Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. Today, I would like to dedicate a portion of scripture to those who are laboring in President Trump's new administration, especially to the now departed General Flynn. And I admire him very much, and I would like to dedicate this sermon to him. But before I do, I would like to invite you to a fellowship spaghetti dinner at our church.

We have appreciated your listeners so much over the years, and I've come to meet many of you in our community as I move about the city, Idaho Falls, and many of you have visited our church, too, our church services, and so forth. But there's still many more to meet. And so what we have decided to do this year is, on the last Wednesday of every month, hold a fellowship spaghetti dinner and invite our listeners, radio listeners in particular, to it. It will be at 5 o'clock. This first one will be at 5 p.m. at our church in our fellowship hall, 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard.

On the 22nd, that is February 22nd, will be our first spaghetti fellowship dinner. Looking forward to this. What we'd like you to do, though, is give us a call. You can even call us the day of, but we would like you to call ahead and let us know that you'll be there so we know how much spaghetti to cook. We don't want to be sitting there stuffed.

I'm going to gain weight like crazy if we just eat all the spaghetti that we prepare and nobody shows up. So please give us a call, and we look forward to meeting you. Now, back to my sermon dedicated to General Flynn, the security advisor who was recently let go under false pretenses, I think. And it's a shame that he's gone, but I would like to read a parable about him because he did indeed serve us very well as a general. He, in fact, resisted President Obama when he wanted to attack Syria on behalf of ISIS, of all things.

And he resisted President Obama, and President Obama eventually cycled him out when he was head of the army. But this parable, then, is dedicated to him. This is from Ecclesiastes chapter 9. Koheleth, the wisdom king. Solomon, none other than.

And Koheleth is the preacher in Ecclesiastes. And he tells this parable of a hero. I have also seen this example of wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me, says Koheleth, the preacher. This is from Ecclesiastes chapter 9, if you want to open your Bible to it. Ecclesiastes chapter 9, beginning at verse 13, where Solomon says, I have also seen this example of wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me.

There was a little city with few men in it, and a great king came against it and besieged it, building a great siege works against it. But there was found in it a poor wise man, and he, by his wisdom, delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man. But I say that wisdom is better than might, though the poor man's wisdom is despised and his words are not heard. His words are not heard.

The words of the wise man who delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man. There are some points I want to make with you. From this text, we'll be reading a little more from Ecclesiastes and applying it to our present day, too, as we go along. But for now, let me make this point from chapter 9, verses 13 to 16.

Do you hear this, General Flynn? When in service to a government official, do not expect appreciation for sacrificial service. What a creative and enigmatic parable of our day, the one I just read for you. It is for Solomon a metaphor, a trophy, an example, if you will, of wisdom under the sun, as he puts it. This is a phrase for what is observable in our experiential world, what is true in a philosophical world apart from biblical wisdom.

It seemed great to Solomon, to the preacher, to Koheleth, because of its universal application across human experience. Against all odds, too, here, wisdom prevails. That which is small, a little city composed of few men and a poor wise man, and that which is great, a great king, many mighty siege works, and a foolish shouting king. What is the crucial difference here? It is wisdom versus folly.

In the actual outworking of redemptive history, the city was saved by the poor wise man, not because he was poor, the virtue of a Marxist and socialist in modern society. It's a virtue to be poor, isn't it? No, but because this poor man was biblically wise. We are not told the precise modus operandi by which this wise man saved the city. Did he negotiate favorably, cleverly with his enemy?

Did he develop a secret weapon with which he threatened the beseechers? Did he make his city appear stronger than they really were? They don't tell us these things, but that only by his wisdom he saved the city. This he did by his chokhmah, Hebrew for wisdom. Now, a great deal of energy has been expended by scholars trying to identify the precise historical reference to this.

Was it, for example, Archimedes, the Archimedes' saving of Syracuse from the Romans by sinking their ships in 212 BC? Was it the deliverance of Thebes in Judges chapter 9? We don't know. None of them quite fit the circumstance here, however. But as perplexing as this may seem on its face, remember what St. Augustine observed long ago about this.

He says, let your overwrought curiosity be satisfied with this. Solomon notes for us that this incidence has sunk into the mists of forgetfulness, unquote. The primary point that Koheleth means to deliver is that, indeed, yet no one remembered that poor man. No one remembered that poor man. Don't expect appreciation if you serve in government, brothers.

Ha ha, General Flynn. Do you see this theme coming around again? No one remembers from generation to generation. There's no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be, Koheleth has said already in chapter 1. For if the wise, as of the fool, there is no enduring remembrance.

