The NXR Podcast - SUNDAY SERMON - How The Resurrection Destroys Marxism, Communism, & Envy

00:00:00.000 All right, listen, guys, I get it.

00:00:02.100 Many of you are unable to financially support this ministry

00:00:04.780 because you're spending your cash and your lives

00:00:07.080 on raising young children

00:00:08.680 in the fear and admonition of the Lord.

00:00:10.720 Praise God for you and that endeavor.

00:00:13.840 However, algorithms are a thing.

00:00:16.360 Shadow banning, sadly, is a thing.

00:00:18.580 And one major way that you can help to expand

00:00:21.760 the reach and effectiveness of this ministry

00:00:24.160 that doesn't cost you a dime

00:00:25.880 is by spending just a few moments

00:00:28.220 leaving us a five-star review.

00:00:31.340 Also, perhaps even more effective than that,

00:00:34.140 you can share our podcast with a friend.

00:00:36.560 We hope you'll take the time to do so.

00:00:38.480 Thank you so much.

00:00:39.760 God bless.

00:00:41.300 Please join me in standing for the reading of God's word.

00:00:44.600 Our text for today is 1 Corinthians chapter 15,

00:00:47.280 verses 12 through 19.

00:00:50.100 If you're joining us for the first time,

00:00:52.020 our plan, starting next Lord's Day,

00:00:54.360 Lord willing, is to begin an expositional preaching series through the book of Joshua.

00:01:00.360 But for today, our text is 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 12 through 19. I'll read our text for

00:01:07.260 us in its entirety. When I finish reading the text, I'm going to say, this is the word of the

00:01:11.400 Lord, at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying, thanks be to God.

00:01:16.760 One final time, 1 Corinthians 15, verses 12 through 19, the Bible says this,

00:01:22.880 but if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead how can some of you say that there is no

00:01:29.180 resurrection of the dead but if there is no resurrection of the dead then not even Christ

00:01:34.540 has been raised and if Christ has not been raised then our preaching is in vain and your faith is

00:01:41.140 in vain we are even found to be misrepresenting God because we testified about God that he raised

00:01:48.260 Christ whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised for if the dead are not

00:01:55.280 raised not even Christ has been raised and if Christ has not been raised your faith is futile

00:02:01.860 and you are still in your sins then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished

00:02:08.800 if in Christ we have hope in this life only then we are of all people most to be pitied this is

00:02:17.160 the word of the Lord. Please be seated. In your notes dealing with verses 14 and 15 of our text

00:02:26.020 I've written the following. If Christ has not been raised then our preaching is both empty and a false

00:02:31.800 witness against God. And if Christ is not raised our faith is empty and useless. So what were these

00:02:40.660 people in Corinth then putting their faith in? It should be assumed that many of the Corinthians

00:02:47.240 trusted in Christ fully. After all, the Apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is writing to

00:02:54.380 the church. However, it appears that at least some of the Corinthians were like many people today,

00:03:01.440 who merely believe that Jesus was a great teacher and a worthy example of the way of love. They

00:03:09.080 believe that the stories of Jesus's resurrection were merely symbols pointing to the triumph

00:03:14.680 of the human spirit, and that Jesus's influence is what was resurrected and would live on after

00:03:22.700 his death. They did not say, in other words, they did not say, the resurrection is all a myth,

00:03:30.700 therefore we must reject it. Rather, like many professing Christians today, they said the

00:03:37.620 resurrection is a myth therefore we must reinterpret it. That is where we find ourselves

00:03:45.460 today with many professing Christians. They simply attempt to reinterpret the resurrection

00:03:55.280 of Jesus rather than saying the resurrection of Jesus is not literal it is not physical

00:04:01.520 it did not actually happen within human history therefore it is of no value they simply attempt

00:04:10.760 to reinterpret the resurrection to say it doesn't have to be literal it doesn't have to be actual

00:04:16.540 historical physical in order to have value the value is simply the symbol the metaphor

00:04:24.980 the value is what we make of it but brothers and sisters if this is the case we do not need

00:04:33.540 christ we have william wallace for that we have joan of arc for that we have polycarp

00:04:42.160 we have william tyndale history is rife with examples of men and women predominantly men

00:04:53.100 who died a martyr's death a loving sacrificial death on behalf of their fellow man people who

00:05:02.440 paid the ultimate price we have well we have all sorts of individuals just within american history

00:05:11.340 people who die that's what memorial day is all about someone laying down their life

00:05:18.360 in the pursuit of duty and freedom and prosperity so that others might live.

00:05:26.520 But what the Apostle Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 15 verses 12 through 19

00:05:31.380 is that Christ's resurrection is much more than merely an example of sacrificial love.

