Dr. James White: Yahweh is Righteous in Judgment

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You'll turn, please, in your Bibles with me to the ninth chapter of Nehemiah.

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Certainly one of the most popular books in the Bible. So I'm sure you'll be there real fast.

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Nehemiah chapter nine. While you're turning, I should, I would be remiss if I did not take a brief opportunity to wish a happy anniversary to my dear bride.

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This coming Tuesday will mark 42 years since we said

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I do. And she was a one -year -old and I was much older than her.

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But obviously she has proven herself to be an extremely patient woman.

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And so I'm sure all the younger women, if you'd like some tips and advice on how to live with a difficult man,

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I'm sure she would be happy to help you out with that. And that probably means that she'll be driving home separately from me this evening.

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But anyways, Nehemiah chapter nine, you might go, wow, how did we get there?

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I remember in seminary, I had to sort of petition the seminary to take more

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Hebrew than they actually offered. And in one of those classes,

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I don't remember exactly what it was. It was Hebrew poetry, as I recall. I was looking for a text to work on that wasn't in the

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Psalter. And I stumbled upon Nehemiah chapter nine. Now, hopefully in most of your

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Bibles, starting in verse five, about halfway through verse five, the text will turn into, it'll be formatted as poetry rather than just as standard prose.

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And so I spent some time with this. It was relevant to Mormonism, which was really important to me at that particular time, doing studies in that area.

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And it's just one of the most useful summaries of what

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God did with the people of Israel. If you're ever looking, for example, in your homeschool situation to have a sort of a general summary of redemptive history,

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God's dealings with Israel, this is a real good summary. There are a few of them. We, Book of Acts, we have a summary as well, but here is one found in the

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Tanakh, a term I like to use, the Old Testament, okay? The Hebrew scriptures.

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I like Tanakh. It's Torah for the law, Nevi 'im for the prophets,

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Ketuvim for the writings, Tanakh, a good way to refer to the Hebrew scriptures.

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A tremendous section, which we will only be able to touch on briefly, obviously this afternoon.

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I wanna look at just a few particular points, but read through it with you, and hopefully it will be a blessing to us.

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I wanna get to a particular portion toward the end, because I wanna ask us to consider if we were in the situation that they were in, how would we respond?

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And we may be facing that kind of challenge to our faithfulness in the not too distant future.

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So what we have here is we have the gathering together. Notice beginning in verse one, now on the 24th day of this month, the sons of Israel gathered with fasting in sackcloth and with dirt upon them.

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The seed of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.

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And they rose up in their place and read from the book of the law of Yahweh their God for a fourth of the day. And for another fourth, they were confessing and worshiping

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Yahweh their God. So here you have the people of Israel. They have been very humiliated.

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They have been crushed by their enemies. They have come back into the land, but they know, they can see the evidence all around them of what they once had and what they have no longer.

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And so they are reading from the book of law of Yahweh for a fourth of the day.

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And for another fourth, they were confessing and worshiping Yahweh their God. Is that how we would respond if we were coming back from captivity, from seeing everything that we had once thought were the gifts of God taken away from us because of our sin.

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And there is a confession that is being made. And so in verse five, rise up, bless

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Yahweh your God from everlasting to everlasting. So here's the call. Even in the midst of the ruins, all they've done is they've gotten the wall up and they're in the midst of the ruins.

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And yet the call is rise up, bless Yahweh your God from everlasting to everlasting.

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How many of us would turn a deaf ear to that call if we had just lost all of our physical possessions?

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If we had just, because we are living amongst a sinful people, experienced the oppression of unbelievers, pagans.

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Pagans had overrun their land, destroyed their temple. Be very easy to become discouraged at a point like that.

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But they are called to rise up, bless Yahweh your God from everlasting to everlasting. Oh, may your glorious name be blessed and exalted above all blessing and praise.

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You alone are Yahweh. They understand who their

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God is. And in much of the Old Testament material coming up to this point, the people of Israel had forgotten who

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Yahweh was. They had joined the worship of Yahweh with the worship of other gods.

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They had gone up to the high places and worshiped Baal and engaged in sexual deviancy and the offering of sacrifices and even the sacrifices of their children.

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They had combined all this with the worship of Yahweh. They had forgotten that Yahweh alone was their

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God. And now when all their stuff has been removed, their freedom has been taken from them.

