Not Backing Down from a Fight

Hello, and thank you for listening to the

Testing the Spirits podcast. The title of this episode is Not Backing Down from a

Fight. Not backing down from a fight. What do I mean by that? Well, first, let me just say,

I'm not talking about physical altercations or even verbal fights with your co -workers or friends or your spouse or church members, nothing like that.

I believe in turning the other cheek. I believe in living, as much as depends on you, living peaceably with all men.

Proverbs 15 verse 1 says, A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

So we're not talking about fighting in that regard. But when I say, don't back down from a fight, or, you know,

I'm not going to back down from a fight. I'm talking about fighting for truth, fighting for God and His Word and fighting for what is right.

If I'm personally right about something, I've learned being right is overrated. I don't need to prove myself right.

But when it comes to what God's Word says, that's a fight we can't back down from.

And by God's grace, I won't back down from these fights because there's all sorts of, you know, fight the good fight of faith,

Paul says. But there's all sorts of things, a pastor and really just, you know, just Christians in general.

There's all sorts of things we're being bombarded with and yeah, we have to stand up for what's right.

Just take the Alistair Begg situation that everyone is still talking about. After several weeks, the conversation just keeps expanding.

And every day, just to use this as an illustration, every day I get comments. 90 % of the comments are supportive, but every day

I get worldly Christians and people coming on my channel, trying to defend the idea that Christians should in fact attend quote unquote trans weddings.

And because I say, no, you shouldn't do that. And because I disagreed with that advice, uh, these people, they come on and they insult you.

They call me judgmental and everyone else is dealing with this too, right? Who's weighed in on this subject.

If, if, and if you fight for biblical truth, here's what people are going to say about you. They're going to call you a Pharisee.

They're going to call you a legalist. You know, you're a judgmental legalistic person and all those typical things that people say when they really have no biblical argument, what are they trying to do?

They're trying to get you to back down. They're trying to get you to shut up is what they're doing.

Uh, they're trying to get me to back down and cave in and the rest of us so that we say, okay, all right, we agree with Alistair Begg.

If you want to attend the gay wedding and it's not a wedding, of course, it's a celebration of sin, but they want us to just back down and say, okay, go ahead.

And it's, it's fine. But you know what? It's not fine. And we can't back down. I know how compromise and false doctrine works.

If you give an inch, they'll take a mile. As Paul said in Galatians five, nine, a little leaven leavens the whole lump.

We had that local outbreak of heresy, uh, several months back, a couple people, including a pastor told me halfway through that process, you know, just might just step back, let it go.

You've already said, you know, what you, what you think, uh, people heard it, just, just let it go.

I think you're making a difference. Just kind of let it go. And I didn't let it go.

And as much as I appreciated those people and I do appreciate input and advice, we all should seek counsel from other believers and other pastors.

And I do that. Um, but in that case, I just didn't see any progress. I mean, nothing had changed, nothing had happened.

So I stayed on top of the issue and kept pressing it. I didn't back down. And eventually, uh, yeah, those messengers for universalism, uh, they finally got marked and avoided.

The pastors came together and we got it done. Praise God. But if I had just backed down, you know, the first time somebody said,

Hey, come on, just kind of, if I had backed down, then they'd still be going from church to church.

So some of you are new to the channel. You'll have to go back and listen to previous, uh, podcasts, uh, type in heresy.

And that will explain, uh, the podcast I did on that will explain that situation.

But the point is you got to stay on top of things. You need to keep fighting the good fight. You can't back down.

Even if people tell you, you should let it go. Or if people call you names, don't back down.

So whether it's that or the advice to attend a trans wedding.

And if you're listening on Spotify, I'm putting that in scare quotes, you know, trans wedding quote unquote, because nobody has ever transitioned their gender and there's no such thing as a trans or gay wedding, but whether it's that or whatever, the next thing will be, you know, somebody at some point soon, probably they're going to some famous pastors going to come out and he's going to say or do or teach something unbiblical.

And then we're going to respond, I'll say something. And then once again, you're going to get hit with,

Oh man, you're just a Pharisee. You're just this, you're just that. Let's talk about that accusation for a moment.

A Pharisee. Okay. What is a Pharisee? Well, is that a legitimate insult?

First of all, you shouldn't be insulting other Christians. So calling them names, especially pastors, you shouldn't call them names because this is what the world does, right?

When they can't defend their argument, they resort to ad hominem attacks and name calling, right?

The democratic party is famous for this. If you disagree with their policies, they just call you a racist, right?

Racist, homophobic, xenophobic, whatever, you know, and back in 2020, if you didn't shut down your church, you were, you were a horrible person.

