The NXR Podcast - SERMON - Compromised Christians Have Always Weaponized Government To Hinder Christian Advancement

00:00:00.000 amen this morning we continue our series of the book of ezra our text for today is ezra chapter

00:00:12.700 4 verse 17 through 24 would you join me in standing for the reading of god's word i'll

00:00:17.920 read our text in its entirety when i finish reading the text i'm going to say this is the

00:00:21.520 word of the lord at which point i would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying thanks be

00:00:26.380 to God. One final time our text for today is Ezra chapter 4 verse 17 through 24. The Bible says this

00:00:33.480 the king sent an answer to Rahim the commander in Shimshai the scribe and the rest of their

00:00:41.400 associates who live in Samaria and in the rest of the province beyond the river greeting and now

00:00:47.640 the letter that you sent to us has been plainly read before me and I made a decree and search has

00:00:54.580 been made, and it has been found that this city from of old has risen against kings, and that

00:01:00.680 rebellion and sedition have been made in it. And mighty kings have been over Jerusalem, who ruled

00:01:07.460 over the whole province beyond the river, to whom tribute, custom, and toll were paid. Therefore

00:01:14.100 make a decree that these men be made to cease, and that this city not be rebuilt, until the decree

00:01:21.360 is made by me and take care not to be slack in this matter why should damage grow to the hurt

00:01:28.880 of the king then when the copy of king artaxerxes letter was read before rehum and shimshai the scribe

00:01:37.240 and their associates they went in haste to the jews at jerusalem and by force and power made

00:01:44.100 them cease then the work on the house of god that is in jerusalem stopped and it ceased until the

00:01:50.980 second year of the reign of darius king of persia this is the word of the lord all right please be

00:01:58.500 seated let's go ahead and dive in three main points in the text today that by god's grace i hope to

00:02:04.600 convey to you number one is this the compromised hate christian progress the compromised hate

00:02:12.880 christian progress certainly our enemies those who are completely against the the christian church

00:02:20.120 and against the triune God,

00:02:22.660 they don't want to see Christians progress. 0.93

00:02:25.340 But those who have one foot in the door 0.99

00:02:27.660 and one foot out,

00:02:28.760 those who are not just wholeheartedly

00:02:32.280 avert enemies of the church,

00:02:34.640 but those who would kind of,

00:02:37.320 they would claim to have some measure

00:02:40.560 of Christian faith themselves.

00:02:42.100 Perhaps they're professing Christians. 0.99

00:02:45.600 They would wear the title, 0.60

00:02:46.840 claim to be a Christian.

00:02:47.920 Perhaps they even go to a church

00:02:50.080 you know maybe it's a nominal church maybe it's even a false church that teaches heresy

00:02:55.140 but one way or the other in in name at least in terms of how they present themselves

00:03:00.860 they claim to be one of us they claim to be among the lord's people they claim to be christians

00:03:06.720 those who are compromised not just on the outside overtly against the christian church but those who

00:03:14.300 are on the borders with one foot in and one foot out those who claim to be christians but they are

00:03:19.760 compromised christians always have possessed a unique hatred towards christian progress the

00:03:28.020 second point is that the wicked are swift to do evil those who truly hate the church those who

00:03:36.500 are compromised and and have this hatred against any progress that's made in the name of christ

00:03:43.220 any true progress that would be labeled and measured as such according to right ultimate

00:03:50.480 objective standards, that is the law of God, the word of God, any true progress according to what

00:03:56.800 God's word would call progress will be hated by those who are compromised. And those who are

00:04:02.740 compromised, not only will they hate true Christian progress, but they will be swift,

00:04:08.180 Swift to impede it. Swift to do evil. And then lastly, the complacent. So a different group 0.64

00:04:16.500 of individuals. It's not just the compromisers who have one foot in and one foot out of the

00:04:21.540 Christian church, but they're also the complacent who very often are well within the borders of the

00:04:28.800 Christian church. They don't have one foot in and one foot out, but they have both feet in.

00:04:33.540 They are members in good standing in local Bible-preaching, gospel-believing churches.

00:04:39.720 They're not like the compromisers.

00:04:42.060 They're not Christians in name only.

00:04:45.100 They really are Christians.

00:04:47.520 And in many regards, they have fruit to speak of and character in their lives and commitment to the church.

00:04:53.960 But for whatever reason, in a particular area, they're complacent.

00:04:59.480 They're apathetic.

00:05:00.580 it's not necessarily that they wish harm to the church it's not necessarily they hate christian

00:05:06.080 progress but they just don't want to be the ones to bring it about it's too hard it's too much work

00:05:12.660 or perhaps there's too much risk involved too much persecution that might be incurred if they

00:05:18.640 actually put themselves you know behind a certain effort actually taking a public stand moving

00:05:27.760 towards a particular direction. They know that this would paint a target on their chest, that it

00:05:32.920 would bring upon them and their family a certain increased measure of spiritual warfare. And even

00:05:39.660 in the practical and the physical realm, that there might be certain sanctions or certain penalties,

00:05:46.360 legal or financial or relational. Some of their extended family members who are not Christians

00:05:51.840 would forsake them or turn away from them.

00:05:54.620 There's a cost to be paid.

00:05:56.380 So it's this fear of the risk of cost,

00:05:58.980 or it also could just be

00:06:00.420 just the sheer, simple idolatry of comfort.

00:06:04.080 I just, life is easy.

00:06:06.120 It's not that I'll risk a whole lot.

00:06:07.760 I won't lose money and I won't lose this,

00:06:10.260 but the thing that I'll lose is time in the day.

00:06:13.440 I'll lose convenience.

00:06:14.760 I'll lose sleep time.

00:06:16.340 I'll lose free time.

00:06:17.560 I'll lose just a life of ease.

00:06:20.280 So it could be either a fear of risk, a fear of loss, or it could be just idolatry of comfort and convenience and pleasure.

00:06:28.600 But there are some that, again, these are not on the borders of the Christian church, one foot in and one foot out.

00:06:34.760 These are not the compromisers.

00:06:36.580 These are people with both feet in, oftentimes members in good standing in good biblical churches who are not the compromisers, but they are the complacent.

00:06:47.440 So the compromisers who hate Christian progress and are swift to stop it whenever they can,

00:06:54.140 and the complacent who won't pull the trigger necessarily, they won't be the guy who writes

00:07:00.220 the letter or goes and gets King Artaxerxes to write a letter that says, stop rebuilding the

00:07:05.480 temple. Stop rebuilding a Christian city, Jerusalem. Stop seeking to make the nation 0.92

00:07:11.400 Christians. Stop this. Stop. They won't. They won't be leading the cause towards impeding and 1.00

00:07:18.160 stopping Christian progress. But when the compromisers stop it, the complacent, although

00:07:24.280 they didn't make it stop, they're secretly glad it stopped. They're glad when Christian progress

00:07:30.900 stops. Why? Because it means less work. It means that life is easier. This would be like the 1.00

00:07:40.380 difference between a David French, right? Or a Francis Collins, guys who are Christian in name

00:07:49.360 only. They claim to be Christian, but who three years ago, you know, with COVID and those kinds

00:07:54.680 of things were adamantly working to persuade churches and pastors and Christians to shut down

00:08:03.460 the church or to open the church, but not for worship on the Lord's day, but every other day

00:08:09.260 in the week so that they can give vaccines and use the church as a medical building to put a

00:08:15.880 foreign substance in people's arms that has a sample pattern of millions of people. Millions 0.59

00:08:21.800 of people who have had it for 15 minutes, no long-term data, and for perfectly healthy people

00:08:27.840 who are 25 years old, who are now dropping dead. But that's always happened, right? People, you know,

00:08:33.420 25-year-old athletes have always on national television just killed over debt, right? That's

00:08:37.700 always been a thing. That's not novel. That's not new. Of course not, right? Why believe your lying

00:08:42.700 eyes when you could believe CNN? So my point is, there were guys who were compromisers. David

00:08:51.520 French, Francis Collins, those kind of guys. But the reality is, and a lot of people don't want to

00:08:55.720 admit this, but there was another group, not just the compromisers, but the complacent.