00:05:39.740 Jesus himself says,

00:05:41.120 a man has no greater love than this that a man would lay down his life for his friends

00:05:48.420 it is true scripturally that the cross the crucifixion of jesus is a moral example

00:05:57.140 of sacrificial love but that is not all that the crucifixion is if that is all that the

00:06:06.140 crucifixion is, then there is no gospel and there is no salvation. And you and I are still dead in

00:06:14.680 our sins underneath the white hot wrath of God. Christus Victor is an appropriate view of the

00:06:23.920 crucifixion. The moral example is an appropriate view of the crucifixion. The ransom atonement

00:06:32.180 is not an appropriate view of the crucifixion because it raises Satan to a pedestal in height

00:06:41.620 that he does not deserve, nor does he in actuality achieve. The idea that God would have to pay a

00:06:49.160 ransom to his enemy in order to take us back. God doesn't have to pay a ransom to Satan in order to

00:06:57.440 redeem us. God can just crush Satan. You only pay a ransom when you're not able to overcome

00:07:04.600 your threat. But that is not the case. Jesus is put forward as a ransom of sorts.

00:07:12.760 The better word would be propitiation, but not to pay Satan, but to pay God.

00:07:19.720 god the father puts forward god the son as payment to god the father for the atonement

00:07:30.480 of our sin it is god who needed to be satisfied not the devil it is god's justice that demanded

00:07:41.540 recompense. There is no forgiveness of sin apart from blood. The book of Hebrews teaches that.

00:07:51.020 The book of Hebrews also teaches us that the blood of bulls and goats will never take away sin.

00:07:58.940 So it must be blood, but it cannot be merely the blood of animals. It is the blood of Christ.

00:08:07.000 It is his atonement, his propitiation, satiating sacrifice, his death, his payment that satisfies

00:08:18.220 not Satan's wickedness, but rather God's justice so that God who is thrice holy can pardon sinners

00:08:28.080 without compromising his righteousness. The cross at Calvary in the death of Jesus

00:08:36.200 is where both the perfect righteousness and justice

00:08:40.380 as well as mercy and grace of God kiss, as it were,

00:08:46.320 neither compromising the other.

00:08:50.600 This is the view of penal substitutionary atonement.

00:08:55.640 The death of Jesus is an example,

00:08:58.720 a moral example which we as his disciples

00:09:01.960 should seek to follow,

00:09:03.700 that we should be willing to sacrifice our very lives for others.

00:09:10.440 Sacrificial love, the moral example.

00:09:16.360 Christus victor, that Christ is raised and ruling and conquering.

00:09:21.960 This is also true and biblical.

00:09:25.120 But apart from penal substitutionary atonement,

00:09:28.960 we lose the entirety of the Christian faith.

00:09:31.620 It is the heart of the gospel.

00:09:35.160 Christ is our substitute.

00:09:37.980 He did not merely die as example.

00:09:41.280 He died in our place.

00:09:44.260 He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

00:09:49.240 He died as a substitute in your place for your sin.

00:09:55.020 His death should have been your death.

00:09:57.740 and his life is not a life that you and I deserve but rather because of God's mercy and grace

00:10:07.880 we have been granted eternal life and he paid the penalty the wages of our sin which is

00:10:16.220 death so that we might live forevermore with him. Paul is addressing some I do not believe the

00:10:25.860 majority but some of the corinthians perhaps in the church but certainly in the broader society

00:10:31.940 who are saying that the resurrection is a myth that there is no resurrection from the dead

00:10:38.840 that once you die that's it they are saying this not realizing the implications of that statement

00:10:48.160 that if the dead are not raised then Christ is not raised and if Christ is not raised

00:10:55.320 then not only do we not have hope after this life for a life to come but even within this life we

00:11:03.760 are underneath God's condemnation rather than his forgiveness the apostle Paul links the

00:11:10.480 resurrection of Jesus to the forgiveness of sins. He links the resurrection of Jesus to the

00:11:19.080 forgiveness of sins. Now how is this theologically possible? Is it not the death of Jesus that

00:11:27.380 satisfies the wrath of God? Is it not the shed blood of Jesus in his crucifixion that atones

00:11:34.900 for sin yes it is however the scripture says that he died for the forgiveness of sins but was raised

00:11:45.440 for our justification that we might be declared righteous in the court of God what is it about

00:11:54.640 the resurrection of Jesus that deals with the forgiveness of sins and the justification of

00:12:02.580 sinners. Going on in your notes, I've written the following. If Christ was not raised, then his

00:12:08.780 death accomplished nothing for the forgiveness of our sins. And if Christ accomplished nothing to

00:12:14.940 remove the guilt and condemnation of our sins, then we are still dead in our sins and under the wrath

00:12:21.520 of God. To be dead in your sins is the opposite of being alive in Christ. When a person is in Christ,

00:12:30.600 they get what Christ can do for them, namely eternal life. However, when a person is in their

00:12:37.420 sins, they get what sin can do for them, namely eternal condemnation and death. But if the

00:12:46.200 resurrection, or if the death of Jesus rather, completely satisfied the Father's wrath towards

00:12:52.680 sin then why does our text say that we are still in our sins if Jesus did not rise from the dead

00:13:02.580 the answer is that the resurrection of Jesus was the reward for his sacrifice if the reward

00:13:10.580 is withheld it is because the sacrifice was deficient if God will not let his own son go

00:13:20.160 free from the grave and take his seat at his right hand in glory, it can only be because

00:13:27.340 his son's sacrifice for our sins was defective. It was not sufficient. It is not enough. The

00:13:37.220 resurrection of Jesus is what validates the infinite value of the blood of Jesus. If Christ

00:13:45.680 is raised, then his sacrifice is sufficient. As one theologian once said, the resurrection

