Would You Pay the Price? Part 2

Guest (Male): How to handle false accusations and lies, next on Light on the Hill.
James Kaddis: All of you are going to be accused at one point. All of you are going to witness false accusations. I'm saying that when the accusations come, do me this favor, do yourself this favor. Honor God by not responding to the accusations, rather honor God by responding to the truth that you hear when the truth comes forth.
Guest (Male): You can be sure as you live to honor Christ and follow the Lord that you'll be falsely accused and encounter liars on social media and your daily personal interactions with others, it will happen. Today on Light on the Hill, we'll learn when to speak and when not to as we examine our Lord's masterful response to his accusers. Turn with us to Mark chapter 14 where Pastor James Kaddis is at verse 59.
James Kaddis: Verse 59. But neither so did their witnesses agree together. In other words, they were all making up their lies, so the lies didn't coincide. They didn't work together. Look at what happens here. And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus saying, Answerest thou nothing? What is it which these witnesses against thee? In other words, what are you going to do? Be quiet? You're just going to keep being quiet? You're not going to speak up about these accusations? My children do this a lot. This is I think this comes with brilliance, actually. Sometimes it's not the brilliance that you want to see in your children, right? But they I think they have a little bit of trained interrogator built into them. And maybe it's because they just got that from their dad, right? But it is interesting how how sophisticated they've become. And um I'm not going to get into who's doing what, but at least one of my children has been known to make a series of false allegations or statements to their sibling in order to bring out an emotional response that gives them the information that they're looking for. It's a tactic, right? I mean, it is. It's a tactic. And And it works well. Funny thing is they're trying to do it to the Lord, but the Lord is far more disciplined than that. He's the creator of the universe. He's not going to capitulate to that nonsense. Well, then he speaks up. James, how is he not capitulating? Well, we're going to see what happens when he speaks up, but I can promise you this, it's not capitulating the manipulation. I can tell you that right now. There's a very specific purpose in this. I love this verse 61, but he held his peace and answered nothing. Again, the high priest asked him and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the son of the Blessed? By the way, it is interesting. I've learned this now. And I kind of have fun doing it in a way. But one of the ways to make dissenters go absolutely nuts, especially when they can't stand you, is by not even acknowledging them when they say things. Some of you would be sick to your stomach if you knew some of the text messages I've gotten over the years or the comments or emails. And the one thing, the one thing I have to do, and I've gotten better at it, admittedly I've gotten better at it, is I've got to hold my peace. Most of the time I just hold my peace. Why? Because if I speak back, I will give them what they want. And in responding to and acknowledging the lie, I give validity to the lie that was being communicated in the first place. You know, somebody comes up to me and Well, James, you're 2 ft tall and you weigh 100 lbs. What am I going to do? But no, you're wrong. You're wrong. Look at me. Look at me. You're giving somebody this idea and the people around you that you think somehow the accuser is valid in one way or another because it's at least getting under your skin. Maybe it might help if you just buy whatever you know. What are you going to do? Makes it a little bit different, doesn't it? Look, I cannot tell you guys this enough. This is so important because we're going to get to Christ's response. But Christ's response is so incredibly important. Okay? But I cannot tell you this enough because this lesson goes back to the garden. When the enemy lies to you, especially in the form of an accusation, you cannot respond. You cannot enter into a dialogue. You cannot seek to qualify your position. And I know it's hard. I know there's every part of you that wants to speak up and wants to defend or make the situation right, but you cannot do it. Why? Because if you engage in the dialogue, you will allow yourself to become vulnerable to what that dialogue wants to do. You don't want to engage in it because you allow yourself to be given to the issue that might actually destroy you when you never had to be a part of it. It's really simple. I remember many many years ago when I was a police chaplain and we had an adult bookstore in the city that I was a chaplain in. And that adult bookstore, I'm proud to say, was destroyed by the time I left as the chaplain over there. And every now and again we would get a call where some crazy insanity would be happening. Ugly, like wicked wicked. Just bad. I remember the first time I had to go into one of those places because there were no backups. Everybody was busy. They were getting involved in stuff. My partner was like, James, I can't walk in there alone cuz I would always not walk in. I'd always stay in I'd always stay I didn't want I want nothing to do with that. And believe me, I I I'm wired differently than most. I would struggle with lusting in a restaurant over a piece of steak than something in an adult bookstore. I It's just me, right? It's the way I'm wired. So we walk in and we finish up our call. We do everything we need to do. We take a person in to custody. Guy says he is a girl, but wasn't. It was gross gross situation. Take him in to