00:09:00.760 The complacent would be the guys who, they didn't make it happen. They weren't, you know, trying to

00:09:05.860 push a certain bill against churches or actually work towards, you know, legislation that would shut

00:09:12.120 churches down or would mandate a vaccine for perfectly healthy people or the children of

00:09:18.400 healthy people, you know, or this or that, the other. But when these rulings, these pseudo de

00:09:26.200 facto rulings rolled down the line, the complacent, not the compromises, but the complacent

00:09:33.140 were all too quick to abide by them and at some level were relieved maybe not happy maybe not

00:09:44.260 joyous but a sense of this and maybe they couldn't even word it you know they couldn't even articulate

00:09:50.300 what was going on and their motives and their heart but you know uncle sam said churches should

00:09:56.500 stop meeting and some pastors they didn't say well i i i didn't advocate for that decision i

00:10:04.220 don't want that necessarily or this that or the other and i would maybe never even verbally say

00:10:09.660 this but it's kind of nice i don't have to you know i have less work like christian ministry is

00:10:17.500 hard pastoral ministry is hard uh maybe you know maybe i just get to you know do remote recorded

00:10:25.500 sermons for the next however many months or and you know and and nobody will you know i don't have

00:10:32.340 to do a whole lot of pastoral counseling because everybody will be afraid to be you know within a

00:10:36.220 physical proximity of me or this or that or the other like like my job just got easier

00:10:40.300 that's the complacent right so the difference between the compromiser and the complacent

00:10:46.020 think you know russell moore david french francis collins that's your compromiser claims to be a

00:10:51.400 Christian? Absolutely not. Hates the church, hates Christian progress, hates Christ. Those men hate

00:10:58.340 Christ. And then there's the complacent, who is a pastor or a member of a church. It may not,

00:11:05.780 doesn't have to be a pastor, who loves Christ, really does, is regenerate, is born again. We're

00:11:10.240 going to see them in heaven. But they were sinfully relieved. It is a sin. They're Christians, but

00:11:17.320 Christian sin. And their sin is they were sinfully relieved in a situation like COVID. They were 0.87

00:11:22.860 relieved to shut the church doors. They were relieved for the building project of Jerusalem 0.99

00:11:28.780 and the temple to be paused. It went on pause and they're supposed to say, we love this. We're all

00:11:34.800 about rebuilding Jerusalem and rebuilding the temple. And they would never verbalize it, but

00:11:39.100 secretly, silently, when they get the letter from Artaxerxes that says, stop the Christian progress, 0.71

00:11:46.280 stop building the christian city stop building the christian church the temple of the lord

00:11:52.000 they would never say it out loud but secretly

00:11:54.800 that's nice because it's been a lot of hard work nice to get a break and it's nice that i have a

00:12:04.340 break and i don't have to explain to any of my you know any of my congress i don't have to say

00:12:09.960 uh we're stopping because it's hard because that's not a good look you know in this case

00:12:17.520 is that no we're stopping like we would we would never want to stop i'm really bummed and

00:12:21.840 disappointed this is that we don't want to stop but we we have to you know romans 13 you know we

00:12:28.140 have to so it's obviously covid is not the only case study or example but it just by golly i did

00:12:35.400 it last week. I'm doing it again, but it really does fit. So compromisers and complacent. Compromisers

00:12:41.020 think, hate Christian progress, want to put a stop to it. The complacent, they're in the church,

00:12:47.120 both feet in. They are Christians. They are faithful in many regards, but at least in some 0.91

00:12:53.180 regard, they're not trying to stop Christian progress, but they are secretly relieved when

00:12:59.300 stopped. And when they get a letter from Artaxerxes, whatever it is, when the civil government

00:13:06.380 is weaponized by the compromisers to impede Christian progress, the complacent are the ones

00:13:14.540 who will be relieved with this pause, this stopping of Christian progress, and they won't put up a

00:13:20.660 fight. They'll get the letter, says, you got to stop building the temple. And they'll immediately 0.89

00:13:25.200 say okay okay instead of pushing back and say well wait a second who said that who said we have to

00:13:35.720 stop our exerxes oh because he did his research our exerxes in the text he he called for an

00:13:43.540 investigation he doesn't want misinformation so he went and looked at you know the annals of history

00:13:49.060 and found that jerusalem was this city of sedition and a city that had other provinces paying tribute

00:13:54.980 it was a rebellious city against kings and this and that okay uh-huh um well well why don't we do

00:14:00.920 a little bit more research why don't we look because what you'll find if you look into other

00:14:06.460 other other accounts of the history of Israel and Jerusalem is that you'll find well the reason why

00:14:13.220 Jerusalem was was in opposition to some of these other kingdoms is because they were out of line

00:14:19.160 those kings were tyrants and they were doing this and they were doing that Cyrus also has

00:14:23.980 artaxerxes has he checked in with cyrus has he looked at his edict and his law and this and that

00:14:29.580 um like my point is there could have been pushback there could have been pushback but the

00:14:35.060 complacent don't push back because the complacent although they don't they don't cause the impeding

00:14:40.980 of christian progress they are they like it they secretly like the impeding of christian progress

00:14:47.180 they don't cause it but they accept it they willingly will receive it i think of again

00:14:53.300 back to the covid thing there were pastors who were like well this is this is what the government

00:14:57.540 said you know i'm not an epidemiologist well great you're not an epidemiologist and turns out

00:15:04.360 neither were all the doctors at least not good ones you know if you had a high school degree

00:15:10.120 iq of 90 maybe even 85 a little bit of common sense an open bible and a spine

00:15:19.760 you could have made

00:15:22.040 significantly better decisions

00:15:23.680 than Dr. Fauci

00:15:26.480 so

00:15:27.660 the point is

00:15:31.000 it's like well I don't know

00:15:33.220 and we got this edict from the king

00:15:34.840 churches have to close

00:15:36.520 and this that and the other

00:15:37.360 okay how do you know if you're complacent

00:15:40.600 or if you're not

00:15:42.280 well the complacent are secretly relieved

00:15:45.280 they never say it but they weren't

00:15:47.120 hey great we get a vacation

00:15:48.620 we don't have to do church church is a lot of work christian progress is hard we get to take

00:15:52.260 a break those who were not complacent what they did was they pushed right back and said well wait

00:15:57.840 a second who who made this ruling do you have the authority to make this ruling what does the

00:16:04.360 constitution say more importantly what does the bible say the highest law of the land which is

00:16:10.460 the word of god um no no we're not we're not going to they pushed back uh john macarthur i think he

00:16:18.060 was late i'm going to say that a lot of people you know that you know like john macarthur and

00:16:23.080 i'm grateful for john macarthur god bless him he was late no i'm just not gonna i because i i'm

00:16:30.260 sorry this is the problem you you're stuck with me as a pastor one of my my great weaknesses

00:16:36.060 is that i am by the grace of god i have a remarkable invulnerability to being gaslit

00:16:46.240 so when everybody wants you to just forget the thing that happened like literally like four days

00:16:52.800 ago you know that was right there and you have the letter and you have it recorded on your laptop

00:16:58.680 you still have it in your email you know those guys and they just that never happened um i just

00:17:04.880 i don't i don't play well with that um i like this never happened so i just i can't forget

00:17:10.560 that all my pastoral friends were citing John MacArthur

00:17:14.760 as the reason for why I was in rebellion

00:17:17.080 for wanting to open my church.

00:17:19.840 Now, praise God, two weeks later,

00:17:21.860 he went from the Ninth Circuit Court

00:17:24.160 as the highest law in the land where he is in California,

00:17:27.180 and we must obey it,

00:17:28.480 two weeks later to Christ, not Caesar, as head of the church.

00:17:31.440 So I am glad that he pivoted, but he did pivot.

00:17:35.760 And I'm just not gonna be gaslit

00:17:37.220 and pretend that didn't happen, that happened.

00:17:39.240 So that's okay, though.

00:17:40.260 we make mistakes and we correct them and praise God with men who will correct them. Now, ideally,

00:17:45.600 I would like verbally the admission of I was wrong. And you might, because you're not stupid, 0.99

00:17:51.540 you might notice that what I'm saying now is in 180 degrees, direct opposition to what I said 0.97

00:17:56.680 to literally two weeks ago. Yeah. I mean, I would prefer that to just, you know, pretending like

00:18:02.360 this has always been our position. I've never said otherwise. And anybody who has a memory,

00:18:07.060 They can go back 14 days. You're you're insane and crazy. You know, I have certain preferences. 1.00

00:18:12.700 So, again, I'm not a big fan of gaslighting. But all that being as it may, there's a disclaimer

00:18:18.000 there. All that being as it may. My point is grateful in general, grateful for MacArthur,

00:18:22.880 his pushback. Here's the deal. The complacent. We got a letter. Our exerces. He says, stop.