00:13:54.000 is the exclamation point to the crucifixion and more particularly to the statement of Christ

00:14:01.700 himself as he was being crucified when he says, it is finished. The empty tomb is the confirmation,

00:14:10.460 god's stamp of approval the seal the promise that christ's statement on the cross it is finished

00:14:20.220 was true that it is indeed finished that the wrath of god has indeed been fully satisfied on our

00:14:30.040 behalf that the punishment you and i deserve as sinners for the wages of sin is death that

00:14:38.940 punishment has been dealt with in full the empty tomb is the proof as david said in the psalms

00:14:48.100 you will not let your holy one see decay why because everything he did was holy everything

00:14:57.740 he is is holy and everything he did is perfect final complete including his payment for sin

00:15:07.600 on the cross. The resurrection is the confirmation of the crucifixion. That penal substitutionary

00:15:17.080 atonement is sufficient. That Christ's death as substitute in our place actually worked.

00:15:26.580 The resurrection says that the cross worked. Jesus was delivered up for our trespasses

00:15:35.660 and raised for our justification. Romans 4, 25. The late great Puritan, a Baptist, I might add,

00:15:47.240 one of the few good Puritan Baptists, but a Baptist nonetheless, God bless him.

00:15:52.160 John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim's Progress, fantastic allegorical story writer.

00:16:01.220 not as fantastic in his poetry but this one is good run john run the law commands but gives us

00:16:11.680 neither feet nor hands far better news the gospel brings it bids us fly and gives us wings doubt not

00:16:19.500 his sacrifice can save god sealed it that is he proved it with an empty grave he was raised for

00:16:30.380 our justification the resurrection is God's confirmation that the son's statement it is

00:16:38.060 finished it's true eternally true for all who believe lastly dealing with verses 18 and 19

00:16:48.380 of our text I'll read them once more so they're fresh in our minds then those also who have

00:16:55.980 fallen asleep. Paul continues his argument, a day in the life of no resurrection. It's almost like

00:17:03.420 the movie A Wonderful Life, if George had never been born. We hear the apostle Paul deals with

00:17:10.200 all of human life if Christ had never been raised. He says also those who have fallen asleep in

00:17:18.460 Christ, that is those who have died, even those who died in faith in Christ have perished. If in

00:17:26.380 Christ we have hope in this life only, then we are of all people most to be pitied. And this brothers

00:17:35.260 and sisters is quite a statement because there are many pitiful people in our world. Muslims are to 0.85

00:17:43.640 be pitied. Jews are to be pitied. Agnostics and atheists are to be pitied. Democrats are to be 0.97

00:17:54.020 pitied. Feminists are to be pitied. The LGBT jihad is to be pitied. All of these are pitiful people,

00:18:05.060 but none of them compare to the most pitiful people of all which is christians if christ was

00:18:14.100 not raised if there is no resurrection for christ then there is no resurrection for us

00:18:22.540 once someone is dead they forever cease to exist if jesus did not rise from the dead

00:18:29.760 then the christian faith is utterly worthless it does not maintain some value it is not worth

00:18:39.840 any value it is not worth showing up to church even just one day a year much less 52 times

00:18:49.700 c.s lewis once said this christianity more particularly in light of our topic today

00:18:57.720 the resurrection of Jesus, if false, is of no importance. And if true, of infinite importance.

00:19:07.640 The only thing it cannot be is of moderate importance. The Christian faith is not

00:19:17.740 somewhat important it is not partially significant it either has no value or it has

00:19:29.160 infinite value and again some might say well i think there's value even if it's not literally

00:19:36.360 true that christ rose from the dead the principles within the christian tradition have value in and

00:19:44.060 of themselves pastor yeah but you don't need the christian faith for those principles apart from

00:19:52.200 the person of jesus you can arrive at those principles in other ways apart from the person

00:20:02.180 of christ the principles of christ will not ever produce the peace of christ i'll say that again

00:20:11.240 Apart from the person of Christ, the living, resurrected person of Christ,

00:20:18.540 the mere principles of Christ will never produce the peace of Christ.

00:20:25.740 The problem in our world is that many in our nation specifically have abandoned the principles of Christ.

00:20:32.960 And there are others still trying to cling to some of those principles, 1.00

00:20:37.320 but doing so arbitrarily we'll keep this one but not that one gaze against groomers how stupid is 0.99

00:20:48.500 that perverts against other greater perverts no you don't need a renegade of perverts to stop 0.98

00:20:59.080 an onslaught of perversion that doesn't work you don't cast out utter darkness with kind of

00:21:05.980 darkness you cast it out with light and only light to say that the principles of christ

00:21:15.480 somehow save our nation which ones and who decides

00:21:22.520 see the reason why we can say all of them is because it's not a statement that hinges upon

00:21:30.480 our own authority the reason why we can say all of god's commandments are righteous and holy

00:21:39.180 and good is because christ is the authority and he is alive we don't just say hey this book

00:21:49.200 we recognize it's special it's kind of like the spring head the start of the river's source

00:21:57.260 and from it come all these other branching off lesser streams, right?

00:22:02.720 We see good principles and good virtues in Beowulf

00:22:06.460 and the Odyssey and the Iliad and all these other things,

00:22:11.780 but they all find their source in this special book.

