bible can say just about

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anything we want it to, including the Lord helps them who help themselves.

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Are sinking into a living, breathing document view of the Bible in addition to the Constitution? Is

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that what we're doing? Sinking into a living, breathing document view of the Bible as well

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as the Constitution? We've seen that with the Constitution that a text that is held in high regard

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by every American, should be held in high regard by every American, that is the United States

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Constitution has been distorted to our own destruction and our own demise. Well, the same

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thing can happen with the Bible. It can be twisted. It can be distorted to the demise and to the destruction

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of all who read it. This principle of a living, breathing document of the Constitution and the Bible

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underlies the urgency for teaching more than a superficial familiarity with the Bible, dear listener.

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You need to go to a church that has a clear understanding of the text, that exegetes the text,

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and that preaches expository sermons, that is, sermons which unfold the meaning of the text in its

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context, and then goes on to apply that meaning to present-day circumstances.

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There is nothing like taking a text out of its context, which many churches do, and we have treated a few

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of the verses that are subject to this, but many churches take texts and make them into pretexts for proof

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texts. A text out of its context is nothing but a pretext for a proof text, and if you do not carefully

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exposit the word on Sunday mornings in expository sermons, these things can happen. Find yourself,

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if you're not in a church that does so, you need to find a church that does properly exegete the text

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and places before you on Sunday mornings an expository sermon, not a 15-minute mech sermon,

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but rather a dense and complex, if it needs to be, but a dense and thorough treatment of the text

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for us today. A true understanding, not only of the text per se in its context, but also how to

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interpret and apply it. Your pastor, as he goes through in preaching, should also be simultaneously

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teaching you how to interpret and apply the text, as we have done here today. So I just hope that for

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you, dear listener, as you come to church on Sunday morning, especially in this important season,

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this election season, that you will have yourself a year where your understanding of and your love

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for the Bible grows and matures into a fruit for the kingdom, including turning many sinners and lost

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men into the way of life rather than the way of destruction. We at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian

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Church aspire to do precisely these things, myself and my elders. We attempt on Sunday mornings to give

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to our people an expository sermon that unfolds the text, that takes a good substantial piece of text

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and shows you its meaning in its context for the day in which it was written and shows you all of the

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implications. We define words, we define terms, we go into theology when we need to, but we do give

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you an expository sermon where the text is unfolded and then applied to your daily life. Find yourself a

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church if you are not at one already that does this, dear listener, and you will find yourself

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blessed, you'll find yourself growing in grace because the Bible is indeed a text that is efficacious,

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that is, it works, it is a means of grace, God uses it to save souls. And so it is very important for us,

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for myself as a pastor and a preacher, to unfold the meaning of the text in its context.

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New Geneva meets for holy worship on Sundays at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and

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Boulevard. Now, we also have a website where you can find many of the sermons that I preach that are

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precisely what I've been telling you. They are expository sermons where the text will be unfolded

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in its meaning and you will come to understand the text. I urge you to go to our website,

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newgenevaopc.org. And we have another website too. We have two websites now, one that's just getting up

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and running. And it is called omnispotestas.org. Omnispotestas.org. Let me spell that for you.

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That's O-M-N-I-S dash P-O-T-E-S-T-A-S dot org. Omnispotestas. O-M-N-I-S dash P-O-T-E-S-T-A-S dot org.

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And on that website, you will find our cataloged sermons from about the last year and a half.

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The radio messages that you hear on this station, KID 590 AM and 106.3 and 92.1 FM. And the previous

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message treating those three Bible verses that every lost man knows, but twists to his own

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destruction. You'll find that message on that website. Plus all the backlog ones, the ones that

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I know many of you have called and wanting copies of previous messages. Well, voila, you have them now

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on that website and you can direct people to them. I would encourage you to do so because we have

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treated of this election year to this very important cycle in our republic. Every four years,

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we ostensibly elect a president and executive of the executive branch that has morphed into a

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pagan king, as we have treated of in previous messages to this idea that a president was designed

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to be an executive of an executive branch in its own place in ratio to the legislative and judicial

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branches and equal. Well, he has ascended, has he not, to a pagan king and we Americans have liked it

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just fine. You'll find my treatment of these things and other election year issues on this website in

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various messages as well. Well, brothers and sisters, this has been Pastor David Bass at New

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Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. I encourage you to join us in worship. We meet for worship at 10 AM

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at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And many of you have been considering visiting us.

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This is the time to come and visit us. It's time to come out of the shadows. You know that you need

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to be at a church that proclaims not only the word of God exegetically, but also that applies it to

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this world in which we live politically, socially, culturally as well. You need to be with us.

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New Geneva, 10 AM, 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can call us at

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523-0196. That's 523-0196 for further information and input. 523-0196.