00:18:28.640 And we're secretly glad the guy who's not complacent. He takes the letter and he pushes

00:18:34.540 back. And eventually what happened with John MacArthur on the issue of COVID with Governor

00:18:39.560 Nusolemi in California and these things like what happened was eventually MacArthur won

00:18:47.600 and not just in the eyes of God, according to the scripture, which is always the highest law

00:18:54.460 of the land, regardless of where you live and when you live, but even in the human courts,

00:18:59.820 macarthur won a lawsuit which means everybody who was saying at the time when you know you got good

00:19:05.720 macarthur bad macarthur it depends which day of the week but but when he came out and we had good

00:19:09.460 macarthur all of a sudden christ not caesar's head of the church i was like yeah that's that's our

00:19:13.400 macarthur there he is and we knew he'd get in there eventually we got him and so like once we

00:19:17.760 got good macarthur and he pushed back and he leveraged the legal channels to push back in the

00:19:24.240 courts against governor newsom and one he would be the question right to all the compromisers who

00:19:30.140 said you're not obeying romans 13 you you are you're being rebellious you're being like jerusalem

00:19:36.680 this rebellious city that uh that is uh harm to kings and and kingdoms and you know vigilante and

00:19:43.720 blah blah blah you know all this stuff um well that that was the rhetoric rhetoric towards guys

00:19:48.660 like john macarthur uh is you're not submitting to the civil magistrate you are not obeying the

00:19:53.720 Bible. You're not obeying Romans 13. It says you need to submit to Caesar. Well, here's the thing.

00:19:59.360 When John MacArthur pushed back, and then eventually the final decision in the courts was John MacArthur

00:20:04.820 was right, and the state of California gets sued, right? Not Grace Community Church, but the state

00:20:11.040 of California. Where are those guys to come back and say, oh, you know what? Romans 13, even with

00:20:19.680 that narrow interpretation of it, you have to do what the civil magistrate says no matter what,

00:20:24.120 even within that narrow interpretation of Romans 13, John MacArthur, the final verdict is that he's

00:20:29.460 right. So he was the guy who was actually doing Romans 13 and everybody else was doing it wrong.

00:20:35.240 And how do we know? Not only because in the court of heaven, because of God's eternal word,

00:20:39.860 you don't shut down the church, but also even in the human courts, they still also determined in

00:20:46.840 line with the scripture that the pastor was right and the politician was wrong. But nobody came

00:20:53.960 back and said, so my point is this, if you're not complacent, you go through certain avenues. And

00:21:00.020 what we see in our text today, hone in your attention real quick on verse 23, says, then when

00:21:05.420 the copy of King Artaxerxes' letter was read before Rahim and Shemshai, the scribe and their

00:21:12.820 associates they went in haste to the jews at jerusalem so these are the bad guys the compromisers

00:21:18.640 but now they're going to the jews in jerusalem and by force and power made them cease now verse 24

00:21:24.180 then the work on the house of god that is in jerusalem stopped and it ceased until the second

00:21:30.140 year of the reign of darius king of persia the samaritans they come they're the compromisers

00:21:36.620 they come with this letter that they're the ones who induce this letter they wrote to artaxerxes 0.93

00:21:41.300 in the first place and try to get this political order to stop the Christian progress, stop the

00:21:47.080 building project of the temple in Jerusalem. And so they finally get that. They get that letter 0.82

00:21:51.100 from Artaxerxes. Immediately, the Samaritans, the compromisers, then go to the Jews who are 1.00

00:21:56.540 complacent and say, stop. And the Jews' response is, okay. And that's the end. Until the second 0.99

00:22:06.540 year of King Darius of the Persians. That last little line there, verse 24, that's the indictment,

00:22:14.460 right? In terms of the Samaritans, it's real clear their moral failure. It's real clear 0.99

00:22:19.760 their sin. They're compromised. They hate the church. They hate the Jews. They hate Jerusalem.

00:22:27.420 They hate the temple. They don't want to see any of it rebuilt. They don't want to see any progress.

00:22:31.580 They don't want to see the people of God prosper. They don't want to see Yahweh worshipped rightly

00:22:36.920 in this land. They don't want to see any Christian progress. They're easy. They're easy to detect, 1.00

00:22:44.160 identify the moral failures, the sin, right? The compromisers, the Samaritans there. But the Jews, 1.00

00:22:52.240 it's harder. But the Jews, we might be tempted to say, well, yeah, it wasn't their fault. You know, 0.92

00:22:59.880 these compromises, they went, they got the king in their back pocket, got him with misinformation,

00:23:05.840 giving him only a piece of the puzzle and not these other edicts and this other history

00:23:09.540 of Israel to write a specific letter to stop the progress. And then the Jews had no choice 0.89

00:23:14.060 because once the king said stop, then they had to stop. And the implicit part of the text, 0.86

00:23:21.220 it's not explicit, it's not black and white in writing, but I think what we're meant to assume,

00:23:26.360 this is Matthew, Henry, and other guys, their interpretation of the text is that although it's

00:23:31.200 not explicitly said, implicitly, we should see that as a failure. Verse 24 is not saying, and

00:23:38.240 this is what happened because there was nothing they could do about it. The king said stop, and so

00:23:43.120 the Jews had to stop. No, implicitly, I think what's there is the king said stop, and the Jews 1.00

00:23:49.480 did stop, and that was a mistake. That was a mistake. Why did they stop? They didn't have to

00:23:57.560 stop. Sometimes the king gives an order, and the proper Christian response is pound Sam. King, 0.98

00:24:05.480 you're wrong. I'm sorry. Who do you think you are? No, we're not going to stop the work. God has told

00:24:13.560 us to do something and in his sovereignty through the last king he said that we could do this

00:24:19.860 you're operating under a narrow truncated piece of the puzzle you don't have the whole story

00:24:26.860 you think you know but you don't you've been lied to by guys who are bought and paid for 0.99

00:24:32.960 they're on the king's payroll they eat from the king's table these samaritans the compromise 1.00

00:24:39.740 and they're twisting things in order to get you to tell us to stop because they don't want to see 1.00

00:24:47.600 God's kingdom advance. Because every time true Christians work towards true progress with a 0.95

00:24:55.940 Christian faith, it makes the compromisers, it makes it that much more apparent and obvious by

00:25:01.980 way of contrast and comparison that the compromisers are sold out. Compromisers don't

00:25:09.740 like when others succeed, right? So if you're at work and you've got a fellow employee who is,

00:25:17.080 just does bad work, they're always cutting corners, they're always, you know, lying about

00:25:21.920 certain things, they're cheating with this and cheating with that. If you want that guy to be

00:25:28.000 against you, that compromised employee, you want him to be against you, you know what you do?

00:25:33.220 You do good work. He'll hate you for it. Because your hard work and good work and honest work

00:25:41.800 with honest means is a glaring indictment of him. Because his compromise becomes all the more

00:25:50.760 visible on the backdrop of those who are not compromised. So if you're wondering, what's the

00:25:57.220 incentive here? What's the motive? Why do the compromise, why do they care so much? Why are

00:26:02.560 they so adamantly, I mean, trying to get the king to come up with an edict and to do this and do

00:26:06.920 why are those who are compromised? I get it. You're compromised because you want an easy life.

00:26:12.960 You want to eat from the king's salt and his table and be on the payroll and have this and

00:26:16.440 have that. That's fine. Whatever. You're lazy. You're this, you're that, and the other. I get

00:26:20.480 that. I get why you've made this decision for yourself, but why are you adamantly opposed to

00:26:25.580 those who are not compromised. That's why I'm confused. I don't understand what's the driving

00:26:29.640 force. I see why you would choose compromise your easy life, but why would you be at enmity and

00:26:37.140 actively oppose my choice to not compromise? And the answer is because your choice to not

00:26:44.100 compromise makes their choice to compromise apparent. It makes it visible because before

00:26:52.540 they got to have their cake and eat it too. They got to compromise. And with that comes an easy

00:26:57.800 life. And in terms of the narrative, they got to say, I'm not compromised. I'm a faithful Christian.

