Compromise

00:01 Want to greet each one this morning in the name of Jesus. Let us give glory to God for all the things that He has done and for His glory and presence in our lives. Just by way of a couple of announcements, Ryan and Liz were affirmed by the congregation for youth elder. This means that not only will we need to appoint him for that, 00:23 but we will also need to replace him as lay deacon. And so we'll be processing that also in the next several weeks. Until then, he will continue to serve as lay deacon. 00:37 Also, in the next several weeks before our business meeting, we'll be processing the nominations for youth sponsors to be on the slate at the business meeting. We try to get that taken care of before the straw votes are taken for the new slate at our reorganizational meeting. 00:56 Pray for us as we attend convention this next weekend. I look forward to the weekend. I intend to come home lighter. That is, with less responsibility on my shoulder. 01:12 For the last 16 years, I've served on the board of executors and the last eight years as moderator of BMA, and that is expiring--I'm not expiring, but the term is expiring--next weekend. And I appreciate your support of that through the years and giving me the freedom to do that. 01:34 But it's time for someone else to do it, and I look forward to Jaymark taking that responsibility. Jaymark Horst. All right. If you would turn in your copies of the scriptures this morning to 1 Samuel, we'll be looking at chapters 27 and 29. 01:48 We are winding down in 1 Samuel, and the passages here in 27 and 29 tend to go together. So we are looking at them together this morning. And on the subject of compromise, compromise right or wrong? 02:06 Now, we can look at compromise in a couple of different ways depending on who you're compromising with and what you're compromising about. Now, if you're compromising with your wife or your spouse about where you're going to go out to eat on your anniversary, that's one thing. If you're compromising with sin, that's something completely different. 02:25 And so when we think about compromise this morning, we're going to be looking at what is bad compromise, what is good compromise, and what are some of the principles that go into both. Now, I think we can look back sometimes and realize that we made some bad compromises, such as it was with World War II in a man by the name of Neville Chamberlain. 02:46 He was the Prime Minister of Britain leading up to World War II. And he is best known for his policy of appeasement. Now, we can try to second guess all of his motives. We won't do that this morning. 03:01 But the fact of the matter is that he was dealing with World War II on the preliminaries leading into World War II with Hitler, the madman, who first wanted Austria, and so Austria was given over to him without a fight. And then he wanted the German portion of Czechoslovakia because, 03:21 after all, those people were Germans. They needed to be reunited with Germany. And so they gave him the German section of Czechoslovakia. And that wasn't enough. Then he took the rest of Czechoslovakia. And then he went after Poland and then Holland and Belgium and France. And time after time in that accommodation appeasement, time after time after time, they would think, "Okay. 03:43 Now we're going to have peace. Now it's going to be we've got an agreement with Hitler, and we're going to have peace," only to find that literally it was not worth the paper that it was written on. In fact, Chamberlain and Hitler had a written agreement in their own handwriting in a private meeting that, "We want no more war. 04:05 We want peace. And this is where it's going to end." Hitler signed it, and it was not even worth the paper that it was written on or the ink that it used to write it. And so we oftentimes, in the heat of battle, in the heat of battle, personal battles, we find the temptation to ride the fence. 04:25 In times of discouragement, we find the temptation to make compromises. And while those compromises may seem to be little at the time, they very quickly put us into a position where we need to compromise to greater degrees. And until we finally find ourselves between a rock and a hard place, 04:44 we cry out to God, and sometimes God and His mercy comes through for us. Other times, God and His mercy says, "You know what? You need to wade through this with all the pain that that compromise has brought." So compromise, is it good or is it bad? In a marriage relationship, 05:05 certain compromises are good. In fact, they're a must. We have to make those compromises. We have to make the relationship work. Sometimes in resolving conflicts between people or parties, there are compromises that must be made. But what are the principles that go into those compromises? 05:26 And does the compromise that one is being asked to make set one on a path away from God? You can look at scripture, and you can find times when compromises were good. The Jerusalem Council in Acts chapter 15, there was the faction of the Gentile believers and the Jewish believers who wanted to maintain circumcision. 05:47 And then the question was, do we ask the Gentile, require the Gentile Christians to continue circumcision and keeping the law? And there were adaptations made as they discerned the Lord's will together. That's one thing. 