Seeing that in the days to come, all will have been forgotten. The wise dies just like the fool, unquote, from Ecclesiastes chapters 1 and 2. Well, how fleeting, how vaporous the remembrance of what we've covered previously, right? Much less even the wise savior, right? Yet in the last analysis, the preacher, Solomon, does not sink into despair, into vanity or meaningless, which is one of the themes of Ecclesiastes, isn't it?

But rather, he affirms wisdom. He says, but I say, and it's emphatic there, but I say that wisdom is better than might, though the poor man's wisdom is despised and his wisdom is not heard. And this is practically applied for us too. In the next verses, which I would like to read for you, this is Ecclesiastes 9, 17, and chapter 10, verse 1. The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools.

Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good. Dead flies make the perfumer's ointment give off a stench. So a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. That is Ecclesiastes 9, 17 through chapter 10, verse 1. And these verses constitute a brace of Proverbs.

Maybe you have opportunity to turn in your Bibles to those verses and look them over with me. They constitute a brace of Proverbs, three of them, with a common theme. That is, the input of one fool can destroy the careful counsel of many wise men. Oh, and this is true, especially when we have in mind the decider in chief, as President Bush used to call himself, that is, the king or the president. And how often we see this replicated on the stage of history, too, as well as in our own personal lives, dear listener.

In the fateful year 216 B.C., for example, the great Carthaginian general, if you're a student of military history, we remember that in 216 B.C., Hannibal set a trap for his Roman counterpart, General Terentius Varro at Cannae. That's in south-central Italy. Now, Hannibal was a master of the art of war. He knew his enemy. Varro was impetuous and brash.

He was prone to letting his temper get the best of him and acting upon that rather than good counsel. Now, Hannibal taunted Varro and set a trap for the 70,000 Roman troops under his command. Varro was supposed to wait for his counterpart, Emilius Paulus, to meet up with him, but rashly committed his forces instead to battle when he thought he had Hannibal trapped. But he didn't. Instead, Hannibal, knowing that Varro would do this, sprung his ambush and annihilated every last trooper in Varro's legion.

That was 70,000 Roman troopers. It was the greatest single defeat for Rome in her history. Now, Varro is the poster boy for verses 17 and 18. The words of the wise, heard, and quiet are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.

Huh. How then was Hannibal ultimately defeated? Well, he was defeated by a general wiser than Varro, and wiser than Hannibal, for that matter, and it was General Quintus Fabius. Fabius realized that Hannibal was indeed a tactical genius, and whenever Rome faced him in regular pitch battle, then Hannibal would defeat whatever Rome could throw at him. But Fabius also realized that despite this genius and bravery and resourcefulness, they were a long way from home and had to live off the land.

Therefore, Fabius waged a war of attrition upon Hannibal, destroying small forging parties sent out to look for food and supplies. He drew Hannibal into terrain where he could not fight large pitched battles, and additionally, then, Fabius moved populations in front of his armies and destroyed crops and food supplies he might use. It took a long time, but eventually, Hannibal's army was so reduced that he fled the Italian peninsula altogether. Ever since, this strategy has been called Fabianism, the Fabian strategy. In fact, it's been employed politically, too, classically by the Fabian society, which is socialist and progressive.

It is precisely how liberalism has been victorious in England and America by following the same little bit-by-bit Fabian strategy, the strategy of attrition, taking small bites, small bits in conquering. Now, Solomon knew this all too well, didn't he? The input of one fool can destroy the careful counsel of many wise men. We saw this when, indeed, Rehoboam, his son, Solomon's very son, who should have been reading these wisdom tracts, took the counsel of the brash young men and divided. They split the kingdom, didn't they, by their foolishness.

In fact, Kohala seems almost to foreshadow the bad company with whom his son would consort. We see this in chapter 10, verses 2 to 4. Point 3 I would like to make with you. When in service to a government official, do not expect support for wisdom from colleagues. You find bitter infighting from colleagues, even as President Trump is finding out.

Verses 2 to 4 of Ecclesiastes chapter 10. A wise man's heart inclines him to the right, but a fool's heart to the left. Even when the fool walks on the road, he lacks sense. And he says to everyone that he is a fool. If the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your place, for calmness will lay great offenses to rest.

Wise words, are they not? From Ecclesiastes chapter 10, verses 2 to 4. And they tell us that when in service to a government official, the king, of course, in Solomon's day, the president and his administration in our own day, but when in service then to a government official, do not expect support for wisdom from colleagues. We can say unequivocally that Solomon was a conservative. He says a wise man's heart inclines him to the right, but a fool's heart to the left.