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Now they are focused upon God. May your glorious name be blessed and exalted above all blessing and praise.

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Not may your temple and all the things we have be blessed. May you be blessed.

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You alone are Yahweh. There are no other gods to join with you.

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And then you have the confession on the part of the people of a fundamental foundational reality that we must keep in mind.

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It's not just simply a fact that we put into a folder someplace on our hard drive. This is central to why we do what we do and why we continue to do what we do even when we live in a land under judgment, even when we do not see the accomplishments we want to see in the work that we're doing.

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What is it? You have made the heavens, the heaven of heavens with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and in all that is in them.

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You give life to all of them. The heavenly host bows down to you.

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You are Yahweh God. This is not just simply another reference to creationism and all the things that are related to that.

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It is the fundamental assertion that we worship the creator who made us and formed us and the world we live in is moving toward the conclusion that his creative decree has provided.

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And therefore, when he commands us to worship, even if what we see around us says, don't worship, even if what we see around us says, well, you're not getting anything out of this, we are commanded to worship because he is

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God. He made the heavens, the heaven of heavens with all their hosts, the earth and all that is on it.

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In a few weeks, I'm gonna be heading out on another trip, hoping to avoid all emergency rooms on the way on this one.

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And one of the things I wanna do because I'm gonna be going up to Colorado is

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I have a camera set up. And a number of years ago, I started doing a little astrophotography.

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I haven't been able to keep up with it, but I'm going to try to get some good shots of the

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Milky Way from seven, eight, 9 ,000 feet above sea level.

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Problem is today, you know what the problems is today? Any picture you'll take, any exposure over time that you take of the sky now, you know what you're gonna see?

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Lines all over the place. You know what they are? Starlink satellites. They're everywhere.

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They're everywhere. You literally cannot take a picture of the sky. And I know if you live in the city, you don't see the stars anyways.

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But believe it or not, you get outside the city and it's amazing up there. It really, really is.

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And you look at these things. And right now the web telescope is finding all sorts of stuff that we had never imagined.

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And I would, by the way, just recommend to you, keep an eye on Jason Lyle's Biblical Science Institute website.

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He's doing a great job in taking that information coming from the web telescope and demonstrating its consistency with the

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Christian worldview. He's such a brilliant fellow. But the beauty of the heavens and all their starry hosts, they could not, even though back then they certainly had, they didn't know what light pollution was back then.

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They could see in that dark night the beauty of what was up there, but they could not have understood, they didn't understand that those, they could only see a couple of these little fluffy cotton balls up there, which we now know are entire galaxies.

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The massive size of this creation was not known until recent times.

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And yet we continue to confess who is the maker of all of these things?

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Yahweh made the heavens. He didn't come out of the heavens, He made the heavens with all their host and the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them.

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And you give life to all of them and the heavenly host bows down to you.

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This is our God, the maker of all things. And it's so easy for us to get our eyes upon the things on this planet, the things going on politically, the things going on with the upcoming election and our minds get focused upon that and we lose sight of the fact that God is the one who has made all of these things,

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He's accomplishing His purpose, He has given life to everyone upon this planet, He is going to judge everyone someday and He calls us to be a part and obedient part of His work in this world.

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And He's going to continue to do that work even after you and I are gone.

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And so we can trust His providence and His sovereignty in our lives.

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You give life to all of them, the heavenly host bows down to you, Yahweh is not just one

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God amongst many gods, He is the creator of all things.

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You are Yahweh God, you chose Abram and brought him out from Ur of the Chaldees and gave him the name

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Abraham. You found his heart faithful before you and cut a covenant with him to give him the land of the

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Canaanite, of the Hittite, of the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite and the Girgashite, to give it to his seed. And you have established your promise for you are righteous, not we are righteous, not we are special, you are righteous and you've established your promise.

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And even though we are now but a remnant in a wrecked and shattered land, you have been faithful because you are righteous.

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You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry by the Red Sea. Then you perform signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his servants and all the people of his land.

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For you knew that they acted presumptuously and made a name for yourself as it is this day.

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Don't have time to go over it. But when you look carefully at the plagues, we'll have to do that sometime.

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Really uplifting sermon series. Let's look at the plagues. But the plagues specifically, when you know the background history, were aimed at the specific gods of Egypt.

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Yahweh was demonstrating his supremacy over the very gods the people of Egypt believed were providing them with their riches and their power and their food and their water.