06:02 But then you have in Kings or Chronicles the story of the old prophet of Bethel who had compromised his ministry and was intent on getting the young man, the young prophet, to fail and compromise his ministry. And we know how that ended, how that the lion destroyed the prophet, 06:23 the young prophet, as God had said, and it did not end well. And so when we think about David living with the Philistines in chapters 27 and 29, what we see is some of the things that went into David's compromising. 06:39 And David's negative compromise usually involves some or all of these characteristics. The first thing we see is that David is reasoning within himself. In verse 1, David said in his heart, "Now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul. There's nothing better for me than I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines, 07:00 and Saul will despair of me to seek me anymore in any part of Israel. So I shall escape out of his hand." Remember, this is set in the setting now where David is still running from Saul. Saul's the madman. He's putting all this pressure on David. David's the victim. He's running, running, running, hiding, running, hiding, running. 07:20 And so David says in his heart, one of the first things that happens when we compromise is that we reason within ourselves. Be careful when you reason within yourself. Be careful. I mean, it's bad enough when you listen to only people who think like you do, 07:42 but it's even worse when the only person who you're listening to is yourself. 07:48 We need a broader base of counsel when we're in trouble and discouragement and in the heat of the battle. There's no mention here that he prayed. There's no mention here that he sought counsel. There's no foresight of what could happen. He was just saying in his heart. 08:11 And we know that when we just listen to ourselves speak, we can get into trouble. Now, you say, "Why do you say that David is compromising here?" There's a number of different ways of looking at this, but I'm looking at it through the eyes that David was making some unwise choices again here. And he was compromising because if you look at the area of Gath, 08:32 he's going down to the Philistines, the area of Gath, and the city that he's being given by Achish, the king of Gath, called Ziklag, where he's going to live for a year and four months, 08:48 those are right on the border of Israel and the Philistines. Ziklag is literally right on the edge of the occupied territory of Judah and the Philistines. So you know what David's doing here is he's got one foot in Israel and one foot in Philistine territory. 09:10 And so we're seeing he's trying to play both worlds. He's trying to run from his background, his heritage, and his corrupt leader, but he's doing that by running into the arms and into compromising situations with the enemy. And we're going to see how that gets him into trouble. 09:28 The second thing that we see part of a negative compromise is that generally compromise comes from trying to protect something, trying to protect something that's even near and dear to us, that even maybe needs protecting, but we're doing it instead of seeking for God to protect it. 09:49 We're going to try to take things into our own hands and protect it. So David arose in verse 2 and went over with the 600 men who were with him to Achish, the son of Maoc, king of Gath. So David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, each man with his household, and David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jesreelites and Abigail the Carmelites. 10:11 And it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath, so he sought him no more. And so we're going to try to protect the family units here. And he's trying to protect his own life. He's trying to protect his wives and children. He's trying to protect his 600 men and their families. I mean, 10:29 this is no small task to move from where they were down in the forests of Ziph up into the region of Gath. But is he doing the right thing? He's actually, we find out in chapter 30, which we preached on several weeks ago, 10:49 he's actually putting his people, his family, in harm's way while he's trying to protect them. Now, what are some of the things that we try to protect that brings compromise? We try to protect our own lives. We try to protect our reputation. We try to protect what people think of us. We try to protect our business by making compromises or our ministry by making compromises. 11:12 We try to protect our comfort or even our family. We come up with all kinds of excuses to justify our compromises. Are they good reasons to make a change, or are they just excuses to sav the conscience? We have to ask ourselves these questions personally and individually. 