00:22:16.000 And it's a really great book,

00:22:18.320 but I'm not going to say that it's in the infallible Word of God.

00:22:22.060 And I'm not going to say that Jesus is literally, physically risen from the dead.

00:22:29.500 Then you have no hope.

00:22:32.620 You have no hope.

00:22:34.700 And you have no basis.

00:22:36.140 You have no credible authority for recommending some of this book to people.

00:22:42.860 It's either all or nothing.

00:22:44.880 And the only reason that you can make such a significant and weighty and conscious binding claim, an authoritative, incredible claim that this book, every jot and tittle is morally binding on every conscience of every person in every place and in every time.

00:23:05.820 The only way that you can make that statement with weight and authority

00:23:11.760 is if you are merely echoing that statement as made by Christ.

00:23:19.340 It is the person and work of Jesus that is the basis for all we believe.

00:23:28.080 Societies that reject Christ, His person and His work,

00:23:33.200 those societies crumble it is not a matter of if but merely when they slowly spiral into oblivion

00:23:43.620 they slowly dissolve into their own lawlessness a rejection of christ is a rejection of the peace

00:23:53.640 that he brings peace is found in a person it cannot be severed from christ there is no peace

00:24:03.140 apart from Christ. A nation that exalts Christ will be exalted. The nation that fears the Lord

00:24:12.540 will be exalted, the Psalms say. But when the foundations are eroded and destroyed,

00:24:19.160 what can the righteous do? Our nation has no hope apart from repentance. You've heard me often say

00:24:28.600 a conservative resurgence is not sufficient.

00:24:32.740 It must be a distinctly Christian reformation and revival.

00:24:38.040 And this does not come by repenting in part, but in full.

00:24:44.760 It is not enough to say, you know what?

00:24:48.020 We'll be of the party that walks to hell just a little slower.

00:24:54.240 No.

00:24:54.920 No, we are turning 180 degrees by grace through faith in Christ

00:25:02.900 and following Him in the opposite direction.

00:25:08.120 I think many of us today subconsciously believe

00:25:12.080 that societies can only decline in terms of virtue. 0.99

00:25:18.920 And this is naive and ignorant 0.89

00:25:22.020 because it cannot account for how we got here in the first place. 0.97

00:25:28.960 You look around our nation and Western societies as a whole

00:25:33.020 and you think it's dissolving into chaos and sin and rebellion so quickly.

00:25:41.100 But if that were the case, if that was the only mode of humanity,

00:25:46.560 just compromising virtue for vice and spiraling so quickly,

00:25:51.580 the human race would have ended thousands of years ago how did we last so long do you think

00:26:00.560 that humanity was just perfect and and and then has slowly spiraled for about 6 000 years give

00:26:09.920 or take and then really ramped up in its rebellion over the last 50 and especially the last 15

00:26:18.300 and then you haven't read any history that's simply not true i mean very quickly

00:26:28.140 very quickly god after creating man in a state of integrity or some theologians would say a state

00:26:36.900 of innocence able to not fall but also able to fall very quickly man chose to fall some have

00:26:46.540 debated when the fall took place. I would agree with Rush Dooney, North, and others.

00:26:56.920 Kenneth Gintry would be an example. But Adam and Eve fell on the eighth day.

00:27:04.100 They did not last for years or decades or months or even weeks. But they were created on the sixth

00:27:12.560 day, celebrated the Sabbath on the seventh, and rebelled on the eighth, which is in part

00:27:20.160 why within the Jewish Old Testament tradition, a Hebrew boy would be circumcised on the eighth

00:27:26.140 day. Blood and cutting and falling away. Very quickly within human history, sin entered

00:27:36.800 the world. And immediately, shortly after that, we see the first murder take place. We have an

00:27:46.020 entire line, namely the line of Cain, an entire half of humanity that devolves into further and

00:27:55.680 further moral rebellion. And we see this culminate even more so in the days of Noah, when God decides

00:28:04.800 to cleanse the world, lovingly cleanse his creation

00:28:08.940 by drowning wicked people.

00:28:13.280 And we see things get better for a while

00:28:16.060 and then get worse again.

00:28:18.540 Israel and its history is always one step forward

00:28:21.500 and two to seven steps back.

00:28:29.360 Many of us cannot logically account

00:28:32.160 for the blessings and prosperity that we have experienced in our lifetimes, in our generation,

00:28:40.160 in our culture, in our society. We think it just always was that God started it that way

00:28:48.980 and we've only declined from there. No. Western society was pagan. The Irish were pagan.

00:29:00.440 The English were pagan.

00:29:04.600 The Scots were pagan.

00:29:09.060 We once were painting our faces blue,

00:29:13.940 sailing on the high seas,

00:29:16.200 and destroying whole villages and women and children.

00:29:20.700 That's our origin story.

00:29:23.200 That's our heritage.

00:29:25.600 But then the gospel came.

00:29:27.780 And it changed not just individual, private, pietistic little hearts, but it changed the world.

00:29:39.100 It changed governments, laws, nations, cultures, holidays, the calendar, history, everything.