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And it was those gods that were the direct object of those plagues. That's how he made a name for himself as it is this day.

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You split the sea before them, so they pass through the midst of the sea on dry land and their pursuers you cast into the depths like a stone into mighty waters.

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With a pillar of cloud, you led them by day with a pillar of fire by night to light for them the way in which they were to go.

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It's amazing to think about those supernatural events right there amongst the people of Israel.

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And how many times seeing that supernatural sign of God's presence, did they rebel anyway?

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Ever thought about that? I don't know about you, but if I saw a pillar of fire by night and cloud by day that was leading me around,

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I might think twice before going after other gods or questioning

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God's commandments and things like that, but they didn't. It's an amazing thing to consider.

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Then you came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven. You gave them upright judgments and true laws, good statutes and commandments.

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I wanna stop there for just a second. How many times do you hear people today in the standard preaching of evangelical churches refer to God's law as upright judgments, true laws, good statutes and commandments?

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Good, upright, proper, appropriate. There is such a deep sense of antinomianism, opposition to God's law that is a part of American Christianity.

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It wasn't there from the beginning, but it has become very much a part of things. To where the idea is the law is bad and evil and it's old and it's passed away.

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And there are aspects of it that have been fulfilled. And there were aspects in regards to sacrifices that were pointing forward to Christ.

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They have been fulfilled. That's true, but none of that changed the fact that he gave them upright judgments and true laws.

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We live in a day where when we look at the government in this land and the government in other lands, the governments in Europe, oh, to long for upright judgments and true laws, good statutes and commandments, instead of the corrupted, evil, perverted things we see.

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I'm watching this election. We knew it was gonna be weird, right?

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Nobody's surprised by that, I hope. But my goodness, I saw a candidate, obviously for the

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Socialist Party, also known as the Democrats. I saw a candidate online yesterday at some type of a rally dropping profanity right, left, and center.

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In front of everyone. These are the same people. I don't know, did you see the new deputy person for communications that was just announced for the

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White House? I mean, these people are literally looking to Sodom and Gomorrah and going, they were amateurs, what can we do to incite

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God's wrath more rapidly than Sodom and Gomorrah did? That's what is going on in Washington right now.

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We should be longing for upright judgments and true laws. We should be longing for good statutes and commandments.

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And we have them. What were they reading at the beginning of this chapter? They didn't have everything we have.

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Can you imagine they didn't have any of the New Testament? They only had some portions of the

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Psalter and yet described as upright judgments, true laws.

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That's what we need. We need a word from our God. He, notice he says, you came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven.

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That's what we need. And that's what we have. And the people carrying it around are embarrassed by what it says.

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They're embarrassed to say, world, do you wanna know how to live in prosperity and peace?

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God has spoken to us. Oh, we don't wanna say that. So you made known to them your holy

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Sabbath and commanded them commandments, statutes and laws by the hand of your servant Moses. And having given law, he then provided sustenance.

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You gave bread from heaven for them for their hunger and brought forth water from a rock for them for their thirst.

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And you said to them to enter in order to possess the land which you swore to give to them. But they, our fathers, acted presumptuously.

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They became stiff -necked and would not listen to your commandments. They refused to listen and did not remember your wondrous deeds, which you did among them.

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They became stiff -necked and gave themselves a chief to return to their slavery in Egypt.

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But you are a God of great or lavish forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness, chesed, loving kindness, covenant faithfulness.

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And you did not forsake them, even when they made for themselves a molten calf and said, this is your

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God who brought you up from Egypt and committed great blasphemies.

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And oh, they did. But you, in your abundant compassion, did not forsake them in the wilderness.

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The pillar of cloud did not depart from them by day to lead them on their way, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way in which they were to go.

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Think about that. The unregenerate heart, the heart that is not filled with love for God, can get used to seeing the suffering of others as supernatural and even twist that supernatural into something that allows them to sin even more.

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They can see God's presence. And when God does not immediately break out upon them in judgment, well, we can do even more, can't we?

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We can sin even more. God's not gonna judge us. We're seeing that right now.

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As God's patience has been demonstrated, what are we seeing?

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Breaking out amongst us the most vile and open rebellion that you could ever imagine.

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You gave your good spirit to give them insight. Even God's spirit continued to minister amongst the people.