11:33 And some compromises bring about a certain measure of temporary success. Verse 4, it was told to Saul that David had fled to the Philistines, and Saul says, "Good. Rid of him. I don't have to pursue him anymore." And David's goal was accomplished. Many compromises work, 11:54 but only in the short term because, as you're going to see in a few minutes, David's back ends up being put against the wall so that he's on the verge of even having to fight against his very own people. And so some of these compromises look good on the surface, 12:13 but you have to look at what's happening below the surface and what the end result will be. Another thing that David then goes along, and he says to Achish, verse 5, "If I have now found favor in your eyes, let them give me a place in some town in the country that I may dwell there. 12:30 For why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you?" So Achish gave him Ziklag that day. Therefore, Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day. And now the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was one year and four months. So now David is getting something from the enemy. 12:52 He's getting something from the enemy. He's not buying it. He's not battling for it. He's just, through his compromises, getting something for personal benefit. Now, you can again look at his motives. But generally, when we go into compromises, the enemy is willing to give us something if we'll just ride the fence, 13:14 if we'll just compromise, if we'll just play the devil's advocate, if we'll just try to ride the fence. The devil is more than happy to give us something. In fact, did Jesus face this in his ministry when the enemy came to him and says, "See these kingdoms of the world? 13:35 All of these will I give to you if you'll just fall down and worship me." I mean, just a little bit of worship, just a little bit of acknowledgment, Jesus, that I'm superior and that you really need me in order to get through this that God your Father has called you to do, and all of these things I will give you. 13:57 Had Jesus had his mind on getting something from the enemy other than the way that God said to get it, the plan of redemption would have been destroyed. 14:07 But nevertheless, God did say, "I'm going to give you this from the enemy, but it's going to be through the cross and not through acquiescing or accommodating the devil." Then we see in verse 7 through 12, now, 14:25 this is an interesting part of scripture here because I'll just kind of paraphrase it for you. Daily, David would go out, and he would raid different villages. He went out against the Gesharites in verse 8 and the Gurzites and the Amalekites. But he had a scorched earth policy, what's called a scorched earth policy. 14:47 And that is, it's all or nothing. And when he went into these villages, he would kill the entire village, men, women, children, take the spoils of the animal and the spoils of war, and take them back and report to Achish. And Achish would ask, "What have you been doing today? Where have you been raiding?" And David's response was, "Oh, I've been raiding down in southern Judah. 15:09 I've been raiding the area of the Kenites and the Jeremielites in the southern area of Judah when actually he was taking out the Gesharites and the Gurzites and the Amalekites." Now, somehow, I'm sure David was able to reconcile in his mind what he was doing. 15:29 He was able to convince himself that this is okay. 15:31 Maybe he used God's command to wipe these people out when they entered the land of Canaan because some of these Gesharites and the Gurzites were nomadic Arabs, and some of them were descendants of the once powerful race of the Amorites. 15:51 And after all, Joshua was told to kill the Amorites, the Gurzites, the Hittites, the Ammonites, and all those people. And so he could say, "Well, I'm just doing what God wants me to do, but then why cover it up? Why lie about it? Just be open upfront what you're doing." Or he could have said, "You know what? 16:11 Saul was supposed to kill those Amalekites, and he didn't do it. I'm just going to finish what Saul started." And scripture really doesn't say what he did should have been done or shouldn't have been done. But as we read between the lines and set this in the context of compromise, one of the things that you see in compromise is a lack of honesty, a lack of honesty, 16:34 people being dishonest about what's behind the compromise and what they really want to get when they get you to compromise. But politicians know this better than anybody else. If you'll just compromise in this area, then we'll leave you alone. So they make the compromise. They're not left alone. In fact, they're hung out to dry because they made the compromise. 16:57 And that oftentimes happens in the political realm when people compromise their position. Now, we go into chapter 28, and we see that things kind of change around here a little bit because now things are heating up between the Philistines and Israel. 17:17 Now, it happened, verse 28, verse 1, in those days that the Philistines gathered their armies together for war to fight with Israel. And Achish said to David, "You assuredly know that you will go out with me to battle, you and your men." Ah. Now we see where this compromise is leading. 