Rally Highlight: The Gospel of The Kingdom and Justice

The Church’s Truncated View of the Gospel

So, we have a major problem. There is a major issue in this fight for justice for the pre-born, and that is that Christians in the West have a very truncated view of the gospel, a very truncated view.

And if we want to understand how to move forward as a church, as pastors, as leaders, brothers and sisters together, we have to get rid of this truncated view of the gospel. It has to die, and it has to die fast.

Because this truncated view of the gospel has taken Christians out of the world and culture from being light and salt to the world. Now, you've heard that, I'm sure, if you've been a part of this, and you've heard these men speak before, you know we talk about being salt and light all the time, and that's of course what Jesus commanded us in the most famous sermon in the history of the world, the Sermon on the Mount, salt and light.

But our truncated view of the gospel is killing us. It's killing our light as a church, it's killing our influence, it's killing our prophetic ministry in terms of forth telling the word of God to the world.

The gospel is the power of God for salvation. But when we have a truncated view of the gospel in terms of where it ought to go, we have no power to save anybody with. What is that truncated view of the gospel?

The truncated view of the gospel is that Jesus came to save me so he can pull me off this earth and bring me to heaven, that higher spiritual plane, one day. It's really about my own personal romantic relationship with Jesus.

I'm thankful to God in the history of the Christian church, Christians didn't think that way about the gospel, that it's merely about my own private individual relationship with God and going to heaven one day, escaping and fleeing my humanity so I can go to this higher spiritual plane.

By the way, welcome to Gnosticism. You see, the gospel is the gospel of the kingdom. Now, please don't allow that to be a pithy slogan. I say that often because we are good at that. We often have these pithy slogans and bumper stickers and cute little oil paintings and T-shirts that Jesus is the king of kings and lord of lords.

We say it, but we don't we don't believe it. King of kings today. The ruler of the kings of the earth, lord of lords today. That means that Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the one sitting on the throne who is ascended and says he has all authority in heaven and on earth today, has something to say to them.

And they have to bow and yield and obey. I want to point you to this one gospel. I'm not going to preach through it now, but read Matthew chapters one through four, just that section. And please notice that the theme of the gospel, according to Matthew, it's the first book in our New Testament, for goodness sakes.

We have no excuse for not reading it. Starts with the genealogy of Jesus, that he has the royal right to the throne, that he's the king. It starts, of course, with Jesus going into the wilderness, having victory over Satan.

And do you know what Jesus was offered by Satan? I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world if you'll just bow and worship me. And why would Satan offer Jesus that? Because that's what he came for. And Jesus has victory over Satan in the wilderness, and immediately there's a quotation from Isaiah chapter nine.

Most of us never check the reference because it just sounds very poetic and beautiful. You're like, oh, that's nice. Matthew says that was to fulfill what was written by Isaiah. That's nice. Did you ever go read what he was quoting from?

As soon as Jesus departs the wilderness, he's quoting from Isaiah nine. Do you know what Isaiah nine says? You do, because it's the famous Christmas verse. Wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father.

That's the father of eternity of the increase of his government and of peace. There will be no end on a throne of David to establish it with justice and righteousness forevermore. And if you feel discouraged, that verse says immediately after this increase of government and peace, it says the zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.

God is not going to grow faint or weary in this fight for justice because Isaiah chapter forty two, one of those promises of the kingdom of the Messiah, which makes it good news, is that this righteous servant, Jesus, will not grow faint or weary until he has established justice on the earth and the coastlands are waiting for his law.

We have a truncated view of the gospel that says what we have to say is to people within the walls of the church and we hold between our ears. It's the good news of the kingdom. The evangelical church in the West doesn't have good news of a kingdom.

They don't even know what it means that it's good news that Jesus is ruling and reigning now, bringing his salvation to the nations, drawing them up to God's mountain and establishing justice in the earth.

Justice for the Pre-Born and Equal Protection

This is the premier issue of justice in our nation. We have no right to ask God to bless our nation while we continue to slaughter children in our streets. I want to share something with you. Yes, Arizona right now has a bill of abolition and criminalization.

And of course, we've been saying this for a long time. Russell's been saying it much longer than me. That the greatest enemy to justice for the pre-born, unfortunately, is not the pro-choice movement.

It's the pro-life industry. As we and I'm going to I'm going to end with this. You can understand how serious this is. As we've been putting this in in Arizona, the bill is there. We had supporters and we had people who co-sponsored it.

And the people who immediately came and attacked the bill of abolition and criminalization to establish equal protection for all humans in Arizona. Who was it? The pro-life industry leaders in the state of Arizona immediately can't support this because it calls the woman a victim.

Brothers and sisters, if she's a victim, there's no gospel for her. She's not guilty. And the pro-life leaders that call themselves Christians have forgotten that they have a gospel-less message for women who have had abortions.

If they're victims, they're not guilty. Further, if they're victims, we'll never establish justice for the pre-born. Stop pretending. I was sitting in a meeting with some of the leaders of the pro-life industry in Arizona.

They said, Jeff, we love you. We listen to you all the time. We're just confused because, you know, can we just do this some other way? Does it have to be criminal? Does it have to be justice in that way?

Can we do something else? So I go to the Capitol in a private meeting. This is after we did our rally. Bill is still there. The pro-life leaders in the state were like, we want to meet with you because we appreciate what you're saying.

We do agree, but we're confused. So I go to the meeting to win them with the truth, not to create enemies, to win them with the truth. So I'm sitting at a table with our representative talking about the bill that's on the table.

Pro-life leaders and industry leaders in Arizona are there. And there's a pro-life Arizona strategist sitting back. Now, as the women were asking me questions, answering them with scripture, and I'm trying to have them think consistently about it.

And they're they're seeing it now. They're coming. He notices. And so he starts to challenge. So I said to him, let me ask you a question before you say one more word. That bill you have sitting in front of you right now.

Is what's in that bill true? Life is a human life from conception.

I said, is it human life test?

I said, is it human life? Yes. Is this the unjustified taking of human life? He said, yes. So is the bill true? He said, yes. I said, will you support it? He said, no. He said, guys, please understand the conversation is happening right now.

It's a great conversation. All this stuff is true. He said, but this isn't the place to be having this conversation. It should be taking place in a Bible study or small group study outside. Brothers and sisters, I was 10 feet from the door that opens into the chamber where they vote.

He said, this isn't the place to have this conversation. This is the premier place to have this conversation, because this is where it will end abortion. This is where the pro-life industry, these Republicans and conservatives, all these people, this is what they want to do.

They want to take the Christian church, put you back into your silly Bible studies in your basements so that you have nothing to say. You speak the truth and you call them to repentance. Call them to repentance, point them to Jesus, tell them they must obey God.

Our message is fundamentally Christian. That's the distinction. We have a gospel in front of us as we approach this issue. Tell the truth, tell the truth to the pro-life industry, win them to the truth.

Tell the truth to the unbelievers who need salvation. Preach the gospel. Jesus is the ruler of the kings of the earth today. All authority now on earth is his. So let's call the world to repent and believe the gospel and never forget it's the gospel of a kingdom.

He reigns.