00:29:49.380 and if the west will not repent and pay homage to the one who saved us and gave us every blessing

00:29:58.680 we have every good and perfect gift comes down from the father of lights if we will not repent

00:30:06.460 and call upon his name then i've said before and i'll say again now it won't be long until zambia

00:30:16.420 and uganda have commercials on their tv programs that say for just a dollar a day

00:30:23.380 you can feed a little white kid and give them a christian education

00:30:29.440 there's nothing inherent in skin pigment but there is something very potent in the gospel

00:30:40.100 of Jesus Christ he brings people high and he decimates them when they rebel against him

00:30:49.120 and brings them low I don't have a crystal ball I'm not a prophet nor the son of a prophet

00:30:57.980 but with common sense in an open bible you can pick up on a lot and it seems as though if the

00:31:06.960 West will not repent, then Christendom may spend the next thousand years in Africa, in parts of

00:31:14.700 Asia, in South America. And a thousand years from now, there'll be a rise of wokeness again.

00:31:26.300 Some liberal, progressive, blue-haired feminist theologian saying this is racist against white 0.84

00:31:34.140 people they're all poor and you're making christianity just all about being colored

00:31:41.780 that rhetoric has never been against whiteness

00:31:46.240 all the rhetoric from the left it's only communism it's only marxism they only picked race because

00:31:59.520 it's unique to American history. They couldn't pick economic classes. You know why? It wouldn't

00:32:07.260 work because the blessings of Christ are too prosperous. You can't get the peasants to rise

00:32:15.300 up against the bourgeoisie when the peasants have two weeks vacation, work five days a week,

00:32:22.400 own a home and a car, and their kids can afford to go to school. They just don't have that much

00:32:29.200 to get angry about class warfare in the economic sense which was mark's true belief didn't work

00:32:38.140 because capitalism eradicated poverty why because it has its principled roots in the bible

00:32:47.280 so they made it about slavery racism and that works

00:32:56.720 because we have no shortage of ignorance among young people in our nation today

00:33:04.760 but you look behind every single one of these organizations and at the top 0.96

00:33:10.720 you don't find an oppressed black person you find a marxist white person

00:33:16.980 who picks the three women of Black Lives Matter 1.00

00:33:21.300 because they're useful idiots 1.00

00:33:23.560 to get across their ultimate goal, 1.00

00:33:28.140 which is to eradicate capitalism,

00:33:31.540 eradicate the patriarchy, 0.94

00:33:34.460 eradicate Western civilization, 0.82

00:33:37.180 the scientific method,

00:33:39.160 all these different things,

00:33:40.340 and what ultimately is the nucleus source

00:33:43.040 of everything that I've just listed?

00:33:45.420 the Christian faith.

00:33:49.440 Marx said that his highest goal

00:33:52.040 was to dethrone God.

00:33:54.920 He also said that the only way 0.95

00:33:56.780 to kill the Heavenly Father 0.98

00:33:59.000 is to destroy the earthly Father.

00:34:05.500 And if our nation continues 0.90

00:34:07.860 in its foolishness, 1.00

00:34:09.760 being useful idiots, 1.00

00:34:12.580 getting angry about silly things 1.00

00:34:15.420 if that continues it ultimately is not a war on white people or a war on black people 0.92

00:34:24.440 or a war on men or a war on women it's a war on christ it's a war on christ

00:34:33.580 and if the enemy is permitted to win that war we will devolve into the same pagan roots from which

00:34:43.380 we came. And whether it's 50 years from now, or 500, we'll be the same pagan Vikings talking

00:34:56.780 about Valhalla, going and decimating and destroying people, living for ourselves, no order, no

00:35:09.740 civilization, no virtue, nothing. Because none of that was ever inherent to us. It always rightfully

00:35:18.020 belonged to Christ. And he graciously gave it to us, so long as we submitted to his kingship

00:35:25.940 and lordship. But Christ will bless any man who submits to him.

00:35:32.260 whether that's an american whether that's a scott whether that's an irish man an english man

00:35:42.960 whether that's a man from zambia uganda the sudan whether that's a man from china

00:35:50.140 or brazil wherever submission to christ can be found and wherever that submission begins to

00:35:58.780 permeate cultures and customs and societies, there the blessings of God follow. And wherever

00:36:05.760 rebellion against Christ and his lordship, wherever that takes place, only darkness,

00:36:13.180 tragedy, destruction, and poverty follow. Principles are not enough. Politics are not enough.

00:36:23.680 it must be a person

00:36:29.040 a living person

00:36:31.800 a resurrected person

00:36:34.800 and not just a man

00:36:37.540 but the God man

00:36:39.800 Christ Jesus

00:36:42.040 he changed the world

00:36:44.880 he is still changing the world

00:36:49.160 and all of the father's covenant promises and blessings flow through him just as the oil

00:36:59.620 when anointing the levitical priesthood would fall upon the head first and then run down to the body

00:37:07.860 the robes and tassels and arms and legs so too all the blessings of god first pour out on the head

00:37:16.800 who is Christ. And they only reach those who are his body, who have union with him through faith.

00:37:27.000 We have been that people before. We can be that people again. But for the sake of clarity,

00:37:36.500 let me say, many of you are aware that I hold to a post-millennial eschatology.