custody. And everybody's gathered out back in the alleyway where everything is clear. And all the officers start making fun of me. Hey, you should have seen it, you guys. We're going to go pull the video camera from that place. He walked in there and all he did was just kept his head down. That's all he did. He wouldn't even look around. All he did was kept his head down and looked where he needed to look and that was it. He didn't do anything else. One of the guys privately comes to me while we're in the car on the way back. Suspect's already taken in to custody. We're in the car already back. He looks at me and he says, Man, I'm telling you right now, I am going to make it my goal that eventually when you walk in that store, you're going to you're going to see everything in that store. And I look at him and it was harsh. He didn't like it at the time. He actually cried, believe it or not. I looked at him and I just basically said something to this effect. I said, And I'm going to make it my goal that every time you walk in to a situation like that, you will not put your fellow officers in danger. What do you mean by that? You know, he's one of these I'm a tactics I'm a one of these off I'm a officer safety guy. I'm a tactics all of it. Plain and simple. You're so busy looking at what your flesh wants that you're distracted by all of the things that could have got you and me killed in that room. You didn't pick up on who the suspect was for at least 10 seconds after I picked up on what was going on. You put yourself in that in that single dangerous situation. And I'm a single guy. If I got killed in there, you'd have to go home and explain it to my mom and my dad and my sisters or my sister and my brothers. Hey, yeah, no problem. But what happens when you have this guy in there with you and that guy in there with you? You're so busy going looking at all that other stuff that you put yourself in this position to crash and burn after your partners are dead. Is that what you want? That's a harsh situation. I'm going to tell you this right now. Most people who are not in law enforcement will not understand this conversation. They wouldn't. But if you've done any kind of time in law enforcement, you understand exactly what I'm talking about. It's a safety issue. It's a big deal. This happens spiritually all the time all the time. We don't keep our heads down. We don't focus on the issues. And we allow the distractions to take away from our clarity in doing what we know we need to do in order to make the situation where it is. Now I'm going to argue that Jesus doesn't respond to this guy. I'm going to argue that what Jesus does is he takes the clarity that nobody has the clarity that only he has and he brings it to another level by opening his mouth. Why? Because first and foremost, he refuses to respond when the lies are communicated. It's a lying accusation. He won't respond. The only time he does respond is when he is asked about whether or not the truth is the truth. Think about that for a second. He won't even entertain the lies that are being communicated, but he will speak to the question or the imposition of a question that solicits truth, not entraps him, not looks for a clarification on the lie, not gives credibility to the lie. The first time he answers is when the correct statement is actually made. Think about that for a second. So let's go back to the question he asks. Art thou the Messiah? That's basically what it is. The son of the Blessed. And what does Jesus do? Oh, I did He's a This is so brilliant. This is so brilliant. I am. And you shall see the son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. Yeah. I'm that guy. And not only am I that guy, but you will see that guy showing up in a big way. Oh, I love that. Here's the thing you learn by the way when this takes place. This is super important. Like I want you guys to get this, right? When you respond to the lies, you feed the people who communicate those lies, right? You give them the credibility that they don't deserve to have. When the truth comes out of the liar's mouth and you not only respond with the truth, but you continue to build upon the truth, they completely melt down. They lose complete and total control. Watch what happens because they don't know what to do with what the truth is here. They don't understand how to deal with it. Look at what happens here. Then the high priest rent his clothes and saith, What need we any further witnesses? He takes off his clothes in his crazy humility, you know, false humility, and says, Why do we need anymore witnesses? We don't need anymore witnesses. You have heard the blasphemy. What think you? And they all condemned him to be guilty of death. So think about what's happening here. This is a a trial of sorts. Jesus is going before the priest, the high priest, and all the other priests that work under him and some very prominent religious leaders to determine whether or not he's guilty. Now this is something that would have been required by Roman law, so to speak. In other words, if one of these religious crimes had taken place, they would have to be tried, especially if they were not Roman citizens, they would be tried by this council that would be put together. That why it was at the house of Caiaphas. They would be tried by this council that would be put together. And if the council deems them guilty, then there would be a lawyer of sorts that would bring the finding of guilty in the form of an accusation that would be viable to bring execution to the Roman leaders. So we all determined they'd be guilty. Now it's just a matter of a technicality to go get him killed. That's what what that's what's happening right now. So they're all viewing him as guilty. They're agreeing that he's guilty. They have now judged