17:37 He's buddied up to Achish. He's buddied up to Gath. He's riding the fence between Gath and the Philistines and Israel. And now he's being called on, "Turn your back on your people." And so bigger problems develop. And David said to Achish, 17:57 verse 2, "Surely you know what your servant can do." And Achish said to David, "Therefore, I will make you one of my chief guardians forever, one of my chief guardians." Here's your opportunity, David, to really go after Saul and put it to him by declaring your allegiance to us. 18:18 And so in David's compromises, bigger problems develop. And this happens in compromising situations, in negative compromising situations where the issue somewhat gets clouded over because the next step is then to call for bigger compromises and accommodation. 18:40 But you see what happens in chapter 29, verse 1, the Philistines gathered together all their armies at Aphech. This is up in northern Israel. And the Israelites encamped by a fountain which is in Jesreel. And the lords of the Philistines passed in review by hundreds and by thousands. But David and his men passed in review with Achish. 19:01 And the Philistine leaders go ballistic. I mean, they say, "What is David doing amongst our military campaign? I mean, we cannot trust this man because remember Achish? I mean, what are you doing bringing him into our midst? Remember how it was said years ago, 19:21 'Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousand'?" By the way, Achish, that was in relation to our military campaigns with Israel. "And we don't trust this man," they basically said. 19:35 "We don't trust this man because what better way could he get on his master Saul's good side than to turn on us in the heat of the battle and take our scalps instead of theirs?" That's the conflict now. 19:47 And what I want you to see in verse 2 through 5 is that when you compromise to gain favor, you'll never really fit into the world that you're trying to make the compromise with because here he is. 20:06 Okay. I don't know how far David was willing to take this. I really don't. The text does not say. 20:12 But however far he was willing to take it, the world said, "No, you are not one of us." And no matter how far the Christian compromises, he will never be comfortable in the world. They will never be comfortable with him. 20:33 I remember the story reading the account. I read it again just last night of a man who gave his heart to the Lord under the ministry of Dr. Donald Gray Barnhaus. And he was so concerned because he was in the military. And he said, "When I get out of the military, what are people going to do with me? And I'm afraid about getting sucked back into my old friends." And Dr. 20:55 Barnhaus gave him a good piece of advice. He said, "When you get off the train after your military stint and you get back home, I want you to do something. Tell the first 10 people that you meet that you're now a Christian." And so he met some of his buddies. And his buddies invited him to a party. And he said, "Oh, by the way, I'm a Christian now. 21:16 And I'm not going to do that anymore. I'm not going to party anymore." And they dropped him like a hot potato. He went to his girlfriend. I think she was maybe engaged to be married. And she enticed him, "Let's go party. I mean, this is a celebration that you're back home again." He said, "Oh, by the way, I want you to know that I'm a Christian now." Boom. She dropped him like a hot potato. 21:36 10 people 21:39 did that to him because the fact of the matter is, sooner or later, the compromiser has to declare himself as to what he really believes and where he really stands. And when you declare yourself to be a Bible-believing, spirit-filled, righteous, holy, living Christian, the world will not want you in their party. 22:01 And so David comes to the place where he's almost sacrificing his own identity as a Jew. Verse 6, Achish called David. Now, Achish has got a problem on his hands. He called David, said, "Surely as the Lord lives, you will have been upright, and you're going out, and you're coming in with me in the army is good in my sight." Boy, does he know anything or not? 22:23 Does he know nothing? "For to this day, I have not found evil in you since the day of your coming to me. Nevertheless, the lords do not favor you. Therefore, return now and go in peace that you may not displease the lords of the Philistines." So David said to Achish, I mean, if I had been David, I'd have said, "Thank you, Lord." But David has gone so far into this compromise, 22:46 he says to Achish, "But what have I done? And to this day, what have you found in your servant as long as I have been with you that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my Lord the King?" David is almost to the place of selling his identity. 23:02 Aesop's fable, not exactly the bastion of truth. But nevertheless, Aesop developed his fables using creation and nature to illustrate moral principles. Aesop's fable went something like this about the bat, not this kind of bat but the flying bat. 23:25 His story went like this, that the bat tried to belong to both parties when the beasts and the birds went to battle. So you have the beasts and the birds engaged in war. And the bat tries to belong to both parties. When the birds were victorious, he would wing around telling everybody that he was a bird. When the beasts want to fight, 23:45 he would walk around them assuring them that he was a beast. But soon his hypocrisy was discovered, and he was rejected by both beasts and birds. He had now to hide himself, only coming out to appear in the open at night. Cute little story. 