Well, in reality, the right hand was the hand of strength and blessing, wasn't it? Most men are right-handed. We see this throughout scripture, where in Psalm 16, David says, I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. And Joseph saw his father, that is Jacob, lay his right hand on the head of Ephraim. And he took his father's hand to move it.

Put your right hand on his, that is Manasseh's head from Genesis chapter 48. So we see the right hand is the hand of strength. So the illusion Solomon makes here is not political as much as I might want it to be, but rather theological. That is, the wise tend to blessing, the fool to folly. The wise tend to blessing and the fool to folly.

In the counsel of the king, in our context, this can pit one counselor against another. Only in time and over extended periods, can the wise be discerned from the fool. This is another reason that politics is called a blood sport because advisors often vie with one another for the attention and ear of their boss. Are you listening, General Flynn? I'm sure you know this by experience now.

We understand that the Trump administration, even as Ronald Reagan, deliberately pits one advisor against another so that he can, in the foray, then he can discern with wisdom what the right policy might be. And Ronald Reagan deliberately fostered competition too amongst his inner cabinet and White House advisory team. This is one reason he had such a high turnover rate on his staff, but it did tend to bring out the best advice. Eventually it burned out man after man, causing animosity and competition and jealousy that still endures to this day. Oh, George H.W.

Bush, instead of Reagan's chief of staff, Donald Reagan, I still hate that SOB, but it also proves Truman's advice. Even as General Flynn has found out, that is, if you want a friend in Washington, go get a dog. Well, here in the Council of the Wise, the fool eventually displays his colors. Even when the fool walks on the road, Solomon says, he lacks sense. And he says to everyone that he is a fool.

So Solomon picks up on a common theme in the wisdom literature too. You find this throughout Job and the Psalms and Ecclesiastes and the Proverbs, and that is direction or lack of direction. One who wanders from the way of good sense will rest in the assembly of the dead. Proverbs 21, 6 says, also the wisdom of the prudent discerns his way from Proverbs 14 and 18. And then from Proverbs 13, righteousness guards him whose way is blameless, but sin overthrows the wicked.

Have you been observing then the rage and the bad advice that we saw in the Clinton campaign, right? And we also see from history, the corruption trial of former Democrat presidential candidate and vice presidential running mate, John Edwards. Do you remember when he ran with John Kerry? We see these things over and over again. Edwards was on trial for using campaign funds to support his mistress by whom he had a child.

There's so many unsavory aspects to this story. But for our purposes, it is the foolishness of his closest advisor, Andrew Young. Now, the trial testimony was a litany of foolish decisions made by Edwards and his chief advisor. They lied. They used campaign funds to pay off Edwards' mistress, even brought the baby and mistress into the young home where they were all miserable.

Eventually, the lie could not be sustained and everything came out. We see this with the Clinton Foundation too, the lies and the cover-up of the Clinton Foundation. John Podesta, who was Hillary Clinton's closest advisor, was giving foolish advice in order to cover up the scandal, the literal scandal of the Clinton Foundation. And we also see then, not only was there foolish advice from John Podesta, but there was also rage then from Hillary Clinton. It is said indeed that she blew up.

She went on a holy tear, as one put it, after she realized that she had lost the election and really tore into John Podesta. If the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your place, for calmness will lay great offenses to rest. We see this time and time again. What we also see then for further dedication then to General Flynn, let's read chapter 10, verses 5 to 7. And we see here, when in service to a government official, do not expect wisdom to be exalted above folly.

When in service to a government official, do not expect wisdom to be exalted above folly. You would hope that it would, but as we see and experience in government all the time, wisdom is not always exalted above folly, is it? Chapter 10, verses 5 to 7, go like this. There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, as it were, an error proceeding from the ruler. Folly is set in many high places, and the rich sit in a low place.

I have seen slaves on horses and princes walking on the ground like slaves. Unquote. Indeed, wisdom from Koheleth, wisdom from the preacher, wisdom from Solomon. Now, the evil that Koheleth observes here proceeds from the ruler, as he says. Folly is glorified above wisdom.

Woe to the land in which this is done. And of course, the rich here is a metaphor for the wise man of achievement, not just rich for being rich, for being filthy rich, but rich indeed for the wise man of achievement, even as our present president is. Folly is exalted, however, and wisdom is debased. Slaves ride while princes walk. There's a dynamic that takes place in the human heart, which seeks constantly to innovate, to try the new, to overturn what is proven, to be godly, fruitful, and biblical, isn't there?

It happened in Israel. Give us a king like the other nations, Israel said. Make us a golden calf like the other nations, right? Or Solomon, dearest, his wives, remember, set up an altar to Asherah in the high places like I had at home. Remember when Solomon married all those foreign wives?