him as guilty. What I will argue right now, and this is an important argument, is I will argue that the very moment we are witnessing this very moment where they all find him guilty was a turning point in their hearts. Okay? It was the final nail in the coffin. In other words, they had made a very aggressive decision in their heart to reject the truth. They've basically found him guilty of telling a lie when in reality the only thing he's guilty of is actually telling the truth. But they call the truth a lie in the lie it's the truth. So now they have already made up their minds. They've already come to the conclusion that he is what he really isn't. Then what happens next? They go to mockery. They go to belittling. I'm going to show you how well the devil does this even in the modern day. Look at what happens here. We'll close with this verse. And some began to spit on him and to cover his face and to buffet him, meaning they're beating him basically, and to say unto him, Prophesy. And the servants did strike him with the palms of their hands or slapping him in the face. They're humiliating him. They're literally, you guys, mocking him. Do you know how good the devil is at doing this, you guys? This is exactly what the devil does. The devil Let me just bring this to you in modern day terminology. The devil will begin to inspire the heart of the wicked to believe a lie and then become a representative of that lie. Once they become a representative of that lie, they bring heavy accusation because that's what the devil does. He's an accuser of the brethren. Once they bring heavy accusation amongst themselves or the people that they bring accusation to, in other words, the club of people that they have rallied to be fellow accusers with, when they all make the determination that the accusations are true, they take the righteous subject who's being accused by the devil himself and they begin to mock that subject. You can by the way see this pattern all throughout human history, all throughout human history. I've been in places where people knew I was coming. They completely hate me, completely. I've even been in situations where I've seen these antifa type people know that I'm coming. They hate my guts. They completely hate me. And you know what they do? They make every kind of accusation in the book. They accuse me of this, accuse me of that, accuse me of this, accuse me of that. And they all begin to accuse or or stand with one another in their accusations. And once they believe the lie and the sense that they have officially condemned me, they all gathered together in doing nothing but mocking me. Some of the most creative fat jokes I've ever heard in my life don't come from elementary school. They come from the modern day. Some of the craziest most insane statements that people continue to make come from that way. Why? Because the devil is a liar and he's an accuser. And he gathers people together when he inspires them satanically to do the things that they do. Guys, I hate to give credibility to anybody, so I won't mention names. But how about we talk about one person who has been going on a campaign to completely try to destroy the reputation of a godly widow who now that she has gathered together enough people that she thinks will be on her side to accept the accusations, she now finds herself in a place where she's just mocking. Did anybody see the interview where she's sitting down and and interviewing an Egyptian national? Anybody see the interview that I'm talking about where they make a joke about the assassination of her husband and start laughing together? That's how you know satanic ritualism is in the middle of it. That's how you know evil is in the midst of that. It's super obvious. Why? Because that's what the devil does. Here's the advice I want to give every single one of you because this is really really important. And quite frankly, I'm going to just make myself clear. I don't care about so many of these social media influencers. In all honesty, they are they are literally amongst the first casualties of a spiritual war that they have no idea how to fight. They are completely clueless, so I'm not going to give them the weight that they don't have. But the one thing that I want to say because I think it's important is I want to speak to the body of Christ. You that are believers, I am begging you to engage in this warfare because if you do not engage in this warfare, you will become the very first casualties of it. Let me just explain how important it is to understand this principle. All of you are going to be accused at one point. All of you are going to witness false accusations. All of you are going to witness lies. And by the way, I just want to throw out this one caveat because it's really really important. If you did something evil and somebody is bringing it out into the light, you don't fall in this category. Okay? If you did something you weren't supposed to do, well then take your lumps and say I'm sorry and praise God that somebody brought somebody in your life to bring it out into the light, repent and allow God to do a new work. So this is not me covering up for cover-up culture amongst churches that choose to lie. That's not what I'm talking about here, but what I am saying is this. I'm saying that when the accusations come, do me this favor, do yourself this favor. Honor God by not responding to the accusations, rather honor God by responding to the truth that you hear when the truth comes forth. Allow the truth to be the thing that is enforced. You know, the apostle Paul said this and I and I I'm not one for cross-referencing and that's not what I'm doing. I'm just being reminded by what the apostle Paul told the Roman church. He said this. He said, I want you to be innocent of that which is evil