24:06 Illustrates a point. Illustrates a point. You try to fit in even to the point of selling your own identity. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. You end up being rejected by both. 24:24 Now, I admittedly am going to stretch the text just a bit. Achish, in his appeal to David in verse 9, says to David, "I know that you are as good in my sight as an angel of God." Boy, again, this guy, he's clueless. "Nevertheless, the princes of the Philistines have said, 24:45 'He shall not go up with us to the battle.' Now, therefore, rise early in the morning with your master's servants who have come with you. And as soon as you are up early in the morning and have light, depart." So David and his men rose eagerly to depart in the morning to return to the land of the Philistines. 25:06 And the Philistines went up to Jesreel. 25:08 Now, I'm admittedly going to stretch the text and spiritualize it a bit. But do you see the quest here for additional light, additional light? I mean, we're walking in the darkness here. This is at the end of the day. 25:28 And when it's light, when you get additional light, then you can move on. Now, one of the things we notice about people when they make compromises is that they all of a sudden have had additional light. They have had enlightenment. 25:49 They have had new revelation. They have had new illumination. The things we've been taught, ah, that really doesn't matter anymore because we know better now. In fact, I was in a meeting one time years ago. I think I've told you about this meeting in times past. 26:08 But 26:10 the compromise that the group of churches was being asked to make was to accept homosexuals into the membership of the church. And they appealed to the compromise that the church made with adultery back in the '60s and '70s when divorce and remarriage was allowed into the Mennonite churches. 26:30 And they appealed to that compromise, and they said, "We used to say divorce and remarriage is adultery, and it's wrong. But then we changed our mind. We got additional light. Now, who's to say that in 20 or 30 years?" By the way, this is about 20 years ago or 25, 26 years ago. 26:48 "Who's to say that we won't get additional light and then we'll look back on this decision to prohibit homosexuals from coming into the church and say that was a wrong, that was a bad decision?" In other words, what they were doing was appealing to additional light over appealing to God's word. 27:05 And so be careful when someone says they have new information, new revelation, additional light. God miraculously and marvelously, supernaturally gets David off the hook. 27:26 I don't know how much David was sweating here. I don't know what was going through David's head and his heart. But God, in His mercy, kept David from making further very bad choices. But don't count on that. 27:47 You see, sometimes we think of God as being our big brother. As soon as we get into a jam because of our bad choices and compromises, then we send out the flare prayer and say, "God, God, God, help. I'm over here," like Dave under that truck. "Help. 28:07 I'm over here. 28:11 Help me, God." And sometimes God comes through. 28:17 Other times, God says, "You're going to have to live with the consequences of the compromises that you made." Don't presume upon God's mercy to get you off the hook. 28:38 Many people have this in child raising. We think we can violate God's word and then ask God to bail us out when our families go awry. 28:49 We have to be very careful and not presume that God is just going to zap things that we have allowed to get out of control by our own choices. Thank God, though, that in His mercy, He does give us grace. That if we have made compromises, He gives us grace. 29:10 He gives us mercy to be able to right those things and move forward getting back into His will. With the time that remains here this morning, I want to give you the differences between good compromises and bad compromises. I think we can all recognize bad compromises, 29:30 at least in hindsight. But here are some of the principles that go into bad compromises. There are bad compromises when the word of the Lord is disobeyed. By the way, let me just talk to the Lord brought to mind an illustration about this thing about wanting God to get us off the hook. 29:47 I remember reading the story years ago by the title My Son, My Son. I think it was written by Christmas Carol Kaufman. Anybody remember that book? My Son, My Son. A family that had raised a son who was basically a narcissistic, foolish young man. 30:07 Got in trouble with the law. And one of the things that happened was his father continued to enable him, enable him, enable him, enable him, enable him. Every time the son would get locked up in prison, Dad would just be right there to bail him out. "I'll never do it again, Dad. I'll never do it again." Oh, yeah. Then the next time, Dad was there to bail him out. And the next time, Dad was there to bail him out. 30:27 And the next time. And the next time. And this was a pattern throughout that young man's life that led to his destruction. Sometimes God says, "I will give you mercy and grace, but it will be in a different way than just bailing you out." And it wasn't until the Father stepped away from that, what do we call that today? 