00:27:06.360 Right? Francis Collins wants his cake and eat it too. He wants to compromise, eat from the king's

00:27:11.700 table, and be heralded as a good, moral, upstanding Christian. And those who don't compromise say,

00:27:19.860 you can't have both. You can have your compromise. And in this life, temporarily, you can have the

00:27:24.800 comfort and the benefits and temporal advantages that come with that compromise. But there's one

00:27:31.240 thing you can't, you can't have both. You can have compromise and an easy life, but you can't have

00:27:36.040 the label, the narrative that says, I have compromised, I have an easy life, and I'm a

00:27:43.340 great Christian. Now that part, we won't let you have. We just won't. So you get to eat from the

00:27:49.020 king's table. You get the easy life. You've sold out your brothers and sisters in Christ. At least

00:27:53.440 you claim to be a Christian. So you're claiming your brother. You've turned on churches. You've 0.91

00:27:58.220 turned on this, turned on that. And you can have all that. You can sell out the faithful. You can

00:28:03.920 turn against the church, work towards husbands losing their jobs, closing schools, closing

00:28:08.960 churches, all these different things. The one thing we won't let you have those. You don't get

00:28:14.940 to do that and call yourself a faithful christian that's why the compromised hate those who are not

00:28:24.880 compromised because those who are not compromised their life their example is a a resounding

00:28:34.780 indictment and accusation against because if everyone compromised then a lot of times if

00:28:41.140 everyone compromises, you can't see it. If it's compromised across the table, across the board,

00:28:49.000 if everyone is compromised, then it does really begin to look like this is the Christian life. 0.74

00:28:54.200 Nobody's really doing anything wrong. It's only when somebody comes and does what's right

00:29:00.980 that all of a sudden all of your sin becomes so obvious. One of the things that becomes obvious

00:29:07.740 is not only the sin itself, but the very real fact that you didn't have to do it. You didn't

00:29:13.080 have to sin, right? Another example, okay? So you got Francis Collins. He's a bad example of COVID.

00:29:19.100 Here's another example. I think it's a helpful one. You might want to hold on to it. Jesus.

00:29:26.820 You know, Jesus, you know, people like, well, Jesus said, love your neighbor. Jesus was loving.

00:29:31.900 Jesus was loving. That's true. But somebody didn't like him, right? It's not like Jesus

00:29:39.780 died of old age in a nursing home or, you know, surrounded by all of his adoring followers.

00:29:49.280 Like Jesus was crucified. You don't crucify nice guys. You crucify public enemies,

00:29:58.220 whether they are in the objective sense really a public enemy or not they still by the public

00:30:05.860 have to be labeled as such in order to merit crucifixion you crucify threats

00:30:13.700 and that's how jesus was viewed by the jews isaiah says he came to his own but they received him not

00:30:21.240 The Jews viewed Jesus as a radical who was upsetting the delicate balance that the Jewish

00:30:28.780 people had underneath as a province underneath the overarching empire of Rome. That yeah, sure, 0.96

00:30:36.800 they didn't have some of the freedoms and the benefits that they had under David and Solomon

00:30:41.700 and Israel's heyday when they were autonomous and independent in their own kingdom. So they're not

00:30:48.000 their own kingdom. But under the overarching empire of Rome, Israel was still afforded by Rome

00:30:57.060 a lot of benefits and a lot of privileges. Were they overtaxed? But they still got to have their

00:31:03.320 temple. They still got to have a lot of their laws. They still got to have their feasts and

00:31:10.420 rituals and all these different things in their own court. Now their court had to be checked

00:31:15.660 ultimately by the roman courts right but they still at least got to have the sanhedrin which

00:31:21.520 were not just religious rulers the sanhedrin was the equivalent of the supreme court it was like

00:31:25.760 religion plus the judicial system so they were afforded a lot of these things and they knew that

00:31:31.200 if you know if some zealot if some radical came on the scene claiming not just to be a religious

00:31:37.740 teacher or a priest but claiming to be a political king saying that he had a kingdom well kings

00:31:45.520 are threats to kings. Rome was not threatened by the religion of the Jews, but Rome was threatened 0.99

00:31:53.860 by the political promises of Christ. Christ said, I have a kingdom that is not of this world. 0.76

00:32:02.560 But Pilate understood better than most evangelical Christians today. He knew that when Jesus says

00:32:07.140 it's not of this world, Jesus did not mean that his kingdom was not in this world. Of course,

00:32:12.940 his kingdoms in this world. When Jesus says his kingdom is not of this world, all he means

00:32:17.660 is that the source and the power and the operating methods of his kingdom are otherworldly. Jesus

00:32:24.120 derives his power, his authority for his kingdom and the expanse of his kingdom, not from worldly

00:32:31.000 powers, but from heavenly powers. But this heavenly kingdom is present and advancing in the earth.

00:32:39.500 so his kingdom is not of the world but it is in fact in the world and because jesus claimed to be

00:32:46.160 a king not not just a priest or a teacher but because he claimed to be a king remember what

00:32:53.880 is written on the cross here is a religious teacher who preached some sermons about ethereal

00:33:01.060 doctrines that only apply in the spiritual realm, but we didn't like. No. Nobody cares about that.

00:33:11.780 Nobody cares that you're a complementarian in theory. Nobody cares.

00:33:19.120 Nobody cares that you support Christians in government. 0.82

00:33:22.840 right nobody cares that you're conservative when it comes to theology what people care about

00:33:33.600 is the world you know who cares about the world progressives socialists communists aka democrats

00:33:42.160 they care about the world they don't care about your advancements in your spiritual realm of the

00:33:48.280 17th dimension they don't care they care about the world but you know who else cares about the

00:33:52.080 world? God. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever should believe in him

00:34:00.160 shall not perish, but have eternal life. And it's not just for individual Christians when it comes

00:34:06.720 to salvation. When the Bible says that God cares about the world, it's talking about God's love for

00:34:11.660 humanity. But there is also a sense from other scriptures, not just John 3 16, this cosmic sense

00:34:17.760 of the word world being used in the scripture, that God cares about the cosmos. So not just God

00:34:23.980 cares about humanity, a universal sense of love for humanity, his image-bearing creatures.

00:34:29.620 Certainly that's true. It's not less than that, but it's more than that. God also cares for

00:34:35.200 the cosmos, the whole created order. The Psalms say that the Lord has compassion on all he has

00:34:43.320 made. Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount that God cares. He takes notice even when one sparrow

00:34:49.940 falls to the ground. Now, does God love sparrows more than he loves people? No. Does he love them

00:34:55.400 equally to loving people? No. But does God love sparrows at all? Yes. Does God have care for the

00:35:04.000 natural order, for this physical world? Or does God only care like Plato with the true forms that

00:35:11.540 exist somewhere in a higher plane and everything else down here really at the end of the day means

00:35:16.660 nothing. That's not Christianity. That's not Christianity. That is Gnosticism that has been 0.94

00:35:26.180 condemned for 2,000 years as heresy, as an enemy of Christian faith. Christian faith cares about 0.97

00:35:34.480 the natural order. Did you know that your eternal existence with God in heaven will not merely or

00:35:43.760 exclusively be a spiritual existence? You will go to be with the Lord. To be absent in the body is

00:35:51.740 to be present with the Lord. The moment that you breathe your last breath, you will be with God

00:35:56.400 in eternity in your soul. Your body will be buried somewhere here on earth. But that's not the end of

00:36:03.900 the story. You will be with God in spirit while your body is dead and buried. But that is temporary.

00:36:14.160 Eventually, Christ will return. And he will return to judge both the living and the dead.

00:36:24.660 And the bodily resurrection, Christ was raised as a first fruits, a guarantee promising that we too

00:36:31.260 would be raised in Christ and when he finally returns at the final culmination of human history

00:36:36.860 one thing that will take place is the resurrection of our physical bodies the damned they will be 0.61

00:36:43.840 raised as well their bodies will be raised and their body will be custom fit to be tormented 0.84

00:36:50.920 not just metaphorically not just spiritually but physically tormented with their physical 0.75

00:36:56.960 body in hell forever. And for the righteous, we will be raised, resurrected, glorified bodies

00:37:05.680 to never experience pain or sickness or disease ever again, to have fullness of joy and bliss

00:37:12.140 with God in perfect communion with him forever. Both are true. For the damned, physical resurrection

00:37:19.560 and their final eternal existence will be a physical existence in a physical place with

00:37:25.640 physical torment and pain. And for the righteous, physical existence with physical bodies, bodies

00:37:32.240 made new, but they will be still these bodies. It's not just that we're floating on clouds

00:37:38.660 like Casper the ghost. That's not Christian doctrine. That is an enemy of the Christian 0.97

00:37:45.800 faith. And if you want to upset people today, whether it be the liberals, you know, the 0.99

00:37:52.200 progressives, or sadly, and this is sad, whether it be people who are Christians and claim even to be

00:37:59.920 conservative Christians. All you have to do, this is the formula. You're like, man, everybody lost

00:38:05.460 their mind about this, and then everybody lost their mind about that, and then everybody lost

00:38:10.140 their mind. There's one common denominator, right? You want to know why people get upset when,

00:38:14.060 you know, all of a sudden you've got, you know, pastors saying, hey, maybe men should work out,

00:38:17.680 or pastors, you know, are saying,

00:38:19.920 hey, you know, I think it's good 1.00

00:38:20.920 when women are feminine and domestic 0.99

00:38:22.400 and maybe they wear more dresses 1.00

00:38:23.840 and less pantsuits, you know,

00:38:25.400 and maybe they spend a little bit more time at home,

00:38:27.720 you know, and not out of the home, right?

00:38:29.420 So we're upset about this thing.

00:38:31.200 Men working out, we're upset about that. 1.00

00:38:33.080 Women, you know, guys are saying sourdough 1.00

00:38:34.780 might be a good idea. 1.00

00:38:35.680 We're upset about that. 1.00

00:38:36.860 A man should own a gun. 1.00

00:38:37.960 We're upset about that. 1.00

00:38:39.400 Nations should have physical borders

00:38:41.120 and they have a right to protect their citizens.

00:38:43.460 We're upset about that.

00:38:44.260 You know what all these things have in common?

00:38:45.820 there's one clear common denominator, nature, the natural order. You can be conservative and

00:38:54.940 really, relatively speaking, sure, you'll get some pushback, some controversy, but relatively

00:38:59.740 speaking, you will upset no one. Not really. So long as you hold your deeply, you know,

00:39:06.380 conservative theological values, but you never, ever provide a practical example.

00:39:13.280 just don't provide an example husband is the head of his wife okay great pastor but i my wife and i

00:39:19.780 are trying to live that out in our marriage and we're wondering um practically on a day-to-day

00:39:23.780 basis the headship of a husband with authority over his wife what does that look like we don't

00:39:28.680 go there we don't talk about that but i you won't get in trouble for saying the husband is that

00:39:37.860 because here's the thing. Nobody cares as long as you promise that it's not real.

00:39:45.940 Just promise it's not real. Male head show, in theory, great, right? That's great. We like to 0.61

00:39:55.100 pretend too, right? Everybody enjoys Halloween, dress up like Peter Pan, you know, the complimentarians,

00:40:00.400 you know, are prancing around pretending, you know, male head show. That's great. Nobody's bothered by

00:40:04.740 that peter pan on halloween complementarians it's the same picture right corporate needs you to

00:40:10.800 identify the different same picture but say that the husband might actually have authority in

00:40:18.340 practical tangible ways even over what his wife reads

00:40:23.440 right and if you're wanting to build a ministry and get 750 000 views that'll do it

00:40:30.520 I'm speaking from personal experience here.

00:40:34.420 That'll do it.

00:40:40.120 Nature. 1.00

00:40:42.700 And whenever you have Christians caring about nature, 0.93

00:40:47.240 well, that's when the opposition comes 0.97

00:40:49.240 because kings, going back to Jesus,

00:40:52.540 kings care about the world.

00:40:56.760 The political civil magistrate,

00:40:59.440 he cares about the world he's not super concerned about the 17th dimension in fact

00:41:06.420 he's fine he actually likes and not only is it permissible he likes meta he's rooting for

00:41:14.080 zuckerberg he's rooting for apple he wants you to be uh using all your ambition young men listen to

00:41:22.960 me the the civil magistrate the politicians of our world they want you to expend your resources your

00:41:29.040 energy your time your ambition in claiming land in a virtual world that's not real

00:41:35.820 they love that that's great but if you start buying up acres in the real world

00:41:45.480 and you won't send your kids to the state school

00:41:49.260 and you're becoming financially independent

00:41:53.700 and you're not reliant on the king's coin and when the king artaxerxes writes a letter

00:42:01.860 and the compromisers come to you and say king says to stop and you say the king

00:42:07.700 can pound sand now the king is mad and that's why jesus was crucified 0.51

00:42:17.420 the Jews were underneath Roman rule but still underneath Roman rule Rome was being at least

00:42:25.460 somewhat kind they still had a long leash a certain measure of allowances they were still

00:42:35.200 allowed to for the most part practice the Jewish religion and have their courts and have their

00:42:40.500 rulers and have but Jesus when Jesus came although he was not actually planning a political

00:42:46.900 uprising against rome he did though however claim to be a king and what was written all the way back

00:42:52.700 to the point i was making 10 minutes ago what was written on the cross was not here is a guy who

00:42:57.800 holds theoretical doctrines that we find to be controversial in our age today no in three

00:43:04.860 different languages it was written jesus king of the jews not not not messiah not teacher

00:43:14.800 not pastor king and the reason it was written in three different languages was to speak

00:43:22.120 prophetically i don't think pilot meant this but prophetically god who's sovereign over all things

00:43:27.900 he ensured that this would happen is that the reason why jesus king of the jews is written

00:43:31.920 in three different languages is because his kingship is universal it wasn't just over the 0.81

00:43:37.960 Jews. And it wasn't just over Rome, but over all the earth. So that every tribe and tongue and

00:43:45.880 nation would one day know of the increase of his government, there shall be no end.

00:43:53.460 That his kingdom is not of this world, but it is in this world. And it has been expanding and

00:44:00.000 growing like a little mustard seed growing into a tree or like a little leaven working through

00:44:04.500 a whole batch of dough for 2,000 years. And Pilate got that. Herod understood that when Jesus was

00:44:12.980 born. Herod instinctively understood a king has been born. He is a threat. He's in opposition.

00:44:22.420 So Herod tried to kill Jesus before he ever grew up. Herod killed all the baby boys in Bethlehem. 0.70

00:44:29.620 Why? Because Herod was concerned that Jesus might one day, you know, on social media, teach,

00:44:37.840 you know, ethereal, theoretical, conservative doctrines. No. He was worried that Jesus would

00:44:45.580 be a real king in the real world and take power. That was the concern. That's always the concern.

00:44:54.040 And when Christian faith, when Christian faith or the application of our Christian faith 0.88

00:45:00.740 begins to become physical and tangible, visible, practical, that's when there'll be a problem. 0.82

00:45:11.320 Husband is head of his wife. And that means something on a day-to-day basis. And here's

00:45:18.180 a few ideas. It doesn't exclusively mean one thing, but it does mean this and that and this

00:45:24.960 and that and a myriad of applications. But all these applications, one thing they have in common

00:45:30.680 is they are practical applications. The husband's authority is not a theoretical authority.

00:45:37.940 It is a real authority. And the same way you Christian women, you know, card-carrying 1.00

00:45:43.980 complimentarians that are truly at the end of the day feminist and you know it. You know it. 1.00

00:45:49.640 In the same way that you're not bothered when your employer has a dress code, you're fine with a man

00:45:54.620 telling you what to do. Any man except for your husband. Your male employer can tell you what to

00:45:59.800 wear. He can tell you what time to show up, where to sit, what to do. The male civil magistrate

00:46:07.820 within the government, not just within markets and economy, but within the government, he can

00:46:13.020 tell you what to do? If he says, wear a dirty diaper on your face, you'll say, yes, sir. But

00:46:19.820 if your husband says, I don't think you should wear yoga pants in public, you're going to rage?

00:46:27.900 Well, you're perfectly fine with authority. You've just demonstrated that. You're perfectly

00:46:33.960 fine with authority and with authority giving practical commands. So it's not that you have

00:46:39.600 a problem with male headship or you have a you just you have a problem with one authority

00:46:44.260 your husband and here's the irony and it's a tragic irony it's the one man that that has

00:46:51.200 been explicitly commanded by God himself to have authority over you but also be willing to die for

00:46:58.140 you as Christ gave himself up and died for the church and to love you and provide for you and

00:47:04.040 protect you. There is one man that God has commanded that he should love you through

00:47:10.000 protection and provision at the cost of his very life. But that man, if he gives a command,

00:47:18.300 you hate it. But the other man who doesn't care, he won't even be at your funeral if you get hit

00:47:22.980 by a truck. He'll actually be gritting his teeth angry that he has to pay out some kind of severance

00:47:29.200 at work. That man gives a command. Yes, sir. You're not moaning about it. You're not complaining

00:47:37.540 about it. And that's fine. You disagree. But let's just be honest. Let's not say we're

00:47:45.760 complementarians. We're conservative. No, just say we're feminists and we hate male headship.

00:47:51.440 Just say it. Just say we hate Ephesians 5. We hate 1 Timothy 2 and 3. We hate Titus 2. 0.98

00:47:59.200 We are feminists, and we hate God's design for men and women.

00:48:04.600 Just admit it. That's all I want.

00:48:06.120 Like, hate it. I know you already do.

00:48:08.040 But just say you hate it.

00:48:10.380 Just be honest.

00:48:15.260 That's why compromisers hate the faithful.

00:48:19.460 Because the faithful will actually build towards Christian progress

00:48:24.140 in a natural, practical, physical, tangible, visible way.

00:48:30.600 They rebuild walls.

00:48:33.020 They rebuild temples.

00:48:35.380 They rebuild cities.

00:48:37.940 And kings are threatened

00:48:39.320 because it's a real political earthly power.

00:48:43.740 It is.

00:48:45.480 And the compromises will then go to those kings

00:48:48.080 like Artaxerxes and say,

00:48:49.360 make him stop.

00:48:50.860 make him stop rebuilding jerusalem make him stop rebuilding the city

00:48:57.160 stop rebuilding the walls stop rebuilding the temple

00:49:00.680 and all the while these compromises they'll try to make it stop while claiming

00:49:07.780 but we love the christian god we're christians

00:49:11.840 and you just you keep wondering and it took me years of my life to figure this out

00:49:17.940 keep wondering where's where's the difference where's the rub i don't understand

00:49:21.600 because you say you believe this i say i believe this but then but then i i do one thing over here

00:49:27.780 and boom all hell breaks loose and rages down and i and finally by god's grace he helped me

00:49:34.660 provided the wisdom i finally figured it out a few years ago the one difference is practical

00:49:42.020 practice versus theory. That's the difference. It's nature versus spiritual. It's the true

00:49:47.940 Christian faith versus pietism. It's, that's the difference. That's all it is, right? So just 0.99

00:49:54.020 Christians as a faithful presence and witness in the political, civil realm, that's fine. It's fine.

00:50:00.520 But if you're a Christian nationalist and think that the law of the land should be God's word,

00:50:05.380 then you're in trouble

00:50:09.140 male headship and the husband lays down his life for the wife and the wife should submit to her

00:50:15.700 husband and we're fine with that because we've never put a fine point on it we're fine with the 0.69

00:50:20.220 wife submitting to her husband because because really what does she have to submit to absolutely

00:50:26.040 nothing complementarianism what is it good for absolutely nothing that's i mean that is

00:50:33.600 complementarianism. She doesn't submit to anything. Well, what if her husband is concerned about her

00:50:41.160 dress? Uh-uh. He's a misogynist. What if he has something to say about what she's reading? Uh-uh.

00:50:46.600 Misogynist. What if this? What if this? You can go through a million examples. It'll be, nope,

00:50:50.460 nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Or at best, it'll be, oh, you and your husband disagree. So first,

00:50:54.800 you should fast and pray for six months. You know, and if you can, form a study committee

00:51:01.200 with certain members and make sure that there are both men and women on this committee within the

00:51:04.980 church. You need to have an elder or two or a part of it and go and seek counsel from a third party.

00:51:09.820 You know, so that the church now, the husbands, the elders of the church, what you really want

00:51:13.340 as you're trying to please the Lord is you want to get the pastors involved in helping you usurp

00:51:18.800 the authority of your husband because that really pleases Christ. Do you know how many men won't

00:51:25.020 come and get counsel from a pastor in their church because they know statistically it's a 99 0.71

00:51:31.780 percent chance regardless of the details regardless of the scenario he will always side with the woman 0.92

00:51:38.140 it's just a fact he will always side with the wife

00:51:43.300 and he knows that even the church is against him the courts are against him

00:51:53.260 Media is against him.

00:51:54.660 Entertainment is against him.

00:51:55.840 In the workforce, it's against him.

00:52:01.640 And his own pastor is against him.

00:52:06.280 Meanwhile, the complementarians,

00:52:08.120 anytime someone brings this up,

00:52:10.480 and these are statistical facts,

00:52:14.960 the complementarians,

00:52:15.820 it's one thing if it's the rainbow flying,

00:52:18.480 you know, jihad, you know, whatever.

00:52:20.460 I mean, you expect. 0.80

00:52:21.400 you expect that but the pushback is not just from the rainbow jihad

00:52:26.360 the pushback is from the complementarian card-carrying conservative christian

00:52:33.880 if you say god's word it actually has physical outward tangible manifestations in a visible way

00:52:51.400 You are public enemy, number one.

00:52:55.040 You build a city, you're an enemy.

00:53:00.520 You lead with real authority, love, Christ-like authority,

00:53:04.860 all the disclaimers being, as they may,

00:53:07.080 willing to lay down your wife,

00:53:08.240 not domineering over those in your charge,

00:53:10.460 humbly, but real authority.

00:53:13.700 You lead with authority over your wife and children,

00:53:16.800 public enemy number one.

00:53:17.800 you want to become financially independent and start a business and you start to actually

00:53:24.260 experience success public enemy number one you're a christian nationalist public enemy number one

00:53:30.740 you run for local office like dusty deavers and you actually present real bills that would

00:53:35.800 abolish pornography abolish abortion abolish income tax which is unjust it should be the

00:53:41.720 biblical head tax you should not get penalized for being successful if you work harder than

00:53:47.280 somebody else good for you the bible is clear that you should not show favoritism to the rich

00:53:53.540 but neither should you pity the poor dusty starts presenting real bills all of a sudden

00:54:00.440 he's on jimmy fallon being made fun of nationally

00:54:03.920 and i'm telling you guys you can believe me or not but i'm telling you

00:54:09.360 it is one common denominator there's one reason why all these things share one thing in common

00:54:15.160 why why are we concerned we are living in a culture of rank feminism

00:54:21.340 but we're concerned we are concerned that there might be too much of an infatuation 1.00

00:54:30.680 right now with women making sourdough that's the problem you're gonna seriously you're gonna look

00:54:38.700 me in the face without laughing with a straight face and tell me that's the concern 1.00

00:54:45.060 i'm concerned that women are just being too domestic and their motives might not be perfectly

00:54:53.360 pure that's the concern i just i don't even i don't even know what to say i don't know what to say

00:55:03.400 but whether it's writing civil political legislation like dusty devers as a christian

00:55:11.900 nationalist, or whether it's making sourdough and wearing a dress. You think that has nothing in

00:55:19.320 common. It does. It has one thing in common. They're both tangible. It's not theory. Real

00:55:26.520 office. Dusty is holding real office. He's not just theorizing about what Christian politics

00:55:32.160 maybe should be. He ran for office. He won, and he's presenting actual bills. And the woman who

00:55:39.020 wears a dress and makes sourdough. Not saying that that's the end-all, be-all of biblical 0.79

00:55:43.400 womanhood. Of course it's not. Biblical womanhood is much more than that. But you heard me say a

00:55:48.600 couple weeks ago in my sermon, you got a LARP before you can fly. Do you know what happens

00:55:54.180 with anything when you're way off the rails and you try to make a change? Do you know what happens?