00:37:41.820 that post-millennial eschatology means that i believe in a victorious progressively and

00:37:49.920 ultimately victorious america no church and that that church is so potent with christ's gospel

00:37:59.160 and his law that it will change and transform not only churches on sunday but whole societies and

00:38:07.840 nations. But for God to bring about his decreative will and his progressive victory throughout human

00:38:15.740 history through the spearhead, which is the church on earth, he does not have to do it through this

00:38:24.880 nation. If Christ tarries for 10,000 years, I believe he will come back to a Christianized

00:38:33.900 world, but that world may or may not have the nation of the United States of America

00:38:40.500 in it. Many nations have risen and fallen. Many nations have come and gone.

00:38:51.940 that's why by god's grace you homestead

00:38:59.420 you plant a garden you work hard you take a second job and you save up enough money to where

00:39:06.800 your grandchildren when we're gone they can move their families to zambia that might be the new

00:39:15.320 beachhead of Christendom, if this falls. But if it falls, let this nation fall over our dead bodies

00:39:24.280 after having done everything we can, because this republic is worth preserving.

00:39:31.720 There's a heritage here, but it's all rooted in Christ. It is not libertarianism. It is not

00:39:41.360 classical liberalism it is not principled pluralism it is not polytheism that is our strength

00:39:49.520 it is not even diversity that is our strength it is unity in faith in the triune god

00:40:00.360 that is the source of our blessing and the rejection of christ and his resurrection

00:40:07.540 will be the source of our destruction. Let us turn back to him. The last thing I'll say is this.

00:40:18.160 I find it interesting, and I think that you should notice this as well. I find it interesting that

00:40:24.580 secularism, secular humanism, is merely a placeholder. Secular humanism is not viable.

00:40:33.160 islam is viable not indefinitely but it is viable in the sense that islam is a counterfeit

00:40:43.820 christian heresy muhammad very clearly the author of the quran you can see him copying the christian

00:40:53.800 tradition in ad 700 give or take and certain things right because the best lie the most

00:41:00.820 believable one it carries 90 truth that's what makes it believable and so what you see Muhammad

00:41:07.300 doing is trying to sprinkle in Christian truth into his book of heresies so that it might have

00:41:14.060 credibility it might be believable now Muhammad wasn't a good Christian theologian so he didn't

00:41:19.200 know which Christian stories narratives circulating around at the time were actually true and which

00:41:25.780 ones were heresies and so the Quran finds certain Christian heresies and stories docetism and

00:41:32.280 Arianism and things stories about you know Jesus preaching a sermon as an infant that he stopped

00:41:40.200 nursing for a little while to go ahead and rebuke people who are saying bad things about his mommy

00:41:45.240 you know or the story that when Joseph and and Mary were fleeing to Egypt that Jesus spoke from

00:41:51.980 Mary's womb because she was hungry and tired and caused a tree to supernaturally bend over so that

00:41:58.560 she could grab a piece of fruit. Muhammad is trying to make the Quran sound true by including

00:42:05.120 Christian stories. He just didn't know which Christian stories were true because he was not

00:42:10.160 a Christian. But Islam, nonetheless, it is a counterfeit worldview.

00:42:15.800 meaning that that it has some of the same kinds of foundations now ultimately ultimately it

00:42:26.180 collapses it is not true it's a perversion a twisting of the truth but that's different

00:42:33.640 the Judaism would be another example that's different though from secular humanism 0.98

00:42:40.460 secular humanism is not an alternative host from christian faith secular humanism is a parasite

00:42:51.500 it is not viable it has nothing sustainable it only lasts and appears viable so long as the host 0.99

00:43:03.180 is strong and healthy but the irony of all parasites is that eventually they kill the host

00:43:09.780 which is the very source of their own life so that once they've killed the host they die out

00:43:16.560 as well secularism is on its last leg sadly though part of the reason that secularism is

00:43:24.420 on its last leg is because christendom in the west is not faring well she has a fever

00:43:33.440 she's in a coma she's on life support and the parasite is starving but that's because the host

00:43:42.500 is currently all but a corpse

00:43:45.160 but the religions that will endure i believe till the end of the age 0.94

00:43:52.740 are not parasites but viable hosts themselves counterfeit host albeit but host 0.91

00:44:01.760 Islam is much more viable than secular humanism, 0.96

00:44:05.580 if for no other reason, simply because Islam has a rule of law,

00:44:11.540 harsh, albeit, and it also believes in households and having children.

00:44:18.940 Any worldview that doesn't include procreation is not a viable worldview.

00:44:26.860 Islam will endure.

00:44:30.760 Much longer than secularism will.

00:44:35.540 Personally, I believe, per Romans 11,

00:44:39.380 that Islam will be actually the greatest enemy,

00:44:42.640 other than death itself, which Christ will defeat upon his return, 0.67

00:44:46.500 and that Islam will be defeated before Christ's return,

00:44:50.080 the Christianizing of all nations,

00:44:53.020 but in part because the Christians in the final hour will gain a great ally

00:44:59.880 namely a revival among the jews that the older brother who's been pouting outside as a younger

00:45:08.320 brother the gentiles have come in to the party that older brother will eventually stop pouting

00:45:15.140 and believe what the younger brother has believed humble himself and come in and the two brothers

00:45:22.660 together, now both Christians, with one root, not two trees, but one, who is Christ, will then finish

00:45:31.260 the Christianizing of the world. There's some sci-fi, post-mill theology for you.