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Your manna you did not withhold from their mouth and you gave them water for their thirst.

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Indeed, 40 years you sustained them in the wilderness and they did not lack. Their clothes did not wear out, nor did their feet swell.

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You also gave them kingdoms and peoples and apportioned them to them as a boundary. You took possession of the land of Sihon, the king of Heshmon, the land of Og, the king of Bashan.

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You made their sons numerous as the stars of heaven and you brought them into the land which you had said for their fathers to enter and possess.

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So their sons entered and possessed the land and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the

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Canaanites, and you gave them into their hand with their kings and the peoples of the land to do with them according to their desire.

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They captured fortified cities and a rich land. They took possession of houses full of every good thing, hewn cisterns, vineyards, olive groves, trees for food and abundance.

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So they ate, were filled, and grew fat and reveled in your great goodness.

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You know, you can almost at that point hear what's coming. Blessing after blessing, trees for food and abundance, they ate, were filled, grew fat, reveled in your great goodness.

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How often have we heard it said, you know, good times produce weak men and all the rest of that stuff?

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Well, it's happened over and over again. But they became disobedient and rebelled against you and cast your law behind their backs.

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Picture that in your mind for a moment. You came down from heaven and spoke with them, here's my law, and you blessed them.

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And what's their response? What do they do? They rebelled against you and cast your law behind their back.

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You can just see, taking something and it means nothing to me.

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That's how you show disrespect for something. You cast it behind your back. And that's what they did.

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And that's what people in our day are doing. They've cast God's law behind their backs and killed your prophets who had testified to them so that they might return to you.

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And they committed great blasphemies. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the ones who distressed them.

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And they afflicted them with distress. Here comes the period of the judges. But at the time of their distress, they cried to you and you listened from heaven.

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And according to your abundant compassion, you gave them saviors and they saved them from the hand of the ones that distressed them.

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But as soon as they had rest, they returned to do evil before you. You see, there wasn't any change of the heart.

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The outward circumcision did not result in a circumcised heart, a changed heart.

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And when difficulty comes, people will cry out for help. Just because someone cries out for help doesn't mean that their heart's been changed.

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They may very well simply be focused upon themselves. I'm unhappy. I'm losing my stuff.

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God gave them saviors. They save them from the hand of the ones that distress them. But as soon as they had rest, as soon as the pressure was off, they returned to do evil before you.

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Therefore, you forsook them in the hand of their enemies so that they had dominion over them.

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Then they returned and cried to you and you listened from heaven. And many times you delivered them according to your compassion and testified them in order to turn them back, what?

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To your law. To your law. That's what they're being called, be obedient.

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You see, you'll never be obedient to God if you don't love him. And what's the greatest commandment? Love the

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Lord your God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Since God's law represents his nature and his character, then you want to do what is pleasing to him.

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And you want to look to what will reveal what is pleasing to him. He testified to them in order to turn them back to your law.

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Yet, they acted presumptuously, did not listen to your commandments, but sinned against your judgments.

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By which if a man does them, he shall live. Paul quotes from this. You do what

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God commands, you will live. Problem is, we don't do. That's the issue.

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And they gave a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not listen.

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Despite all the history of God's compassion and mercy toward them. No. However, you bore with them for many years and testified them by your spirit, by the hand of your prophets.

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Prophet after prophet lived difficult, hard lives of rejection, loneliness.

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Think of Elijah. Yet they would not give ear. So you gave them in the hand of the peoples of the lands.

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Nevertheless, in your abundant compassion, you did not make a complete destruction of them or forsake them.

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For you are a gracious and compassionate God. Here you have the remnant that has returned.

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And they have to recognize God is a gracious and compassionate

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God. The very fact that they are there. Oh yes.

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So many had died. Died at the hands of the

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Assyrians, died at the hands of the Babylonians. But here was the remnant.

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God was keeping his promise. For you are a gracious and compassionate

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God. So now, here's where I want us to focus in.

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So now our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome

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God who keeps covenant and loving kindness, do not let all the hardships seem insignificant before you.

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So once again, having told the story, now addressing

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God, the great God, the mighty God, the awesome God. Many people would have told them, how can you still believe that about your

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God? Look what he's allowed to have happen to his people. But they understood why. They had read from the law of God for a fourth of the day.

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They had read the blessings and the cursings. Deuteronomy 28, 29.