00:56:00.820 It looks silly at first. If you let your life get way out of order and all of a sudden you're

00:56:08.000 unhealthy. You weigh 400 pounds, but you decide God gets a hold of you. You feel conviction that

00:56:12.520 you should, you were bought with a price. Therefore, honor God with your body. Your body is a temple of

00:56:16.660 the Holy Spirit. You want to steward it well. And so you get back in the gym and you try to eat

00:56:20.420 healthy. Well, guess what? Your first week in the gym, weighing 400 pounds, trying to do a sit-up.

00:56:26.400 There's going to be a lot of people, maybe they don't say it to your face, but you know what

00:56:29.440 they're thinking? They're thinking, that guy's LARPing. Or here's another scenario, just throwing

00:56:36.040 out there, just a crazy possibility. That guy's changing. Maybe he's LARPing, but maybe he's

00:56:44.740 trying to change. All serious change, when we've compromised severely leading up to that change,

00:56:52.640 looks silly initially. So what would it look like for American evangelicalism that has been

00:57:00.560 steeped in feminism for decades to try to actually change it'd look a little silly maybe at first

00:57:08.700 it would look like larping and that's our biggest concern right no doesn't make the list of the top

00:57:17.500 10 000 concerns for the church of jesus christ for this country of these united states of america

00:57:25.660 it's a joke

00:57:29.500 it is a joke

00:57:32.160 I am concerned 1.00

00:57:33.720 for traditional womanhood 0.75

00:57:37.040 in the same way that I am concerned

00:57:39.620 about Freddy Krueger

00:57:41.160 grow up Peter Pan

00:57:45.700 sons of Issachar 0.99

00:57:49.140 open your eyes

00:57:50.940 know the times

00:57:52.300 where are we?

00:57:53.660 what time is it?

00:57:56.480 C.S. Lewis talked about this.

00:57:59.140 One of the tactics of the enemy is he will get everyone.

00:58:03.700 The house will be flooded.

00:58:05.600 The water is raising.

00:58:07.260 Everyone's going to drown.

00:58:09.040 And yet he'll have everyone running around with a fire extinguisher.

00:58:15.080 So flood, but everyone is prepared and actively seeking to put out a fire.

00:58:20.100 right that's he you're fighting the thing that's not happening you're fighting the thing that's not

00:58:29.640 real but jesus talked about this how would jesus put it jesus would put it like this straining a

00:58:36.340 gnat swallowing a camel straining a gnat swallowing a camel this has always been a thing

00:58:47.040 this has always been one of the enemy's tactics look over there meanwhile full invasion over here

00:58:54.580 get your fire extinguisher somebody has a candle and and and it doesn't it wasn't placed on a safe

00:59:02.800 part of the cabinet on the counter meanwhile the water is up to our chest with a flood

00:59:10.060 that's always what goes on these guys try to get the king involved to stop the christians 0.98

00:59:20.920 the jews who are rebuilding jerusalem why because it's real they're fine with the jews

00:59:27.680 spiritually worshiping yahweh behind closed doors in their private lives as long as it's

00:59:34.720 theoretical as long as it's spiritual but when it becomes physical when it becomes tangible

00:59:39.900 when cities are now involved when temples are being physically built when there's walls being

00:59:45.560 built then all of a sudden it's got to shut down and there are the compromisers who try to shut

00:59:52.540 it down and the complacent within the church who are all too relieved when it's said that it needs

00:59:59.880 to shut down they don't put up a fight but we should that's that's the text i don't know i

01:00:06.760 sometimes I just, you know, I go through my notes. Sometimes. But that really is the text.

01:00:14.820 That's what happens. They get the letter. We'll pick up again, Lord willing, two weeks from now,

01:00:19.440 Brian Silvey will be preaching next Lord's Day in light of the conference. But that's the text.

01:00:26.040 Guys have done this. This is tale as old as time. The Word of God, what I keep telling you guys

01:00:29.880 with Joshua, now with Ezra, the Word of God is incredibly relevant. It's so applicable.

01:00:35.600 It is.

01:00:37.580 This is not just this one-time crazy thing

01:00:40.440 that happened, you know, in the days of Ezra,

01:00:42.580 and it never happened before then,

01:00:44.160 and it's never happened since then.

01:00:45.980 No, this is a dime a dozen.

01:00:48.560 This is a frequent, reoccurring theme.

01:00:53.060 You know, Peter says that there is sin

01:00:54.980 which is common to man.

01:00:57.700 Nobody's that special, right?

01:01:00.120 Everybody has idolatry,

01:01:02.920 and a lot of those idols,

01:01:03.860 Turns out, they're the same.

01:01:06.460 They're the same idols.

01:01:07.640 Everybody wants, you know, comfort.

01:01:10.320 Everybody wants recognition.

01:01:12.180 Everybody wants this.

01:01:13.400 Everybody wants that.

01:01:14.780 And so these things, they're so relevant

01:01:17.180 because they keep happening.

01:01:18.860 It's not just a one-time instance. 1.00

01:01:21.900 The idea that Christians, 0.89

01:01:23.980 and now for us, not Israel,

01:01:25.820 but true Israel, the New Testament church,

01:01:28.300 as we, by God's grace,

01:01:30.120 anytime we make real progress, 0.96

01:01:31.960 If we are to rebuild a Christian nation, like they're trying to rebuild the rubble of Jerusalem,

01:01:37.140 if we are successful and work towards that in tangible ways, not just theoretical, 0.63

01:01:41.660 but in tangible ways, I'm talking about through legal systems, through business and financial,

01:01:47.500 through our homes and our families and our wives and not using state schools and this, that, and all these ways,

01:01:52.900 with our kids, with our wives, with our business, with our politics, with our churches, in every way.

01:01:57.660 If we try to rebuild the ruins, that's exactly what they're doing.

01:02:01.960 If we try to rebuild the ruins, mark my words, what will happen and what's already happening

01:02:07.100 is that the first come the compromisers. 0.78

01:02:10.680 The compromisers claim to be Christian or at least Christian adjacent, right?

01:02:16.060 So there's your Rob Reiners, right?

01:02:18.540 Your Russell Moore, you know, your David French. 0.89

01:02:22.240 And all of a sudden they make a documentary about the danger of Christian nationalism. 0.90

01:02:27.940 And all these things that I'm saying, you think like, 0.95

01:02:29.880 how is he so good at just coming up with you know illustrations they're all real examples

01:02:33.880 i'm not coming up with anything these are all things that have happened literally in the past

01:02:37.860 few weeks so so the compromiser will come in first claiming to be a christian but we're not like

01:02:43.620 those christians you know we're not christian nationalists you know we're not crazy christian

01:02:48.640 nationalists believe that that rights come from god instead of government and that just happened

01:02:55.580 just happen so if you make real progress if you're not content like to just to just have your

01:03:04.320 conference and talk about theoretically what it would look like to honor christ and you know but

01:03:08.880 his kingdom is not of this world and that means his kingdom is not in this world and the best

01:03:12.780 thing that we can do to honor christ is to roll over and die that has been the evangelical position

01:03:19.120 for a very long time and that's why there hasn't been as much opposition but when you say well

01:03:26.040 god and his sovereignty determines that some should be martyred and die for their faith and

01:03:30.340 pay the ultimate price but also in church history and israel's history there are times where there

01:03:36.200 are massive defeats but they're also victories and we don't know god determines for our life

01:03:42.940 and our generation and our time what what it'll be maybe it'll be a defeat but maybe it'll be a

01:03:48.840 victory and we're going to work towards a victory if it is a defeat it won't be because we shot

01:03:54.020 ourselves in the foot thinking that that somehow was really spiritual and pleasing to the lord

01:03:59.380 we're not going to do that anymore

01:04:01.540 preaching sermons about 17 ways to lose gloriously we're not going to do that anymore 0.90

01:04:11.500 boomer theology is dead praise god may it never be resurrected 0.65

01:04:21.120 it won't work people are sick of it they are sick of it 0.89

01:04:27.120 and i wish it hadn't taken so long for us to see how dangerous and terrible and unbiblical it

01:04:37.900 really is. The gospel includes suffering. A prosperity gospel of only victory being guaranteed

01:04:47.220 in this life is a damnable false gospel. But a gospel that guarantees nothing but suffering

01:04:54.040 and defeat, that says that Christ will experience no victory through his church in any tangible way

01:04:59.900 in this world until the eschaton, until his return, that is also a false doctrine. It's not true.

01:05:07.900 you've got to do something with charlemagne you might not like him but he's real he existed

01:05:16.900 you've got to do something with king alfred and king richard the lionheart duke gregory yeah these

01:05:23.660 you got to do something with that you got to do something with joshua you got to do something

01:05:29.280 with david you got to do something with that

01:05:31.280 the nation that fears the lord will be exalted that's not just for israel and that's not just

01:05:40.540 before christ you got to do something with that verse

01:05:43.560 so yes motives matter intent matters doctrine absolutely matters justification by grace alone

01:05:54.860 through faith alone in christ alone it is the linchpin of the christian faith it is the foundation

01:05:59.960 for everything, it matters. But obedience to Christ, our doctrine applied, theology applied

01:06:09.040 in real, visible, tangible ways, also matters. If you want to stay off people's radar,

01:06:16.820 if you don't want to get any pushback, if you don't want to receive a letter from Artaxerxes,

01:06:21.280 if you don't want to see a mockumentary made about you by Rob Reiner, then it's real easy.

01:06:27.900 All you have to do is hold to doctrines, but completely sever what you believe in your heart

01:06:34.100 from how you live in the real world. Just make sure that your doctrines don't have any visible,

01:06:41.680 tangible application. You'll be fine. But if you become an advocate of sourdough,

01:06:48.520 you messed up. Going to get some pushback on that.

01:06:53.280 if you think the husband has real authority and there's actually definable examples that could be

01:07:00.440 given you're in trouble if you think that nation should have real christian laws and not just

01:07:08.940 classical liberalism not just from a standpoint of reason but you should say no they're real

01:07:14.060 christian laws because god wrote a book and it says so and this book is not just for christian

01:07:20.120 people but all people in all places and all time this is universal universal commandments and

01:07:27.680 human rights that stem from god and not from man then watch out you're going to be in trouble

01:07:33.560 and we're going to be in trouble then because we want to obey jesus died for the world

01:07:46.740 He died to purchase the world.

01:07:49.000 Toby Sumter said, you know, it's a blood-bought world.

01:07:52.140 We want Christ through the church as his hands and feet to redeem the world.

01:07:57.020 As much of it in our lifetime as he determines in his sovereign will to redeem.

01:08:02.160 We want to see that.

01:08:05.220 We want to see things get better.

01:08:06.980 We want economies that glorify God.

01:08:09.360 We want laws that glorify God.

01:08:10.880 We want marriages that glorify God.

01:08:12.980 And not in theory, but in practice.

01:08:16.260 Faith without works is dead.

01:08:18.300 God wants obedience, and obedience is always practical.

01:08:23.000 It is never only theoretical. 0.83

01:08:25.660 The Christian that stays out of politics 0.98

01:08:27.560 is the Christian that stays out of Christianity. 0.99

01:08:32.100 If you don't have a political faith, 0.98

01:08:34.360 then you don't have the faith that the Bible talks about.

01:08:38.620 Jesus was crucified because he was a public enemy

01:08:41.700 of the political powers of his day.

01:08:44.240 he had a faith in the public square

01:08:48.140 and somehow along the way we we we thought how can we be as conservative as possible

01:08:55.880 but all here spiritually and not practically and that ship has sailed i i believe that by god's

01:09:06.220 grace and it is god's grace there is a new generation of christians who are saying we're

01:09:09.440 done with that we're done with that we're just we're not going to do theoretical christianity

01:09:14.200 anymore we're going to do practical christianity we're going to do practical obedience to king

01:09:20.860 jesus christianity and there will be pushback because all the way back to the compromiser

01:09:28.040 point the compromisers it was hard to see how compromised evangelicals really were

01:09:33.300 when there was no control in the experiment

01:09:35.800 to set up as a comparison.

01:09:39.040 But once you start having guys who are doing this

01:09:41.520 and doing that and doing this and doing that

01:09:42.860 and they're succeeding,

01:09:45.140 then you know what the first question you start to ask is? 0.97

01:09:50.000 Your dispensational loser theology, 0.94

01:09:53.640 was that actually God's will 0.99

01:09:56.020 or was that a self-fulfilled prophecy

01:09:58.780 for the last 60 years?

01:10:00.200 that's the question this begins to be asked because all of a sudden somebody else pushes

01:10:07.680 back and and actually is able to push back against the wickedness and the regime and all these things

01:10:12.500 and experience success do you know the first question people start asking when they see that

01:10:19.040 they're like wait wait wait wait wait wait what like he just it's like you're fighting someone

01:10:23.660 and it's like you don't even know if they're human it's like you've never even been able to land a

01:10:27.500 single blow. You've never seen them bleed. You don't even know they're mortal. And then someone

01:10:31.860 gets in the ring and he hasn't beaten them, but he just, he got at least a scratch, at least made

01:10:36.680 contact. And there's one drop of blood. And then everybody else realizes, wait, we could win?

01:10:44.260 Because we've been reliably informed for 60 years that we, it wasn't that we weren't trying hard

01:10:51.700 enough or because of our failure or our faithlessness. We've been informed that we couldn't

01:10:56.340 win because God had determined it. And if somebody comes and says, no, you can, and then provides

01:11:04.780 tangible examples of hashtag winning. What do you think the dispensation was for the last 60? You

01:11:11.940 think he's going to like that guy? No, you're making me look bad. It's the same as being at work.

01:11:17.860 Stop working so hard, man. You're making us look bad. That's what it is.

01:11:23.160 and that will continue for a little while but eventually the church will change

01:11:30.680 there is a turning of the tides christ is king god is good and uh the world is changing

01:11:40.600 it is and it may not look like much right now we're up against goliath and david doesn't look

01:11:46.240 like much. But better to have David who's willing to throw a rock than a bunch of grown men who are

01:11:54.260 just shaking their knees. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Bless it to your people.

01:12:00.180 Help us to be faithful and to obey and that our obedience would not be merely theoretical,

01:12:04.520 but it would be real and tangible, physical, practical. We pray that you would be honored.

01:12:09.980 We pray that you would be glorified. We pray that we would be humble, that we would not be

01:12:13.700 unnecessarily feisty and argumentative with brothers and sisters in Christ, but that we

01:12:22.040 would hold the line and say, well, wait a second. Whoa, whoa, whoa. No, the real tangible obedience

01:12:29.860 matters. We're not going to disparage, regardless of how small it might seem, regardless of whether

01:12:36.280 or not the motives are perfectly pure. We are not going to disparage attempts, feeble as they may be,

01:12:42.860 attempts from women to try to be domestic and feminine. We're not going to disparage attempts 1.00

01:12:48.680 from men to start their own business and to work for themselves and to run for city council or

01:12:54.460 local. We're not going to disparage. We are not going to be the spiritual fathers who exasperate

01:12:59.600 their sons. We refuse to do it. We've had a generation of that. It's enough. We're not doing

01:13:04.320 it anymore. We are going to encourage practical obedience as small as it is wherever we find it.

01:13:12.860 You got a LARP before you can fly.

01:13:15.600 Whenever you're way off the rails

01:13:17.100 and it requires serious change, 0.79

01:13:19.500 it's always going to look a little silly at first.

01:13:22.260 But God is not sitting back and laughing

01:13:24.460 at his children who are trying to repent. 1.00

01:13:28.580 And woe to those Christians who are, 1.00

01:13:32.300 who are laughing at people who are just trying

01:13:36.500 to have real, tangible, biblical Christianity.

01:13:40.700 God, help us.

01:13:42.640 Help us.

01:13:43.400 We need so much help.

01:13:45.340 Help us to know what time it is.

01:13:47.540 Help us not to hold a fire extinguisher

01:13:50.100 if the house is flooding.

01:13:51.540 Help us to know the battle,

01:13:52.880 to know the enemies,

01:13:53.920 to know the times.

01:13:55.820 We are just a wreck. 0.99

01:13:57.400 The evangelical church is a wreck. 1.00

01:14:01.480 We need help. 1.00

01:14:02.740 I need help.

01:14:04.700 God, I need help.

01:14:06.140 So help us.

01:14:07.320 For Christ's sake.

01:14:08.420 Amen.

01:14:11.920 You

The NXR Podcast - February 26, 2024

SERMON - Compromised Christians Have Always Weaponized Government To Hinder Christian Advancement

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