You were going to kill grandma and they just insulted you personally, right? If you didn't support the rioting and the, the

Marxist black lives, uh, yeah, black lives matter organization, BLM, uh, if you didn't support all that, you were just racist.

I mean, this is what the world does all the time. They try to scare people into remaining silent because nobody wants to get called names.

Nobody wants to be called a racist. So they know if they just slander people and call them names that will keep most people quiet.

Even though 99 % of those people they called racist, weren't actually racist.

What is it though? It's a tactic to try and shut down conversation. So it's the same thing in the

Christian world. When someone calls you a Pharisee, that's the Christian version of all that.

They're just trying to shut down conversation. What's the title of the podcast? Not backing down from a fight.

Yeah, it's true. No Christian wants to be called judgmental or a Pharisee or a legalist.

But is that really an accurate term? Is that really what the

Pharisees were? The Pharisees were horrible because they called out sin or they said,

Hey, this is wrong. And they spoke up when someone taught, is that really the problem with the Pharisees? Someone who's let's think about this.

Okay. If someone comes on my YouTube channel and they call me a Pharisee, that's obviously not a compliment.

What are they saying? They're saying that you're judgmental because you're calling this person out.

You're saying this is wrong. You're judging. And Jesus said, judge not, right? That's the argument.

But ironically, when they come on and call me a Pharisee or they call me or you judgmental, that's a judgment.

They're actually judging you at that moment. So ironically, the thing they're accusing you of and accusing me of, they're the ones actually guilty of doing it, right?

So in a Pharisee, here's the thing about a Pharisee, a Pharisee is not someone who calls people out for sin or, you know, speaks out against it.

Otherwise Jesus himself would be a Pharisee because he did that. A Pharisee isn't someone who names names, otherwise

Paul would be a Pharisee. Because what were the Pharisees guilty of?

According to Jesus, they were hypocrites, right? He called them hypocrites.

The problem with the Pharisees is that they were portraying one thing on the surface, but inside, you know, on the outside they looked very godly and religious, but on the inside they were utterly corrupt and godless.

The word Jesus used was hypocrite, which comes from the term meaning an actor, right?

Their whole life, their whole religious life, it was just an act. They were doing and saying things just to appear godly, but inside and in their personal lives they were violating

God's law right and left. So they appeared good, but on the inside they were not.

It was all an act. On top of that, and here's what a lot of people miss, the Pharisees, a lot of the things that they said and a lot of things they believed were actually right.

The problem was not that they were interested in sound doctrine or teaching, you know, they're too strict in teaching the truth and upholding

God's law. The problem was that they themselves were disobeying it. They said, you need to obey, but they themselves would just do whatever they want.

At one point in the gospels, Jesus called the Pharisees lawless. I did a whole sermon on this titled

The Real Pharisees. That's on the Morris Corner Church YouTube channel if you want to check it out.

But the Pharisees, yeah, they would say one thing and then do another. Here's what Jesus said about them in Matthew 23.

He said, the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses seat. Therefore, whatever they tell you to observe that observe and do, but do not do according to their works for they say and they do not do for they bind heavy burdens hard to bear and they lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers, but all their works they do to be seen by men.

So that's the real issue with the Pharisees. Everything they did was just for show. They, like, they didn't really believe the things that they said.

It was just an act. So to call a Christian a Pharisee, I mean, that is quite an accusation, but what they're saying is, well, you're just judging.

You know, you speak out against gay marriage. How dare you? You're just being judgmental.

Well, but the Bible speaks against gay marriage. Jesus said marriage is between one man and one woman.

And there's a whole bunch of other sins and things that are right and wrong that we talk about.

I mean, if that makes you a Pharisee, simply saying what the Bible says,

I mean, it just doesn't add up. But again, it's, it's just like the world calling someone a racist.

It's, it's not, it doesn't matter if it's true, it's just meant to shut down conversation.

So in conclusion, to call someone this, to call them a legalistic, judgmental

Pharisee, they're just trying to get you to back down and we can't back down from a fight.

When we're fighting for the truth, when we're standing for God's word, we cannot back down.

That's what they're trying to do. So next time somebody comes at you with one of these insults, ad hominem attacks, accusations, just remember all they're doing is mudslinging.

Don't get down in the mud with them. Don't call them names back. Just say, thus saith the

Lord. So just say, hey, here's what the Bible says. You know, this whole issue,

Jesus said, marriage is between one man and one woman. The Bible said, avoid all appearances of evil.

Just go back, constantly go back to the scriptures. That's where the power is.

That is how we change people's mind by simply speaking the word of God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

Quote the Bible, let the spirit do his work. That's what we need to do. Until next time, don't back down from a fight when you're fighting for God's truth.