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Read them sometime. They knew that what

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God has done was righteous. They said, do not let all the hardships seem insignificant before you, which has found us, our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your people from the days of the kings of Assyria to this day.

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However, you are righteous in all that has come upon us for you have dealt in truth, but we have acted wickedly.

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Now, our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers did not do your law or pay attention to your commandments and your testimonies with which you testified against them.

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But they, in their own kingdom, with your abundant goodness, which you gave them, with the broad and rich land, which you set before them, did not serve you or turn from their evil deeds.

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Behold, we are slaves today. As to the land, which you gave to our fathers to eat its fruit and its goodness, behold, we are slaves in it.

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Its abundance produce is for the kings whom you have put over us because of our sins.

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They also rule over our bodies and over our cattle according to their desire.

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So we are in great distress. Do you hear this?

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Verse 33. However, you are righteous in all that has come upon us.

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Here is the primary question I want us to think about as we look to the word of God today.

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I don't believe that the United States is a direct parallel to the people of Israel in the sense of having all the covenant promises that were made to them and all that kind of stuff.

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However, it is self -evident that the knowledge of God's law and God's way possessed by the founders of this nation would have been greater than that of the people in Nehemiah 9.

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They had all the rest of what God did. They had all the rest of the

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Tanakh, the Hebrew scriptures, and then they had the fulfillment in the

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New Testament. And it is self -evident that the entire system that was designed to govern man, the laws of this land recognized, recognized the sinfulness of sin, attempted to restrain that, and it was based upon what?

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It was based upon God's revelation in scripture. And so here's my question for us.

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We live each day as if all of the comforts that we are accustomed to will always be ours.

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We've all driven here and we were pulling in. I couldn't bring my truck today. I've got to take it in for some work tomorrow.

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And so we were in our littler vehicle and we were waiting to turn left out here. And we saw a big old van turning right.

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And I sort of jokingly said to my wife, well, there is an apology of vehicle. You can sort of recognize them pretty well.

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Most of us drove here. Most of us have had plenty of food today, maybe more than we should have had.

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Yeah, it's warm in here, but we've got fans and we do have air conditioning. Believe you me, we've got a whole lot better than a lot of God's people around the world had today.

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As God's son has, as we have circled God's son, as the earth has turned and the day has passed, many of our brothers and sisters met in crude huts and shelters.

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No air conditioning, no fans, no cold water. And they rejoiced at the opportunity.

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Didn't have nearly the food, healthcare systems, man, it's only been a month since I had surgery, full out anesthesia, whole nine yards.

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Here I stand. If I couldn't have had that surgery, I would not be standing here. We have many brothers and sisters don't have that opportunity.

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We have our cars and our houses and retirement accounts and grocery stores all around us.

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And we're so accustomed to it that we almost never give thanks for it. Oh, we may bow our heads and thank you

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Lord for this food. But are we really truly thankful for the ease with which we can obtain so many things?

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And what if he began to disappear? What if God finally lifted his hand of restraint and protection?

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Upon this land and gave us into the hands of our enemies. In many ways, I would argue that has already happened.

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I truly believe that the people, the highest levels of authority in this land are our enemies.

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They're traitors, they're committing treason and seeking to destroy this land, our liberties and our freedoms.

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What did, what were the words we just read from Nehemiah 9?

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We're slaves in the land you gave to us and yet you're righteous because we sin.

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Can any of us look around this land right now and go, oh God bless

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America, we truly walk in your light. When the

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White House is adorned in rainbow lights and does everything it can to promote every form of sexual debauchery and murder of unborn children known to man, the hands of this nation drip with blood, not just from abortion, but from an endless series of wars all around the world.

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Our leaders are this close. They are trying, it seems to me, to start

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World War III. For what reasons? We can only speculate.

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They're madmen. They're madmen. So if God brought judgment, if we no longer had a place like this to meet in, if we had to find other ways, what if we could no longer even meet and we had to break up into smaller groups, didn't have all the comforts, would we say what they said then?

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You are righteous in all that has come upon us. Oh, it's easy sitting here. To say, oh, yes,

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I would. But I know, I have seen when

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God has brought trial and difficulty into people's lives, I've seen people stand firm and maintain their testimony and grow in grace, but I've also seen the others.

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How many of those big mega churches that met today, this morning, especially down in Texas, mega churches that used to be basketball arenas where people come in and they never hear about God's law.