and I would rather that you be excellent in that which is good. In other words, allow yourself to become acclimated to righteousness and ignorance of evil. Because you will see the day, if you've not seen it already, where a lot of lies are going to be thrown your way and it's happening right now, guys, in ways I never thought I would see it. And maybe it's because I'm just ignorant and as I've gotten older and I'm now serving in the ministry, I'm seeing it a lot more. I didn't think it could get this bad. You know what I mean? But the one thing that I've learned is that I'm going to fall apart. My heart is going to fail. Literally, I will be in the grave if I allow myself to be given to having to defend the lies. It's critical to simply speak the truth. Now how do we speak the truth? One of the most obvious ways is what Jesus did here, right? That's that's perhaps one of the most consequential and significant ways to do it. Do you know the other way we do it? The other way that we speak the truth is to continue to stand for the truth by exposing the lie. So we don't In other words, we don't say that's not true. I mean, I guess we could kind of say that, but what we do is we expose the mindset behind the warfare that led us to that conclusion. Those lies come forth. Let me show you how this works with the devil. Let me show you what the devil does to bring forth people in the midst of this situation and put into execution what he's done. What you're seeing right now in the modern day is exactly what we can see replicatable in the garden. The only way you get to do that well, by the way, the only way you become exceptional in that arena is by knowing God's word so well that it's the only thing you can do. So what do we do here? It's really simple. We study, right? We get to know God's word. Look, if you're identifying a lie, make an interesting study out of it. You know, I'm looking at this lie happening right now instead of taking to the world and saying it's a lie, it's a lie, it's a lie. How about we just stop for a second and study it in the Bible? Find out where can I see this pattern in the Bible? Where do I see a lie like this taking place? Hmm. Which you'll begin to realize very very quickly is that there are patterns in human nature that come out very quickly. And the better you become at being able to understand it, you will actually become better in seeing it in areas that are even technical that you never thought you could possibly understand. Like here's a great example. Do you know that if you interact with AI long enough, seriously, specifically like a large language model type of a environment, you will begin to see the apex of humanity within it. You will see the characteristics of the person or the people that created it. You will see humanity substantiated in some pretty remarkable ways. In other words, you will see a very vivid exposure of the wicked and dark heart of man. There's a lot of me in it. It's just the way it is. But you're never going to be able to see that unless you study the patterns that are in the scripture. You begin to know and understand what the scripture says about all of these things and you understand how they work and the natural progressions that take place as a result of the tactics that our enemy uses or the tactics that our Savior uses. Big difference. You learn. And when you learn, you begin to understand how easy it can be to navigate through these things that so many are deceived with.
Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us today for Light on the Hill. What you just heard is one part of a study in Mark's gospel from Pastor James Kaddis. You can hear it again at lightonthehillradio.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Not long ago, Pastor James released his new book on the first half of Revelation. It's entitled The Last Book. He points out that Revelation isn't a book of fear, but rather a book of hope. Pastor James will help you understand the world we live in and current events through a biblical lens, preparing your heart for what lies ahead. Get a copy by going to lightonthehillradio.com or through Amazon. We're so grateful for your support. Each donation that's sent in is an investment in what God is doing over the radio and internet. Lives are being impacted daily for the glory of God as a result. If you'd like to stand with us through providing either a one-time donation or ongoing monthly support, please visit lightonthehillradio.com. While you're there, you can also send us an email. It would be great to hear from you and have you share the station you listen to as well. Just visit lightonthehillradio.com and then click on contact. Reflecting on today's passage here again is Pastor James.
James Kaddis: I hope if anything, you will see the response of Jesus here as a cry out to you to be inspired to know God's word so that you can understand the pattern and know when to actually speak and when not to, when to understand. And I'm telling you this right now, I'm speaking to you from a from the perspective of a person that desperately needs to get better at this. I'm telling you that like this isn't This is one of those areas where I' am like, Man, do I really have to teach this? Maybe I should have somebody else teach it because it's an area that I could stand to learn. There's a key here to unlock. And that key is substantial. And it opens up the door for some pretty amazing things. Amen?
Guest (Male): Next time on Light on the Hill, we'll tell you about a prophecy that Peter never believed. We'll go a little farther into Mark chapter 14 with Pastor James Kaddis. This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.
Guest (Male): I have found the peace only comes from you. I have found the joy only comes from you cuz all I need is you.