Brought idolatry into Israel? And it happens not only in ancient Israel, but in Christian cultures and societies as well. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, for example, hated God and the church in France before the French Revolution, and he advocated returning to man's natural state, as he put it. His wild and uncultivated nature, that's just what we need. And he said, however, that that wild and uncultivated nature was purer and more democratic too.

Communism has sprung from ideas like this. How true it was, though, because Jean-Jacques Rousseau gave France what has come to be known simply as the reign of terror. Karl Marx hated God as well, and he built upon Rousseau, advocating atheistic communism, overturning Christ, overturning constitutionalism, and overturning capitalism as well. And all of these, and more in our own day, assert that although Christ, constitution, and capitalism may be good, their alternatives, that is secularism, statism, and socialism will be better. Oh, in fact, according to Marx, it is the inevitable progress toward which all of humanity is moving.

Ah, all humanity is indeed descending and collapsing because of the pursuit of foolishness rather than wisdom. The covenant family, tried and true throughout history, the covenant family is that upon which Western society has built a rich culture and heritage, the homosexual marriage will be even better, they would say. Labor built on one's own self-interest and the interest of his family and community has brought untold wealth and prosperity to millions over generations. But Marx says labor built from each according to his ability to each according to his need is even better, right?

And Christ and his gospel is that upon which the church has flourished and grown, spread throughout the earth, as the waters cover the sea, as Isaiah puts it. But now with Marx, we now know that religion is more ignorant superstition and atheism is even better. Religion is the opiate of the people, as Marx would put it. So your rulers have set fools to writing, dear listener, in America these days with the socialists in power, while the prince of peace walks in great humility. What fools they are, I submit to you.

And what wisdom is in Christ rather, and what wisdom then is in his gospel as well. Even as we see from the apostle Paul, when he put it this way, the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning, I will thwart, Paul says. Where is the one who is wise? Oh, socialist.

Oh, modern, contemporary socialist. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age, as Paul puts it? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. Indeed, it is the folly of the cross, that Christ indeed died on a cross and thus paid for our sins, paid the price of your sins for your salvation. This indeed is God's wisdom, never predicated by man, but in the wisdom of God's counsel in eternity, he chose the cross, the folly of the cross to be his wisdom. And this will be your wisdom too in salvation and redemption if you hear. Now, we have seen the wisdom of Koheleth and Solomon.

And we have dedicated this then to General Flynn and all those who are now serving in Trump's administration. May you not be sacrificial lambs yourselves. This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. And what I'd like to do is invite you, especially those of you who are listeners to this program, invite you to a spaghetti fellowship dinner that we're having on February 22nd. That's a Wednesday evening, and we'll have them in subsequent Wednesday evenings as well.

But we would like to sponsor a spaghetti fellowship dinner in which we would meet many of you. I'll be there. We can speak. We can chat about past radio programs, upcoming ones, or just anything that may be on your heart or mind. We'll have also some people from our congregation that will be there.

You can meet and talk with them. And just be a time to relax and socialize. No pressure. And we'd like just for you to come out and meet us and we, you. And to do this, we are cooking a big spaghetti fellowship dinner.

It will be at 5 p.m., the first one, February 22nd. That's a Wednesday night. Come and join us. But please do call us before you do so that we might be able to know how much to cook. And so we're not sitting there with too little or too much.

But just like Mama's porridge, it will be just right. And our number is 523-0196. That's 523-0196 to make your reservation. And New Geneva also meets for holy worship on Sundays at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street. And you'll find us on the corner of 4th and Boulevard.

And we just invite you to join us for Sunday worship too. I know many of you are unchurched or perhaps you don't have a church or perhaps you're meeting in a home church or in a family church or an online church. And we would just urge you to try indeed fellowshipping with us face-to-face. Put your skin in the game, as it were, and give of your time and of your substance and of your love, Christian love for brothers and sisters. And do that with us.

And we will do the same with you because we love the church. We love our brothers and sisters in Christ. And we just eagerly await and anticipate fellowship with you. So join us for holy worship on Sundays at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And then please give us a call for feedback on this message or others.

And you can call us at 523-0196. We also have two websites. And that is newgenevaopc.org. That's newgenevaopc.org. Or our new website, which is omnisprotestas.org.

Let me spell that for you, omnisprotestas.org, O-M-N-I-S-P-O-T-E-S-T-A-S.org, where we have cataloged previous sermons, a whole year and a half's worth. And you can graze amongst those and see what we preach and teach as well on the radio. So we just urge you to do this and call us once again for feedback and further information at 523-0196.