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They never hear about sin. They never hear about what it means to glorify

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Christ. It's all about them and God's plan for their being rich and healthy and happy.

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And when they're no longer rich and healthy and happy, are they gonna say you are righteous in all that has come upon us?

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You have to have a foundation for that. That needs to be a deep foundation, a strong foundation.

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Would we be committed to saying, for you have dealt in truth. You've dealt in truth.

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You told all of mankind, you behave this way. This is what's going to happen.

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But we have acted wickedly. We are the ones who've acted wickedly.

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You've dealt in truth. Can we honestly say, knowing what

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God's word says, that if God were to bring sudden and swift and full judgment upon Western culture as a whole, that he has dealt in truth?

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Is his word not clear? God will not be mocked.

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But we have acted wickedly. Our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers did not do your law nor pay attention to your commandments and your testimonies in which you have testified against them.

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But they in their own kingdom with your abundant goodness with which you gave them, and oh, has God blessed this nation with such abundant goodness, with the broad and rich land which you set before them, did not serve you or turn from their evil deeds.

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And what's the result? Behold, we are slaves today. And as to the land which you gave to our fathers to eat of its fruit and its goodness, behold, we are slaves in it.

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Its abundant prostitutes is for the kings whom you have put over us because of our sins.

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They also rule over our bodies and over our cattle according to their desire.

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So we are in great distress. How big would the professing church be in the

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United States if we had to sacrifice the way that Chinese Christians have to sacrifice?

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I saw a meme on Twitter. It's been a lot of discussion with Roman Catholics recently.

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There's a lot of stuff going on within Roman Catholicism. And one of the things that Roman Catholics like to point out to is they'll put a picture of a beautiful cathedral and all the stained glass and everything else.

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And then they'll have a picture of a strip mall evangelical church someplace.

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And they'll go, who really wants to worship God in a place like that? And this meme had a picture of a non -state

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Chinese church gathered in a, didn't even look structurally safe to me room.

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And you know that every single person in that room is risking life and limb to be sitting there.

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And yet there they are. And the question was, where is

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God truly being worshiped? Is he being worshiped?

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Because people see the beautiful things around them and there's nothing wrong with having beautiful things around you.

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There's nothing wrong with having things that direct your mind to God. But who's doing the true worship?

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The people who are willing to sacrifice their lives to be there or the people who only come because it's pretty.

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We are slaves today. We're slaves today.

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What a confession. You see, when Isaiah and Jeremiah were prophesying prophesying and warning with tears,

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Jeremiah is warning the people, this is what's coming. They refuse to believe that God would ever let that beautiful temple to ever be destroyed.

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God's not gonna allow his name to be trampled in the dirt and they would not confess their sins.

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And they would not confess that they actually were slaves to their sin. They were slaves to their possessions because they didn't see their slavery.

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Now this next generation lives as slaves, but they know it. And they confess it.

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And the land which had been given to them to eat of its fruit and its goodness were slaves in it and its produce is going elsewhere just as what's happening now.

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Our enemies are feeding off the dying corpse of the West.

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Do we say God is righteous? Will we say that when a corrupt, anti -Christian, secular, evil promoting nation takes your home from you which they can do quite easily.

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I mean, even if you've paid your house off, even now you have to pay rent to the government just to live in it.

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If they take from you what you've worked so hard to obtain, will you cry out to God?

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Well, they're crying out to God, but they're crying out to God in recognition of his righteousness and our sinfulness.

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Will we recognize

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God's righteousness that he's acting in accordance with truth?

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These are questions we have to ask ourselves because what we need to be saying to the world around us is this is the judgment that is coming.

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It will be according to truth. This isn't just us. God has revealed his truth.

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You're living in rebellion against his truth. And therefore, when his judgment comes, you cannot complain.

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We have warned you openly. He will act according to truth. We have to believe it if we're going to proclaim it, especially when it will cost us something to proclaim it.

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Because we already see in our land right now the detestation of rebel sinners against God's law and against God's truth.

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Throw bombs at federal buildings, no charges. Burn a donut on a pride flag on a street, federal charges.

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You know that there are already blasphemy laws being applied in our land.

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It's right in front of us, but it's not in accordance with truth. It's in accordance with a lie, a soul -destroying, man -destroying lie.