30:46 There's a word for it that people use. Oh, I can't think of it anyway. But not until we step away from that and let people receive the consequences of their decisions, this lasting change happens. So what makes for a bad compromise? A bad compromise is when the word of the Lord is disobeyed. 31:08 When God has given specific instructions that we choose to disregard for whatever reason. Here's something I remember back in my ACE days when I was pastor principal of school. I remember this being pounded and hammered into us. 31:25 It is never right to do wrong in order to do right. Think about it. It is never right to do wrong in order to do right. And we can justify ourselves. If I would just do this, then this would happen. 31:45 And that would be a good thing even though this is a bad thing. Be careful of that logic that says the end justifies the way of getting there. The end justifies the means. It's never right to do wrong in order to do right. 32:05 And when the word of the Lord is disobeyed, the unfaithful prophet of Bethel found that out. 32:12 When that young prophet full of all that vim and vigor and energy and passion and commitment to God listened to someone he did not even know who claimed to be a prophet of God who had an additional light, God had told the initial prophet, the young man, 32:29 "Don't eat or drink until you have delivered this message and are gone." And the old man, the old man of God who had compromised his ministry said, "But I have also given a word from the Lord for you. God says it's now okay for you to eat and to drink. 32:49 So come on over, and we'll have Sunday dinner together." And the young prophet disobeyed what the word of the Lord had said. 33:01 And on his way home, you remember that lion attacked him and had Sunday dinner of him but left the donkey that he was riding on alone, indicating that he wasn't just hungry. He was the judgment of God. 33:20 It's bad compromises when sin is disregarded. When churches have changed to disregard adultery only to have the very people that they changed the policy for leave the church. How many times I've seen that happen in ministry? Church comes along. Somebody comes in from the outside, 33:41 questions a policy, questions a doctrine, questions a teaching such as adultery. And the church said, "Well, we got to make room for these people. And so we're going to change our position on adultery." And so they go through all this rigamarole. This has happened over and over and over and over in conservative biblical churches. 34:00 They go through all this rigamarole to change the policy of adultery and divorce and remarriage only to find that at the end, the couple who was applying for membership leaves anyway. It has happened in churches not very far from here. 34:14 So when sin has been disregarded, I remember a family years ago that had come to our church in Oregon. And they were some of the nicest people. They had a beautiful family. They were divorced and remarried. And we had a position. 34:36 We had a position. And as a young pastor, I almost made a big mistake. 34:40 And we didn't really have a clear position on what to do at communion time. We had told them you couldn't become members. But we didn't know what to do at communion time, whether they would be allowed to take communion or not. And I remember being in a position to compromise. "Well, we don't agree with divorce and remarriage. 35:00 And we don't agree with these people. You really can't become members. That would be compromising too far." But boy, communion, if you're right with God, right with your fellow man, it's a personal thing. 35:17 God spared me from making a big mistake as a young pastor. 35:24 Some time later, they stuck with us after we told them they could not commune with us. Said, "Well, you're welcome to attend. We'll love you like we love anybody else. But we can't serve you communion." Initially, he got angry. It's another story. And then his anger subsided. And he looked at things reasonably. 35:44 But it was still a burr under their saddle. But they stayed attending our church for several years until we left and moved back here to go with Gospel Echoes. They were still attending. 35:57 One day, this came up again about how hurtful that is that they can't take communion. I said, "Don, what is it that brought you to our church?" And he knew and I knew. It was the fact that we weren't quite like all the other churches where we were taking a stand on some biblical positions and saying, "This is what we believe. 36:16 This is what we stand for. This is what we preach and teach," that they were not getting in some other churches. I said, "That's why you came." "Yep. That's why we came." I said, "What would you really think about us if we compromised that?" "Yeah. Yeah, Todd. I know what you're saying. 36:37 I know what you're saying. You'd be disappointed in us, wouldn't you?" Well, there may be more than one way to look at the communion issue. And I'm sure that there is depending on people's perspectives. 36:49 But that was an illustration how that people want something that you can believe in and that you can be consistent when the times of trial come. Another thing that makes a compromise a bad compromise is when the conscience is violated. 