00:45:39.840 All that being said, the point is this. Every good thing in the world, it ultimately comes from

00:45:49.680 Christ in his resurrection. Wherever that is believed, blessings follow. And that's not saying

00:45:58.260 a 100% guarantee for each individual person. I believe Christ was raised from the dead, therefore

00:46:03.400 I won't be poor. That's not the point. It is a general reality, a general principle that adhering

00:46:12.440 to god's truth recognizing christ his son not just as allegory not just as metaphor but believing in

00:46:22.140 the triune god and the bodily raised son of god that these things in society in general

00:46:30.000 progressively slowly like a mustard seed like leaven over time produce the most powerful

00:46:36.360 prosperous, and most virtuous societies and cultures in the world.

00:46:46.380 That's what we've seen for 2,000 years.

00:46:51.320 And it may be in the decreative will of God, the secret things belong to Him.

00:46:56.680 Right? This is the revealed will of God.

00:46:59.340 This book, the Bible, the revealed things belong to us and our children forever.

00:47:04.040 The secret things, that is the sovereign will of God, the things he has decreed within the

00:47:09.960 councils of eternity, those belong to him. It is the glory of God to conceal the matter.

00:47:18.500 It is the glory of kings, earthly kings, to seek it out. So there are certain things that we do

00:47:24.800 not know. And within the sovereign hidden will of God, one of those things may be to show,

00:47:29.460 to demonstrate through human history in this earth in this tapestry the stage where god is

00:47:36.440 displaying his majesty and power he may choose for his own glory to display the beauty of christ

00:47:45.020 through the west and its flourishing and to also display the terrible judgment of rejecting christ

00:47:52.680 by decimating the West.

00:47:56.380 That is not in his revealed will.

00:47:59.480 That belongs to his secret sovereign will.

00:48:02.920 We hold that as a very real possibility.

00:48:06.500 But we don't work towards that.

00:48:09.440 As Christians, we do not work

00:48:11.080 towards self-fulfilling prophecies.

00:48:14.640 We are not dispensationalists.

00:48:19.020 We are covenant theologians.

00:48:22.680 That God works in the world through covenant, through promise, through federal headship.

00:48:30.800 And for those who have union with Christ, we know what to expect.

00:48:36.620 Inmity, persecution, but in God's sovereign will, if he should so choose.

00:48:44.440 Immense blessings, immense kindness, virtue, and transformation of the world.

00:48:52.680 We keep fighting. We keep working. We keep preaching Christ and him crucified and Christ

00:49:00.340 and him risen. The hope of humanity, the only hope of the world. But we as the church should

00:49:08.900 be the first to recognize where judgment comes from, where judgment begins, namely the house

00:49:15.800 of God and where blessings come from and all of it is bound up not in a mere principle but in a

00:49:25.600 person the risen Lord Jesus his resurrection is so powerful so poignant so profound

00:49:35.300 that because he rose from the dead,

00:49:38.700 he is reviving and restoring all things.

00:49:46.760 All things are being raised.

00:49:49.740 Some things more quickly than others.

00:49:52.600 Some people more quickly than others.

00:49:56.040 And just as a tree goes through seasons,

00:49:59.300 seasons of growth, seasons of pruning, withering,

00:50:03.160 certain branches whole branches might die rot and fall away but the tree and its root continues

00:50:12.000 and its overall trajectory not a perfect steady never dipping line of incline but dips and spikes

00:50:21.100 along the way some of these spikes long and severe but so too a healthy tree with its root

00:50:28.160 as Christ, it endures and it grows. And that is not merely a Western tree or an American tree.

00:50:39.100 It is a Christian tree. It is a global tree. And our branch may be about to die,

00:50:48.400 or our branch may be going through severe pruning so that the healthy twigs might get more rain and

00:50:55.400 sunlight and eventually take over. That's a secret thing, belonging to the sovereign will of God.

00:51:03.520 Either way, our job is to obey the revealed things, the things he's written in this book.

00:51:10.300 To have no other gods before him. To not make any graven images. To not take his name in vain.

00:51:18.800 To remember the Sabbath, not just once a year, but every week and keep it holy.

00:51:23.600 to honor our father and our mother

00:51:26.020 that our days might be long

00:51:28.480 in the land, the physical land

00:51:31.840 that we are inheriting.

00:51:34.000 The meek shall inherit the earth,

00:51:36.720 not just heaven.

00:51:38.760 Thou shall not murder.

00:51:41.000 Thou shall not commit adultery.

00:51:43.780 We should not steal

00:51:45.160 or support Marxism and socialism

00:51:48.480 and communism, which is theft.

00:51:50.380 we shall not bear false witness

00:51:54.160 which means Christians need to know history

00:51:58.040 so that they can be truth tellers

00:52:00.340 and we shall not covet

00:52:05.460 envy is the root

00:52:08.040 it's the root of progressive religious sentiment

00:52:12.900 it's the root of Marxism, the root of communism

00:52:15.860 the root of Black Lives Matter

00:52:17.680 the root of every bad thing we've endured.

00:52:23.380 Envy is at the root of it all.