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If we're going to consistently proclaim that truth, and that's what we're called to do.

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We're called to be a prophetic voice. This, remember what it says, you acted according to truth.

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You have dealt in truth. We have to speak truth.

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We have no other message. We can't change our message to make it more palatable to rebellious sinners.

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We have to speak that truth, which means we not only have to believe it, we have to live consistently with it.

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Or our words will be empty. There are many people sitting in pews today,

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I fear, who would agree. Oh yeah, they're doing bad stuff.

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But when it comes, will you stand firm on that?

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Even if it's going to cost you. Even if God chooses to bring us to our knees, will you stand firm at that point?

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I have a feeling there's going to be a whole lot smaller group than there is on social media or Facebook right now.

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God preserved a remnant people. And when 400 years down the road, the

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Messiah came, there were still a few. There were still those looking.

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Had Simon and Anna. God had kept his people, but they were a small minority.

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By the time Christ comes, even that remnant that comes out of the days of Nehemiah and Ezra has now become focused again upon power and upon the praise of people.

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They've lost the essence of the law. This leads to all the conflict with the

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Sadducees and the Pharisees. But he did keep his people.

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He did accomplish his purpose. And no matter what happens in our world over the next years, decades,

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God's still on his throne. He's going to accomplish his purposes, but we have to recognize that there have been dark and difficult times in the history of the church.

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And if we're looking down and we're seeing the victory of Christ, are we willing to live in the day where God brings judgment and hence future generations look back and they go, never again.

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We will never let the blight of secularism and naturalism lead us to the very brink of self -destruction.

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And will anyone give thanks to God for his faithful people who remained firm and counted the cost?

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Will we be amongst those who remain firm and count the cost?

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We can't do it of ourselves. We can't do it of ourselves. I get worried whenever I see anybody who's braggadocious today about how they would,

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I just think of Peter, you know? I'll never deny you,

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Lord. You don't know until you're facing that situation.

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Never trust in yourself. The only way any one of us will stand firm is that the spirit of God gives us the strength and the commitment to do so.

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But you don't just look forward to that day and go, I'm trusting the Lord will give me the strength then.

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The foundation needs to be built now. And so here, once again, sorry, broken record.

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And again, maybe it's just me. Maybe this part of the sermon is only for me, but it's real simple.

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It's real simple. If we love the things of this world, we will not be willing to give them up even for the truth.

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So how do we dig that foundation down deep? Now, even while we still have so much of our freedom, we dig the foundation deep down now by recognizing the control that things have upon us, letting go of those things, seeing they're totally blessings from God.

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And if God takes them away, God is just. And turning our hearts to those things that are eternal, that the world cannot touch and the world cannot take away.

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That's my self -sermon. If there's anybody else in the room that needs to hear that, great. Maybe not.

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But I think all of us have to consider it. All of us have to think about it. If we experienced complete economic collapse next week and we're struggling to find food, will we respond as those in Nehemiah did?

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You are righteous. You are acting in accordance with truth. And this nation has sinned.

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This culture has sinned. And you told us what would happen.

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And you gave us time and you warned. I want to be one of those who like the

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Chinese Christians today remain faithful in the midst of so much want and poverty and difficulty and persecution.

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But we have to prepare now. You have a

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Bible, be reading it, memorizing it, living it.

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Dig that foundation deep. Be thankful what

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God has provided to us and be confident. It doesn't sound very confident.

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Yes, Christ will be victorious. But we have to recognize that he has called his people to walk through dark and difficult times.

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And if he calls us to do the same, if he calls us to do the same, I do not know the future.

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God could bring a tremendous revival, but that's what's needed. That's what's needed.

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Christ is seated in the heavenly places, enthroned on high.

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He will accomplish his purposes. And if his purpose is for us to walk through a dark time, we need to be faithful.

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We need to be faithful. Let's pray together. Our gracious heavenly father, only by your spirit can you dig us down, give us the roots that go deep into your heart.

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That love your truth, that love your word, that hear and understand.

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Make us to be a prophetic people that speak your truth to those around us, to your honor and glory, not to ours.

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And father, we pray that no matter what our external circumstances might be, you would cause us to be a people who stand firm, stand fast, continue to serve the

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God who is righteous, who made the heavens and the earth and who acts according to truth.

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May we love that truth, speak that truth and act according to that truth as well. We pray in Christ's name, amen.