37:10 We need sensitivity to the consciences of others. And a whole message could be done on that and has been done from 1 Corinthians. When there is a hidden agenda, David had a hidden agenda. He couldn't just out in the open say, "You know what? I think this is the way it ought to be. And we're just going to lay all the cards out on the table." He believed in what was called incrementalism. 37:32 You get a little bit here and a little bit here and a little bit here and a little bit here and a little bit here until you've bit off the whole thing. Hidden agendas are not good for compromises. Or when there's manipulation or pressure, the scorched earth policy, winner takes all, it's my way or the highway. You do it the way I say or I'm out of here. 37:52 Not a good way to make compromises. What are good compromises? When both sides are committed to walking in the will of God. And the thing that we have to do is discern what that will is. And you may think that God's will is one thing. And I may think it's another. And we end up having to sometimes compromise in procedure and in method, not in message. 38:15 You see, scripture says, "No man can serve two masters." Scripture says, "Can two walk together except they are agreed?" There has to be a commitment to the will of God and the word of God. When both sides, number two, when both sides honor the principles even if they disagree on the method, we honor the principles of the word of God. 38:35 Sometimes how that works out is a little bit open to compromise. But we must agree on the principles or we have divided loyalties. Number three, when both sides are willing to respect and honor the outcome, this is called arbitration. Arbitration is when there's two sides that are at odds with each other. 38:57 And they call in an impartial group of people to arbitrate, to make the decision as to what should be done to resolve this conflict. Sometimes one side appoints a man. The other side appoints a man. And they both appoint those two men appoint someone else to be the third man or something like that, 39:17 some arrangement when there's an agreement then with the arbitration. And we honor that agreement. I want to close this morning with these thoughts. 39:30 There came a day when David had to declare himself. He had to declare himself or he'd completely sold out. He had gotten caught up in incrementalism. How many people do that today? Well, a little bit of drinking, a little bit of alcohol, that's okay. 39:50 And a little bit of gambling, that's okay. I can handle it. I can handle it. A little bit of adultery, of fornication, I can handle it. It's disappointing when Christian members of your family have questions about the legitimacy of another family member shacking up. Well, the longer I think about that, the more I'm unsure about it. 40:12 Folks, that's what happens when you listen to people that agree with you or listen to your own thoughts. We can justify about anything. But there comes a day when there's an uncrossable line. You cannot compromise with the world and win. And you cannot compromise with sin and stay holy. 40:33 A story is told many years ago about a Roman emperor who said to a Greek architect, "Build me a Colosseum. And when it is done, I will crown you. And I will make your name famous throughout the world." And the work was done. The architect's work was a success. And the emperor said, "Now I'm ready to crown you. 40:52 We're going to have a great celebration." And they called people into the new Colosseum. It was crowded with people from all over the area. The emperor was there. The Greek architect was there who was to be crowned for putting up this magnificent building. And they brought out some Christians. 41:08 And they said, "Now to celebrate, we're going to throw some Christians to the lions." That was their form of celebration. By the way, how do you get to the place where you enjoy seeing people torn to shreds by lions? A little by little by little by little. 41:27 And so the Christians were brought into the arena. And the lions were brought out through the other doors. And the emperor said, "The time has come for me to honor this man. And we honor and further celebrate his triumph by slaying these Christians." Whereupon the Greek architect sprang to his feet and shouted, 41:48 "I am a Christian." And they threw him to the lions. His body was trampled into the dust of the very Colosseum that he created. There comes a time, brothers and sisters, when you have to declare yourself. You can only compromise so much. 42:09 Be very careful when you start down that road. Let's pray. Lord, we can all look back and see where we have failed along the way to be consistent, to be faithful, to be steadfast. But Lord, 42:31 help us to be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as we know that our labor is not in vain in the Lord. I pray, Father, that you'll make us people that are easy to be entreated, that are humble, that realize we don't have all the answers. 42:51 But the answers that we have from the word of God, we're willing to stand on to the dying breath. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.