00:52:27.160 The scripture says that coveting is idolatry.

00:52:32.120 Envy is the root of all kinds of demonic ideology

00:52:36.740 because envy is coveting and coveting is idolatry.

00:52:41.740 It is to worship stuff and material

00:52:44.640 rather than the Creator

00:52:47.180 who is outside of creation,

00:52:50.760 a most pure spirit without body parts and passions

00:52:54.120 who dwells in inapproachable light.

00:52:57.460 It is the worship of the creature

00:52:59.120 rather than the Creator

00:53:00.240 who is to be forever praised.

00:53:03.140 We do not covet.

00:53:04.920 We do not envy.

00:53:06.680 We say, as David says,

00:53:08.440 the lines have fallen in pleasant places for me.

00:53:12.380 The Lord is my portion.

00:53:14.640 my treasure, the strength of my heart forever.

00:53:19.300 He is my shepherd, and I shall not want.

00:53:24.720 This is our blueprint.

00:53:26.740 This is our plan.

00:53:28.760 These are the commands of God,

00:53:30.280 which are good and holy and right,

00:53:31.980 and the fuel for obeying all of them

00:53:34.280 is the gospel,

00:53:36.120 that we are saved by grace alone,

00:53:39.500 through faith alone,

00:53:42.000 in Christ alone,

00:53:44.640 A crucified Christ, not just as example, but as substitute dying in our place.

00:53:51.100 And a risen Christ who was raised for our justification.

00:53:56.020 Let's pray.

00:53:57.340 Father God, we thank you for Jesus.

00:53:59.780 His life, his death, his resurrection.

00:54:03.300 His ascension.

00:54:05.440 That he is seated in honor, glory, and power.

00:54:10.700 And we thank you for his promise that he will return again.

00:54:14.640 Whether it be soon, or whether he tarry and it be long,

00:54:20.340 in either case, in the same way you do not let his body see decay,

00:54:26.500 so too he has not left us as orphans,

00:54:30.140 but he has promised to come to us.

00:54:33.240 And not only in his bodily return on the final day,

00:54:37.560 but he has come to us even now,

00:54:40.500 through the ministry of the Holy Spirit,

00:54:42.560 who exudes the spirit of the risen Christ

00:54:47.780 and who indwells all Christians

00:54:51.740 all those who believe

00:54:53.860 we have his presence with us

00:54:58.060 and we have Christ

00:55:00.320 our resurrected Lord

00:55:02.440 his spiritual presence

00:55:03.920 especially and uniquely with us

00:55:06.640 on the Lord's day

00:55:08.040 and not just once a year

00:55:10.600 but every Sunday

00:55:12.500 Christians all over the world

00:55:14.640 gather together because it is the first day of the week

00:55:17.900 the Christian Sabbath

00:55:19.280 the day that Christ rose from the dead

00:55:22.140 we celebrate the resurrection

00:55:24.440 every week

00:55:26.280 not only every year

00:55:27.840 and we have been given by your grace

00:55:31.600 and by the power of your spirit

00:55:33.280 resurrection power as the church

00:55:35.940 to be the hands and feet of Jesus

00:55:38.580 to be his body here on earth

00:55:40.960 baptizing the nations slowly but surely as we seek to be faithful some of us like hebrews 11 says

00:55:52.240 will experience great victory shut the mouth of lions conquer conquer whole armies

00:56:00.100 others of us will be sawn in two drawn and courted imprisoned martyred but both through

00:56:09.820 victory in this life and even through death and great tragedy both advance the church

00:56:17.980 both advance the glory of the king to the king in the name of jesus we pray amen he is risen

00:56:29.080 amen can i be frank with you for just a second right here at the end look some of you guys

00:56:37.160 you're financially supporting this ministry. And from the bottom of my heart, I say, thank you. I

00:56:42.560 cannot thank you enough. However, some of you, you just, you can't afford it. In fact, some of you,

00:56:49.940 you shouldn't afford it. Let's be honest. I mean, we're living in Joe Biden's ridiculous economy.

00:56:56.640 Our nation and our totalitarian political elites lost their minds over the last three years 0.91

00:57:04.760 due to COVID. We have written checks that we simply cannot cash. It doesn't matter if people

00:57:11.700 change the definition of a recession. We are living in a recession right now regardless.

00:57:18.600 Some of you are struggling to afford a carton of eggs at the grocery store. You cannot support

00:57:24.900 financially this ministry at this time, nor should you, but you could still help us tremendously.

00:57:31.580 I am asking you, please, if you're willing to do so, take one minute of your time.

00:57:38.140 Leave us a five-star review on your favorite podcast platform, iTunes, Spotify, whatever

00:57:44.280 that might be.

00:57:45.540 This is the way the system works.

00:57:47.640 We want to be innocent as doves, but shrewd as vipers.

00:57:51.800 We need to be strategic.

00:57:53.660 You leave us a five-star review, and our podcast shows up for more people.

00:57:58.180 and the Word of God and courageous theology applied in practical ways to every realm of life

00:58:05.800 gets out there. Help us get it out there. Thanks for tuning in.

The NXR Podcast - April 09, 2023

SUNDAY SERMON - How The Resurrection Destroys Marxism, Communism, & Envy

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript